Beaver Island, Michigan
By Garry McWhinneybr />Caledonia, Michigan
Beaver Island, my favorite 'wheeling spot, is located 32 miles out in Lake Michigan from Charlevoix, Michigan. My fiancee introduced me to the island (she and her family have been visiting there for about five years). To get there, the Beaver Island Boat Company is the only ferry to transport people and vehicles to the island. To get a vehicle across, reservations must be made some six months in advance. After a 2-hour ferry ride, you are on the island.
Beaver Island is 30 miles long by 13 miles wide. There are only three paved roads-all the rest are gravel or dirt. Maintenance on the roads is minimal. The trails are mostly two-tracks, which are sandy in most areas except for a few marshy areas that can get quite muddy. Most of the tracks are considered camp trails, but there are also logging trails to explore. The first year I went to Beaver Island, I took my '77 Blazer. It was slight overkill for the trails, but the downfall was, many of the trails are tight and the Blazer wouldn't fit.
Having mechanical problems on Beaver Island can be challenging if you're wheeling alone. My Blazer broke down approximately 5 miles from a main road, and cell phones rarely get service to the island so my fiancee and I went on a 5-mile hike on a 95-degree day. We got a ride into town and paid a guy to tow my Blazer to town. (The closest thing to a parts store on the island is an Ace Hardware.)
The island offers more than two-tracking through the woods. We camp every summer at a county campground called the Bill Wagner Memorial Campground, right on the beach of Lake Michigan. There are also hotels, motels, and cabins to rent for non-campers. Several inland lakes offer excellent fishing. Boats, canoes, bikes, and even Geo Trackers can be rented for reasonable prices. (There's no need for a mud bogger or rockcrawler here.) There are also many historic sites to visit, many of which are down two-tracks or hiking paths. On the island there are also two gas stations and a grocery store. There are only a couple of mechanics on the island, and parts are next to impossible to get there. Beaver Island is a great wheeling spot and a quiet getaway.
Rausch Creek Off-Road Park
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
By Jason Woodward
Grasonville, Maryland
If you live on the East Coast, there is a relatively new off-road park for you and your club to enjoy. Rausch Creek Off-Road Park in central Pennsylvania has more than 1,000 acres at its disposal for the 4x4 enthusiast. The coal companies that established most of the infrastructure in Schuylkill County used the land previously, and the central Pennsylvania region is the heart of the state's coal region and is rich with history. Rausch Creek Off-Road Park opened in 2003 after a period of trail building and is available for any 4x4 enthusiast to test his driving skills.
Rausch Creek designates its trails by a "ski trails" type method. This is where green trails are easy for beginners, blue trails are more difficult or moderate, black trails are difficult, and red trails are the extreme trails for those brave enough to inflict that amount of damage on their vehicles. The best part of Rausch Creek is that trails are constantly being built with 4x4 clubs in mind. Many of the trails are named after local clubs who helped create the trails, and while they have a lower rating, they have multiple hard obstacles as a challenging option. It is not uncommon to see competition rockcrawlers on the same trails as a stock vehicle, with both drivers attaining the same "pucker factor" without destroying their vehicles completely.
Rausch Creek is divided into two different sections. The eastern portion of the park has greater trail access to date, but the western portion has one imposing feature that proves the might of glaciers. A large glacial deposit, "Rock Creek" begins within a few feet of the main access road and extends over 1,800 feet. At its widest point, the deposit is 150 feet wide. The boulders that litter the area are large and are packed so closely together that only a handful of trees have proven sturdy enough to survive in the area. The deposit has been providing entertainment for the larger vehicles that venture into the park, and has proven to be a challenge for even the best drivers and spotters. Trails are being created to allow improved access to the deposit so everyone can watch the "big dogs" play and to scout the area to get up the nerve to try the challenge.
Little Naches River
near Yakima, Washington
By Ken Brouillard
Myrtle Creek, Oregon
The Little Naches River and the Naches River areas are about 40 miles north and west of Yakima, Washington, and are billed as the "Palm Springs of Washington." Anywhere you can find to camp along the Little Naches is beautiful. There are plenty of campsites, up and down both rivers, and the fall colors are outstanding. Fishing, hiking, hunting, or just relaxing are all good ways to spend a weekend. The best way, however, is to go four-wheeling, and that's where this area excels.
Stop in at the Naches Ranger District office of the U.S. Forest Service and pick up a copy of their Yakima County Off-Road Vehicle Guide, and you'll understand why this is one of the best 'wheeling spots in the country. There are hundreds of trails that range in difficulty from "Easy" to "Narrow/short-wheelbase/downhill only most difficult." The names of the trails themselves are worth mention: CJR's Hideout, Yellow Jacket, Narrow Neck, Butcher Knife, and one of my favorites, Short and Dirty. (Truth in advertising?-Ed.)
