2010B2SR Wrap Up

The 2010 NEXTerra Annual Back 2 School Run begun as more than 40 off-road enthusiasts in over twenty Nissan Xterras started to arrive at Scott?s house on beautiful Friday afternoon, the 17th of September. There was plenty of room for everyone and their trucks on Scott?s property so folks parked and set up their tents.

We then all enjoyed Italian Sausage and pepper hero?s (Sausage and bread from Brooklyn, NY) as well as a few adult beverages on Friday night. It was great getting reacquainted with many of the old crew, and meeting and making many new friends.

Saturday morning after a light breakfast of bagels and donuts we convoyed 18 Xterras thru upstate NY

about 20 minutes to the trail head at Roby?s Draken Off Road home base.

There was a short trail meeting; Roby give us the lay of the land and explained how the trails were marked. After the meeting he let us loose on over 400 acres of his private trails/test grounds consisting of some of the most challenging trails in the North-East. The proving ground where he tests the functionality and durability of Draken Off Roads high quality products.

The trails are not that rocky but slick with a lot of tree roots that are hard to grip. Most of the trails are off camber, hill climb, and slide downhill heart racers. Good tires were the priority. Rain would have made it almost imposable. Luckily the weather was perfect; the sun was beaming and there was a cool breeze in thru the woods, beautiful.

Mike?s (mtdewmike) started off leading a rather large group into the yellow trails. His account follows;
About halfway in, Romeo came over the CB saying that he and some of the others were going to try to a loop that would meet back up with us. Well, apparently that wasn't the case, so we ended up losing most of the group.

Five trucks remained - Mike?s (mtdewmike) with Brian (boston11) riding shotgun, Mike (Mixxali4) in his truck with Paul riding shotgun, Constantine (conman) in his truck, Tiffany (mainechick) in her truck and Tom Slocum (TomsRedX) in his truck with his daughter riding shotgun. We covered yellow trails 1 and 4, and then met up with Roby down by the cabin. He suggested we do trails 2, 3 and Z, which were all reds. Feeling a little confident after accomplishing the yellows, we headed out to 2, which ended up being a short, rather easy trail. We then looped back around and hit up trail 3. This was a longer trail, and had some technical spots, especially the one where I had to get winched off a stump. And if memory serves me correctly, after getting pulled off, everyone asked me how I managed to miss that large stump! Oh, well.

Once we finished trail 3, we took a lunch break down by the cabin. I must say that Roby's property is very scenic, and would be a nice get-away... as long as there are no rigs whooping it up out on the trails! As we were wrapping up lunch, Romeo, the Erics, Bobby, Nick, Dennis and Lou pulled up alongside us. They had finished fixing Romeo's truck, and were ready to head out. It was getting late in the afternoon.

Even though we should have followed suit, we decided to tackle the last trail that Roby had suggested, which was Z. He had told us that we could take trail 4 to Z. So, off we went, hitting up 4 once again, and made our way to Z. Keeping in mind the warnings from the other group, we pushed forward, and found that trail Z really wasn't bad at all. It was actually short, and easy!

After wrapping up on that trail, we went back up to Roby's house, aired up, and headed back to Scott's.

The 5 of us accomplished some great trails and made it out with barely any damage (I believe Tom brushed a fender up against something, and Constantine tweaked his winch bumper a bit when he pulled me off a stump).

Bobby?s group started off with mtdewmike's group and ended up doing one of the bypasses following Romeo (RomeoEJ). Nick (Trailz) followed, as did Ken (01SalsaX), Donald (dmpmfd), and Dennis (Dennis Langston). After they realized that the bypass was more like a really short shortcut, they decided to just go off on their own with Bobby (XVTer) leading and Dennis tail-gunning. Bobby?s account follows;


We ended up going over to Z, and meeting up on the hill-climb with the advanced group. We then wend down 4 and back over to trail 1 where Romeo broke his linkage. We spent the rest of the day there fixing it.

Romeo?s center link failed on the trail and Dennis (pink Tracker) jerry rigged it so he could limp out to the staging area. Jesse volunteered to go get his trailer so could get the X back to Scott?s to work on so Romeo could get home. Jesse asked me to wait so I aired up and hung around while the rest of the NEXTerra group went back to Scott?s to prepare for the party later on. It was a good thing because his Bowtie, turbo diesel pulling the trailer got stuck coming up the access road! I had to strap him out and need to be locked and in 4low to do it, crazy.

Mike (svendog) took the lead for a slightly more advanced group of trucks that included his locked sas,

Dave?s (Inliner) locked sas
Scott?s (daggerdoggie) locked IFS

Jesse?s Jeep

and my locked IFS.


