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Ohio beginner trails

Hydroboy35th

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I am thinking I will be able to make it out the weekend of July 4th. If I do end up going anytime soon I can let you know and maybe we can meet up.
I’m thinking of making the trip over the 4th of July weekend also. If I do I’d like to meet up with you guys if that’s alright since l’ll be rollin 1 Jeep deep lol.
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irishtim7

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I’m thinking of making the trip over the 4th of July weekend also. If I do I’d like to meet up with you guys if that’s alright since l’ll be rollin 1 Jeep deep lol.
I might be able to make it out sometime that weekend too.
 

Rdmitch

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tCub

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Sweet! I’m definitely going July 4th weekend.

They’ll be open 7/5, 7/6 and 7/7 - Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively

Saturday 7/6 would be ideal for me. What about you folks?
 

Rdmitch

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I am watching to try to find a beginner trail in the cleveland area.
Never did any off-roading before except for,getting thru terrible construction sites.

Need the equivalent to a skiers bunny hill :)
 

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tCub

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I am watching to try to find a beginner trail in the cleveland area.
Never did any off-roading before except for,getting thru terrible construction sites.

Need the equivalent to a skiers bunny hill :)
Totally understand and I’ve been several times over the last year so I’m quite familiar with the trails and what to avoid and what’s “safe” for stock.

Im happy to keep it to the mild ones and areas where it’s easy to play around with no risk.
 

hok3

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Totally understand and I’ve been several times over the last year so I’m quite familiar with the trails and what to avoid and what’s “safe” for stock.

Im happy to keep it to the mild ones and areas where it’s easy to play around with no risk.

Hi, new to off-roading and would like to learn on a beginners trail. is this trail doable with a stock JL?

thanks
 

tCub

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Hi, new to off-roading and would like to learn on a beginners trail. is this trail doable with a stock JL?

thanks
Yes! So to give a little more detail... first, southington has several trails and areas where you can mess around with obstacles. Trails range from mild (stock vehicles OK) to wild (modified vehicles and experienced drivers recommended). Next, I’ll be there for sure on 7/6. When I’m on my own, I usually just drive around on most of the trails there and play around in/on some of the obstacles.

Now, if anyone would like to join, and I’m assuming it’ll be first time for most, here’s my plan for our adventure (list of trails and descriptions below)

  1. Photo Run - OK for stock vehicles, very easy, can be driven in 2WD- this is essentially a dirt road with two or three rockier, hillier bypasses if you want. Next to the trail is a large, beautiful lake. At the end of the trail is a small beach. This spot is perfect for photos. To exit the beach, you can simply drive up the path you came down on or, for the more adventurous, there are a few ledges you can climb. These do range from very easy to difficult.
  2. Upper Rim - OK for stock vehicles, easy (but rougher terrain than Photo Run), can be driven in 2WD, 4WD helps in a couple places - this is a great mix of mud, rocks, water and rough terrain. Nothing too extreme and you can make it through this in 2WD. Again, 4WD may help in a couple spots. Some great views here and lots of opportunities to take more challenging bypasses.
  3. Lower Rim - OK for stock vehicles, easy (but deeper water to trail through - not too much water, but for a first timer, you will be surprised), can be driven in 2WD, 4WD helps in a couple places - this is mostly a sand and water trail. Great for washing off the bottom of the Jeep if it’s muddy! Again, nothing too extreme here on the main trail but lots of bypasses IF you want something more challenging. Some of the bypass obstacles here are challenging for even built jeeps and experienced drivers - the main trail is fine for novice/stock

From here, I’d suggest doing things like Upper Rim in reverse (where you start the trail where we’d end it our first time - also good opportunity to take one or two bypasses for different scenery and experience), sand dunes (two different spots with large sand dunes to drive up and down on) and finally checking out some of the standalone obstacles and driving through some of the trails again as the group wishes (taking bypasses as people are comfortable).

This will give everyone a great opportunity to start out easy and get a chance to drive through some obstacles that appear challenging, but I assure you are OK. And I absolutely cannot stress enough, I totally respect people’s wish to back out of certain things if they’re not comfortable so, we’ll only drive through what folks want to.

Each time you visit, they give you a sticker for your windshield (you don’t technically have to apply it if you don’t want to) - just to show my “credentials”, here’s my windshield... I’ve been there a few times ;)

A1475700-A509-4788-8FCC-8F13451FF1F3.jpeg


I do have plenty of tools and recovery gear, although I absolutely do not expect to need it. Just rest assured, I have everything the group needs!

