found a nice site for some trails.

[mudder]

I've had a hard time finding some trails to hit,and happend to run by this site. check it out http://4wheeldrive.about.com/cs/northeasttrails/

 

[Eagle]

Interesting.

I bookmarked it for future reference. Unfortunately (for me, anyway) most of the stuff he has links for is far to the south and/or west of Connecticut. Doesn't help me much if I just get the urge to get the tires on dirt some Saturday afternoon.

Thanks for the steer.

 

[Mike in NJ]

Is this some kind of veiled reference to your concern that NAC's area is too big?

We need more of this kind of research (from WV to Nova Scotia) to give all of our chapter members some choice and the incentive to get to other places besides the usual suspects.

Besides, we all know that there is no dirt in CT, and anything you want to do requires an interstate journey!!! Save your Saturday afternoon urges for vehicle maintenance on the reserve fleet.

(The Moose River R.A. looked interesting - and is about equally far from NJ/PA and New England - we should look into it . . . and the western MD references are great for the lower half of the chapter).

Thanks mudder.

Mike in NJ atriot:

 

[Eagle]

No veiled reference to anything, just a statement that most of the places discussed are a long way from Connecticut. Doesn't matter how big or small the NAC is, it's still not an afternoon drive to go wheeling in West Virginia. (No that's not a play on words.)

The sad fact is we have LOTS or dirt and rocks in Connecticut, but much of what hasn't been developed is owned by the State and they won't let us drive on it. People who live near national forests are sooooo lucky :shocked:

 

[Majo]

I'm looking into the NY State parks as I'd have to drive 2 hours too to get to them. Seems pretty big, I'm gonna ask other wheelers around here if they ever have been. Maybe me and Carts can take a spin some weekend and scout it out.

 

[sidriptide]

ive heard of some excelent wheeling trails in the catskills near albany.. and the Jamboree runs out there so there must be something to it... wish we had membership in the albany area.... time to start networking!!
mike

 

[1986xj]

Nothing listed there in MD that you couldn't run in a Subaru station wagon. Some of the Greenridge stuff at one time would have been interesting in a bone stock XJ but they've turned those trails into ATV only stuff last I heard.
Mike B.

 

[Art Triggs]

NY Trails,

I would bet that the listed trails in NY State, are Access/ logging roads, other than the Jamboree trails in the catskills and Adirondacks, there is very little in the way of any wheeling around NY, it is just about as bad as CT, I'm still looking though, I guess that's about half the fun at least.

 

[RichP]

The last I knew Ft Drum NY near watertown was pretty much open on weekends for fishing and such, ya just need to check in and get a topo from range control, watch a 1 hour safety movie about what not to do, notify them you and your crew are going to be out there and stay out of the impact areas. You CAN get killed out there by unexploded ordanance so if you ever find something leave it the F*ck alone, mark it and notify range control, they will send someone out to blow it in place, even they don't move things like that.
There are miles of tank and jeep trails and untill you have taken a jeep on a muddy chewed up tank trail you have not lived. There is also alot of sandy training areas, rock steps, swamps, escarpments and good camping areas including outhouses randomly spaced around.
It also helps I think if you have someone with a military ID card. The fishing is also excellent, you can catch stuff with a rock on a string almost, great for the ego....
Now this might have changed with all the security in place on bases that used to be open but the training area is nothing but trees, mud, streams/rivers over alot of flatrock fording points, blackflies, mosquitoes, racoons and the occasional aircraft doing close air runs with 500lb bombs and cannons so you get to see a 'show' occasionally if in the right place at the right time.
Along with Ft drum you are in the heart of the 1000 islands and the St Lawrence seaway, 2 hours from Ottowa and the french town of Hull [good nite life]

 

[mudder]

Nothing listed there in MD that you couldn't run in a Subaru station wagon. Some of the Greenridge stuff at one time would have been interesting in a bone stock XJ but they've turned those trails into ATV only stuff last I heard.
Mike B.

Hhhhmm interesting. Seems that site is not helpful to everyone,and I was not aware of the MD trails being so crappy either. Is there any trails in MD that would take some kind of skill to ride on? or around the va/md/pa line other than paragon. I'm new to the game and don't know much about the area to know where to wheel at, hence the failed attempt at the web find. Any info would be great. Thanx

 

[Majo]

It's funny I so happen to have an ID card so does the Lt. Col dad. We live 5 minutes from Ft. Drum.

I know the trails are tough for hummers, and I've heard the mud boggin trails don't get much better. I heard rumors of tanks on exercise extracting stuck vehicles.


Eagle does this sound like a good location, I can definately easily get pictures/ video ofthe terrain, and there has got to be a lot of miles of them.

Watertown/ Ft. Drum is 45 minutes or so North of Syracuse. and Syracuse is accesible through NY state throughway, and up 81 from PA.

