Devil’s Lake RC Crawling GTG 11/16/08

With a late fall RC Crawling GTG at Devil’s Lake scheduled for mid-November we were hoping for a good turnout.  In the end just 3 of us showed up. Slick, Thumbman and I but that was fine, the rest of y’all missed some super crawling.

It was about 35 degrees most of the day but the wind was blocked for the most part and it was really quite comfortable.

With Thumbman as a guide, since he had more experience crawling at the lake than either Slick or me, we started out on the west side at the lot just before the ranger station and spent a battery pack’s worth of time working our way down towards the lake finding plenty of good lines through the rocks and a couple of sections that look promising for future comps. The best spot in my opinion was near the bottom of the path near the lake where, with a bit of debris cleaning, we should have a decent spot.

After a stop back at the vehicles for a snack and battery charging we made our way over to the East Bluff area. The walk up wasn’t too bad and when we got to the top we found some excellent crawling. The rocks at the top on the east side are much bigger than the rocks at the bottom on the west side and there are several areas that remind me of castle ramparts or parapets. Each had a slightly different character but all were really great. I was constantly amazed at the traction available even though the rocks and tires were cold. Judiciously placed in amongst the good grip were plenty of worn sections that were slick and treacherous. A hundred or more years of hikers sure do wear rocks in some places. It was easy to see where folks have been sliding down rocks for years. Oh, I suppose Mother Nature does Her part too.

I’d changed my wheels/tires from the Axial/Hammer combo to a Pro-Line/Rock Claw combo and liked the performance of this set up better than the earlier combo.

Overall, my Scorpion based MFM Black Widow performed really well. I am stocked that with just a bit more tuning it will make me look good despite all I can do to the contrary!

Slick and I had a bit of driving with the Losi Minis too. Slick had his working the big rocks really well. Boy, those Losi memory foam inserts sure do stiffen up in the cold but the blue compound tires rule the rocks!

Don’t miss the GTG at Devil’s Lake! I am now even more convinced that it is the best rc rock crawling in Wisconsin.