Pictures by Ted Cacciopi and Rich Klein

I have always found something deeply moving about the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It has the state’s highest point (Mt. Greylock, at about 3500 feet) surrounded by the surprisingly rugged and sublimely beautiful Berkshires. The history of the region is compelling; in the mid-1800’s it was the hub of the growing might of American industry, powered by the many swift rivers that tumbled out of the mountains of New England, transporting the goods manufactured by water power on the very rivers that spun the wheels of the mighty mills that grew along almost every river in almost every valley of the area. Then came the railroad, internal combustion engines and electricity, turning the whole region into a backwater almost overnight. You can see the corpses of the old industry slung out in dilapidated row houses, originally built to house the workers, that line the streets of the towns, and the crumbling old brick factory buildings built hard on the waterways, as you roll along Rte 8 or Rte 7 or Rte 20 through Western Massachusetts. And then there’s Rte 2, the Mohawk Trail. People have been traveling this road for thousands of years. Our motel was right on Rte 2, straddled it, in fact, and late at night you could almost hear the ghosts of the Native American parties as they traversed the mountains, out raiding or carrying belts of wampum for trading.

With all his in mind, I eagerly awaited this last great weekend of the summer, the last blow-out before resuming the regular pace of working life. Once again, trying to get out of the metro area was like wading through molasses on a cold morning. We were out of Huntington by 12:30 Friday and it still took two hours to clear the morass of the N.Y. area. Finally arrived up in xxx at about 6:00 PM, the first ones from LIOR there, we got our cabin across the road from the motel office and settled in to watch the sunset. Soon the Blairs arrived, with Howler in tow, and we grilled up some sausages, had a little ‘tater salad and some brews, talked a while and off they went to their motel room. Rich Klein showed up, Abe K. and his family, Ted the Fed, with Lucy the dog and his new honey Susan, and eventually, in the wee hours of the morning, Evan, Big Mark and Mikey “the Rat” C. rolled in, towing their Jeeps behind. In the morning we were joined by Marc Roseman without Lena, Trevor “the Fanman” B., Danny K., Bill L. and Yaron Z.

After a quick breakfast at the Whitcomb Summit Café we rolled on down to the meeting spot, a large parking area cleared in the Savoy State Forest and marked as a parking area for Snowmobilers. From there, it’s about a four or five mile ride to the trailhead, where I asked Ted the Fed to take the lead. And he did a really fine job of it, too. I just don’t feel comfortable leading a trail yet.

Tan Whale sounding the deeps of xxx Road

xxx Road is a nice trail for a number of reasons. It is open and legal to us, always a plus, and it is easy to get to, and it can be done by a wide variety of rigs, as well. In addition, xxx Road is a trail that has something to do for the driver for it’s entire length. Some trails present you with good obstacles, and you drive on a dirt road from obstacle to obstacle. xxx Road has about two or three tough, challenging but not impossible obstacles, with relentless rock garden, with rocks ranging from basketball-sized to couch-sized, covering almost the entire length of the trail. You’re not likely to do much damage on xxx Road, but if you don’t use your skills as a driver you will get continually hung up, and do a good bit of metal polishing on your underside.

The first of the major obstacles on this trail lay about a quarter mile in from the paved road. A large rock rears up in the middle of the road, followed by a couple of steps. The mountain drops off to the left and to the right is a vertical rock face. Three lines of approach to this obstacle: to the left, do-able by any 4X4, depending on the driver, to the middle, where my 33’s did not give me enough clearance to clear the hump without getting high-centered, and to the right, which guarantees body damage against the rock face. Most of us popped up over the left side without too much difficulty. Yaron tried the right line and left the paint from his right rear quarter and most of the hub from his

Yaron high-centered against “the wall.”

right front wheel plastered across the rocks there. Next Mikey the Rat came up the right side and did a nearly surgical removal of the rain gutter from the right side of his windshield. Then Evan in EE Rex came up the right side, grinding along the rock face the whole way, only you couldn’t tell if he’d done any damage afterward. I did see the top right corner of his windshield flex in a manner unnatural to glass, but then again it was already “flexible” after it’s end-over-backwards rollover on Monster Rock at Ma Bell last spring.

Poor Bill. How many times has he and his beautiful TJ made it out to the trails with us? Twice, three times, maybe? Right after clearing this obstacle, the annoying noise Marc R. kept hearing was identified: it was Bill’s T-case slipping so badly he’d lost his front-wheel drive. Choosing to drive out in 2-wheel drive to seek immediate repair rather than park it and ride with us for the day, Bill flipped a “u-ie” and headed out only a half-hour after hitting on the trail. Condolences, and see you at Paragon next month, pal!