 

[Eagle]

BAH! Cherokees eat Hummers for breakfast! irate1:

Seriously, it does sound worth investigating. Seems like more and more of our members are running "big" Jeeps, and despite the miles of trails at Paragon, after you've run them 'X' number of times a change of scenery is welcome.

It would be ideal if Drum offered both stock-level trails AND some tank traps for our big rigs. Please do check it out.

 

[Majo]

calling my buddy on base hopefully monday, I'm tied up friday picking up axles

cool little factoid:

Ft. Drum is the largest US military Cold weather training facilities....

says something about terms of how much land they got

 

[RichP]

It's not so much that they have trail ratings, you could have a nice clean dirt road one day and a tank batallion exercising the next and that nice clean dirt road now looks the atlantic ocean in a force 3 storm with 3 and 5 ft rutts in it.
The only four roads that are consistant are Rt27, antwerp tank trail, reedville and lewisburg roads, those are hardpack gravel, the tanks only leave them looking like a rolling ocean. Best camping spot is on OP7/8 and 9 off of Rt26, nice view of the impact area and 3 bunkers but we usually camp back in the trees, never know when a short round will come in or an A10 will come in over the trees from behind and open up with the 30mm from BEHIND you so that you get peppered with the casings. There is also Lake Bonaparte which has camping facilities, with an ID card you can check out canoes from special services on post and NY has 3 day fishing licenses that cost like $10. It is a really good area and there is alot to do, Sacketts harbor has a really good restraurant with a nice view of lake erie, Alexandria Bay is a tourist town with good nitelife on weekends from canadians coming over to mix with the tourists also some good restaraunts and bars. Big shopping mall on Rt81 w/10 theaters. Nice area just no jobs otherwise I would not mind living up there. Just some thoughts....

We did one winter training cycle up there and yes, it can get a bit on the nippy side. We spent three days delivering MRE's to the locals in watertown and the surrounding area plus transporting emergency and medical personnel to and from work, APC's suck in deep snow and on ice, snow was piled up to the traffic lights and they had an engineer batallion taking the stuff out in dump trucks to I don't know where. One summer in mid august a front blew in out of canada, 106 def F at lunchtime, by dinner we had 5" of snow but before that the most awsome thunder and lightning I have EVER seen in my life, only time I ever saw ball lightning and several rolled past the bunker on OP8 where we were hunkered down standing on wooden ammo crates. We beat feet out when it dawned on us that there were 5 gun tracks with a 1000 rounds each of 4 duce HE mortar rounds piled up 100ft away, they were doing direct fire before the storm in preperation for an artep. Next day it was 90 deg F and not a cloud in the sky and the ground was dry by lunch time and the normal Ft Drum dust by dinner... we also had two guys hit by lightning, one guy got it in a rather sensitive area, he had a radio in his lap attached to an outside antenna, the other was in his cabin tent with aluminum poles. We had to drive thru this stuff to get them into the base hospital, awsome drive in an open 1/4 ton...

 

[Majo]

Yeah,

It will be like 10 minutes from Lake Ontario, so possible we could camp on the beach and then take the short drive back to the tank trails.

I know they have some softer trails they use to orient new drivers with humvees. 20 minutes south in Mannsville there is a huge gulf with 200 foot tall walls on each side, awesome for rocks, big ledges small ledges lots of granite.

 

[RichP]

Hey Majo

See if your dad can score some topos from the training unit or from range control. They would be a big help.

 

[Eagle]

I would bet that the listed trails in NY State, are Access/ logging roads, other than the Jamboree trails in the catskills and Adirondacks, there is very little in the way of any wheeling around NY, it is just about as bad as CT, I'm still looking though, I guess that's about half the fun at least.

Art, NY is not half as bad as Connecticut if you can run access and logging roads. The only such roads in Connecticut are in the state forests, and those are off-limits to 4-wheeling. Which means that unless a club can make an arrangement with a private land owner, there is NOTHING in this state. The last remaining trail we had dubious access to has been declared closed by the D.E.P. since our chapter last ran it. I'm talking to a local group to see about getting it opened again, but I wouldn't mortgage the farm on our chances.

 

[Eagle]

calling my buddy on base hopefully monday, I'm tied up friday picking up axles

cool little factoid:

Ft. Drum is the largest US military Cold weather training facilities....

says something about terms of how much land they got

Yeah, it's the home of the First Mountain Division.

Which is, I think, also the last and only mountain division. Technically, isn't Drum the ONLY designated "cold weather training facility"? I don't know if Fort Leonard Wood in MO is still a training post, but it got bitterly cold there during January and February. But that was a basic training and AIT facility, not a designated cold weather training facility.

I don't think Fort Hood or Fort Huachuca would offer much competition in the cold weather arena.

 

[Majo]

Yeah, it's the home of the First Mountain Division.

QUOTE]

Home of the 10th Mountain Division!!!!! :twak:

I get to correct Eagle woooohoooo!!!!!

 

[Eagle]

ooops! :doh: