Vermont Overland Birdwatching Safari 2019

[lumpskie]

I took the family to the 2019 Vermont Overland Birdwatching Safari. Just like last year, I had a great time. It really is a fun event to attend with a small group of friends. The time leading up to the event was a little stressful. 10 days before we were scheduled the leave, the turbo for my diesel 80 series decided to depart the earth in catastrophic fashion:

Not knowing if it had caused damage to my intercooler or engine (old school, 12 valve 1HDT), I called up Gturbo in Australia. Since the turbo blew on a Friday night, eastern, I had to wait till Sunday night to call them. I called at 9:30pm eastern, 9:30 a.m. in Western Australia. I got a nice "G'day, this is Gturbo" from the owner, Graeme. I explained my situation and that I needed a turbo ASAP. While I was at it, I told him I wanted a high flow airbox. He was really helpful. After a few calls and conversation, I ordered the Gturbo Grunter Extreme and a PDI highflow airbox. They were air shipped to me.

I had my rig flat bed towed over to my buddy's house/garage and he started tear down while I worked. The parts arrived on Thursday, giving him a couple of days to work before I could get over to help. The turbo and airbox were beautiful and I couldn't wait to try them out.

Well, my buddy is a fast worker because he got the turbo installed by Friday night:

He said, that the new airbox was so big that it interfered with my ARB second battery box. So, he had to trim that to make it work. In the end, everything fit in there really well... and I didn't even help!

After that, I felt a little bad. So I installed new brake pads and grease the knuckles to feel like I did something. I drove the Cruiser for about 100 miles to set my boost at 22psi and make sure everything worked. At that point, it was Tuesday night and it was time to get packing.

This year, we left for Vermont on a Wednesday. Now, with a family of 4, our 5 day trip load out made it look like we were heading to Tierra Del Fuego.

After we got packed, I got a wild hair and decided to install a bracket I bought to stabilize my driver side mirror. Luckily it was a quick and easy job:

After that, I snapped a "before" picture of the Cruiser all clean and in working order.

Then, we hit the road. The states are so small out here that it was only a 2 hour drive to get to the general area of the rally. On the way we some some deer, turkeys and a black bear cub. He ran across the road right in front of us! (couldn't grab a picture) When we arrived, we dropped our stuff off at the cabin we rented.

It was a nice little spot... the same one we rented last year. This time I met the owner... he like the Land Cruiser a lot.

He also suggested that we check out the local general store, Singletons. So, we decided to do that next. When we got to the store, I could see why he liked it so much. The place was so cool... I wish I took pictures inside. When you walk in, it looks like a grocery store on the left, but everything is local made stuff. It wasn't presented in a hipster way though. It was just stuff they carried. On the right was a liquor store with lots of local made stuff. (they had a huge VT craft beer section) Straight ahead was the gun store. They were a Sig Sauer distributor and had a big selection of those. They were running a special on bear tags along with a gun purchase... I'd never seen that before. Following that theme, all along the top of the walls were antique guns... mainly rifles. They varied in make, model, action, caliber and vintage. Along side were displayed historic hunting pictures, many of which seemed to span from the late 1800s to the 1930s. (judging by a few of the "deer on the hood of my car" pictures.) Behind the gun store was the clothing store. Everything was quality stuff. Some brands were recognizable, while others were local. To the left was the famous Singleton's deli. The meats were all local made. They were famous for their bacon and pepperoni. Long story short, we bought lots of "provisions" and enjoyed exploring the store.

More to come.

 

[lumpskie]

The next morning, we arrived at the venue. For those who aren't familiar, this even is hosted by a guy by the name of Peter Vollers. He is a 4wd advocate in Vermont and hosts the event on his historic farm. The location is beautiful and he let's attendees camp almost anywhere they want. He even set aside a forested area of his property for attendees to cut new trails in!


I arrived shortly after registration opened at 9am and there were already quite a few people there:

After checking in, I went down by the creek to meet up with other folks from my local club, Exploring New Hampshire. (the club forum owner was a sponsor of the event)

After helping get the local campsite set up, we got together and mapped out some routes that we were going to travel over the next few days. All the routes involve Vermont Class 4 roads, which are unmaintained public road ways. We chose routes that would challenge the vehicles we had on hand. We had a lot of JKs, a few TJs, my 80, a few Tacomas and a CJ. Most were locked front and rear on 35s but a few were on 33s. The 1st gen Tacoma ( @rcracin ) was open/open... so he was the most adventurous in the group, in my opinion.

The next day, it was time to get to business. We started out and hit a harder section of trail right away. As usual, the photos don't do the trail justice, but it was situated on a decent side hill. There were rocks large enough that lockers were needed. Rcracin got to use his max tracks for the first time.

My buddy Rob got a CJ together for this event and this was the first time it saw any dirt. So, this was an exciting trail for him as well

 

[lumpskie]

After the first section, the sidehills were done but there was plenty more rock work to get in! Because we were in a lower lying area, there were pleny of creeks and small water crossings as well. So, our tires were wet all day.

We ended up splitting into 2 groups. My group went down through some rocky creek beds in a lower lying area. The other group ended up on an obstacle called "The Crack". One Jeep flopped going down, and required a recovery. (The next day, a Tacoma flopped at the same spot, but in the evening. They had to leave the truck over night and recover it the next day.)

 

[lumpskie]

After completing that trail, it was getting late in the day. So, we headed back to the cabin for a quiet evening for the kids. The rest of our group went over to the campsite and had a great time.

The next day, we woke up and saw the only actual birds of the trip. There were between 20 and 30 turkeys all around the cabin. They were pretty busy... chasing and fighting each other.

After breakfast, we headed back out to do more adventuring.

There was a fog that settled in the valley, which made for some neat shots. (all cell phone... sorry)

We got to the venue and made our way through Pinzgauers and Unimogs to get to our group.

After getting a plan together, we headed out for what would be our most challenging day. We decided to tackle a couple of difficult level trails, one of which had a Vermont Overland Trophy "challenge" section.

I didn't get as many pictures because I was so busy driving, but I was able to get some shots of the Slinky suspension stretching its legs.

We got to use the Max Tracks on rcracin's Tacoma again as well. They bent and flexed but never deformed or broke.

It was a fun day.

 

[lumpskie]

We all hung around the campfire and talked about the adventures from the trip. Apparently, one of the attendees had been blazing a new trail on Peter's property and gotten stuck in his classic Range Rover on 37s. In trying to free himself, he used too much throttle and blew out his transmission. When he did that, he ended up rolling. It took a team till late that night to get him recovered and off the hill.

After our story telling time, we called it a night. The next morning, we hit the road back home, enjoying the quiet back roads the entire way.

 

[rcracin]

A BIG thanks to lumpskie, our friends Kevin & Rob who were always guiding and helping me. I met these guys last year and they have been nothing short of welcoming. This is what community is all about.

 

[Scrapdaddy]

What a great looking time you guys had. I must say I feel bad for your dog sitting back there, can only imagine what he's thinking. Good write up!