Girls Get Dirty 2 and Fall Fest

With the cool weather of autumn upon us, it was time to visit Paragon Adventure Park for the Girls Get Dirty 2 and Fall Fest. This event was sponsored by Paragon Adventure Park, Off Camber Crawlers, and 4x4Wire. The event was designed, in part, to encourage ladies to take the driver's seat and hopefully come away with a different perspective of wheeling. Follow along as Laurie Hollatz tells the story of this fun-filled weekend.

I have to admit that I was not readily sold on the idea of participating in an all girls' run where I would be the one behind the wheel of Project Money Pit. My perspective on wheeling had always been from the passenger's seat. Well, to tell the truth, from outside of the vehicle. Those who know us can attest to the fact that our Jeep is equipped with its very own passenger ejection seat. As soon as we get close to an obstacle, I'm quick to get out with camera in tow. The camera is really just an excuse to avoid the off camber feelings. I think I've gotten better over the years, mostly because I got tired of walking every trail. But as Project Money Pit has grown up, so have the size of the obstacles and my perception of what constitutes a difficult trail. In order to improve my resiliency to being off camber, Ron suggested that I give driving a try. After all, that was part of his logic last year for upgrading the transmission to an automatic, so I could drive! Well, what the heck. Sign me up.

In preparation for the big event, we spent Labor Day weekend up at Paragon wheeling with Michael, Monique, Lynn, and Chris. Monique and I got turns in the drivers' seats that Saturday as we ran Rattler 2, and the husbands did the spotting for us. What an experience! I never realized how limited your view of the trail can be from the driver's seat. Now I know why good spotting can make all the difference in the world in getting a vehicle through a difficult trail. I ignored all of my driving instincts and followed Ron's hand signals implicitly. He has the Jeep geared so low that I spent the majority of the time with either both feet firmly on the brake or completely off the pedals, letting the Jeep crawl over the rocks on its own power. The various expressions on Ron's face while I was driving were priceless. I don't think I've ever seen such a grin on his face during the ten years we've been together. I took my turn at the wheel several times that weekend and learned an important lesson for the Girls Run. I do much better with Ron outside of the Jeep giving me hand and verbal directions rather than having him tell me what to do from the passenger's seat. It never failed. When he's in the vehicle telling me which way to turn the wheel, I would invariably turn in the opposite direction. It's probably attributable to the fact that we're married... you know how well married couples listen to each other.


Despite the rainy weather, the fall colors were out in full force	Maggie Pederson picks her way through the rocks	Laurie Hollatz expertly guides the Money Pit on Whompum

I awoke on the first day of the Girls Run to the sound of rain. The pleasant warm temperatures of Friday were replaced overnight by clouds, wind, and quite chilly weather. We had arrived at Red Ridge Campground late Friday night in the dark, so it was a beautiful surprise to walk out of the tent and see the Pennsylvania fall colors. The trees were a lot closer to peak colors than in northern Virginia. As you can see from the trip pictures, Mother Nature did a great job of painting the Pennsylvania mountains for our event. Approximately 30 vehicles from across the East Coast gathered at Paragon's staging area around 8:30 am. We were divided into three small groups (girls in their moderately modified rigs, girls in their "Big Dog" modified rigs, and boys who didn't have girl drivers along for the event) and each registered driver was given a complimentary Girls Get Dirty 2 t-shirt (sponsored by County Chrysler), a bumper sticker, and raffle tickets for later that night.

Bill Marsh was our trail guide on Saturday, doing double duty as spotter for the lady drivers, including his 16-year old daughter Megan in their Jeepster Commando. Bill led us through some challenging obstacles comprising Whompum, a 4 rated trail. Some of the other female drivers in our group included Lisa (and Chris) von Czoernig in her '94 Defender, Laura Catlett (with Jeff Brown) in his '95 Hummer, Rachael Strobel (with John Boring and German Shepherd Blackie) in his '78 CJ, Maggie Pederson (with Rob Corbisier and German Shepherd Amy) in his '84 CJ, Deanna Denton (with Taft Denton) in their CJ.

