Ben and I hit the road this past weekend to attend the first ever Appalachian Rendezvous hosted by American Adventurist down in Uwharrie North Carolina.
The Appalachian Rendezvous is a spin off of the Desert Rendezvous and Mountain Rendezvous which are both well known and popular west coast events. So when American Adventurist announced that they were going to host one of their infamous Rendezvous on the east coast, slots starting filling up fast.
Attendees came in from all over the eastern seaboard with rigs ranging from stock Tacomas all the way to customized U500’s. It was a great opportunity for us to see some familiar faces and meet plenty of new ones.
The goal of the Rendezvous can only be described in one phrase that could be heard repeatedly from other attendees “it’s all about doing.” While the Overland Expo’s provide you the opportunity to see all of the latest and greatest in gear technology, the Rendezvous gives you the opportunity to put all that gear to the test.
The Redezvous was hosted at the Uwharrie Off-Road Training Center (UORTC) which can only be described as the MIT of off road training. So not only did we get access to a great venue and an awesome private trail network, we were also able to pick the brains and learn from instructors with substantially more experience than ourselves.
The “doing” consisted of on site training in off road driving and recovery techniques, and it also included some great trail rides on UROTC’s private Bear Creek property (which deserves a write up of it’s own).
Of course this wouldn’t be a true east cost event though if we didn’t have a dutch oven cooking competition and I’ll apologize now for not taking any photos during this portion. I was given the opportunity to stuff my face with some amazing food, or take photos of it, let me know what you would have done in that situation.
When Sunday rolled around, I can honestly tell you that I wasn’t ready to go home. The whole event felt like a camping trip with good family and friends, and I don’t think anyone left without feeling the same way. The camaraderie within this community never ceases to amaze me and we’re looking forward to next year.
[…] the inaugural Vermont Overland Trophy, and were lucky to re-connect with him late last year at the American Adventurist Appalachian Rendezvous. Recently we sat down with Dan (via Skype) to participate in episode 95 of the Podcast – […]