Long Island Off Road Trail Ride

Saturday, as we waited at the Whitcomb for our 9:30 departure time for the scheduled run on xxx Road, we met Earle who was leading a group from the Plymouth area. While enjoying our Whitcomb Cafe breakfast, Earle invited us to run with the Plymouth boys on a challenging trail in nearby xxx, VT. Since we had all run xxx a number of times this sounded good.

Bob 2 Jeeps, Mark Silverback, Chen the Madman, Thrasher and the Scoutmaster rolled down the mountain to the Big Y lot in North Adams. Earle's group had been joined by a bunch of local wheelers, and an accomplished group from the Schoharie, NY area, so now we had a crowd. What a great mix of Jeeps; stock TJ, hardcore XJs, a magazine-pretty XJ on it's first run, a diamond plate Flatfender, a bunch of YJs and some built CJs too.

Somewhere, perhaps on the twisty backroad transit to xxx, Earle deceided to run an easier trail due to the 20 something 4x4s following him. Sure it looked familiar, we were now headed for the Beaverpond Trail.

The first obstacle is a dip into a muddy hard left then zig-zag up a short, steep grade blocked by a boulder on the right and trees on the left. Many needed multiple tries, even some cable, but the LIOR group did well. On the way to the next obstacle we heard some whining about the trail being too easy. Oh well, you can't please 'em all.

The next bit is a lumpy downhill to a stream crossing. The bank on the opposite side is protected by a large boulder and a couple of stumps. There is only one clean line through here and it's not easy to see. This is 100' from a fairly tough hillclimb. The hillclimb seemed rougher this year, the fill between the rocks is gone and the roots are slicker. There's still a 'gotcha' in the middle, a rock \ tree \ rock combination that wants to turn you sideways and collected a bunch of sheetmetal.

It took the group a while to work through all that, so they gathered on the hill to watch, heckle and jeer. This was a friendly group though, so the catcalls were always followed by hand-slaps and smiles.

Overkill, at the end of the line on the far side of the creek, popped a bead. Silverback, Chen and Bob2, hanging back to do the fix didn't get to see the clean lines. It was odd to see such built up rigs struggle at the creek, where moderate rigs eased through. Bob 2 Jeeps laughed and then launched up the hillclimb. He slowed down a little for the narrow 'gotcha', so Overkill did actually touch down a couple of times.

When we came to the beaverpond, Overkill tried to go straight across. He backed out after the winch dove under. We crossed the edge of the pond to get to a powerline hillclimb, then up to the top for lunch. Deep in the woods, the fall colors were spectacular. You could see majestic hills rolling away for miles, nature's bright, motley tapestry.

Going back down, the steepest parts were a pleasant surprise in that the spring work done to Howler fixed that endo\tippy tendancy.

Back in the trees, Earle found a waterhole. By the time we rolled up the group was lined up on both sides, gauntlet style. One by one, Earle would suggest to the approaching drivers that "Your rig will drive right through." Only 2 Jeeps bit, but he let Anne Marie drive. At the deepest part, when the 350 stumbled, caution made her lift and the engine died. It's not the first time, and probably not the last, that Overkill had water over the seats. Big Mark pulled them out, 2 wet LIOR'ers, 1 big Jeep and 200 gallons of water.

The photos are actually from Sunday, pretty much the same group on two other, nameless trails. Not much detail, I know. Even less will be said about Thrasher and Scoutmaster's ill-advised sunset romp. Luckily you can get dinner at 1 am in North Adams.