Ron and I were at the back of the pack as the designated tail gunner. This gave me a unique opportunity to run up ahead and take pictures of everyone else going over the more difficult obstacles, while running back to the Jeep every now and then to pull forward or tackle an obstacle myself. The only drawback to this arrangement was that I got to see how difficult some of the obstacles could be. Rachael really showed us some good air on a huge slab located towards the end of the trail. But after several attempts, some great spotting by Bill, and a little help from the gas pedal, she finally made it up and through the remaining rocks. The rain from earlier in the day had made the trail a lot more slippery and challenging.


Lisa von Czoernig in her yellow Defender Photo by Chris von Czoernig	Megan Marsh makes it look easy	Rachael Strobel shows how not to break things

After finishing Whompum, we headed through the park to the Spring where we pulled off to the side for lunch and waited to meet up with Monique and her entourage of film crew from the Oxygen Network. The camera crew had rigged up Monique and Michael's '97 TJ earlier that morning with an on board camera and microphone to capture celebrity star, Greta Gaines, behind the wheel. Film footage and interviews of Girls' Run participants were taken for an upcoming episode of the Oxygen Network's "FREERIDE with Greta Gaines". The Oxygen Network encourages viewers to join Greta "in her search for adventure, extraordinary places, and unforgettable women". Well, we were certainly able to fulfill all three criteria on this particular Saturday. Stephanie Bowers volunteered to be Greta's co-pilot and main interviewee for the day. She did a great job describing her wheeling experiences at Paragon Adventure Park and coaching Greta through the 101 Trail and the second part of Chicken Run. The morning clouds finally cleared and the sun came out just in time for Michael to spot Greta through the M Trail. After meeting up with us after lunch, our group followed Greta on a short ride that included more filming as the vehicles traversed the Spare Tire creek crossing. While our drive out of the Park was not over particularly difficult terrain, it was definitely a beautiful set of trails and gave participants an opportunity to see other parts of the Park and the fall foliage.

One of the hardest questions that is frequently asked by my friends and co-workers is "What do you do for fun on the weekends?". A simple response that "I enjoy trail riding with my husband in our Jeep" only leads to more questions. Unfortunately, people's perceptions are often influenced by auto manufacturers' commercials showing Jeeps, trucks, and SUVs tearing through fields and streams like they are in a race. This misconception couldn't be farther from the truth. It always amazes me that we can spend so many hours on a particular trail and go less than a mile. While part of the fun revolves around the trail's difficulty and make-up of the terrain, another important part is the camaraderie among trail riders and their willingness to help each other, whether it be spotting someone over obstacles or helping fix a broken rig. While we were fortunate enough not to have any major carnage or breakage during the Girls' Run (does that say something about the drivers or the spotters?), we did spend a lot of time on only a few trails. For many of us, this was one of our first experiences actually doing the driving instead of riding in the passenger's seat. I finally experienced first hand how tiring it can be behind the wheel, in addition to all of the trail walking I normally do while taking pictures. So it was a great relief to be greeted at the camp ground by a hot dinner compliments of Suzi's "We Like to Party Catering".

After dinner, everyone gathered around a huge campfire with their beverages and raffle tickets. Ron and I helped Rachel and Maggie raffle off prizes donated by various local and national sponsors. Some of the night's big winners included Jamie "Windanzer" McClay, who won a purple winch rope donated by Master Pull, and Stephanie Kline, who won a Hi-Lift. Lorrie Lawrence won a TJ skid plate and Deanna Denton won free admission to any 2002 Big Dogs Event. The campfire was a huge success Saturday night as the temperature dropped and people avoided retiring to their cold tents. Ron and I, however, were extremely happy with our recent purchase of a Coleman heater with built-in fan (yes honey, you were right once again). It runs on the same green gas canisters you use for camp stoves. We found that a full canister will get you about 6 hours of continuous heat. However, you can definitely tell a difference in air temperature when the gas canister goes empty. Friday night we woke up to a cold tent around 4:00 am, mainly because we didn't start out with a full gas canister. Saturday night we made it through until 6:00 am, probably because we stayed up later enjoying the company around the campfire, plus this time we had a spare canister on hand so someone didn't have to run out into the dark searching for a replacement. We highly recommend such a purchase for any of you out there planning on mountain camping after August!


