- by Mark Murphy

On Saturday May 19th NE4Wi ran in Maine at Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Hill. We had a great run and good turnout - 18 rigs or more showing up. We broke in to 2 groups, to minimize trail impact. With 10 rigs in our group, we headed out. Our group consisted of myself, Scott Hatch, Norman Wnuk, Leeland Jones, Paul Maxwell, Ed Boivin, Rob (yellow YJ), Eric (stock CJ!), John (white CJ), and Jeff.

We hit Tom Sawyer first, got off pavement and aired down/disconnected. Tom Sawyer is a fun hill with steeps, slippery mud (deep!) and some rock obstacles. One mud hole took us a while, covered Norman's impressive cj8 with lots of mud, stuck a few of us, and was generally good dirty fun! We had a few mechanical issues which we stopped to fix along the way, including a swamper that came COMPLETELY off the rim of John's CJ. None of us had ever seen anything like it - the tire lost the outside bead, then the inside bead came off and worked it's way over the outside edge and the tire rolled along the trail and into the brush! We all shook our heads at that one while John put the spare on, strapped the tire to his gearbox, and mounted the empty rim where the spare was! The biggest problem we had on this hill was by far the BUGS though! They were incredible - thick with tiny black flies and huge mosquitoes. Some guys brought along bug head nets - we made fun of them at first for the way they looked, and then ended up very jealous!

We had lunch at the top of Tom Sawyer with a great overlook of the area. Eric brought up a Coleman stove, and grilled hamburgers - making the rest of us less-than-excited for our box lunches! (Thanks for letting me have one of those burgers Eric! It was awesome!)

We headed back down Tom Sawyer and over to Huckleberry Hill. Huckleberry Hill is essentially an OHV/ATV park, and we saw dozens of ATV's and dirt bikes running around. There were lots of great obstacles to play on, including a very tough set of steps that claimed the life of Rob's front drive shaft on his YJ. He managed to get it stuck so that he couldn't back out of it actually standing on his rear pumpkin! so we attempted a few different trail fixes on the front drive shaft, but to no avail. The splines had come out of the yoke and were a bit twisted. John had a cutting wheel so we cut off the twisted splines and put it back together, but at the first touch of throttle the splines gave up completely! So Rob was in 2wd for the rest of the day, with no front drive shaft. Others tried this obstacle, and I believe only 2 people made it without the winch (I was not one of them!). After that was a great ledge that gave almost everyone problems, but we all made it after a few attempts. Almost everyone got to watch everyone else on this ledge, and it was very entertaining! At the top were a few play spots (twisty rocks and off camber stuff) and one great big hill climb. Norman ATTACKED it with his 8, and his fan found the radiator and cut it open! A quick trail repair with pliers and stop leak and all was well.

After this we had to head back - and we lost Eric on the way! He found us again though, when we all stopped at a gas station to fill up, say goodbye, and talk about what a great run it had been. I am sure I missed a lot of the details, but we have to leave something out to talk about around the campfire at later runs!

- by Steve Nordby:

The weather was typical for a day in May. Our group had 8 vehicles including my own. We decided that we would go to Huckleberry Hill first and let the other group go to Tom Sawyer. We proceeded toward Huckleberry Hill at 9:30. We stopped at the country store, then drove to the trail. Some local people greeted us on ATVs. They were amazed that we were going to climb the rocks with our Jeeps. Our group then aired down. I went first up the rocks. I chose to go up an easier way to the top of the first obstacle. Rick Moore chose to tackle the first hard climb head on. He got up to the top and lost traction. Rick had to use his winch to climb up the rest of the way. The next vehicle being a custom made coil sprung CJ, climbed up the rock obstacle with little difficulty. The rest of our group chose to drive around the first hard climb. We then drove up rock ledge after rock ledge. We got to one that was a great challenge. The coil sprung CJ, John Barnes jeep, Tom Dodge TJ, Steve Hyjek TJ made it up. The rest drove around. We got to the last climb, which last year Rich Morse rolled over. The Coil Sprung CJ and the two TJs made it up no problem. The rest of us leaf sprung vehicles chose to take the s curve up to the top. We bypassed the last straight up rock climb. After this we got some rain induced by our elevation. We ate our lunch at this time. After lunch we drove up the last ledge to the top. We sat and talked for 30 minutes. The drove back down the way we came up.

Our next stop was Tom Sawyer. After 30 or so minutes driving on the pavement we arrived at Tom Sawyer. I took the group up through the mud hill climb. I made it up the first two climbs by getting up some momentum. The third mud climb was not letting momentum get me through. The ruts were so deep my differentials were dragging in the mud. I tried many attempts at climbing out of the holes with no success. The people in our group had to put some rocks in the holes. This allowed my differentials to clear the mud. I then made it up the last climb. The rest of our group fought their way up the three mud climbs without any parts breaking off. Next we drove through a grown in trail, leading back out onto the main trail. Our group headed for Tom Sawyer’s top. We had some more challenging rock climbs. Everyone handled these with little difficulty. We spent some time at the top enjoying the view and talking to each other. It was then 5:00pm or so and time to head back to civilization. I took our group down the easier way. John Barnes, Rick Moore, Scott Hatch and Mike Napsey camped out on top of the Mountain that night. This was Mike Napsey's first time wheeling with his own CJ5. He did just fine with the help of his rear lock rite, his natural driving skills and trail guides. In conclusion the run contained no parts breakage and a fun time had by all. A thanks goes out to the club members in my group.