{"id":217,"date":"2004-09-25T15:14:22","date_gmt":"2004-09-25T19:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=217"},"modified":"2013-05-16T19:25:56","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T23:25:56","slug":"off-roading-in-new-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/09\/25\/off-roading-in-new-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-Roading in New England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Current mood: <\/strong>Determined
\n
Currently listening to: <\/strong>The fan<\/p>\n

I’m on a mission.<\/p>\n

Go google for off road trails in Massachusetts<\/a> (or any other state) and you’ll find lots of hits, and you’ll even find quite a few clubs. <\/p>\n

But there’s one thing you’ll notice as you browse them – they’re all generally “hardcore” clubs that drive on “hardcore” trails. (See my classification of trails<\/a>; most of these clubs use the top 3 types.) And they all generally drive modified vehicles – they call them “rigs.” Jeeps, old Blazers and Broncos, old Toyotas and highly modified pickup trucks. <\/p>\n

And that’s all fine & dandy, except for one thing: I don’t own such a vehicle. And frankly, nobody I know does either.<\/p>\n

So there’s the problem. These clubs cater to the hardcore off-roaders, while people with “regular” or “stock” SUVs and trucks are left without an option. (Many of the clubs are Jeep only, and even those have requirements like big, BIG tires & whatnot.) Let’s consider the types of vehicles I’m talking about:<\/p>\n

Subaru Forester
\n
Mitsubishi Outlander
\n
Toyota RAV4
\n
Honda CR-V
\n
Honda Element
\n
Chevy Blazer\/GMC Jimmy
\n
Chevy S-10\/GMC Sonoma
\n
Chevy Trailblazer
\n
Chevy Equinox
\n
Chevy Tracker
\n
Toyota Highlander
\n
Chevy Tahoe\/GMC Yukon
\n
Ford Explorer
\n
Ford Escape
\n
Suzuki XL-7<\/p>\n

And that’s just a sample. Almost anything with 4WD or AWD as it comes “stock” from the factory is not qualified for those “hardcore” trails, but they are still quite capable dirt-roaders. People with these kinds of vehicles have no club of their own, no place to go off-road. (The reason for this is, for example, in Massachusetts, no vehicle over 1000 lbs is permitted on any state land – i.e. state parks. There are trails for small 4-wheelers across the state, but current laws forbid any cars, trucks, or SUVs on these trails.) <\/p>\n

My goal is to create a club – with FREE membership, mind you – so that we have someplace to go. Hopefully members will own land that we can use, and people will know of trails or old dirt roads that we can use – not “hardcore” off-road trails, but moderate trails that, while they don’t require high ground clearance, still require 4WD or AWD and some skilled driving. I mean, we’re just trying to have some fun here after all. <\/p>\n

I really want this to become reality, if for no other reason than I<\/b> want someplace to go off-roading in safety. Trying to find trails on your own is hard, you never know whether the land is public or private, and if the trail has unexpected surprises waiting for you (like big rocks or a deep, muddy stream). Those kinds of things would stop most of the vehicles I mentioned above dead in their tracks (unless you modify them by spending thousands of dollars on big tires and possibly a lift kit). <\/p>\n

So dear readers, let’s give this a go, okay? If you know of trails, please post them here. If you drive a small truck or SUV, let me know! Let’s band together & have some fun, okay?<\/p>\n

See y’all on the trails (hopefully)…<\/p>\n

-Keithius<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m on a mission to find good off-roading (or soft-roading) locations in New England. They MUST be out there, somewhere!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[81,337,336],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars-and-trucks","tag-driving","tag-new-england","tag-off-roading","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-3v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/11\/17\/outlanding-location\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":0},"title":"Outlanding Location","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"This report comes to us via a friend of mine.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":266,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/10\/11\/outlanding-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":1},"title":"Outlanding Report","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I did some minor Outlanding. I took my camera with me, mostly because I was really out for pictures of the leaves, but I found some trails anyway.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1068,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/03\/23\/outlanding-in-the-new-jersey-pine-barrens\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":2},"title":"Outlanding in the New Jersey Pine Barrens","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I found a new place to go Outlanding! It's a bit of a drive from where I am (about an hour and 45 minutes), but it's BIG and has all sorts of trails of all different types and best of all... it's legal to go there! Of course, I'm talking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"lonely road","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3106\/2355629710_a62656e6b6.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/12\/20\/those-elusive-crabs-and-some-off-roading\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":3},"title":"Those Elusive Crabs (and some off-roading)","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes, even if you get up early and go out crabbing, you don't get any crabs. Go figure.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":294,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/11\/27\/scoutlanding-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":4},"title":"Scoutlanding Report","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 27, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I investigated some Outlanding locations I had reported recently, near Mt. Watatic. Unfortunately, the gate at the entrance to the first trail was closed, and I wasn't able to find the second location mentioned in my post.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/07\/07\/outlanding-locations\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":5},"title":"Outlanding Locations","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Some places I have found for Outlanding (soft-roading) that are promising.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}