The countdown is on to the Inaugural Mid-Atlantic Overland Festival! With the shindig now less than 4 weeks away, Alex, Maria and myself headed up to Huntingdon, PA to help the Henwoods nail down some particulars and enjoy some mild June weather in Central PA!
There was plenty to do — nailing down day schedules, event layout on the property, and pre-running the on-property trails!
Mesmerized by the view from the highest elevation section of the Henwood Farm
The Venue: The Henwood farm is over 200 acres and is going to function as a great “home-base” for the Festival. The camping areas are huge, with plenty of elevated, level ground and boast views of distant mountains on the other side of the valley. With so much space to work with, we took quite a bit of time working on the ideal setup to take advantage of the views and topography.
On-site trails are tight and especially slick after recent rain! Some winching required…
The Trails: The main trail attraction will be the large trail network in Bald Eagle State Forest about ~45 minutes away. We didn’t have time to get out to Bald Eagle this weekend (too much else to do!), but we did meet up with Mike from Purple Lizard Maps on Sunday morning, and he is going to have great suggestions for folks on specific trails to check out in Bald Eagle.
Mike Hermann of Purple Lizard Maps swung by on Sunday to talk through local trails and attractions
Not the main trail attraction, but Matt and Pete over the years have cut trails on the property. Not a big network, but a quick mix of elevation change, tight tree-weaving, and some steep/off-camber spots that, depending on the wetness of the ground, might require a little winching. We spent some time cleaning up deadfall on trail areas and creating another short but fun trail section that drops into, and climbs out of a steep ravine. We’re only expecting to use the trails on-site for limited supervised runs.
Scoping a heavily vegetated ravine for a new trail section at the Farm
On-Site Activities: While the schedules aren’t released yet, I can tell you that Friday afternoon and all-day Saturday are full of class/seminar options on a bunch of different topics, not to mention the film festival Friday night and dinner/live music on Saturday night. There will also be Event sponsors/vendors setup in a dedicated area close to all the action with all kinds of awesome Overlanding and outdoor gear to oogle, try out, and buy.
Compact, Diesel and 4×4 – isn’t this what everyone wants?
The Weather: If the weather in July is anything like what we had this weekend, folks attending the Overland Festival are going to be in for a treat! Temps were in the 70’s during the day and dropped to the high 40’s at night. In reality it’ll probably be a bit warmer but still quite mild compared to what we’ll likely be experiencing near DC.
The fields have not been cut, but will be harvested in advance of the Overland Festival
We left the weekend excited — we can’t wait to come back in a few weeks and see all of you (hopefully!) joining us up in PA. Now its time to do all the little finishing touches and scramble to complete a couple more truck mods 😉 See you in a couple weeks!
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