Hey All! We have had a CRAZY couple of months that involved having no internet connection or access to our computer files, so that's why we've been very remiss in updating the site and blog. So here's the latest and I'm so sorry we can't update the site too. We should be back up within a month or so.
Our last open weekend will be this coming one. Then we will be hosting the 4 Wheel'n with Feel'n rally on October 3. Then we close our doors for the season. We have a had a good run this year. Mid-summer was very slow, but business has picked back up nicely towards the end of summer and into fall.
On the personal front, we've moved off site so it has been a bigger challenge to be available when we are needed, but overall it has gone well. We are in temporary living right now, but soon will be moving to a new home in Rhinelander, closer to Jeremy's day job. The hour long commute is wearing us down and it is time for a change for our family.
But don't fear...we are not shutting down! (As the rumor mill may have suggested.) We will be open next year, most likely on Memorial Day. We will only open the trails certain weekends though. Since we are limiting the open days, please check the web site and blog for information. We should have those dates ironed out by the end of this calendar year. The campground is open anytime using self-registration.
If you want us to shoot you an e-mail when we have the dates, just send us an e-mail to info@northwoodsoverland.com. Let us know you'd appreciate an e-mail when we set our open dates for next year and we'll get them to you.
Wishing you all a great Fall!!!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Trail Building Update!!
Sorry, I've neglected my blogging duties... but here is an update. We have added a significant amount of trails this spring. Check out the full map on our web site at this link:
http://www.northwoodsoverland.com/trails_descript.htm
We had a great group come up in mid May from south eastern Wisconsin. While they were here we put in a good amount of the new Orange Trails. I owe a big "thanks" to Anders who worked diligently to organize the group. The orange trails are much more difficult than our other existing trails. They are very tight, off-camber and have lots of twisty moguls. Not for a stock rig... awesome for a well built short wheel base machine. Best of all, I like these trails! Vehicles as large as a Grand Cherokee can squeeze through with some work, but may incur some scratches. It's a good thing I put power steering on the CJ last winter because these would be NO FUN without it. The CJ's new cage is already quite scraped up and that should hint at how tight these are, and perhaps how lazy I am when it comes to backing up.
We also eliminated the yellow trail coming out of the campground and went north with it to come off of green (1) so that all trails come and go out of one point. On the east end of that yellow trail before it goes to the scramble area we added a leg to the north. This helps tie two yellow trails together. The goal is to build a large orange loop through the center of the park and a large yellow loop around the perimeter.
We have had a lot of excitement so far this year. Memorial weekend was fun. Cowboy from Going Broke Off-Road was here... and we had to recover his truck with the skidder, which was not pretty. Cowboy was a good sport about me rolling the truck on its side into some trees and then rolling back into the front end with the 12-ton skidder. Fortunately Jesse was able to winch the truck back onto it's wheels (mostly) which enabled us to get off of the tree and a sticky situation. They were videoing the "recovery" but I haven't yet been able to get my hands on any pics or videos.
It has been wet in the Northwoods. We have had tons of rain. Some of the trails have been getting very muddy and one of the yellows has become winch mandatory. So far nothing has been able to make that trail without a tug. Thankfully the holes are small (but deep) and are a short winch. I've had to pull two full clubs through so far. Some of the green trails have also become rutted and difficult.
We're excited to be open again for another summer. The coming July 4th weekend will mark the first full year the park has been open. I'm beginning to be more comfortable with where we are at with trails and can now more clearly see where we need to go with trail building. Come visit and let us know what you think!
http://www.northwoodsoverland.com/trails_descript.htm
We had a great group come up in mid May from south eastern Wisconsin. While they were here we put in a good amount of the new Orange Trails. I owe a big "thanks" to Anders who worked diligently to organize the group. The orange trails are much more difficult than our other existing trails. They are very tight, off-camber and have lots of twisty moguls. Not for a stock rig... awesome for a well built short wheel base machine. Best of all, I like these trails! Vehicles as large as a Grand Cherokee can squeeze through with some work, but may incur some scratches. It's a good thing I put power steering on the CJ last winter because these would be NO FUN without it. The CJ's new cage is already quite scraped up and that should hint at how tight these are, and perhaps how lazy I am when it comes to backing up.
We also eliminated the yellow trail coming out of the campground and went north with it to come off of green (1) so that all trails come and go out of one point. On the east end of that yellow trail before it goes to the scramble area we added a leg to the north. This helps tie two yellow trails together. The goal is to build a large orange loop through the center of the park and a large yellow loop around the perimeter.
We have had a lot of excitement so far this year. Memorial weekend was fun. Cowboy from Going Broke Off-Road was here... and we had to recover his truck with the skidder, which was not pretty. Cowboy was a good sport about me rolling the truck on its side into some trees and then rolling back into the front end with the 12-ton skidder. Fortunately Jesse was able to winch the truck back onto it's wheels (mostly) which enabled us to get off of the tree and a sticky situation. They were videoing the "recovery" but I haven't yet been able to get my hands on any pics or videos.
