MINI GROUP DRIVE II

Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but it gots to be pointed out...
When/if the group drive ends up doing the Concord Pond road, it's crucial to remember that you guys have one major responsibility: Please Do NOT Screw Up With The Locals. There are a lot of landowners and homeowners on that road, and with a buncha sudy doods hooning around...all it takes is one bad encounter with a local (like punting a minivan off the road cuz you are too sideways on a blind crest) and New England Forest Rally could lose that road for good.

Concord Pond is one of the best stages on the whole North American rally circuit...you owe it to a very large rally community to make sure that an MS group drive does not endanger continued access there.
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Same goes for any road that the rally has used, or wants to in future.
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I've been quiet ever since Concord Pond because I don't like to rock the boat, but I agree with what Dave said.

The phrase "don't crap where you eat" comes to mind. I don't think ripping up the road and getting NEFR canceled would be a good idea. Even if there is only a .0001% chance of that happening, it's not one I'd be willing to take.

 
Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but it gots to be pointed out...
When/if the group drive ends up doing the Concord Pond road, it's crucial to remember that you guys have one major responsibility: Please Do NOT Screw Up With The Locals. There are a lot of landowners and homeowners on that road, and with a buncha sudy doods hooning around...all it takes is one bad encounter with a local (like punting a minivan off the road cuz you are too sideways on a blind crest) and New England Forest Rally could lose that road for good.

Concord Pond is one of the best stages on the whole North American rally circuit...you owe it to a very large rally community to make sure that an MS group drive does not endanger continued access there.
default_eek.gif
Same goes for any road that the rally has used, or wants to in future.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. We should probably stay away from any regular stomping grounds of Rally America, we don't want that kind of Liability on our heads. Even if they use some unpopulated roads, if they are maintained at all, that means people use them and might not be happy with a group of us driving on them.

 
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I agree with this. We should probably stay away from any regular stomping grounds of Rally America, we don't want that kind of Liability on our heads. Even if they use some unpopulated roads, if they are maintained at all, that means people use them and might not be happy with a group of us driving on them.
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no need to stay away from rally roads, just bee-have. they ARe public roads after all, no prob if U all don't cause probs.

 
These are all very good points and I appreciate Dave, Dan and Ryan discussing it. In the OP for our first ride I felt it necessary to mention that our ride was going to be driven with responsibility and respect for those who reside on the roads we are using. I left this part out for the current drive we are working on, but it still applies. In the last ride, everyone drove in a way that followed my and the Mainelysubaru communities' expectations and I'm happy and thankful for that. Like Dave said and I agree, Concord Pond Road is fair game, but it is hallowed ground for Rally America and an important part of the New England Forest Rally and I will not be the guy who organized a Subaru Club Group Drive that compromises this...so lets keep up the good behavior as with the last drive and enjoy these great roads our state has to offer.

 
... Concord Pond Road is fair game, but it is hallowed ground for Rally America and an important part of the New England Forest Rally and I will not be the guy who organized a Subaru Club Group Drive that compromises this...so lets keep up the good behavior as with the last drive and enjoy these great roads our state has to offer.
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^alla that.

ding ding ding we can hazz winnArs!

 
I think it would be a good idea to stay away from the stage for the simple fact that one lady was already upset a couple years ago when I was doing clean up. Barb and I took a good 15-20 minutes and talked with her and fixed up the end of her driveway and calmed her down. I worry that a lot of traffiic may upset locals enough if they are on the fence right now.

 
Ok, well I am not going to make the decision of whether or not to use a former rally stage for this because there seems to be a fair amount of dissagreement. We could always hit these roads on our own anyway. When we have a concensus on whether or not to use them then I will add them to the route plan or not. I am starting off with the route plan for our previous drive and making modifications as necessary. We CAN take these roads without extending the length of a drive significantly. The thing about crazed locals is that there will always be a few angry ones no matter where you go or what you do, they can get angry at you just because your car sounds and looks fast, therefore thier logic in thier pea brains says, "AHAH! They must be going too fast, I am going to find someone to complain to, I don't care who, and I don't care if they hurt anything or not. I deal with these type of butwipes of the human condition all the time, they are always impeding the construction of new power facilities in the power delivery engineering industry because they don't like construction, or they don't like the looks of powerlines and want them underground. BTW most of the time its more environmentally destructive and economically infeasable to build underground. These are the same people that build in the ROW and then when we expand a ROW to add in a new line on land that CMP has always owned, they act all surprised that there will be a new line closer to thier house. Some of them are really crazy too, filing a 7 person complaint with the PUC because they claim the Russians are financing construction of this new line that will ruin thier view and thier back yard. Sorry lady, shouldn't have moved in next to a ROW because this will ALWAYS happen eventually and you should have known that. And BTW, Iberdola, the new owners of CMP are a spanish based company, not russian. LoLz! Another asked us "What we were going to do about the clumps?" we said "What clumps?" she said "The ones that fall off the power line in the rain and crawl up my drain pipes!" nuff said.

 
All valid points Adam and Ryan and again I appreciate the input....ummm....here's the deal:

I have heard enough reason to take Concord Pond Road off the table for route plans. I trust that the members going on this drive will be responsible and respectful on this road, but like Ryan and Adam have mentioned based on their own past experiences, you cannot control what people think or do, especailly when they are already looking for a a reason to drop the hammer on something that we enjoy every summer. I hate to waffle on this (see post #63) but I would rather play it safe than have the rally community have a hit out on Mainelysubarus. Thanks for the posts guys and I hope that this doesn't change anyone's minds about joining us for the drive....just three more weeks!

 
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Evem though I was the one to bring it up... It would be good form for "an organized club group drive" to avoid concord pond.

I appreciate Dave's point.

Even if we are well behaved, a caravan of loud cars could be enough to upset a resident with a stick up their ***. To the untrained eye, even if we are driving the limit cautiously, it could look like an ameture attempt at racing.

Plenty of other great roads out there with fewer homes and not used for competition.

 
i agree with ryan about the crazey land owners, i wouldnt want some kids with nice cars having more fun on my front lawn then i did! well maybe we can scrap concord pond and insert rt 117 its ganna be a sweet windy road with some cool views and lakes... we can also stop in rangeley to tank up and take some pix, and bathrooms for the ladies=)

 
I will be on the look out for alternatives. Don't get me wrong, I personally would love to throw in a former rally stage. I just don't want Rally America upset with us. I could care less about wet blanket locals. But they are who Rally America answers to, so when we are on thier turf, so do we. If we did take these roads we would need to be exactly at the speed limit or less, that would not be so fun. BTW adam, how did that womans driveway get torn up? Was it part of the course or something? Maybe on the outside of a corner where read tires where digging in?

 
I think we are going the right direction with this guys, keep the Ideas comming. Are there any roads that we took last time that we want to change this time? Right now I have everything on the way to rangeley being exactly the same as last time. Maybe to make things interesting would could reverse the drive? Take Byron road and Bemis road on the way to Rangeley rather than on the way back when its getting dark, what do you think?

 
Sounds good to me. Less work in route planning for you guys and we already know that the route is really fun. Sounds like a win-win for everyone.

 
sounds like a plan... we cant do 117 this time to much road!
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it's probably best to skip concord pond, thanks for being flexible on this, guys.

who'd-a thunk that choosing a certain dirt road would have political complications??!!

 
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