What a great way to end the season. The weather was fantastic, the colors were beautiful, the wheeling was extreme, and the company was great.

Mark and I arrived at The Cove campground Thursday afternoon after stopping in Harrisburg to catch up with Mike Stevens. Set up camp, swapped tires and relaxed into the evening. OB arrived sometime during the night and rode with me for 2 days, took lots of pictures and really wasn’t that annoying.

Friday morning we were ready to go around 8:30, but these BBRC guys really get started late. We didn’t get out until 11:30 or so. We hooked up with Karol in his yellow FJC and Brandon in his new green 40. We ran “Pennsyltuckian” which turned out to be the easier of the 2 trails we ran this weekend.

Granite rocks for days. It’s a really fun trail but the big trucks need to be careful. Karol and his wife bailed out when the rocks got uncomfortably large, but wound up taking more body damage from the go around. Mark and I had a blast spotting each other and creepy crawling over stuff while Brandon was a little bored waiting for us to push on through. Sorry man, it takes time to get the big fat trucks through sometimes.

The Friday night dinner at our campsite was dry aged NY strip steaks, grilled asparagus, baked potatoes, and some delicious corn and pepper medley that Bob O’Connell made. I brought a nice Pinot Noir which we drank out of plastic cups. I really need to get camping wine glasses. Chocolate covered cream puffs for dessert. Yea, we know how to camp.

Saturday also got off to a late start and Cam convinced us to follow him and his group, which was basically all the hardcore guys. Cam in his FJ40 on 44s, Fred Lamm in his buggied 40, Vince in the Raze-N, a buggied 80 Series, a fully tubed rock buggy, Lance in the FZJ40 and a few other 40s including Bob O. Mark and I were the only full bodied trucks in the group and my 36” Swampers were looking pretty small. We headed to a trail called “Insanity”. We got to the bottom of the trailhead and the buggies were kicking and screaming their way to the top. Mark and I looked at each other and I said, “Looks like those Duke boys are in trouble again.”

With Cam spotting, Mark just creepy crawled his way with elegance and grace while the buggy guys watched. There were some wide open mouths when the Lexus followed suit. Bob O laid his 40 on its side. Apparently it got tired and needed to rest. No one got hurt and he took very little damage. At the end of the trail, Fred Lamm’s passenger came up to me and said, “If I didn’t see you 2 run this trail with my own eyes I would have never believed it.”

Saturday was a catered BBQ and raffle. Believe it or not, I actually won TWICE, and I never win anything.
All in all it was a great weekend and a terrific end to the season. The Cove is a pretty decent campground with upgraded shower facilities and lots of room to park and camp.

A million pictures from OB are here.