It has been wet in the Northwoods. We have had tons of rain. Some of the trails have been getting very muddy and one of the yellows has become winch mandatory. So far nothing has been able to make that trail without a tug. Thankfully the holes are small (but deep) and are a short winch. I've had to pull two full clubs through so far. Some of the green trails have also become rutted and difficult.
We're excited to be open again for another summer. The coming July 4th weekend will mark the first full year the park has been open. I'm beginning to be more comfortable with where we are at with trails and can now more clearly see where we need to go with trail building. Come visit and let us know what you think!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Spring 2009 Trail Building Begins
The WI4WD Association Spring Fling was here this weekend. We did not have a large number of people, but made up for it by working hard and having lots of fun. The weather was beautiful, making for ideal trail building conditions. I had flagged off a new trail that will go from the trail head around the entire property to the north side. My flagging was more ambitions than our energy! We completed about 1/5 of what I had flagged.
We had decided that a new category "Orange" trail will be added. These are very tight and twisty with lots of opportunity for flex and off-camber sections. There was one very built up '08 'Yota Cruiser in the group and we had to use some creative winching and cable cranking to squeeze through. Extremely tight for that size... I would not recommend it. It is a good thing that Hannis is a good sport about pin stripes, etc. on a rig that new. :)
Orlin's clean early 70's CJ5 was impressive. I loved the healthy bass growl of the 401ci small block. You can hear it quite well on the YouTube video. With 35's and locked front/rear he kept up to the old Northwoods Overland CJ7 quite well. Of course the senior Hannis brought his TJ Rubicon which, with a short arm Rubicon Express lift, 35's and some other toys, walks through everything he points it at. Check out the air under his front left tire on the video (too bad the tree was obstructing a good camera shot). He took a hit to his hard top and left with some nice cracks.
Check out a video clip from this weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJj0WPikFc&feature=channel_page
After polling together feedback and reviewing what last year's visitors had to say, here are our plans (roughly): we will add a new trail color, orange, which will be very twisty and technical woods trails, extremely tight for anything larger than a short wheel base Jeep. The orange trails will wind around in a large loop, crossing other trails. The yellow trails will be coordinated better to make a large loop around the premiter of the property (outside the orange loop). Each loop should take a good part of the day to complete. The red trails are yet to be determined but must be made much harder. We have been scouting the areas near each and will work on lengthening and making them harder.
Hope to see you this summer!!!
We had decided that a new category "Orange" trail will be added. These are very tight and twisty with lots of opportunity for flex and off-camber sections. There was one very built up '08 'Yota Cruiser in the group and we had to use some creative winching and cable cranking to squeeze through. Extremely tight for that size... I would not recommend it. It is a good thing that Hannis is a good sport about pin stripes, etc. on a rig that new. :)
Orlin's clean early 70's CJ5 was impressive. I loved the healthy bass growl of the 401ci small block. You can hear it quite well on the YouTube video. With 35's and locked front/rear he kept up to the old Northwoods Overland CJ7 quite well. Of course the senior Hannis brought his TJ Rubicon which, with a short arm Rubicon Express lift, 35's and some other toys, walks through everything he points it at. Check out the air under his front left tire on the video (too bad the tree was obstructing a good camera shot). He took a hit to his hard top and left with some nice cracks.
Check out a video clip from this weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJj0WPikFc&feature=channel_page
After polling together feedback and reviewing what last year's visitors had to say, here are our plans (roughly): we will add a new trail color, orange, which will be very twisty and technical woods trails, extremely tight for anything larger than a short wheel base Jeep. The orange trails will wind around in a large loop, crossing other trails. The yellow trails will be coordinated better to make a large loop around the premiter of the property (outside the orange loop). Each loop should take a good part of the day to complete. The red trails are yet to be determined but must be made much harder. We have been scouting the areas near each and will work on lengthening and making them harder.
Hope to see you this summer!!!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Spring 2009 Opening Dates
As the weather warms and snow slowly fades from open fields we are beginning to plan for the 2009 summer. The campground will open in early may and the trails will open to the public for the Memorial Day weekend.
For this summer we are planning to add trails, trails and more trails. I can clearly see the need to add more miles of harder tails and expand the obstacle course. Much of the feedback we have gathered is that our facility has a surprisingly beautiful campground with some off-roading. That is definitely not what we have in mind...
For this summer we are planning to add trails, trails and more trails. I can clearly see the need to add more miles of harder tails and expand the obstacle course. Much of the feedback we have gathered is that our facility has a surprisingly beautiful campground with some off-roading. That is definitely not what we have in mind...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
End Of 2008 Season
This last weekend we finished our season by hosting the 30th Annual March of Dimes "4 Wheelin' With Feelin" fund raiser. The turnout beat our expectations with over 85 rally participants and $22,000 raised. Overall, I would say that the event also exceeded my personal expectations. This was an excellent, fun group. From what I observed and was told, all had a good time. It was certainly an educational experience for us to have this many people here. On the conservative side we estimate that there were 300 people here on Saturday.
During the event, the weather was gorgeous. Leaves were nearly at their peak and the temps were near 70 in the daytime, though cool at night. There were some of the "Big Dog Mudders" here and they opened up a mud pit that has seen little use so far. Best of all, we chose to close the camp store on Sunday morning so that Annie and I could join an organized trail ride. We went out to an area that is not yet open to the park which contains some more extreme hill climbs and severely tested our CJ. It was a good ending to a great summer.
