What can i say, The Gorge... We started out the morning at Zellers with 2 YJ's, 2 TJ's, 1 JK, 1 XJ, 1 Toyota, 1 Dodge pickup and a Suzuki Swift. We left and headed our way to the gorge pre area where we picked up one more TJ and a tubed buggy. We aired down, talked and finally made our way to the trail. (more…)

Another early morning meeting in Bells Corners found 5 trucks ready and waiting for Serge. When it was clear that Serge was a no-show, we made our way to Calabogie, where we were to meet Al at Munford's. It was a slow drive down Calabogie Rd, as there were no less than 20 Hydro trucks repair the power lines along the road. To our surprise, we found Serge waiting there with Al. Guess he was coming along after all. We made our way to the trail head where we prepared for the trail. We arrived just ...

If there's one thing that can be said about trail run's with the EOTB, it's "expect the unexpected". If you were following the mailing list leading up to this trail run, then you know that the Straddlebug trail is pretty tame, not too technical, perhaps even boring. For this reason, I was expecting a relatively simple in-and-out trail run. Silly me. I set expectations. (more…)

I will tell you a story about a trail run that should have been 2 to 3 hours long and turned out to be 6.5 hrs long. We met at the Zellers in Bells Corners for 19:00. We had to wait for Serge, who arrived at 19:45. We left the parking lot and started our trip to Carp and Timmy's. Lol. Nick took the lead because my GPS was not awake yet, and having done the run at night only, I wasn't sure exactly where I was going. I took the lead in Carp when my GPS found the road from the night bef...

Trucks met at Bell Corners: 2 JK's, 1 TJ, 1 Toyota. Just prior to leaving the Bell Corners some of the OVO members showed up. Turns out they decided to run Lavant as well. Once all the paper work was done our small group headed up too Lavant. (more…)

As was already reported, our trail run was delayed some as we tried to stem the flow of coolant from Rodney's rig. Meanwhile, Jerry was discovering he had a bearing issue and possibly a problem with the 4WD engagement motor while Redneck played on the ver large pile of gravel. (more…)

After some mild confusion, a fuel stop and a few wrong turns by some members of the group, we found our way to the Griffith trail head. We stopped for a moment to air down when Pat realized the linkage for the transfer case hadn't been reconnected after his last service stop. After a few choice words about the dealer mechanic's competency, it took Pat and I under the truck, and some tools handed down by Redneck, about 10-15 minutes to reseat the linkage so we could get under way. For the mos...

Having lost the only JK willing to join our little group despite the tightness of this trail, to a leaky radiator back at the dam parking lot (Rodney can tell you all about that), five TJs embarked upon a quest to retrace last summer's blazing of the East-to-West running of the Crag Lake trail. After the usual disconnecting, airing down, mirror folding / removal and such, I in my battered and extra-wide '02 (soon to be more battered), Norm in his more sensibly shod Sahara on 36"s, Evan in hi...

The Lingham Lake event was held from 15 - 18 Aug 08. Members gathered at the Hardwood camp site in Bon Echo Provincial Park. The campsite was in a remote part of the Park; it had no electricity, but had running water, and one other necessary feature. The showers or comfort station was located the entrance to Hardwood about a kilometre from our camp site. Participating members were Chris, Carol and family, Evan, Christine and family, Pat Q. and kids, Paul D and clan, Ian S, Nick C, Mike B, a...

As is our habit, we met in Bells Corners at 9:00am. Just four trucks, Nick, Mario, Stephen and myself and waited until 9:30 to leave for the trail head in case someone else came. We were expecting to collect Ed in Hopetown, but got a message that he couldn't make it. So we were four. (more…)

I can here the echos now when the decision was made to do the Carp trail before the EOTB BBQ. "It's close to town"; "It's not so bad, it should be fine for the stock vehicles"; and I'm sure we all thought it would be a pleasant Sunday run. Nobody could have predicted this... (more…)

Small group of 3 trucks met a Bells Corners. To my surprise I was elected trail leader. After a short discussion we decided that none of us knew anything about finding Griffith trail head. So the Rusty Bat was our new destination. 2 JK's and one Toyota. We met Ed along the way. Arrived at the trail head about 10:30 and proceeded to air down. We all took run at the rock face and succeeded except for Ed. Seems his trailer hitch got hung up and ended up being parked vertically on the rock fa...

