(Updated June 2, 2021)
The Ottawa area, along with the rest of the province, the country and most of the world are still grappling with this pandemic. The EOTB will comply with provincial guidance with respect to hosting our trail events throughout the summer. While the province-wide stay-at-home order has officially ended, the Roadmap to Reopen hasn't effectively changed the restrictions applied to our activities at least through to June 14th. All events will be postponed until a later ...
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Author: Paul Dufresne
Schooner Lookout
Schooner Lookout is probably the most challenging trail in Eastern Ontario. The trail starts at the edge of Crag Lake and takes you along the south side of the lake before veering south to climb into the forest where the trail crosses rock outcroppings, and ridge lines that eventually lead you to the edge of Round Schooner Lake. Once in view of the lake, you will continue to follow the ridge to Camp Schooner, a plateau that sits about 70m (230ft) above the lake offering amazing views and spect...
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Why Stay Off the Trails
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EOTB has been keeping our membership informed about what we are doing, but we haven't really articulated why. The focus of this post is to look beyond the formal regulations and consider other factors.
Click here for details regarding our response and schedule changes.
We're not going to get into a legal debate on how the Ontario Declaration of Emergency applies to off-roading. While it may be possible to go off-roading while complying with the...
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Virtual Wing Night – Details
Beer and Wings
This is a bring your own beer and wings event. Don't bother flagging down the wait staff. They're not coming.
Guidelines
Please note that this is somewhat of an experiment for the club. If you've participated in conference calls or group video calls before, you'll know that with large groups, things can get a little chaotic. For this reason, we ask that you please adhere to the following guidelines during the call.
When you join the meeting, please announce yourself and ...
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COVID-19 Update
Two weeks ago, you should have received a notice regarding the EOTB's response to COVID-19. If you missed that notice, you can follow the link below to view it.
EOTB COVID-19 Response
The information below reflects the most recent changes to the EOTB calendar. We are ensuring we comply with the province's emergency orders, but also making every effort to do our part to ensure the health and safety of our members.
Wing Night
As a result of the prohibition on events and gatherings of m...
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EOTB Fall Camp 2019
Fall Camp is not the last event of the season for the EOTB, but it does serve as a beacon, letting us know that the prime wheeling season is coming to a close. It's usually a relatively small event, rarely attended by more than a dozen vehicles.
This year's event was larger. In addition to having a larger contingent of campers, including guests from Muskoka and Montreal, several members made the trip to join us for individual runs, with some coming in on Friday night to run the Calabogie ...
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Labour Day Trail and Camp 2019
When you're planning an annual event, there's always a worry that the event will become stale, or that it will be difficult to match the last one, but you don't want to change too much and mess with tradition.
Tradition demands that we start with dinner at the Redneck Bistro in Calabogie. This wasn't a difficult one to stick with. The food, as always, was excellent and it was a treat listening to Teagan McLaren (remember the name) play a mix of excellent covers and original music. Let's c...
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Darling Line, August 25, 2019
Despite it's classification as an Easy trail, the Darling Line has earned a reputation for wreaking havoc on trucks passing through. With a nice-sized group of about 15 vehicles, we wondered who the trail's victim would be this time.
With the trail leaders coming from Almonte and Arnprior, we deviated from our regular meeting spot in Bells Corners in favor of meeting in Almonte. While this was a departure from tradition, it allowed us to forego a second meeting place and probably got us t...
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Camp EOTB 2019 – Day 2
Sunday was shaping up to be a beautiful day. The day started cool, but comfortable and all campers were headed to Sullivan Lake. In an effort to keep the day moving smoothly, the group was split with half the group heading up by Little Green Lake and the other half taking the Crag Lake back door, skirting the swamp and rejoining the Sullivan Lake trail. Before we could get onto the trail, however, Tom discovered his Suzuki had a broken hub and headed back to camp.
Despite being one vehicle sh...
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Camp EOTB 2019 – Day 1
With campers arriving throughout the afternoon and early evening, everyone was excited for this year's Camp EOTB. Tents were raised, meals were cooked and soon the group converged around the campfire. Recent weather meant that we were under a fire ban, so we had to get creative. With some LED lights and a piece of orange tarp, we had our fire and our focus shifted to planning our trail runs on the first full day of camp.
Saturday morning, we split into two groups, one headed to Bear Skull...
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The Gorge, July 28, 2019
The Wranglers are always well represented on the trail, and four generations of Wrangler participated. Starting with Joel's timeshare YJ, a few TJs from stock to Norm's behemoth, the usual group of JKs and JKUs, and a handful of JLs and JLUs. Beyond the Wranglers, however, there were some other logos, including a Renegade piloted by Rupert who only used three wheels on many obstacles and several others representing Toyota, Nissan and the massive Chevy Suburban that managed more than I think ...
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Accessory Wiring
It is common practice with off-road vehicles to add a variety of accessories, many of which require power. Whether you're adding a CB, trail lights, axle lockers or something else, taking a little extra time can prevent you from having to troubleshoot a rats nest in the middle of an obstacle out on the trail.
