ok i have time now...
event planning for this, started at least 2 months ago...planning the route, mapping the route, writing the route book, rechecking the route book, rewriting the book, rechecking, painting rocks, etc...
the Saturday before the event was filled with car prep here on my end..swapping struts on my forester (which didnt end up make making the trip) replacing axles, tires, and then RalliKid came up from NH and we did struts on his car...realized when we got them installed...we installed the rears on the wrong sides of the car.. oops hahah...
Sunday morning began bright and early, back under Rallikids car swapping the rear struts from left to right. 2point5RSDan came over early in the AM...so did ABenson and his codriver. final preparations were made, and all materials gathered for the trip.
we got to the gas station, there were a few cars already waiting for us! that's what i like...people eager to get going! most people were there by 9:30 and we had a drivers meeting at 9:45, thanks to Nigel for adding some content to the meeting. we started off on the route and right away we realized how Bad (or good as the case may be...) the road conditions were going to be. we talked about "Winter roads, Summer ditches" which means just that...the roads were snow and ice covered with no snowbanks to keep you from going off.
Leg A was fun we all needed sometime to regain our winter legs, driving more conservatively, and not taking chances. we got to the end of the first leg with only one real incident, the fellas in the green OBS had a slight off when they decided they wanted to make friends with a small group of young trees. a chainsaw and a yank later they were fine and so was the car..no damage...except for the trees....
Leg B we headed out and 5 miles in there was a scenic turnout and we stopped briefly for a group photo, before venturing onward! it was becoming clear who's tires were not meant for this kind of driving. We reached the end of Leg B just off route 9 in a Maine Forestry lot where we regrouped. our sweep truck developed a small Fuel leak...when i say small...he pissed away 1/2 tank in about 20 miles. Lem had to go find diesel, and the only place was back into bangor, so Lem was the first car to break off from the back and head home. at the regroup there was another who headed home as his All seasons just were not enough to handle this drive. so we were down 2 cars by this point.. onward.
Leg C was the one of longest of all the legs. we zig zagged our way across the eastern woods of maine, we had to stop and regroup along the route because there ended up being a LARGE gap in the group. Rezdog (Nate) who was running the rear of the pack for this leg, got a flat and had to stop and change it. didnt take him very long to catch the rest of the pack, once the group was together we continued on the journey. the last section of this leg was HORRIBLE and i mean BAD.....i think it took us what seemed like an hour to traverse the last 10 miles of road, conditions went from grippy snow to glare ice and washouts, water holes, ruts, and local traffic doing 5mph. ending up on Route 1 up in Princeton Maine.
lunch break. One driver decided he had to go home from there and headed south on 1 and back into bangor on 9. he hung in there, but his all seasons got the best of him...
Leg D was the other long leg of the event. it started off with a tarmac (snow covered mostly) transit back into the woods, and on a rather boring stretch of snowy road. it was still fun because of the conditions...it was becoming clear that the conditions of the last leg were not going to be same on this leg and we had grip again! which was good...great even! we regrouped atop a hill just before "new lands" road, where i walked down to each car and issued a warning to be careful yet have some fun on this next piece of road. imagine 6 miles of up and down left and right roller coaster of a road, cambered corners you could hook and full of blind crests and plenty of things to make you think twice about going faster...IT WAS EPIC. we finished that stretch of road and we pulled over to regroup before heading out the last stretch to finish the leg.
when we go out at the regroup, you could see EVERYONE smiling and laughing, talking about this corner and that crest... but it wasnt over. the next stretch saw a lot of the same kind of road, not as crazy as the last...but single lane snowy forest road, with lots of blind crests and corners. about 3/4 way across the road we came to an intersection and there was a MOOSE in the road...im hoping everyone got a chance to see her, because she was awesome..we slow rolled by her and she just watched as cars went by one by one. we came out of the woods in Lee Maine. then we get the call on the radio "mayday mayday i have to pull over engine is making bad noises" and sure enough it was the aforementioned Forester...pulled over, letting shut it off. tried to restart...seized. another 2.5L bites the dust. So Rallikid and I flat towed him into Lincoln where he made all the calls he needed to make to get her home. glad to see he got it there. time for dinner break at the Lincoln house of pizza... lots of stories of our ride across new lands road, lots of rally talk, and goooood pizza. it was time to make the last leg of the trip.
we were running at least 2 hours behind the original schedule, the road conditions coupled with a slight late start, the forester engine issue and all the regroups, we finshed dinner about 6:30. this is where the bulk of the group peeled off and hit the highway to head south again and go home. the brave few that remained were in for another GREAT leg. our Group had started with about 15 cars i think....and only 4 made the last leg of the drive.
Leg E was completely in the dark. we headed out of lincoln down some back roads of maine...it was a long tarmac transit into Burlington Maine. we connected on lord brook road and headed out sand brook. it was rough and rutted at times. but i promised once we got through the rough...the last 9 miles was fantastic! and it was..the conditions were awesome! we got back on tarmac and headed back towards county road...the road it all started on. we finished at the Mobil from which we started.
thanks to ALL who made the trip, and supported this great cause. thanks to Andrew and the Benson Family for allowing us to name the trip and fund raiser in honor of Eric who would have been right there along side of us in the woods smiling all the way.
thanks to the brave few who finished the entire route! you guys rocked!
hope everyone had a blast and we look forward to having another one of these REAL soon, once we find out which roads will be plowed this winter.
Thanks to Dan for taking pictures, thanks to Mrs Rezdog for printing the route books, thanks my wife for putting up with me leaving every chance i had to get this route together..
im thinking this needs to be done twice a year...once in the winter and once in the summmer!!
and again Thanks to everyone who participated in making this event a GREAT success.
