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
