Wheeling for Hope at Oak Ridge Estates, Arrington VA
4/27/2018 – 4/29/2018
Trip Report by Bob Thibodeau
Wheeling for Hope is a capped capacity event which allows you to ride the trails at Oak Ridge Estates. Oak Ridge is a beautiful place with trails for all, several creek/river crossings and rock areas.
This springs event was attended by Jack Jr and Jack Sr, Shawn C, Dave H, Martin T and BobT. We arrived Friday afternoon established camp. Sat around the campfire and had plenty of good conversation.
Saturday morning, we all were able to get into the same group and hit the trails around 9am. We had our first water crossing shortly into the ride. Decent crossing with an almost straight down drop into just about JK door height water. The trails are tight and there are areas are challenging. Finished the hill climb to a ridge top that offered a great view of the valley. There were several more up and down trails with more water crossings. We ended up Saturday with an area with a couple of rock gardens to play in.
Headed back to camp for a provided cookout style dinner and raffle. Here we bought raffle tickets by the arms length. Shawn won a Car Wash kit, I ended up with an ARB compressor. I don’t think anyone else was lucky at the raffle.
Sunday several of us went out and wheeled for the day, as trail rides were again being offered. Our group went to the Quarry, which is a place with multiple rock obstacles in several places. Entrance in is one of 3 paths ranging in difficulty. We all opted for the moderate path to start. Once in the quarry, the first obstacle was right after a water crossing and had several lines. Some chose to bypass, some chose to play in the moderate rocks and some extreme. Jack just makes things look easy. After several other obstacles we made our way out. There was a difficult exit that almost all tried but few conquered. Our trail guide lead the way and after several attempts he made it up. Again Jack made it look easy, going up, turning around and going back down and then up a different line. I waited my turn, short wheelbase vehicles were not having much luck. The TJ in front of me tried and failed, everyone looked at the little JK and I know the thoughts were, he will be back in a few minutes. I started to make my way up, had a bit of a false start with the entrance, my front dif and a rock, picked another line and got up to the ledge. Our trail guide was spotting, got me lined up and signaled to proceed. Well, I got up almost to the top, my spotter said drive thru it and lo behold, I did. Missed the trees and finished the climb. Boy did I feel good. One more vehicle made the climb.
After exiting the quarry, we did the trail with the famous Z Ditch and Skinny Rock. We called it quits about 3, went back, packed up camp and headed home.
This event is difficult to get in to but worth the time and effort to get registered. I’ll be back again as there are many more miles of trails yet to be seen and the people there are first rate.