Winter wheeling trips are not usually my favorite. I tend to prefer the ?top and doors off? approach, which doesn?t usually turn out to be much fun on mid-January runs in New England. But this trip was a lot of fun even with the hard doors and full top boxing us in. Winding hills, craggy rock obstacles, icy rock slopes, mud, deep water, ice pits? you name it, this ride had it. The other wheelers we met were very friendly and not one person in the group had a chip on their shoulder. The event was well organized and each complication that arose was handled in a way that demonstrated good judgment and patience.

We hooked up with Freedom TrailRiders (http://www.freedomtrailriders.org) for this event through club member Bill Babcock, who is also a fellow member of the New England Hummer Owners Group (NEHOG). I met Bill several years ago when he was a passenger in another truck at a Hummer event. Since that day, he has gone from passenger to Hummer owner, and then to active off-road enthusiast. Bill invited me and my trusty wheeling sidekick Chris B. (or ?Crispy? as he is better known) to join their January 2005 trail ride, so we jumped at the opportunity.

It was still dark out when Crispy and I hit the road in my maroon Hummer H1. The soft-top flapped around noisily as we barreled down the highway watching the sun come up, and high-octane coffee coursed through our veins to keep us conscious. We arrived at the meeting spot a little before the scheduled 9:00AM meeting time and watched as each of the other vehicles arrived. It was apparent that although deep snow wasn?t going to be a factor, we were in for an interesting combination of soggy, muddy and icy surfaces. Crispy and I wandered around still only half awake as we introduced ourselves to the other wheelers and scoped out the rigs while everyone in the non-Hummers was airing down their tires. Just after 9:00 AM, trail boss Mark Dupont assembled the drivers in the parking lot for a brief meeting where he went over the basics of our plan for the day as well as some spotting guidelines.

The mix of trucks was interesting. We expected to see a lot of modified Jeeps, but we were surprised to see that the Grand Cherokees far outnumbered the other Jeeps. There were only a few short wheelbase Wranglers and a single classic Cherokee. For full size trucks, we had a lone modified short wheelbase Chevy pickup truck plus the two Hummer H1s. Two additional drivers showed up with brand new looking full-size diesel tow rigs. Their trail rigs weren?t ready in time for the run, so they brought a Ford F-350 and a Cummins powered Dodge, each equipped with mud terrain tires. They ventured onto the trail initially, but at the first go-around on the trail, the F-350 got mired badly in the mud. After suffering some minor body damage during the lengthy extraction effort, the two tow rigs thought better of attempting the rest of the trail. They turned back and headed for pavement while the rest of us pressed on.

The obstacle that the tow rigs had attempted to bypass was a winding up-hill path on loose dirt, with a thin layer of snow. It proved to be a challenge for those who were a little shy with the throttle, but everyone crested the hill one way or another. We made the trip up twice in my truck; first time with no extra weight, second time with a Jeep tied to my rear bumper.

Once we got everyone collected at the top and the tow rigs were out of the woods, our convoy idled farther along the trail. Most of the trail turned out to be a mix of hills, scattered rocks and shallow water crossings, with the occasional fun obstacle. Not real technical wheeling, but enough of a diverse terrain to keep things interesting.

After a while our group came to a rocky mound with a sharp right hand turn at the top. Several of the vehicles tackled the pile, and Mark pointed out that due to the break over and turn the obstacle was ?not Hummer friendly.? Naturally, we took that as a challenge, and with a little momentum I managed to get over it on the first try with only a light kiss to the rocker guard. One of the Grand Cherokees popped off an exterior trim panel after banging on the rocks, but no damage was done and it popped right back on.

We rambled up the trail a while longer, negotiating some minor water holes and icy rocks along the way. As lunch time neared, we rounded the corner and came to long steep rock face. A sheet of ice covered large portions of the rock, but there was enough dry rock surface exposed for each vehicle to grip and climb the steep slope. Crispy piloted my truck up the slope with one tire raised in the air for part of the ride, and most of the other vehicles scooted up the rock with some minor wheel-spin. One of the Grand Cherokees slid around a little on first attempt. The slipping got hairy enough that when the driver backed down to re-approach the face, his passenger opened the door and fled from the vehicle. I suspect that the drivers in those shorter wheelbase Wranglers probably experienced just a touch of ?pucker factor? on these icy angles as well, but eventually everyone ended up at the top without incident.

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