My journey began on Friday afternoon as I headed six hours north toward Charlottesville, VA. Along the way I linked up with Jimmy Megginson and our friend R.K. Burke. (thanks for the tires R.K.) We arrived early in the evening at our weekend host Jeff and Dee Bogdens house and had a great dinner and a good nights rest. Saturday morning quickly arrived and we packed up and took the 30 minute drive over to Crozet. The weather was great with clear skies and a temp of 15 degrees!!!!!!!!!! I think we were all dressed like Eskimos but everyone was ready to wheel!

As we arrived at the parking area the first thing I saw was four tires pointing up at the sky. This isn’t the most comforting thing to see when you are just arriving for a day of wheeling but when I realized it was Woody I knew it was just the normal thing from him. We were met by Chris and Heather and directed to the parking area and to fill out registration forms for the weekend. Crozet has a variety of terrain from rocky creek beds, tightly winding wooded trails, to some huge rock piles and ledges. Each trail is labeled Blue (intermediate), Black (hard), or, Red (extreme!) Red requires a full roll cage and for good reasons! What makes Crozet so unique is you can wheel all day and never be more than a few hundred yards from the parking lot. Just for reference, Jimmy ran the blacks and he is on 33 Swampers locked front and rear.

In all we had 6 rigs in our group. There was Woody Donovan, Dave Tilly, Jimmy Megginson, Joey Harlow, myself, and Chris and Heather Packard. (our guides) We also had a few friends go along for the ride, Jeff and Dee Bogden, and Patrick and Kami Kinlaw. I’m glad they were there as they took some awesome pics and video.

The group primarily ran the Red trails and the day was full of excitement. Chris expertly led our group through a variety of obstacles that, quite frankly, I didn’t think any of us would make. I must say, he really knows the terrain there. As we continued wheeling we had an early endo by Dave that was a really hard landing. The exo cage that he and Corey Bradford built is the toughest thing I have ever seen. Not long after that Chris flopped the “go-cart” on House Rock but I can’t say I have ever seen a flop like that before. Somehow his quick release steering wheel “quickly released” itself and he was on his side holding nothing but a detached steering wheel. It was probably one of the most comical things I have ever seen on the trail. Dave, not to be outdone ended up flopping in about the same spot. House Rock is one tough obstacle for sure. Woody and Joey ended up getting over/around but not without some wild moments.

As we moved through the trails I started to realize that my steering wasn’t working as it should. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was in the same situation I faced in Moab last summer. I ripped the panhard mount off of the frame. I was able to limp my Zuk back to the parking lot where it stayed until lunch break. I grabbed my camera and went back to be a photographer for the rest of the group. In the meantime, Joey had his first flop of the day.