Adventioneering

Distance: 8.9km
Time: 6 hours, 30 minutes, 49 seconds
Avg Speed: 1.3kph
Max Speed: 12.5kph
A&V damage: bent fender, destroyed fender flare, destroyed turn signal
JG damage: blown tire

Our first epic since moving east. Old Florida “road” near Adams, MA could only be described as a road if the only vehicle ever intended to pass it was a donkey. Apparently this was a public right of way laid down around 1833, that was eventually abandoned (as if it was ever maintained). My principal objection to it ever having been a vehicular road is not the boulders, because erosion can explain that, but the big rock shelves. Apparently they used to hold Jeep Jamboree’s here, but that hasn’t happened in a couple of years.

What is remarkable about the road is that it’s there, and you can drive on it. There are no signs, no warnings, no gates. Just an imposing rock slash through the trees at the side of the highway that looks like it leads to Mordor. In an era where 4WD access is shrinking faster than I can put accessories on my Jeep, particularly on the east coast where it’s basically all gone already, this is a gem.

I am not sure which way people normally drive this, but I think it’s south to north, which is the way we did it. This causes you to go uphill for most of the rock portions and downhill for most of the mud portions (the north-end of the trail area is bog). The south terminus is N42 37.633 W73 05.481.

We’ve heard the route described as everything from “the Rubicon trail of the northeast” to “not a big deal if you are from the west coast”. Coming from the west coast, no, it’s really not that big a deal. Our unlocked stock suspension TJ on 31 muds got through without any problem except for 1 spot (a multi-foot shelf with a blocked off bypass) that required a self-winch up and over.

I lost track of how many times Jordan’s TJ required either the strap or the winch, though, so we’re probably running the minimum for the trail to be easy. He was also banging/scraping pretty badly, but no real damage. By the end of it all I had bent up a fender, but that was out of carelessness (the tree jumped out in front of me) and not really due to the conditions on the road.

Lockers front and back would have let us get up the shelf, I think, making it a drive-through for a stock Rubicon-type vehicle. It would be very interesting to try to get a unimog through; the trail is quite narrow in certain portions but I think it would be doable.

The front half of the trail is the slowest going, as it’s mostly dirt, boulders, water, broken up occasionally by shelves. The mud was not bad on the front side, either. Once we got up to the top and crested, the going was much faster not only because we were coming downhill but also because it was significantly less muddy and rocky, and required less finesse to drive. On the other hand, on the other side of the ridge lies bog. Neither jeep got mud-stuck, though, as we were able to dig down to the rock below. We did not attempt the water feature that we affectionately named “lake michigan”.

If you are an expedition enthusiast stuck in new england and want to practice your skills, this is an excellent way to spend a day. Next time it might be worthwhile to split the day in two and camp at the top (I have no idea if that is legal). There seems to be some good spots at the crest, and it would also probably be a good place to string up a dipole and work some radio.

The real question remains: how long would it take to do if we didn’t spend half the time recoverying JG

As usual we made a map, after not being able to find one. As a new bonus offer, though, we also have an elevation plot.

Photos