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Story and Photos By, Dave Brill

Northeast 4WD Trailfest 5
Hosted by RegionD/Northeast of the East Coast Four Wheel Drive Association

Dave Cleveland claws his way up "Two Faced" in his brand spankin new TJ...Already lifted, winched and running 35s

My trail for Sunday was Dangerous. It seems as though our new hardcore trail, Addiction, was too hardcore! The first time any of us ran it, it took seven locked and winched rigs seven hours to complete the half-mile trail. It happened to be raining, so maybe that's why. Well, it rained at Trailfest too. Many of the people running Addiction weren't in a winching mood so word got out that it was a winchfest and everyone had dropped the trail by Sunday.

Sunday is always more laid back and this year it was no different. We slowly worked our way up the Dangerous trail over obstacles with names like Granny's Ladder, Volkswagen Rock and Belly Poker. At Volkswagen Rock one fellow in a CJ-7 with 32" All-Terrains attempted the sheer 90 degree up and then 60 degree down obstacle. An added zinger is that the rock pitches your rig over at about a 20 degree angle. With all four tires spinning, he crabbed completely sideways and into a tree, crushing his top and passenger door. Two winches pulled him back the same way he got there.

Jim Hober's broken rear-end and driveshaft. Note the accute angle of the pinion"

Dangerous is about a half-mile trail, too, and it took our group of 10 rigs about three hours to conquer it's challenges. Not bad, considering the previous two days took over seven hours each to do the same trail! Our day was over around 3 p.m. and my house is only about a mile from the Dangerous trailhead, so I went home and slept until Monday!

Overall, there was very little carnage. Several bent steering components, one rollover, a few popped beads, some electrical problems, and two snapped axles. Very little carnage, when one considers that we had nine trails, five them were rated seven or better and the large number of participants.

All comments have been very positive and everyone is already chomping at the bit for info on next year. Springfield, MA. Trailfest 2000 will have more trails, more people, and more raffle items. It will be on the last weekend of August at the same. Hope to see you there.

For information on Trailfest 2000 and to be put on our Trailfest mailing list please contact:
Dawn Psaledas at Dawn@EC4WDA.org

Hudson Valley 4 Wheeler slowly inching over Belly Poker on the Dangerous trail

Greg Rau just a little stuck on the Belly Poker. It only tickled him and there was no need for the winch

Bill Coehlo eases up over Granny's Ladder. It's a wheelbase thang!

A Warn Coil Sprung Wrangler finds out that it's a wheelbase thang and has to slide off to the side of Granny's Ladder