After entering Mike and I did a fun hill climb that Jesse had to back his jeep down off of. I must admit it gave me great satisfaction. After a few other challenging trails I then pushed in the passenger side front fender running up ?Dragon?s Gorge?. This is a great up hill climb through a gorge just wide enough for an Xterra to fit with dirt, rock and tree root lined walls on ether side. Last year I flopped my truck on this trail and had to winch myself upright and I was looking for a bit of pay back. I almost flopped in the same spot but backed off quickly so that only my front passenger side fender took the hit from a tree root. It got pushed in badly enough so that the door on that side would not open all the way. Jim, who was riding shotgun, had to squeeze out of the truck to exit. At the end of the trail you need to make a sharp left up a wall of the gorge and out. No one in the group could get out without a bit of winch help because a root on the right hand side of the exit kept throwing the trucks into a tree. Jesse came so close to flopping his jeep on the attempt that there was a chorus of ?uh oh? is it was teetering. He winched out to safety.
After a crazy down hill where I had to feather the brakes to have any control sliding through the mud I had to perform an off camber k turn at the bottom with ?Dragon?s Gorge? looming on my left; very hairy.
We then did a steep, slick hill climb. It would have been intimidating enough if I was there attempting this with a few close friends but at the top watching was Roby (the property owner) with a crew of his Jeep friends. The risk/reward on this was large. There was a good possibility of me bringing the reputation of the Nissan Xterra even lower in the eyes of this hard core Jeep crew. Thankfully all of the Xterras in the group (2 locked IFS, 2 locked SAS) made it and the one unlocked jeep with us did not. Sorry Jesse.
I then lost my passenger side mirror while not paying attention on the flattest section of trail I was on all day. I must have hit a tree root on the driver?s side and it threw the passenger mirror into the one tree on the opposite side.
While Dave was stuck on a stump I decided to take off the mirror, with Jims help, so it wouldn?t be flopping around the rest of the day. To get the door to open I used a small shovel that I wrapped with a shop towel. I stuck the shovel in the space between the door and the fender and pushed the fender out using the door as the fulcrum, it worked pretty well. We then took the door panel off and took off the mirror. We did this because I thought there was a clip that could be undone to separate the base of the mirror that attaches to the door and the mirror itself. This however is not the case. The base and the mirror are ?one piece? and the only ?clip? is a quarter way down the door. If you snap your mirror off do not bother to take it off at the base, just cut the wires taking care to cut them one at a time so as not to short out the line and pop the fuse. Dennis told me that that circuit also runs other things (I think the brake lights or something). Then wait until you have a replacement before taking the door panel off.
We finished the day on a few challenging but not crazy trails. The mud on these trails is plentiful but never deep and seldom watery or even soupy. It is thick and goopy; it filled up my BFG MT on more than a few occasions turning them into racing slicks unable to hold on to any thing; lots of fun.

When we got back to Scott?s Mike (svendog) gave me the mirror of his truck since he does not use it (trailers his X). Thanks Mike!

After my junk was together I went to see if I could help Romeo get the spare CL that Scott gave him into his truck. A bunch of folks came over to lead a hand


These are only a few of the many reasons I love being a member and wheeling with folks from NEXTerra. Most of us know a little something about the Nissan Xterra and how it works. We are able and willing to help fix what breaks or at the very least share the knowledge.


Saturday evening after damage was taken care of and folks cleaned up a bit Don helped Scott with the famous ?Scott?s BBQ Chicken?, donated sides were put out and we ate. Excellent!

Jeff (cornick) and Mike (mtdewmike) got the raffle going.

The raffle included donations from; Xoskel, Draken Off Road, Snap-On, PGR, NXRocks, Bandidt 4x4 and Quadratec Gear.
For a complete list of Sponsors, donations and who won what CLICK HERE.

The rest of my night was spent drinking, hangin? and shootin? the shit about trucks and wheeling with some of the greatest folks I know. I?m not sure when I passed out but Sunday morning I awoke to find Mike (mtdewmike) making pancakes?for everyone! Awesome!
Packed away some pancakes, packed the truck and headed back to Brooklyn.

I believe it was the best event I?ve ever attended. The food and drink was fantastic. The wheeling on Roby?s property is always some of the best and is unique for me. Thanks Roby! Seeing old friends and meeting a few new wheeling folk is always a good time. Scott, thank you bro and please thank Jonelle and Zack for your hospitality.

Thank you NEXTerra and NEXTerra members for this great event?let?s do it again next year!

i feel sorry 4 those who missed the 2010 back to school run for any reason it was great!!! my 1st wheeling event and i liked it a lot i hope we can do another gathering some where soon (raush in the mid October maybe??)

I agree...I feel sorry for anyone who missed this run. It just plain fun. Great trails and good people.

For everyone who were able to make it, thanks for a such a fantastic time.

i posted reply twice some how? ooops!

Glad you decided to come Tiffany. It was nice to meet you and wheel with you. Brooke really likes your pink license plate.

Fixed it.