Summary
- Everyone starts by attending an Open Run; our next can be found below
- Subscribe to our event calendar, eotb.ca/calendar, to know when we’re getting together, and where. VERY IMPORTANT POINT: Many club events require registration, including guest/open events – check the calendar for the event and look for “tickets” – and all runs require acceptance of waiver, which is best done online (more info below)
- Our FB page: https://www.facebook.com/eotbpage
- Our FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EOTBOpenForum
- The form to sign up for club notifications via email is toward the bottom of https://www.eotb.ca/contact/
Next Wing Night
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Next Open Runs
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The whole story, lots of extra details
Start with a stock-friendly Open Run
Everyone starts in the club by joining an Open Run, which gives you a chance to get to know EOTB club members, to try off-roading on stock-friendly trails, and gives us a chance to get to know you, too: Fit is really important. The vast majority of people who join us on an open run convert to membership; those who don’t usually select themselves out.
Registration: If you want to join one of the Open Runs, please complete registration for the event online: This walks you through all paperwork and allows you to pay your $20 guest fee. See the “next open run” link above to register for our next Open Run. NOTE: the pandemic has made scheduling all runs more challenging, so run registration may open late. If you don’t see a registration link in the run that interests you, please check again in a day or three.
More about registration and waivers: All runs require every driver to sign a waiver. For the last few years, we’ve doing this electronically: The link to the waiver for each run is in that run’s entry in our calendar – for runs requiring registration, acceptance of the waiver is part of the registration process. Registration for guest runs serves two purposes:
- Payment of the $20 guest fee, and
- Limiting run size, if needed. We’ve had to do this the last two years because of various pandemic restrictions on group sizes, and to keep things manageable for our trail leaders, whose own availability has been impacted by the pandemic.
We also limit group size on certain member-only runs, usually because of trail difficulty: It’s hard to keep a large group moving through a very tough trail.
Keep an eye on the calendar, come to a Wing Night
All events are published well in advance on eotb.ca/calendar – we’ll update the calendar in April with 2019 events.
Another great way to meet people is Wing Night – which is misnamed since our current fave spot has far more than wings (and the food is really good). They are the second Monday of every month.
Membership fees
Membership works out to $65, in three parts: $20 for joining us on an Open Run, $20 to convert from guest to club member, then $25 for membership in the OF4WD (their individual fee is $50, you get a $25 discount for joining as a club member; more on the OF4WD below).
Memberships are renewed starting January of the next calendar year; you must be a member in good standing to attend and vote at the AGM (and yes, you can renew at the AGM) and to attend member runs. The annual membership fee is $40.
Everyone is welcome at Wing Night, no extra charge!
What’s the OF4WD, anyway?
The Ontario Federation of 4WD Recreationists is a province-wide “umbrella group” that works to maintain the Ontario trail system and an index of all open trails. Like the EOTB, the OF4WD espouses the “Tread Lightly” approach to off-roading, which means respecting the environment, respecting private land, and leaving things as we found them, as much as possible. The OF4WD also works with other interested stakeholders, like ATV groups, and with the provincial government to ensure that trails remain open to all interested parties. Finally, the OF4WD offers its members additional liability insurance when taking part in organized events – like club trail runs – so that if anything does go sideways (or upside down), both the club and its members are better protected.
Because the mission of the OF4WD is so important and because the OF4WD and the EOTB are so well aligned in thinking and approach, the EOTB has been a member club of the OF4WD for many years, and EOTB bylaws require that all EOTB members be OF4WD members as well.
Joining the OF4WD does not make you a member of the EOTB or qualify you for EOTB membership. Joining the EOTB does not make you an OF4WD member but does qualify you for the OF4WD club member discount: All members of the EOTB and of other member clubs get their OF4WD membership for $25/year, instead of $50 (the OF4WD individual member price).
Can I be a member of other clubs?
Absolutely! Many members of the EOTB are also members of or occasionally wheel with the OJC, the OVO, the OVLR, etc. Several of these clubs are OF4WD member clubs as well.
More about Open Runs, Trail Leaders, and more
As mentioned, all Open Runs take place on stock-friendly trails, but they all have interesting optional obstacles, things you can try if you like but don’t have to; experienced drivers with built rigs enjoy these trails too. We try to set them up so that you can get a good view of those who do the obstacles.
All of our runs are led by experienced trail leaders who are familiar with the trail and with the obstacles, and who know whether or not any given vehicle can make it over/through: We have zero interest in damaging anyone’s one ride and we have a strict no-egging policy, so if we indicate that you could try an obstacle, it’s because we know you can make it.
(For a lot of our Trail Leaders, this is a favourite: The look on someone’s face when they’ve just done something they’d only seen on the Internet… …then they want to do it again!)
All of our runs, Open and Members, are family friendly: Lots of people bring their pets and/or kids (quite a few members learned to drive on the trail – it’s easy to parallel park when you’ve been squeezing a truck between rocks and trees for years). All runs are drug and alcohol free, including cannabis-free.
When we camp, barley sandwiches, etc., are welcome once the keys are put away for the day, so long as people are reasonable and remember the family-friendly part.
Each driver is ultimately responsible for themself, but the trail leaders provide a lot of good advice. (We only advise what we think is possible and practical for the person in question. We never urge or “egg” and if we yell STOP! or WHOA! it’s because we see something you don’t…. Always a good idea to listen to those two words…. :-> If you hear a quieter “stop”, it is likely someone wanting to snap a pic of your position…. BIG :->)
PS: Absolutely optional reading :-> (from the person who wrote this page)
Off-roading can be a little overwhelming at first: Much new terminology, many built vehicles, many experienced drivers. But I have to say I certainly felt welcomed and encouraged when I started wheeling with the club in 2015, having bought my JKU in late 2014 and being completely new to offroading. Three years later, I’m club secretary and one of the trail leaders: Every organized run will have at least one trail leader (impossible to miss in the bright orange Ts with “EOTB TRAIL LEADER” on the back). It’s the trail leader’s job to ensure everyone is properly equipped for the run in question, to get the group to the trail, to help people navigate the trail, and to get back to civilization, or at least close enough to it that no one will get lost.
One of the best parts of trail leadership for me is helping newbies: When you suggest someone attempt an obstacle and they give you the “you’ve got to be kidding me” look and you reassure them and tell them what you want them to do…
…and they do it, and the smile lights up their face and they say “I wanna do that AGAIN!”
That’s pretty special. Ironically, as a trail leader, I spend more of my time out of my Jeep than in it, especially on newbie (open) runs
— Peter Whittaker, Club Secretary and Trail Leader