Any questions, let me know! Hoping to meet some folks and have a great time!

Tyler
 

Rdmitch

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I’m going to try to free up the day for the 6th too. Looks like a great chance to
meet up with other cleveland folks !!
 

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hok3

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Yes! So to give a little more detail... first, southington has several trails and areas where you can mess around with obstacles. Trails range from mild (stock vehicles OK) to wild (modified vehicles and experienced drivers recommended). Next, I’ll be there for sure on 7/6. When I’m on my own, I usually just drive around on most of the trails there and play around in/on some of the obstacles.

Now, if anyone would like to join, and I’m assuming it’ll be first time for most, here’s my plan for our adventure (list of trails and descriptions below)

  1. Photo Run - OK for stock vehicles, very easy, can be driven in 2WD- this is essentially a dirt road with two or three rockier, hillier bypasses if you want. Next to the trail is a large, beautiful lake. At the end of the trail is a small beach. This spot is perfect for photos. To exit the beach, you can simply drive up the path you came down on or, for the more adventurous, there are a few ledges you can climb. These do range from very easy to difficult.
  2. Upper Rim - OK for stock vehicles, easy (but rougher terrain than Photo Run), can be driven in 2WD, 4WD helps in a couple places - this is a great mix of mud, rocks, water and rough terrain. Nothing too extreme and you can make it through this in 2WD. Again, 4WD may help in a couple spots. Some great views here and lots of opportunities to take more challenging bypasses.
  3. Lower Rim - OK for stock vehicles, easy (but deeper water to trail through - not too much water, but for a first timer, you will be surprised), can be driven in 2WD, 4WD helps in a couple places - this is mostly a sand and water trail. Great for washing off the bottom of the Jeep if it’s muddy! Again, nothing too extreme here on the main trail but lots of bypasses IF you want something more challenging. Some of the bypass obstacles here are challenging for even built jeeps and experienced drivers - the main trail is fine for novice/stock

From here, I’d suggest doing things like Upper Rim in reverse (where you start the trail where we’d end it our first time - also good opportunity to take one or two bypasses for different scenery and experience), sand dunes (two different spots with large sand dunes to drive up and down on) and finally checking out some of the standalone obstacles and driving through some of the trails again as the group wishes (taking bypasses as people are comfortable).

This will give everyone a great opportunity to start out easy and get a chance to drive through some obstacles that appear challenging, but I assure you are OK. And I absolutely cannot stress enough, I totally respect people’s wish to back out of certain things if they’re not comfortable so, we’ll only drive through what folks want to.

Each time you visit, they give you a sticker for your windshield (you don’t technically have to apply it if you don’t want to) - just to show my “credentials”, here’s my windshield... I’ve been there a few times ;)

A1475700-A509-4788-8FCC-8F13451FF1F3.jpeg


I do have plenty of tools and recovery gear, although I absolutely do not expect to need it. Just rest assured, I have everything the group needs!

Any questions, let me know! Hoping to meet some folks and have a great time!

Tyler

Sounds fun, count me in for 7/6
Also, thanks for doing this tCub!
 

gofastguy

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I would love to meet you Ohio folks and have someone who knows the trails along. Just wondering about whether the trails are heavy trees and vegetation. Eastern trails seem to be known for pinstriping your paint and windows and I am not so sure I'm ready for too many scratches on the upper side of mine. Bottom I do not care...
 

tCub

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I would love to meet you Ohio folks and have someone who knows the trails along. Just wondering about whether the trails are heavy trees and vegetation. Eastern trails seem to be known for pinstriping your paint and windows and I am not so sure I'm ready for too many scratches on the upper side of mine. Bottom I do not care...
Hi! Great question! I will say I was pinstriped BAD my first time there but I know the exact obstacle and 1) it has since been trimmed way the hell back and 2) I absolutely would not knowingly take the group through something that was over grown - the trials I listed are pretty wide open so it won’t be an issue and as with everything; there’s no shame in saying “that’s not for me!” And skipping a certain obstacle.

So I’ll definitely be keeping this in mind as we go through the trails. The only place I think there’s a possibility of it would be lower rim and it’s fairly easy to avoid spots that may be over grown.
 
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Akron following! Thank you all for the good info. Shout out to tCub for taking the time to detail your time at SOR! We're going to skip this weekend since it will probably be pretty busy but we're going to try for August. I've done trails in Colorado with my JK but they weren't anything crazy at all. Southington is fairly close so this is great news!
 
 



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