We had a great night at the inaugural Nexterra Halloween Run with a 23 club members & guests in attendance. Vehicles & drivers in attendance had varying levels of experience & modification – 7 Xterras, 1 heavily modified 4Runner, 1 Tacoma, 1 Raptor, 1 Frontier, 1 Pathfinder, 1 JK Rubicon & 2 TJ Wranglers.
After meeting up just as the sun set, we convoyed down to the Gremlin Graveyard, where we aired down & had a brief drivers meeting. With a little bit of rain in the days prior, we were in for muddy trails, slippery stumps & rocks. The group also had the luxury of a well-lit landing area at Gremlin, where Ernie had arrived earlier in the evening & setup a generator & lights – thanks Ernie. Ernie was also our trail leader for the night & led us through the driver meeting.
Airing down & the brief drivers meeting later, Ernie led the group into Gremlin & the darkness, pierced only by the lights of our rigs. As usual at Gremlin, we had to negotiate mud, water holes & the abundance of stumps/logs. The night time added to the excitement & challenge of the location, if you haven’t tried a night run yet – I highly recommend trying it. It’s a whole different look & feel from wheeling during the day. All the rigs made it through with minimal problems – an Xterra & the Pathfinder both found logs jammed under their truck that had to be removed, neither one received any damage from those incidents. The only other casualty of the night was a damaged steering on a 1st gen Xterra, damaged after making it up a difficult ledge. Some creative trail repair from the group, allowed the Xterra to make it back off the trail & all the way home safely. Meeting back at the landing allowed us to talk about the trail & the run. Everyone had fun & definitely put this on the to-do list for next year.
For those who may not be aware, Gremlin Graveyard is private land to which Nexterra has land use access via our membership in the North East Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs (NEA). Trail difficulty is mostly stock friendly with a few tough spots & harder options for the more modified rigs. One of the unique features of this location is the abundance of stumps of varying sizes & the huge difference the weather makes on the trails. Snow, rain or just the height of grass can make a world of difference. Nexterra had the privilege of organizing runs at this property multiple times a year to take advantage of each season/weather condition.
Thanks you for all those who came out to play, you guys made a good event great. Looking forward to wheeling with you soon!
See you at the Nexterra Winter Exposure Runs in January (Jan5th-Rausch Creek, Jan12th-Gremlin Graveyard).
-DirtySocks