We kept moving on up the mountain, maneuvering over the tricky patches, pounding up the relentlessly pitching and tossing boulder-strewn trail; I once compared ‘wheeling to slow-motion white-water rafting. You get the same kinds of motions and the ride is similar, only you have more control (I hope!!) while ‘wheeling, and you move much slower. And falling out of the “boat” has a much harder landing. Paused up ahead for a back of the line slow-down over a particularly pointy stretch of rocks, faintly over the radios come the words “roll-over.” Not having witnessed it from the beginning, I can only surmise that Abe K. took an “unusual” line over the particular pile of rocks and plopped his YJ on it’s side. His son, Schuyler, stood off to the side and told his Dad that

If we can just upright it by hand, does it count as roll-over?

he sure was glad he wasn’t in the Jeep for that one! Abe’s wife, on the other hand, expressed an entirely different feeling about the experience, as she clung to her seatbelt in the upturned passenger seat.

This sparked a great debate about what actually counts as a roll-over. I suggested that if the vector of the force of gravity passes through a portion of the 4X4 that is not the floor, it counts as a roll-over. We all finally agreed that if the weight of 4X4 is resting on a side, end or top of the 4X4 it counts as a roll-over. So Abe gets his first roll-over sticker.

Abe was righted and order was restored, and I thought we were ready to get on up the mountain when we had another small tragedy. Big Mark’s YJ would not shift out of neutral. Evan and Mike the Rat swarmed over the Jeep, many solutions were tried, and in the end we left it by the side of the trail with a canteen of water and enough ammo to defend itself, and told it we’d be back down the mountain for it before nightfall. Mark was very brave, but I swear I saw a tear escape his eye as he jumped into EE Rex beside Evan for the ride up the hill.

Bark-mobile climbs the step with the help of Ox-lock!

The condition of the trail from this point on to the next obstacle grows increasingly more challenging right up to the approach to the obstacle. The rocks in the roadbed get bigger and bigger, the sharp corners jutting out from the eroded banks squeeze more and require more maneuvering; the trail just gets better and better. When you finally arrive at the obstacle after several teases by the trail-spirits, you are faced with a large rock lying along the trail to the right, up against a bank of rock and dirt on the right side. To the left is the start of the step that comprises the face of the obstacle. It is about a three foot rise in the middle, and most people climbed the obstacle fairly readily by

EE Rex works Evan out of a sticky situation . . . um, where’s Mark?

using the long rock in the trail as a sort of approach ramp, hitting the wall of the step slightly right of center. A little kick was required to pop the rear end up over the step, and from there it was fairly simple.

Of course, there are those among us who must take the path less trodden. As Mike the Rat approached the obstacle he decided to try a different line by climbing up the bank to the right and crossing back across the rock step from right to left. He walked up as smoothly as if he were just going up his driveway at home, and then was disappointed with himself for making it look so easy. No one who followed his line made it quite as smoothly; some gave it up and came back up the middle, and some, like Evan, of course, even made it a little exciting by getting all twisted up in the rocks and doing little off-camber dances in his Jeep. Trevor kept introducing his differentials to the same big rock over and over. Dan tried that line too. Big Mark stood off to the side,

Fanman tries to follow the Rat; lookit that biiiggg rock right under his t-case!

grumbling, seeing himself walk up over the obstacle like it wasn’t there. Only it was his Jeep that wasn’t there.

After this obstacle it’s a relatively short scramble to the top of the trail, where it opens out into a nice clearing for lunch. We ate, and rested for a while, deciding that going back down the mountain would give us more wheeling for the time out, rather than continuing on the through-trail. After a bit a few guys started down the mountain to get Mark’s Jeep turned around and hooked up for its tow down the mountain. As the rest of us were moving out to ride on down the road the call came up to us over the radio that there was a line of about 15 trucks from another club coming up the mountain. They were at the last obstacle when we pulled off onto a side trail to give them room to go up, and we sat for over an hour waiting for them. When they arrived we found out why. It’s not just that they were in mostly stock trucks, I’ve seen nearly stock trucks do this trail. What worked most to slow them down was their style of ‘wheeling: hit the obstacle, back up, and slam into a little harder until you pop over it. Or flip on your side. They were not aired down, so rather than ride up over rocks they were bouncing off. They did not disconnect sway bars, so they weren’t articulating worth a damn, lifting wheels going over little rocks. And one of them was a Chevy S-10 Blazer; nothing the driver could have done would have helped that thing climb over the rocks.

Good ol’ Howler walks up the big step.

After they passed on up to the clearing we rolled on down the mountain. You still have to drive a little careful coming down. It’s easy to get lazy, and you can still get hung up or bang up your underside, so patience was the key as we crawled ever so slowly down the road, hitting the pavement and heading back to the meeting area to air up and reconnect sway bars. From there it was back to the motel where, after cleaning up a little we fired up the grills and started the meat feast: sausages and chicken, burgers and dogs, fragrant smoke filled the air as the sun set over New York State just to the west of us, painting the whole scene with a fiery red. Later, as we sat around the campfire, Joan brought out a birthday cake in honor of Marc R. (38th) and myself (just turned 28). Went well with the beer. All in all, this was a great trip. Once again, the camaraderie of the trail cannot be beat, the trail was good, weather was perfect; why did I come home? Until next time, this is the Prez saying remember to keep rubber down, paint up, and drive safe!