Trip Report: Old Florida Road, the Big View and two Dog Mountain
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We had a beautiful Jeep weekend in Western,
Mass. In total we had 18 jeeps with Roger as
our trip leader and myself riding shotgun. The
plan this time was to run Old Florida Road from
the top down. I’ve done this in years
past with another group and it’s like
a whole new road! We headed onto the road and
Russ had problems with his rear drive shaft.
The straps were loose and let go. So Russ headed
back to pavement to try to fix the problem.
Mark and Jim H were running late and met up
with us via the CB. We did not go through the
water hole but instead turned at the cellar
hole driving on the lower bypass that runs next
to the waterhole and on dry ground. We did not
drive on the higher bypass that the ATV’ers
use because it is on State land. Old Florida Road was laid out in 1833 as a county road and discontinued for maintenance in 1973 by the Town. This road is now one of the best known 4WD road in the Northeast. No need to code-name it! It’s the Northeast version of the famous Rubicon trail in California. Jim P. had his new TJ Rubicon with him and was doing great driving the mountain terrain, rock steps and our version of slick-rock that really is slick! The group made it to the lunch spot with little or no help. Ben was enjoying the day in his Black CJ7 dreaming of a Dana 44 with a locker. Most everyone is now bringing those folding green armchairs and eating lunch in style. It’s was good to see Scott and his blue TJ again. Scott, it’s time for a new set of mud tires! ) Packing up after lunch we headed on down the road. Now we were at one of the famous rock steps Roger and I were guiding the Jeeps down the steps and people were taking pictures. Brandon was taking a picture of himself driving his Jeep XJ. It sure looked that way, but it was his twin brother Emery. Two great guys I may add. Jeff a new comer to the club was handling his XJ very well on this rough road. The third XJ was driving by Gerrett and his red XJ are a seasoned vets of Old FLA road. We continued to drive over rocks and were now back to pavement. Packing up after lunch we headed on down the road. Now we were at one of the famous rock steps Roger and I were guiding the Jeeps down the steps and people were taking pictures. Brandon was taking a picture of himself driving his Jeep XJ. It sure looked that way, but it was his twin brother Emery. Two great guys I may add. Jeff a new comer to the club was handling his XJ very well on this rough road. The third XJ was driving by Gerrett and his red XJ are a seasoned vets of Old FLA road. We continued to drive over rocks and were now back to pavement. Since the Ice cream trail is now posted at a 1,000’s we headed back a different way and back on to pavement. I vowed to still get ice cream and we did. Now the day was winding down and some people had to go. We said our goodbyes to them and were off to the big view. This is a great Trip to the top of a mountain for a bird’s eye view of the whole area. You have to drive up some steep slick rock over some rocks while driving up this Mountain. Awesome. ) Since the Ice cream trail is now posted at a 1,000’s we headed back a different way and back on to pavement. I vowed to still get ice cream and we did. Now the day was winding down and some people had to go. We said our goodbyes to them and were off to the big view. This is a great Trip to the top of a mountain for a bird’s eye view of the whole area. You have to drive up some steep slick rock over some rocks while driving up this Mountain. Awesome. Are we done yet Roger? Roger turned to me and he knew the answer. NO, so we headed for Two Dog Mt. Snorkel Mike and I ran it last year with just two Jeeps. So this was a new road for the group. As we left pavement we started to climb and the road got rough real quick, I got out to guide Roger up between two really big boulders. The trick is to drive hard left missing the boulder on the right, then cut back just in time to miss the boulder on the left. I guided everyone through this section (Roger, Scott, Deb and Dan, Brandon, Mike and Mark.) We had to time it just right for Brandon’s XJ with his the extra length. Now this old road swings you to the right all the time gaining elevation. Are we having fun? Oh yeah! We are still climbing up and up. I jumped in with Mike, and he spotted what he thought was a grave maker. So we got out to take a look. That’s an old town line marker dated 1900. So I took my last picture of the day and headed back to camp.
Some times running by the seat of your pants
and “winging it” works great, and
it worked for us this day. Roger, Mike and I
were leading the small group with Dan and Deb,
Tom, Ben, Jim, Ken and Eric. We left the parking
lot and headed for what Deb would later call
Major Mudd road. We stopped and looked at the
remains of a barn “cellar hole”.
The road looked a little muddy up head and it
was not long before Roger was stuck. We got
Tom and his red locked up CJ7 to the front to
winch out Roger. This road was gooey and some
of the Jeeps needed a little more wheel speed
to get through, with out getting Stuck. ) I was running my GPS when we came to a Y in the road, I did not have the topo for this area so I looked and saw that the stonewall was to our left so to the left we went we went. The road came to a dead end and we doubled back to the Y and took the other road. The road was now rocky but no longer muddy. We stopped just before pavement and had lunch. Some of us had to head back to camp and head home. I looked at the GPS and the maps and sent the remaining Jeeps to check out other old roads in the area. Great Weekend Great Jeeping Friends. Thanks to Roger for subbing in for Me as trip leader. Rich B.
Roger Black YJ |
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