The Dog Park
Hudson Valley, NY
April 14, 2013
by Maqsood Ali
Dog Park. The history behind the name is the fact there are no specific trails to follow and a place where you can unleash the “dogs” to go run around anywhere. Personally, I am not a big fan of rock gardens because you are constantly going and quite technical. I am a big fan of obstacles spaced out between each other. This trail was a perfect combination.
Our troupe started out their journey just after 6 am following Mike Barbara’s lead who drive like crazy even on the road. There was a point while catching up with Barbara, a cop came right behind me and flashed his lights for me to move over. We made a quick breakfast stop for 30 mins before the meeting spot and talked about how fat each of us are getting (except Blaine and Mike) but still ate at Dunkin Donuts. Then we started heading towards the meeting spot, speeding again, and reached precisely at 8.30 am at John’s house. We received a warm welcome by John who is the president of Hudson valley and unloaded the trailers and prepped our jeeps. The trail was 2 miles from John’s house and turned out that it is his parent’s backyard about 11 acres in total. Kevin, who is the property owner (John’s father) was extremely nice and welcomed us.
After a quick meeting, we started the trail around its perimeter with 3 buggies and Mark, Blaine, Joe, myself, Mike (hair), Adam, crazy Barbara. I got stuck in the beginning itself in two spots requiring multiple spotters to save my jeep from damage. The group that I was with required at least 5-8 attempts on average for major obstacles while others might have had less trouble. Joe did really good with his jeep and did almost all big obstacles that were possible. We reached at the top of the property where it was extremely cold as the temp dropped to about 30 degrees. The rock formation was really beautiful with a great 360 degree of the area. The path ahead of was required us to be extremely technical. At first I was going to take an easier route but was easily convinced a few minutes later that I can do this obstacle in front of me. This was a ridge in front of us and on our left was a forgiving drop all the way to the bottom. With Blaine and Mike Spiller in front, crazy Barbara on my left and Mike (hair) on my left corner, Mark on my right, and Kevin on my right corner and Adam in the back, I winched a little and crawled a little. Not enough spotters!. This is where my rear driveshaft took a bit of a beating and lost one of the clips for the boot (not bad). Adam was at the tail end and was doing really good because all the spotters were with me and he simple crawled up on all obstacles. Mike (hair) had some trouble and made out further than me, had a slight ding in his windshield frame, door hinge snapped, winched out along with a little help of a rusty hi-lift which worked great. After we reached the top, everyone took their leashes off and headed to the obstacles like dogs. I was filming three rigs at a time! Crazy Barbara kept hammering on every obstacle and I couldn't even keep track of him. He never stopped after any obstacle and he kept on going to next. Some buggies were trying out a wall of rocks but I don’t think anyone made it. I believe Blaine tried it and somebody else tried it but I did not hear any success stories. I tried an obstacle all on my own in the corner which looked semi difficult. With the longer wheel base, after 3 tries I was able to get up and my confidence level shot up. I asked Mike (hair) to try the same obstacle but he was unsuccessful due to shorter wheel base and the holes I dug up. His rear locker failed to engage also. He came back at the end of the run and made it up without any trouble! It was lunch time now. Pizza, wings and soft drinks were waiting for us. It can’t get any better than that. We all drove down and had lunch, checked our jeeps, had a few laughs. Joe blew his rear passenger shock but still kept wheeling. Mike (hair), Mark and I rode together had a blast going up some of the obstacles. My longer wheelbase helped in many instances where shorty’s had issues and vice versa. Then Blaine noticed his RCV joints came apart (again!) but he kept on wheeling with 3 wheel drive and finally lost the front drive altogether with a blown axle. Mike hair, had some issues with stalling (need fuel injection, I think) and leaking engine oil. But I think the worst for him was losing his sunglasses.
The buggies were quite incredible to watch as well. I was amazed at power and the tire sizes of these rigs. At the end of the day, some of the buggies tried the “gorge”, the finale. This gorge must be at least 20 feet deep with huge boulders. By the time I came down to watch, there was only one buggy trying hard to come out of the gorge but had to back down. I heard no one made out of the gorge (I could be wrong) or had to take the exit which was not an easy one. The plan is to make a semi-easier exit for non-buggies in the near future. We packed up and headed home around around 5 PM (trail fun ended around 3.30) and I was home by 6.40 PM.
Everyone did awesome wheeling! Overall an excellent trail and I am glad I made it out there. It was so close too (1.5 hrs)! Where else do you get Pizza and drinks delivered within 100 feet from the far end of the trail? The group size of 10 rigs was perfect. Any more rigs and it would be over crowed with limited ability to move around the obstacles. If we are invited there, I would definitely go again. All the hardcore guys and rigs in our club would have a blast!
Editor's Note:
This was not an LIOR run, it was sponsored by Hudson Valley 4 Wheelers through NOVA (Northeast Offroad Vehicle Association). Thanks!