by dirtysocks | Oct 7, 2016 | B2SR, Club Events
A big thank you to all of attendees, sponsors & organizers of the 12th Annual NEXTerra Back-2-School Run. You made the event, held over the weekend of September 17th, an unqualified success. We were back at our favorite stomping grounds of the Little Monadnock Family Trails with the fantastic Shir-Roy campground being the base camp again this year.
We had just under 50 attendees, with most arriving & setting up camp on Friday evening. The cooler temps at night, allowed for the much sought after group campfire. Sharing the fire invariable led to many shared stories, many adult beverages & snacks lasting late into the night.
The trails this year were quite dry, leading to large plumes of dust resulting in fine coatings of dust on all our rigs. Owing to heavy usage, the trails were significantly more difficult than last year. They were however, just about perfect, challenging all groups, forcing drivers to use finesse & choose proper lines to overcome obstacles that were easily conquered in the past. The black group had the privilege of running a brand new advanced level trail that proved to be an all round favorite, it is aptly named ‘Carnage’. Given the difficulty of each category of trails, it was surprising that damage this year was limited to, at worst, minor scratches/dents. Everyone made it back to camp safe & intact….excited & tired at the same time. We had several first time wheelers who reported having a blast, many commenting that their expectations of themselves, their rigs, wheeling & the NEXTerra community were comprehensively blown away!
Once back at camp, our volunteer grill masters turned out an array of tasty treats for dinner keeping us well fed. The raffle with an amazing range of prizes donated by our many event sponsors followed dinner & was second only to the wheeling…. thank you sponsors!! The wind made the raffle more exciting, repeatedly attempting to blow it all away but was beaten back by some quick thinking attendees. With the last of the raffle prizes being won, folks retired back to the campfires continuing the revelry & planning for the adventures to come.
The rain made an appearance early the next morning, rinsing the dust off our tents & rigs. We had a exceptionally successful weekend, as evidenced by the pictures (here & here).
Thank you once again to all those who attended, our sponsors & everyone who helped make this a success. Make plans to join us on our next club event.
See you on the trail!
Suresh/Dirtysocks
VP, NEXTerra
by dirtysocks | Jul 19, 2016 | Club Events, ECXC
The 16th annual East Coast Xterra Challenge (ECXC-16) has been a phenomenal success! Our 90+ attendees over three days were some of the best we’ve ever had! Event Sponsors were fantastic, donating amazing raffle items, being part of ECXC and providing unending support to our hobby. You, our dedicated sponsors and attendees, turned a great wheeling weekend into a fantastic one. Thank you!
A big shout out to all the organizers, trail leaders and folks who stepped up in various ways in making this one the very best ECXC’s on record. Without your hard work behind the scenes, this event would not have been possible. Thank you!
Although the sun was bright and the humidity high, they did little to dampen our excitement at being part of ECXC-16 and at Rausch Creek Offroad Park. We had three fantastic days of wheeling, great company on and off the trails, some carnage to keep us humble, renewed confidence in our rigs, and amazement at what the Nissan Xterra can really do.
Click ECXC-2016 Memories thread to see pictures, video and personal experiences from the event. If you have your own, please do add them.
NEXTerra Night at Mooze’s LZ on Friday night was well attended, and provided for an excellent opportunity to meet friends, both new and old, over good food and adult beverages.
The ECXC dinner and raffle on Saturday night was held at a new location near Rausch Creek Offroad Park. Great food, a huge raffle and a slide show of wheeling pictures from the park made for a perfect end to an extremely successful event. The raffle, with items donated by our sponsors, ensured the excitement level was high. Congratulations to all the winners!
Again, thank you for a great week, can’t wait to see what ECXC-2017 has in store for us!
ECXC-2017: July 20 – 22, 2017 @ Rausch Creek Offroad Park, Tremont, PA
See you at ECXC-2017,
Suresh/Dirtysocks
VP, NEXTerra
by dirtysocks | Jun 28, 2016 | Club Events, ECXC
You must be signed up and paid in full to be Fully Registered.
Setting up Leaders for Trail Groups, NEXterra Night on Friday at the LZ and the Saturday night dinner are dependent on the correct count of attendees.
Please review your status HERE.
It’s going to be a fantastic time, don’t miss it!
by dirtysocks | Jun 28, 2016 | Club Events
When you love wheeling, anytime you get out on the trails is a good time. That’s specially true when out with the NEXTerra. Some locations, however, seem to have that little something extra that make them favorites. To me, the Summit & MaBell properties have that something extra & I look forward to this club run every year.
We met at the Summit property the morning of the run & proceeded to check out the stock trail as a group first. After spending some time on the green trails, the modified group split off to run the harder trails. The harder trails at Summit require a minimum 32″ size tires, some lift & armor. And you better have them as the rock gardens can be daunting challenge. Negotiating boulders with mud slicked tires while nearby trees beckon your side panels get your heart racing pretty soon. With some excellent spotting, perseverance & trust in our rigs, we made it through the rock gardens, log bridges & met up with the stock group for welcome lunch break.
After lunch & a short drive on tarmac, we arrived at mighty MaBell. MaBell starts her uphill climb, on the rocks, right from the start sort of as a precursor to what’s to come. The challenges mount quickly with the trail continuing it’s steady uphill climb, first negotiating a rocky trail & then very quickly escalating to intimidating rock ledges. The ledges deserve respect & will extract their price for overconfidence, inexperience, or both. It takes a lot of spotting & calm nerves to navigate the many slippery ledges on the way to the top. We had many a heart stopping moment, some broken parts but most importantly a fantastic day. Pictures & video don’t do any justice, visit the forum for some of them.
Join us at the next NEXTerra event to meet some of the most welcoming people & enjoy the great outdoors. Tread lightly!
by dirtysocks | Jun 28, 2016 | Club Events, Supporting Members
One of the many benefits of being a Supporting Member is the opportunity to run exclusive trails that are not open to the general membership at various times through the year. In May this year, we had the opportunity to attend one such Supporting Members only event – NEXTerra Runs the Mill.
The trail difficulty & lack of experience with the property limited participation to Supporting Members with modified rigs, while all others were welcome to ride along. We had 12 rigs in total – 1 monster 4Runner, 6 Xterras, 2 Frontiers & 3 Jeeps.
We tackled the harder sections of the property in the morning, winding our way through the twisty wooded trail, with it’s selection of boulders sandwiched between trees. Pace was slow as necessary, the boulders challenged all drivers & gave the rigs a good workout. Snatch straps, winches, even a snatch block were put to good use on more than one occasion. True to the nature of the trail, there was some damage but nothing serious & everyone was able to make it off the trail at the end of the day & home without incident. The lunch break saw some folks head out while the rest spent the afternoon on relatively milder trails that were fun without the risk of major damage.
Check out the full report, pics, videos & comments on the forum post.