The Rimrock Trail takes you up to beautiful vistas of Mount Rainier and Rimrock Lake. This is the description that the Pacific Northwest Four-Wheel Drive Association gives for Rimrock: "Very difficult and recommended for the experienced driver only. While the trails are challenging (tight, sidehills, hillclimbs), the scenery is breathtaking and well worth the effort." I agree!
Another area of note is a formation of smooth sandstone called Funny Rocks that is unique and provides a Moab-like setting. Nearby is another funny formation that looks, like, well-the name says it all: Moon Rocks. The trails to these two playgrounds are great in themselves, and you can easily spend hours crawling up, down, and over all of the natural obstacles located here.
A word or two of caution about your trail rig: "Small" is the name of the game here. Lots of tight turns, lots of squeezing between trees-this is not a place for a fullsize rig! Weather can play a major role in the difficulty of the trails. Rain can make even an "easy" trail very difficult, and snow could prove life-threatening. Which leads to one final warning: Maps, GPS, a compass, and friends are all important since you can get lost or turned around because of the number of trails (yes, most of them are marked).
This series of trails offers something for everyone, and plenty to do when you get off the trail. I can't think of anywhere to go four-wheeling that is more beautiful, has more open space and vistas, and provides so much 'wheeling entertainment.Wenatchee National Forest/Naches Ranger District509/653-1400
Cheroh, Malaysia
In a Volvo C303
By Richard P. Reavey
Pelham, New York
If four-wheeling were a religion, Cheroh would certainly be one of its Holy Places. Just north of Raub in the state of Pahang, on the C5 road just before the junction with the C158, and rising up towards the central spine of mountains between the casinos of Genting and the former colonial splendor of the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia, is nirvana on earth. Miles into the palm oil plantations, the tracks finally vanish, and the faint signs of a trail lead into deep jungle. The trail into Cheroh is rarely explored, deep in mud, and badly rutted from the occasional passage of logging skidders. Although I only made one trip to Cheroh before leaving Malaysia, it will always be the yardstick by which any 4x4 adventure is measured.
In some places, the ruts are so deep that only the Volvo C303-with portal axles, three diff-locks, and 36-inch Simex Extreme Trekkers-that accompanied our group was able to climb the rugged slope. My '78 short-wheelbase Land Rover on 32-inch tires became a plough, pulled up by the Volvo, the diffs leaving a trough ready for seed. Rain is an ominous signal of vehicle-eating mud holes and very active leeches ahead. The mud-an iron oxide/clay mix that quickly overcomes even the most aggressive tires-gets worse and worse while the gulleys become steeper and fill with torrents of water. Winching becomes the norm, and in a few places, rock sliders become pivot points, helping shift vehicles around choke points like bumper cars. Mud-slick tires make the narrow log bridges at stream crossings all the more perilous. With dusk setting in, the cacophony of the jungle turns up a notch, and the "green flash" that precedes nightfall in the tropics takes everyone by surprise somehow.
Nightfall promises something more ominous than marauding insects. In our case, plans to push on through in the dark to a good camping area were stymied by an obstacle of titanic proportions. The mud is like concrete before it sets, and the hole is so deep, we didn't think that even the C303 will get through. The pit is situated along a kink in the trail, with a steep hillside on the left and a precipitous gorge on the right. It had been collecting runoff from a stream for some days, creating a deep mud pit in the trail. The Range Rover, sporting a big Toyota turbodiesel, Volvo portal axles, and a 20,000-pound center-mounted PTO winch, ventured in and snapped a cable fairly quickly trying to extract itself from the quicksand-like conditions. We called it a day and set up camp, having made about 6 kilometers (3.6 miles) in 5 1/2 hours. The leeches fed heartily that night.
Morning found us grading the slope into the pit and cutting down trees to make a bridge across the worst of the mud (all but the last few hundred meters of the trail at the campsite had been strip-logged previously; the entire environment is manmade, and we were only taking soft wood that would grow back in a year). Reshaping the hillside and building the bridge took us four to five hours. Luckily, the pit obstacle seems to turn back the weak of spirit, and the rutting on the other side is generally less severe. Nevertheless, there are many more challenging V-gulleys, a couple of nasty bending climbs strewn with punishing rocks, and some technically challenging water crossings with steep and rocky exits from the watercourse. On our trip, the Volvo was the only vehicle that made it through without needing a rescue.
The campsite, some 15 kilometers away from the trailhead, is well worth the time it takes to get there-in our case, 26 hours. The area along the river has never been logged, so here you are in pristine jungle with huge trees and a torrential river tumbling down from high in the mountains. While cold, the river offers a wonderful respite from the heat (and the previous night's leeches) and holds out the prospect of fresh fish. Camping under the primordial jungle canopy, the cool river swirling by, beverage in hand, you'll reflect on the satisfying fact that tomorrow, you'll get to do it all over again.