Sunday 9/20 - Sucker Pond Trail, Bennington VT

You would love that ride Seth......I was hoping that you would've made it with us for the run but we understood the reasons why you couldn't. It would be the best ride for about 5-6 modified trucks to do in about a total of 5 hours + lunch.

We really do need to set something up again for the Late spring.

It really was a lot of fun. I think that "Twisted metal" was a good name for it at the time due to the stock trucks that came to do it with us, but I will say, like I said before, everyone that had a stock truck that did it:
(1) Now we know that a stock truck can do it with help and spotting but it will take more time
(2) Everyone that did it with their stock trucks, now have the bug for off-roading and can now know what their trucks can do
(3) Gives everyone with a stock truck the sense that if they can do that with a stock truck, what could they do if they say......lifted it a little or added bigger tires.

I still think it would be a great continued ride for 5-6 modified truck to do it in 5 hours + lunch

I would call it now "The Gaunlet" .....it will show you your gumption in the face of adversity and give you the satisfaction of making it through something that you were forced to face and wondered if you could do it. Some of us may have come out bruised, scarred and tattered, but we all did come out and learned something new about ourselves.

 

I think the best thing about the ride was that there were so many "off shoots" a person could go down if they wanted to try a different obstacle that others didn't and then come back tot he main group. I am first thinking about the "off shoot" mud pit @BadDNA , and how we really couldn't explore too much because of the time line and the uncertainty that laid ahead for us. Now that we know.....we could make a whole day of this.

 

Was there a go around for the water?

 

The problem with all those offshoots? They venture off the right of way and out into state and National Forrest. Get caught and it can be VERY expensive, like 4 digits expensive. Forrest wardens and cops are not super common, but they are out there. I know enough folks that have been written up...

Winter goes both ways up there. Right now it is icy, with many frozen puddles just waiting for you to break through. sometimes the snow is deep, packed, and levels all those rough areas off.

I have property exactly 1 mile east from what we call the 1st power lines, or the intersection of County Rd and the trail north to the pond. The AT crosses right there, too... so access from the Stamford side, as opposed to the Pownal side where you entered from, is smooth and car driveable easy. You are welcome to base your ride from there, if you wish.

 

Yes there was.

The off shoots I was talking about were the small 500-1000 feet of trails off the main road that had a couple of obstacles that a truck could do then a turn around to come back to the main trail. I wasn't thinking about venturing off the main trail and meeting up with the group at a different location. At the time of the run, we were on a time crunch because we thought a bigger group was coming the opposite way and since the trail was only a trucks length wide, there were not many places to have a group pull over to let another group pass. The group that was supposed to be coming the other way we did not have any way to communicate with them but we knew from a facebook post where they were starting from and the time that they were starting. Subsequently, that group ended up being just one Jeep which we saw driving through the crazy mud pit obstacle that @Skierrichy went through.

 

Just say no to mud.

 

This was the obstacle.....and the aftermath of @Skierrichy 's truck lol

 

Iirc, his license plate took the brunt of it. Glad it was limited to mud and a little license plate damage.

 

Most people run off the main trail up there, at some point. Passing by or pulled off is probably fine, just be aware if you are running off the main right of way, obviously playing, and they see you, you risk be written. It's just like speeding, they want you to do it... and everyone does.

 

I'm not sure where it happened, but pretty sure it was on that run, and I didn't see it until I was prepping for my FluidFilm application a few weeks later, but I put a good sized dent in my IFS skid, right on the crease where it goes flat under the truck. Pretty gnarly looking, probably from one of the puddle crossings.

 

Same but with the exhaust crossover right behind there. It is what I am blaming for my new exhaust leak at the flex joint just behind the Y. I have a new bolt kit sitting on my bench, just waiting for a warmish day so I can stop being the NASCAR Taco. I will need to find a muffler shop to run a bypass and maybe throw on an electric dump valve.

 

Nope!

 

when we got to it, we had a line of 11 trucks and it was about halfway through our journey and about five hours into our journey. We were like, "there is no way any of our group other than Richie that could possibly do this especially with stock trucks with us." Then we were able to find a path that went around that we didn't see before and we were all able to journey on. I was extremely happy that we found that trail that went around it because that obstacle was some serious shit. the water was about 3 feet deep and in the picture, you really only get to see one of the pools but there were two of them back to back and it pretty much looked like this from the side.........

````````I______I```````I_______I```````

 

@mach1man001 Here are some more pictures. There's a couple clips of Richie but it was from Snapchat so they're in 10 second clips, sadly

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=WnpCSFRLNTk2VFJHVm04bUlGSVN4Wkw1cEdxajl3

 

Yeah after gutting my whole interior from the last time I did a stupid I try to stay away from water like that!

 

Very much agreed, Not to mention that we both have trail limo's (DCLB's)

 

Cool! At least Rich @Skierrichy didn't need to turn passenger!

 

@whatstcp
Yoooo check out the roof rack on the regular cab!!

 

That's @Blais03 's rig. It is a custom made Hook Rode roof rack that he retrofitted, drilled into his roof, riv-nutted, and installed.