As is our habit, we met in Bells Corners at 9:00am. Just four trucks, Nick, Mario, Stephen and myself and waited until 9:30 to leave for the trail head in case someone else came. We were expecting to collect Ed in Hopetown, but got a message that he couldn't make it. So we were four. (more…)

Well, it was a small group today. Not surprising given the carnage on Sunday. Four trucks left Bell's Corners at 9:30 this morning including myself, Pat in the Dodge pick-up, Ricco in the Rubicon and Rob in his white Cherokee. We made our way to Merrickville where we grabbed Carl and headed to the trail. Not having done the trail before, I wasn't sure what to expect. (more…)

We started out the day with a nice sized group convoying from Bell's Corners picking up Matt in Kemptville and Ed in Merrickville on our way to Brockville. We joined the rest of the group at Tim Horton's in Brockville, and headed to the trail. With all the recent rain, and with the scouting report from Mike, we knew it would be a wet day. (more…)

I believe we had 17 vehicles out today. We never did get to the back door, we only reached the Lookout at 5pm had a quick late lunch and headed back out. We had left many vehicles abandoned on the side of the trail on our way up. (more…)

As much as I enjoy trail riding I’ll admit that at 7:00 Saturday morning I was asking myself why I was getting the truck ready rather than just going back to bed. It was raining very hard, the sky was black and … I was wondering how many was actually going to show up. But… on with the show… Despite the weather six trucks with family and friends along for the day showed up at Bell’s Corners. Believe it or not the conversation, spirits and general enthusiasm was not that much different than ...

It all started out as a beautiful day. It looked as though we were going to avoid the rain. We had small group, only six trucks so we hoped for a relatively painless run to Lavant Look-out and possibly an exit out the back door. How wrong we were. (more…)

It turned out to be a sunny warm spring day, a perfect day for our season opener, newbie trail run. We had an excellent turn-out a total of 28 vehicles participated . We left Bells Corners shortly before 10am heading to the Antrim Truck stop in Arnprior where we gased up and regrouped. (more…)

For starters I learned that my meeting point of Shell/Timmies doesn't quite exist, but we all managed to meet up at the Shell just after 7. We ended up being 3 trucks out, Paul & Cyndy in their JK, Omar in his YJ and me in my Tracker. We went in via the usual route through Carp, being my 1st time in there since the spring I was surprised to see the 1st road in was now gravel. Once on the main trail it was nice and bouncy as usual. The darkness and dampness adding their extra challenges to a ...

What a great weekend! Good weather, good friends, great trails. Friday a handful of us were able to scout a new trail up toward Griffith. Saturday we ran the Quinn trail and split the group mid trail, some heading off to pinion pass. I was so impressed to hear that all 8 trucks made it up the pass, some with more assistance than others. (more…)

What an awesome day! I was so looking forward to doing the backside of Lavant and it didn't disappoint. a few of my Favorite moments: (more…)

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While the bulk of the Camp EOTB attendees repeated last years trail run to Crag Lake from the West entrance, a small group of four well-modified hardy souls set out to try getting to Crag Lake from the East. We'd heard that this had been done before by another club, and we had a GPS track from a dirt biking friend of Ian, so exploring we went. After doing the airing-down and disconnecting thing with the entire group at the Mountain Chute dam, Ian, Rod, James, and I, with assorted passengers a...

Hey All.... Just a quick note to those at the Camp this year.. thanks so much we all had a blast.. and a few giggles... some more than others...I apologize for keeping those awake who wanted to sleep but what can you do? Thanks to Carol and Crystal for all that was done re: organizing and food etc...Calabogie will never be the same. (more…)

We had 11 trucks out on Sunday to the Quinn. Paul & Cindy, Scuba, Norm, and Steve left Bells Corners about 8:45 am, hooked up with James and 4 trucks from OJC at the Carp Shell and Chris found us at Munfords. All modified, nice looking rigs! (more…)

Just arrived at the house from the Carp trail run tonight. With all that came down today, I expected it to be wet, but I wasn't prepared for the volume of water we encountered. I just had to take a moment to tell the story. (more…)

Well it wasn't raining, it had been that morning and for days before. We actually had a good turnout, 8 trucks in total. Steve L. and his fiancée Angie trailered his CJ down, Paul & Tammy Dufresne and their kids in their JK Sierra, Paul & Cyndy with their daughter in their JK Rubicon, Scuba Steve, Neil & Donna, Darryl and a full TJ of guests and Ross with his son and nephew in the Xterra. (more…)

Well it turned out to be an excellent day, not to hot, not to sunny, not to many bugs and not to many trucks from Ottawa. :( We had 6 trucks in total. Paul and Cyndy made it out from Ottawa with a JK full of teens. Jay Thomas showed up from K-Town with his cool little Land Cruiser. Carl in his Renegade on 40's his Son-in-law Mike in a Jeep, my friend Cam in a Rubicon, Steve in a Red TJ and Clinton in another Black Rubicon. (more…)

I can only write a portion of the trail report, I didn't end up making it to the top of the trail. 13 trucks met up in Bell's corners at 9:00 on Saturday morning. There were 3 XJs, several TJs, 2 KJs and 1 dumpster queen CJ, and last but not least, 1 Nissan Pathfinder. (more…)