St. Patricks Day Run
NEA's Summit Trail
Western MA
March 16, 2013
by Justin Golden
The adventure began when I met the Eddies at the Dix Hills Fire Department to load up. After a brief loading session we were on the road. With relative ease we made it into Connecticut only to hear two loud noises coming from outside. We pulled up to a rest stop to find no problems. We decided to venture into Massachusetts. Upon arrival at the Red Roof Inn the Eddies and I decided Hooters would be an amazing decision. Hooters not only has hot wings but has even hotter girls working (even more so in Massachusetts than in New York). After Eddie jr got rejected due to being a child :) lol and not legally old enough to drink we continued our night with beers and wings.
The following morning Eddie found the cause of the mysterious noise. The d-ring on the front bumper of my jeep unscrewed itself and landed in the bin on the trailer. As we headed up 91 towards the diner a quick stop at stop and shop for hot dogs, chips and Starbucks was in order. Upon entering the diner we saw the rest of the guys walking out and decided to meet at the trail head to save time with unloading. The food and service was amazing at the diner.
The trails entrance was completely snowed in and so our adventure began. With my new axles and tires I was ready for a challenge. Nervous but excited I hit the gas and flew to the top of the snow covered hill with ease. After everyone made it up with most needing help from Eddies monster jeep, Jay the trail guide gave us a brief rundown of the day. After being made fun of for my "Barbie jeep" I was destined to prove the ability of my truck. The first obstacle looked easy enough but proved difficult. A simple left hand turn between two trees and a hill climb. This took the 8 or so rigs more than a half hour to get through. We then made our way to the chair lift and the name was suiting because this was a huge hill. The "Barbie jeep" made it up more than half way with ease but the rest of the hill was covered in icy tree roots and leaves which made gaining traction difficult. The difficult part of this hill climb was getting the jeep with all terrain tires and open differentials up to the top. Using 8 recovery straps and a winch we got him near the top of the hill around 2pm. After a quick lunch we let the jeep out a side exit so the rest of us could continue to ride. The last few hours of the trail ride consisted of big rocks and hill climbs with big rocks (see a pattern here?). Both the Eddies took their monster trucks up the giant rock hills and proved that their jeep was a beast.
Saturday night was a low key dinner with Jim, Bob and their friend and Eddie sr and myself. Sunday morning we decided that since Eddie junior wasn't feeling great we would head back to the island.
Though winter wheeling was a lot of fun I am not sure if I would do it again. However if I do decide to go again I hope people have the proper equipment for the conditions.
I also wanted to thank Mike and Eddie for some awesome spotting and encouragement around some of the more difficult obstacles.
Editor's Note:
A big 'Thank You' to Jay & the NEA4WDC for leading & sharing the trail!
Video: Maqsood Ali