At the start of each school year for the past eight years, Xterra owners in the Northeast have been drawn to the picturesque wilderness of Otsego County in upstate New York, to take part in The North East Xterra Club’s (NEXTerra) Annual Back to School Run. The event was held on the weekend of September 14-16, 2012 coinciding, as it does yearly, with the always entertaining Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Forty + members and guests descended on Scott and Jonelle’s Oneonta, NY property (NEXTerra home base for the event) on Friday. Once arriving we set up tents, socialized a bit and prepared for the off-road adventure that would start the next morning.
At 9am Saturday morning 25+ trucks rolled out of the Oneonta home base in a head turning convoy towards Garrettsville, NY where Roby, the owner of Draken Off- Road (https://drakenoffroad.com/) generously opened up his property to the North East Xterra Club for the event.
“Dragon’s Gorge” is the beautiful, challenging, private proving ground of Draken Off-Road. It offered something to challenge every type of equipment, from a stock Xterra to highly modified buggies, as well as drivers of any skill level. It is one of the best tracts of private property available for us here in the Northeast.
There was a great variety of vehicles this year besides 1st and 2nd Gen Xterra’s, including a few Jeeps, a very cool 110 Land Rover, a full size Blazer, a built up Tracker, Russell’s awesome XJ and a few other custom built buggies. After a short pre-run meeting, everyone split in groups of Stock, Intermediate, Advanced and Crazy (Russell, a cool buggy and a built up Jeep).
Although the sun was beaming and there was a cool breeze all day, it had rained on Friday night so the terrain was very unforgiving. Simple hill climbs turned into heart pounding, taillight smashing, mirror removing, and quarter panel reshaping adventures. Most attendees had an opportunity to test out their winches and any off camber section was an opportunity for them to test their nerve.
After a few hours of off-roading nirvana, there was a welcome lunch break that included a very tasty “Subway Lunch Box” and tails of the morning’s thrills.
During the afternoon a few daring folk ran “The Gorge” and watched the “Crazy Group” run “The Waterfall”. Most of the groups were spent by 3-4pm.
After a great day of wheeling, all attendees were able to limp back to Scott’s where they chowed down on ribs, pulled pork, sides and desserts. Most took advantage of the adult beverages available, including Mike’s famous punch and the Russian contingent’s generous Keg of Heineken donation. There was also a few that enjoyed some very smooth single malt and lovely mild Dominican cigars.
After our meal there was the NEXTerra B2SR raffle that provided the attendees the opportunity to win items supplied by our incredible sponsors.
Scott and Jonelle, THANK YOU for the food and hospitality!
Roby, THANK YOU for the generous use of your facility; it is always a challenge and fun!
THANK YOU Sponsors! We appreciate your support! It makes this event possible and we make an extra effort to support you!
Thank you to all who attended! We hope you had a great time, and that we see you again at our next event!
For pictures from our attendees, check out THIS THREAD.
Also, be sure to check out this video made by one of our officers – Eric Romeo.
