toyotas Take Paragon - toyota Rock Climb - Photo 9381211

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We found a fairly new trail named Turtle's Revenge cut back into the hilly recesses of the park. This route has some nice challenges. Broderick Pfetzing used his 36-inch Swampers and ARBs to get his '84 4Runner up and over this stairstep ledge and down the drop on the other side.

Our group for the weekend included a wide range of driver skill and vehicle levels. There were also three new Toyota FJ Cruisers that showed up to run the trails.

Our group for the weekend included a wide range of driver skill and vehicle levels. There were also three new Toyota FJ Cruisers that showed up to run the trails.

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The scenery here is awesome. The thick woods grow very green in the summer and shade much of the trail area. Several pipeline roads criss-cross this area, and the park has added numerous new trails in the last few years to keep things interesting.

We tackled Chicken Run as a Friday-morning warm-up. John Baldwin lives fairly close by in Red Hill, so he's used to crawling the Pennsylvania rocks in his '88 4Runner.

It's not often you see nice, later-model 4Runners on trails such as this, but Ace "Ninja" Laserna uses his '97 4Runner for double duty. It spends its winters in hunting camp and summers exploring trails on the East Coast.

We found some areas of the park to be a little wetter, making the loose, slick soil an added challenge. Rocky Meadow delivered just that mix in the middle of some amazingly overgrown woods.

Frank Torbert from Maryland used his 36-inch Super Swamper Iroks to climb a piece of the NEUROC area. His first-generation 4Runner has been set up with tough trailrunning in mind. The top and stock doors came off to enjoy the warm weather.

Suspension flex helps make for better traction and stability; however, everyone loves a nice wheelstand too. Crawling the rocky slabs could put you off-camber or cause you to teeter at times. Traction was great on the rough, dry rocks.

Much of the rockcrawling in the area consists of large surface boulders and rock slabs. The better set-up Toyotas were equipped with extra-Low transfer case gears to allow for smoother creeping.

The event is not actually confined to 4Runners, or Toyotas for that matter. Randy Bombase from Virginia Beach, Virginia, piloted Toyotas for years, but his current ride is an '04 Jeep. Locked, lifted, and off-road treaded, his TJ made short work of the rocky trails and ledges.

We found a fairly new trail named Turtle's Revenge cut back into the hilly recesses of the park. This route has some nice challenges. Broderick Pfetzing used his 36-inch Swampers and ARBs to get his '84 4Runner up and over this stairstep ledge and down the drop on the other side.

When it rains, it puddles. Then, puddles turn to pits. We managed to find a few water troughs and mud holes, and some in our group couldn't leave well enough alone. The park at Paragon is scenic and offers a wide variety of trails from mild to extreme. Rain and wet terrain can certainly take them all up a notch or two in difficulty.

Most everyone carries at least a few spare parts, and if you drive your rig on the road a spare driveshaft may be in order. This 4Runner owner found a handy way to store a spare 'shaft by tucking it between his rock rail and door.

Strip your rig, tube it, and make it lighter. That's what local wheeler Eric Neustadter had in mind when he built up his third-generation truck. With the sheetmetal bed gone and a tube structure in its place, Eric could concentrate on pushing the 37-inch Pit Bull Rockers up the trail and past some pretty gnarly obstacles.

Jason Durand impressed us with his IFS truck at last year's event, but his rig sprouted legs since then. He torched away the old suspension and slid a solid front axle in its place, meanwhile making room to run 36-inch Swampers and get some good articulation. The Virginia wheeler also counts on his Inchworm transfer case gearing and a spooled rear axle to help him navigate the obstacles.

Saturday morning our group hit the PAJ Trail, which has some huge rock slabs and interesting obstacles. This '99 Tacoma belongs to Sean Horgan and makes good trail progress equipped with dual ARB lockers, Cornfed suspension mods, and a warmed-over 2.7L engine.