Trail Report: "Coolride '03"

Paragon Park 8/2003

01/05 Article at OFFROAD.COM: Four Quick Tips for a Long Ride to Paragon Park

Jon-Fund Off-Road Club put on a great event for their Cooolride '03 at Paragon Park in Hazleton, PA. My co-pilot Chris Blood (a.k.a. "Crispy") took most of these pictures below... I took the one of him on top of my truck, though! We had a great time with the Jon-Fund folks, three good days of wheeling, and to top it off, Crispy won a raffle for a private day of training with Bill Burke!

Our guide, Grant, was cool enough to let me take a shot at the NEUROC competition face a month before the contest - the photos below don't do it justice! This was a very steep, long climb, but the Hummer made it. The puddle at the bottom made it a little tricky, but I think the freshly grooved/siped SX's helped a lot.

Grant (our guide) and I peer down at the slope I just came up...

Check out this link for some pictures from the NEUROC competition that they held on the same face a month later
(same obstacle area as above, except they filled in the puddle at the bottom): Pictures from NEUROC '03 at Paragon

Koko's Suzuki did great - you could hear him coming from a mile away because he is so big he hits the horn whenever he cuts the wheel hard!

Cresting the ridge on Rattler

Bill Z. making quick work of this section on Rabbit Run

Greg hold up Justin's rear spring, which made a daring escape attempt on this hill...

Greg field-testing his new winch

Crispy enjoys the view as we wait for the trucks ahead to clear an obstacle

Pet Prairie Dog gets a workout

Koko climbing a rock slab

Same slab, new angle...

Anti-flexing on Rattler

This CJ got a little off-track

The Nocturnal Scene around Paragon looked a lot like this:

You can also check out the Damage Report from our recent adventure; Crispy and I kept the wrenches turning every day during this trip. A 7 hour drive to the park, three days of hard wheeling, and a 7 hour drive back with no trailering means that you better know how to get the truck back on its feet - fortunately for us, we knew enough!

Check out these other reports from the trip as well:

Return to Manny's Trailrides Page

last updated 08/12/2003