In summary, we had a good opening year. I'm glad that things were a little slow, as it gave us an opportunity to learn how things will work. Based on the feedback I've gotten, we will need to add a significant number of trails and focus on building more difficult obstacles. The scramble areas have been popular and we will need to add a much greater number of obstacles. Thank you very much to everyone who visited this summer, especially those who came back multiple times and those who took the time to give much needed feedback.
Next spring, after the thaw has broken we will hit the trail building hard and update our maps. Over the summer a focus will be made to haul rocks and add obstacles to the scramble area. Check the web site for updates and a 2009 opening date.
Sincerely,
The VanCamp Family
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Mid August Update
It's been a while since I put serious time in the project and posted to the blog. I'm getting a second wind for the project. We've recently updated our trail map with all of the current trails and I've scouted out locations for several more yellow trails. The trail map is now in the Off Road portion of our web site under the "Trail Descriptions" link (here). I did go the the top of the MWIOR trail and rerouted it to increase the difficulty. The trail now traverses a large rock at the top. I'm also going to plant several more boulders to increase the difficulty.We have had clubs come from within a 2 hour drive. They have been as small as two vehicles and as many as eight. Several of the larger groups came from the Marshfield area. One group in particular had heavily modified rigs of various makes/models. That day I made the time to go wheeling and tagged along. In general we had a blast. All of the groups have seemed to have a good time (unless of course they were just being polite). We had our first rock buggy last weekend. I was looking forward to seeing it in action, but unfortunately it was having transmission problems. There have also been a number of clubs or organizations sending people just to check things out. I've been touring those visitors around in the CJ.
This weekendend we made some progress in the obstacle course. I hauled large rocks up there and have a start on a rock pile (see the pics for this blog). After trying out the new rock pile today, I decided that we'll also need to collect some smaller rocks in a separate pile for the less modified rigs. Some of these boulders were so big that I crossed the CJ up and there were only a few lines that I could manage across the pile. One of the recent visitors, Cowboy, had a good idea for an obstacle and based on that. I dug a tire pit and got a layer of tires in part of it. Now I need to check the local area for tires as all of ours didn't put a good dent in it.
Monday, July 7, 2008
July 4th Opening Weekend & Trailbuilding Update
In the past month we have been busy and are still chipping away at the project. Mike and Chris Hannis visited us several weeks ago and we built an additional yellow trail. One section was very, very wet/muddy. We also ran some of the other trails and I enjoyed watching Chris's large 2008 FJ as he nimbly navigated the red trails. That is an impressive factory vehicle with capable 
hands behind the wheel! We also took another weekend to map out the trail system, paint most of the trails and number them for ease of directions. We also had an individual from the Chicago Land Rover Club come on a Saturday and help cut open an old farm road as a green level trail.
We just made it through our opening weekend. It was not busy but we had some wheelers. There were some campers from the local area and two parties camping who were wheelers. We also had a party with two Jeeps and another coming tomorrow. The pics I posted are from the visiting Jeeps. So far we've had two mangled tie rods, one bent skid plate and a crushed quarter panel. That is always a good sign that we're having fun!
I have now scouted out locations for at least 3 more longer yellow level trails and will focus on getting those pushed through. We started to dig a mud pit, but it was very dry so I'll either have to find another location or bring in water. After the next yellow trails are done I'll begin hauling logs and rocks into the scramble area for obstacle building.
The campground is now nearly complete. I graveled two
more sites last week and only have one to go. Unfortunately we're out of gravel and will need more. We've also put up new gates on several entrances to the property to keep wheelers off of neighbors' private land... the projects never end.
The Four Wheelin' With Feelin' March of Dimes flyers are done and should be published soon. I'm be interested to see what this fall holds for us as things develop and am looking forward to the event.
hands behind the wheel! We also took another weekend to map out the trail system, paint most of the trails and number them for ease of directions. We also had an individual from the Chicago Land Rover Club come on a Saturday and help cut open an old farm road as a green level trail.We just made it through our opening weekend. It was not busy but we had some wheelers. There were some campers from the local area and two parties camping who were wheelers. We also had a party with two Jeeps and another coming tomorrow. The pics I posted are from the visiting Jeeps. So far we've had two mangled tie rods, one bent skid plate and a crushed quarter panel. That is always a good sign that we're having fun!
I have now scouted out locations for at least 3 more longer yellow level trails and will focus on getting those pushed through. We started to dig a mud pit, but it was very dry so I'll either have to find another location or bring in water. After the next yellow trails are done I'll begin hauling logs and rocks into the scramble area for obstacle building.
The campground is now nearly complete. I graveled two
more sites last week and only have one to go. Unfortunately we're out of gravel and will need more. We've also put up new gates on several entrances to the property to keep wheelers off of neighbors' private land... the projects never end.The Four Wheelin' With Feelin' March of Dimes flyers are done and should be published soon. I'm be interested to see what this fall holds for us as things develop and am looking forward to the event.
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