This article is not a comprehensive course on vehicle electrical systems, but rather a series of tips and tricks to help make your accessory wiring manageable.
Sourcing Power
The most ...
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2018 Annual General Meetng
On Saturday, March 24th, the EOTB held our 2018 AGM at Biagio's Italian Kitchen. We had an excellent turn-out, with about 50 people in attendance. We held our election, handed out some prizes and awards and welcomed our new Board of Directors for the upcoming season.
Election
For the first time in many years, the EOTB held an election. We had five volunteers who accepted nominations for the three Directors at Large which prompted the election. This is a healthy development, and shows...
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DIY Accessory Control Module
Almost every Jeep on the trail has some kind of after market accessory that requires power. Each lightbar, axle locker and compressor requires a switch and running all these wires into the cabin can create a real rat's nest under the hood and behind the dash.
There are aftermarket solutions such as the SPOD and the new JL offers 4 programmable buttons to control accessories. The SPOD is quite expensive, and we can't all upgrade to the JL, so here's how you can clean up your wiring and build y...
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Care and Maintenance of your Smart Swaybar
One of the most welcome features of the JK/JKU Rubicon was the electronic disconnecting swaybar, AKA the Smartbar. This handy feature eliminates the need for aftermarket swaybar disconnects and allows you to improve your flex from the comfort of your driver's seat.
It is one of the envious features of the Rubicon, until you get it wet. Then, any number of gremlins may appear. In fairness, it is generally pretty resilient. The one on my 2008 Rubicon went 9 years without any maintenance bef...
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Sullivan Lake
A part of the Crag Lake Trail System, Sullivan Lake offers similar terrain. It is very rocky with tight sections and narrow ridges. The trail leads to Sullivan Lake and features two great camping spots by the lake. It is also the starting point for the Evergreen Mountain trail.
DO NOT CUT TREES! the tight trail conditions are a large part of what make this trail challenging!
OF4WD Rating: 3+
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Selecting a CB Antenna
Selecting an antenna for off-roading can be tricky, and you generally want an antenna that has the following characteristics:
Flexible – you don’t want your antenna snapping the first time you hit a low hanging branch
Top loaded – Top loaded antennas tend to have better range
High Gain – antennas with high gain effectively amplify your signal.
As a general rule, on the trail, you don’t need crazy range. Front to back, we’re usually within a kilometer or so. However, every so often, wh...
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Selecting a CB Radio
The EOTB, like many other off-road clubs uses CB radios as the primary means of communication between vehicles on the trail.
Most CB radios are very similar. They usually support 40 channels, transmit at up to 4 Watts which is all you really need. You can get some extras like built-in SWR meters, weather radio, channel memories among others. As long as you stick with a reputable brand, you should be fine. It's generally advisable to stick to one of the three major brands, Uniden, Midland or C...
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Jeep 75th Anniversary Event
A few months ago, The EOTB was approached by Formula Special Projects representing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles about assisting them with a media event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Jeep brand. After a brief negotiation, we came to an agreement whereby we would provide support for their event in exchange for a sponsorship of the club.
The event took place in Calabogie on July 26th. The EOTB’s role was to help identify a trail that would appropriately highlight the off-road abil...
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Calabogie Line
The Calabogie Line is a 4.5km stretch of power line that roughly runs parallel to Calabogie road. The entrance is just north of where the power line intersects the road and heads north-north-east from there, exiting onto Ferguson Lake road. The trail has experienced relatively light use, although it is commonly used by dirt bikes.
OF4WD Rating
2 Easy 2WD/4WD
Terrain
The trail begins with some rocky outcrops that can be attacked from various angles allowing for different levels of difficulty ...
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Evergreen Mountain
The Evergreen Mountain Trail is effectively an extension of the Sullivan Lake trail, adding to the Crag Lake trail system. It runs from Sullivan Lake up to the crest of Evergreen Mountain, offering spectacular panoramic views before descending through a narrow gorge to a lower plateau and down the south slope towards Long Bay Lake where it picks up a road that exists to Norcan Lake Road.
OF4WD Rating
4 Difficult Trail
Terrain
The trail is very rocky, with several steep inclines at variou...
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Bear Skulls
The Bear Skulls trail gets its name from a pair of bear skulks found near one of the early obstacles in the trail, now known as the Bear Hug. While the trail is relatively short, it offers a wide variety of rocky obstacles, tight squeezes and off-camber areas. As there are bypasses for some of the more challenging obstacles, the trail can be navigated in modestly modified vehicles while offering challenges for more heavily modified vehicles.
The trail travels through forested areas to a s...
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2016 Season Opener – The Gorge
The photos in this gallery are from the season opener at the Gorge.
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Highlights 2015
The photos in this album are highlights from the 2015 off-road season.
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Highlights 2014
The photos in this album are highlights from the 2014 off-road season.
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