Trail removals

[NJRadioGuy]

Trail 11 at Rausch Creek is going away next weekend (31 January) as well. I'm bitterly disappointed as I never got the chance to run it in my new Rubicon. We were supposed to do it and Crawler Ridge on New Year's Eve, but we never got that far before running out of time.

And it's not like us East Coasters have many BoH opportunities to begin with. I was hoping to put together a final run tomorrow (Sat. 25 January) as a last-ditch effort to earn this badge without having to start doing multiple-week trips out west, but I can't seem to find anybody interested in going with me, and Rausch requires at least two rigs. If you're interested, hit me up via direct message or post here.

If you live in the greater NYC/NJ region, it's the closest and easiest BoH trail and I'm sorry to see it go. Frankly I'm disgusted that the program is removing trails without replacing them with other opportunities at the same time.

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[JWAustinVTX]

Snake and quartz canyon removed as well from hot springs

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15x6c3hoU5/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Bummer! I thought Quartz Canyon was really cool. We ran all 4 in October, but have only received Run Run and Rubicon Ridge...

 

[NJRadioGuy]

The more I think about this the more I like the idea of retiring certain trails that have been on the list since day one and replacing them with similarly-difficult trails in more or less the same parts of the country. Obviously keep the iconic trails out west (Rubicon, Black Bear, Imogene, Hell's Revenge, etc). All I'd say is give plenty of advance notice of the removal, not like what they did with those mentioned here. Give us one last chance to plan a trip to run them.

Personally I hope they retire Peter's Mill Run and replace it with one of the well-known trails in the George Washington National forest (Union Springs-Stone Camp Rd., or the much easier but more interesting Switzer Lake/Dunkle Hollow Rd.). We east coasters have a much harder row to hoe in terms of earning badges than our friends out west, and we seem to get the short end of the stick in terms of badge opportunities.

 

[Zandcwhite]

The more I think about this the more I like the idea of retiring certain trails that have been on the list since day one and replacing them with similarly-difficult trails in more or less the same parts of the country. Obviously keep the iconic trails out west (Rubicon, Black Bear, Imogene, Hell's Revenge, etc). All I'd say is give plenty of advance notice of the removal, not like what they did with those mentioned here. Give us one last chance to plan a trip to run them.

Personally I hope they retire Peter's Mill Run and replace it with one of the well-known trails in the George Washington National forest (Union Springs-Stone Camp Rd., or the much easier but more interesting Switzer Lake/Dunkle Hollow Rd.). We east coasters have a much harder row to hoe in terms of earning badges than our friends out west, and we seem to get the short end of the stick in terms of badge opportunities.

Part of that is just the dynamics of wheeling back east vs out west. If I'm picking badge trails to put on the list as Jeep, I'd have a hard time sending thousands of people to your $100 a day off road park. Especially when all those iconic trails out west are either free or $5/day. Then you have the off road parks doing dumb things like requiring helmets inside enclosed rigs or charging admission per passenger (only the vehicle is using the park wether it's a solo driver or 10 passengers). I think the badges are the least of the issues for wheelers back east.

 

[NJRadioGuy]

Part of that is just the dynamics of wheeling back east vs out west. If I'm picking badge trails to put on the list as Jeep, I'd have a hard time sending thousands of people to your $100 a day off road park. Especially when all those iconic trails out west are either free or $5/day. Then you have the off road parks doing dumb things like requiring helmets inside enclosed rigs or charging admission per passenger (only the vehicle is using the park wether it's a solo driver or 10 passengers). I think the badges are the least of the issues for wheelers back east.

It's a lot harder here for sure, and yes, Bearwallow and their dumb helmet rule is on my list for whenever we get a week without rain--tent camping in the rain sucks. But I'm talking about just badge opportunities here. VA is a great state for four-wheeling, as is WV, and they could easily nominate 4 or 5 trails out here, all of which are free to run in the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson National Forests. Union Springs/Stone Camp Rd., Dunkle Hollow, the Canaan Loop, Potts Mountain Jeep Trail, Bald Mountain Jeep Trail to name just a few.

AOAA (Barney Rubble and Fern Ridge) is $40/day. Windrock in TN (Panther Rock and Trail 26) is about $30/day. Rausch Creek (Crawl Daddy and Crawler Ridge) is indeed over $100, which is utterly ridiculous. I don't begrudge park operators a fair return on their investment, especially if the property is interesting and fun. There's so little public land where wheeling is legal on the east coast that it's kind of necessary, in fact.

But with that said, the Badge program really needs to up their east coast game. Figure how many Jeeps (JLs, JKs, JTs, and even WK2 and WL Trailhawks) are on the road from New England to Washington DC. How many of those owners can take two or three weeks off work to drive out to CO/UT or CA and run BoH trails for their vacation?

Look at the badges available now in the northeast and mid-Atlantic.
Fern Ridge
Barney Rubble (difficult blue/black)
Crawler Ridge
Crawl Daddy (red--built rigs only)
Peter's Mill Run
Wolf Den Run #2103
Bearwallow
Jericho Mountain

That's it. That's all we get. Crawler Ridge and Crawl Daddy have been on the list for years, as have Peter's Mill Run, Bearwallow, and Jericho. They retired Rausch Creek Trail #11 and replaced it with Wolf Den Run, and they added Fern Ridge and Barney Rubble two years ago at AOAA. Granted we don't have the trail network here that they do out west, but at least add a few of the ones I mentioned earlier, and maybe swap out older park trails with different ones of similar difficulty.

 

[mixdup]

Jeep posted in the app on Aug 1 that they will be dropping Switchback to Who's Your Daddy at Stoney Lonesome effective the end of September, but that they will be adding another trail at Stoney Lonesome as a new Badge of Honor trail in a few months

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