Laurie Hollatz flexes it out	Laura Catlett eases through the Creek on Spare Tire Photo by Chris von Czoernig	Space was at a premium during line-up for the Relief Ride

Campers awoke Sunday morning to a hot breakfast catered by Suzi, with coffee and hot cocoa being the preferred method of warming up our insides as the day started out with cloudy, windy, and chilly temperatures. The second full day of trail riding for Girls' Run participants coincided with a special event sponsored by Paragon Adventure Park. A one-day Relief Ride was held at Paragon to raise funds benefiting those directly affected by the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Close to 300 vehicles participated in the Relief Ride and associated raffle with donations topping $14,000! As you can see from the pictures, the staging area was nearly filled to capacity with vehicles of every make and style demonstrating their patriotism and flag waving enthusiasm to participate in a charitable event. We were overwhelmed to see so many turn out for the event, especially given the cold temperatures and forecast for rain. While Ron and I weren't able to ride on Sunday, we did have fun watching all of the groups line up and head out to their respective trails. It was quite an accomplishment for Paragon staff members to get all of the rigs on their way by 10:30 am.

Ron and I had our day cut out for us back at the campground as we prepared for a huge BBQ. Relief Ride participants started arriving at the campground around 5:00 pm. I busily made up trays of Wisconsin cheese, sausage, and crackers, while Ron was busy stoking the coals and boiling Usinger's bratwurst in his famous beer and onion concoction. Chris and Andrea Perosi along with Andy Zook pitched in with the BBQ to ensure everyone who came didn't leave without a full stomach. They helped hang a neon green 4X4 Wire banner above "food central" so that everyone knew where to find us. The staff had a great time organizing and serving almost 100 people a dinner of brats, hamburgers, veggie burgers, potato salad, coleslaw, pasta salad, baked beans, chips, cake, and soda. We received lots of great compliments about the BBQ, and hopefully raised everyone's awareness of 4X4Wire.com.


A good example of the American pride shown at the Relief Ride	The 4x4Wire staff cooks dinner for the Relief Ride Participants	4x4Wire salutes America's heros

After a weekend of every crummy weather condition including clouds, wind, rain, and even sleet and snow, Monday turned out to be a gorgeous sunny fall day. A small group of us at the campground headed to Paragon where we met up with Chris "Bumblebee" and his '89 YJ. We tackled Pick Your Poison, which was sort of déjà for Ron and me. This was the first trail we had ridden earlier this summer when we first visited Paragon. Only this time we had a smaller group of rigs and we knew all of the drivers: John and Rachel in his '92 YJ, Michael in his '97 TJ, Jeff Eppolite in his '97 TJ, and Lynn in her '97 TJ. We had a blast picking the most difficult lines through the big boulders. I did double duty with my picture taking duties, alternating between our camera and Jeff's camera. Turns out we both have the exact same type of digital camera. So it was a snap for me to use his camera and quickly use up all of his remaining memory sticks taking shots of him in his TJ catching "air" compliments of Ron's spotting. We had so much fun on the trail that we didn't make it back to the campground until after 3:00. We had a ton of packing to do, including taking down the tent and packing up all of the cooking paraphernalia from the prior day's BBQ. We managed to send extra food home with Chris, Michael, Devin, and Steve. Plus we left the extra sheet cake that had not been eaten with Rachel and John. Rachel took it with her to the school where she teaches as a treat for the kids. She reported back that they loved it. So everyone was able to make good use of the food brought for the event. We even got a few of our new East Coast friends hooked on Usinger's bratwurst. Not such a bad thing to be from the Midwest!


Bumble Bee in his highly modified YJ	Jeff Eppolite chooses his line through Pick Your Poison	John (Stumpy) pays close attention to his spotter

In closing...ladies...if you're reading this article...I strongly encourage you to give driving a try the next time you're out on the trails. It does indeed give you a new perspective. Plus you finally get to be in some of the pictures taken during your wheeling trips!

Contacts	Related Links
Paragon Adventure Park Off Camber Crawlers Relief Ride Details	Picture Gallery