The North Shore Wheelers are planning to have two guided trail rides at the Iron Range ORV Recreation Area in Gilbert, MN for the open house, with a brief presentation on Responsible Wheeling and Trail Safety. The two trail rides will be at 10 AM and 1 PM and will meet in the parking lot. For those that don't know on the 3rd Saturday in May every year the Park in Gilbert is open to the public to check out for free. The Guided trail rides will stick to the easiest of trails, so pretty much anything with 4WD/AWD could do it. although I would only recommend it to Outback and Forester owners, as the added ground clearance will be crucial. This is not rallying... But I know there are more than a few of you with SUVs as well as your subarus. and this would be a great opportunity to get an intro into the world of offroad. also, assuming my 4Runner is there, I'll have at least 2 open seats in it, and there will probably be at least one in my buddies jeep if it comes. Martin...you should bring the brat up stock...that'd be awesome! AND, as always, my place will be open for people who don't want to make the whole trip at once. the park is almost exactly an hour north of here.
It would be fun. sadly this falls the day before my b-day (last year it was on my b-day) and also the same day as Matt's grill meet. i will have to see. it also depends on teh condition of the brat at that time. if i do make it the brat should have 3 open seats ;-)
A couple questions: 1. 98 outback would be able to make it, right? No need for transfer case etc? 2. Any equipment requirements / helmets? 3. Can children ride along? Thanks.
I will try and answer this. I belive a outback will be able to go on the easy trails. since its an open house they most likely won be doing many hard trails for liability reasons. Chux said my brat at stock hieght should do just fine, and well i think a outback may have better ground clearnace than my brat lol, not to mention stonger components (axles and such). You do not need a helmet that i can think off. your car will prolly have to undergo a tech inspection but its nothing major. the one thing i am not sure about is the tow points, they may require some sort of facny tow point. (maybe) I am sure children are welcome. the open house is to raise awareness of the gilbert park, and to raise awareness of responsible offroading. children are probably "the" target market. hope this helps, chux should be able to clarify stuff, sinc he has actaully been there lol
Chux, if your 4runner is up and running, I'd love to ride with you. I've never been to a legal off road area...Lots of off roading, but not legally sanctioned.
you're welcome to. I'll have at least 2 seats open (maybe 3, depending on whether the girlfriend comes or not). And my buddy will be there in his 92 wrangler with either 1 or 3 open seats (depending on whether he puts the back seat in....). not to mention a half a dozen rigs from the North Shore Wheelers. dbthompson, an Outback will be fine. There is a vast selection of trails there, and like Dynapar said, we'll be sticking to the easier stuff in the trail rides, for liability reason. I would say any stock subaru would be ok for some of the easier trails (maybe not a WRX/STi...). And an Outback/Forester would even be able to venture onto some tougher stuff. The only equipment requirement to go into the park is exhaust. has to be less than 99db. Some other larger events will check for sturdy tow points, fire extinguishers and stuff. But you won't NEED any of that stuff for this. I would bring a basic First Aid kit and Fire Extinguisher, just for safety's sake. Although we'll all have stuff like that in our rigs too, so you'd still be pretty safe. Kids are more than welcome. I was just up there last weekend with my uncle and his whole family in his Land Rover. 2 kids, older one is 8, and the wife. There's tons of awesome scenery, with a number of sweet lookouts with a picnic table for lunch. Many of the North Shore Wheeler guys will have kids with them.
Thanks much all. Sounds really fun. My kids (9 and 4 years) will have a blast doing this. When the Outback was young (and we only had 1 kid), we took it out on some dunes in North Carolina, but haven't really done much more off-road since then. Looking forward to this! [no trouble on the exhaust - all stock; already have the 1st aid kit, and will bring our fire extinguisher]
Sweet. looking forward to meeting you there. The park is in Gilbert, MN. near Eveleth and Virginia, about an hour straight north of Duluth. You are welcome to crash at my place in Duluth the night before if you'd like.
bump! less than a week away! for anyone who might be coming, here's a map to the park: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.ad...US</span></span>&cid=lfmaplink2&name=&dtype=s from the cities, take I35 north to highway 33 (exit towards Cloquet) which will then meet up with highway 53. take the eveleth exit off 53 and turn right towards Gilbert. drive through town until the road comes to a 'T', turn right, and the park is probably about a 1/2mile on the right. You can also click the mapquest link above, and click "aerial
Great time, I was at the park for ~8 hours today. the Outback did great, had some clearance issues. Unfortunately we mis-estimated the difficulty of Skull Road in the outback, sorry about that! but he didn't get stuck, and as far as I know, didn't break anything....I was bummed that I didn't get to see it wheel. I haven't uploaded my pics yet, but there are some that one of the NSW guys took: the red Land Rover is my uncle's here's me spotting on a pretty nasty rock climb we did later in the afternoon. I'm in the red hoody in the woods to the right: and a trail fix: he backed up into a rock, and punched a hole the size of a quarter in his rear diff cover. more pics here: http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/wannajeep/gilbert open house 5-19-07/ hopefully I'll get mine uploaded before too long btw, Toyota did not make it. got 'er put back together Friday, and it still had the little knock, and then the turbo started leaking oil. pulled the intake, and I've got a bunch of shaft play. so I officially give up on this motor for now. N/A motor goes in.
finally got mine uploaded... http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c108/Numbchux/Gilbert Open House 2007/
Nice pics. That looks like a lot of fun. Almost makes me want to find a set of forester struts for my car.
No problems here! Made it back to the cities with no trouble / leaks, and actually got the best gas mileage on the way back I have in a year or so. Whatever that means I enjoyed giving it a whirl, but I think I convinced myself you need something a little more suited for these trails. Best part of it was watching the Jeeps play Thanks again!
