MAOF 2015 – After Action Report

The DirtRoadTrip team spent the past 3 days at the Mid-Atlantic Overland Festival (MAOF) hosted by our friends at Main Line Overland.

This year MAOF brought together over 300 vehicles, more than a dozen vendors, and even attracted the appearance of the guy that will feed you till you explode infamous Titan Pat. Everything was once again hosted on the Henwood Family farm, which is just over the hill from State College (aka Happy Valley), and a short drive from the Rothrock and Bald Eagle State Forests.

Titan Pat luring you in.

The entire team rolled into camp over 2 days. Ben and Dr. Taco got in early Thursday morning and were gracious enough to setup our epic base camp. They quickly got to work expertly testing the beer in the coolers, and made sure we had plenty of shade from the August sun.

We were camped in the middle of what I will only call the Mid-Atlantic Overland Society shanty town. We were surrounded by everything including ground tents, an FJ-55, pop up campers, custom trailers, and even a Tacoma with a custom snorkel (there was one with an LS swap but the snorkel took the win). It was great to see such a strong turnout, and we had the opportunity to spend time with all the usual familiar faces and meet plenty of new ones.

This year MAOF featured a wide variety of vendors and classes. Mario from Adventure Trailers made the drive in from Arizona, and Michael Herman from Purple Lizard was again on site giving everyone the inside scoop on the best places to drive to in the area. ARB also made a strong showing with their F-350, JK, 200 Series Land Cruiser, and BP-51 shock display.

We spent more time off property this year, but we found some time to attend Mark Farage’s “Packing a Go Bag” class. Like anything else taught/done by Mark, it was extremely detailed, professional, and I can confidently say everyone in attendance walked away with some good knowledge. If you missed the class and want to get some of this information, you can find it here at DirtRoadTrip or at Ronin Combat Strategies.

The evenings were capped off with presentations, then on Saturday night we had a raffle and the return of the Kalob Griffin Band. Ben even found a way to sneak into Mr. Henwood’s tractor for a photo-op.

This is the last thing you’ll see/remember when you approach their camp.

The guys from Vermont Overland also showed up at some point, but lets be honest for a second. Whenever you party with a guy wearing a orange Vermont Overland hat, you don’t really remember much and everything quickly becomes a blur. Needless to say, it was great to see the team and we can’t wait for the next party.

So much happened over the past 3 days that I really can’t jam it all into one post, so we’ll be sharing more throughout the week. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and shared a beer with us, also thanks to the Henwood’s for continuing to have such a great event in the Mid-Atlantic. See you guys next year!