On a quiet afternoon last Spring I was up in Philly at the Main Line Overland shop getting a Kaymar rear bumper installed on the Cruiser. While hanging out I casually struck up a conversation with MLO’s co-founder Pete Henwood about the Vermont Overland Trophy (VOT). Casual banter turned into serious contemplation. The next thing I knew we were signing up, planning our build and ordering parts. My bank account started to cry.
Our Team:
I was fortunate enough to team up with the Henwood brothers (Matt and Pete) who co-founded and operate Main Line Overland outside of Philadelphia. Both Matt and Pete have extensive experience off pavement: trips to Moab (including running the White Rim Trail), the North Maine Woods, and the class 4 roads of Vermont. In addition to their offroad experience, Matt and Pete also endurance race a Mazda Miata, so they are no strangers to the trials and tribulations of motorsport competition and the need to plan and improvise. I couldn’t have found a better set of guys to team up with.
Our rigs consisted of my 2013 Toyota Land Cruiser and Matt’s 2009 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon.
Day 0:
We arrived in Vermont and quickly setup base camp before wandering off to meet the other participants, and most importantly check out their trucks. We all got to know each other and enjoyed our beers into the evening, little did we know what Vermont Overland’s Peter Vollers had in store for us.
Day 1
All I remember wishing for the night before was that our team would be selected to go behind Ben’s (Team Daily Driver). My reasoning was that if Roudy’s Excursion could make it down the trail then I wouldn’t have any problems. Luckily my wish came true. Things were pretty slow from the start, the first traffic jam of the day was at the first challenge trail; the majority of the traffic was due to the initial hesitation to pull cable and winch. This would change quickly during the event, and pulling cable become a regular and sometimes automatic reaction to obstacles. Overall though the majority of Day 1 was pretty mild with a few challenging areas – my sliders took their hardest hit on the last trail of the day. We pulled into camp after day 1 and settled in for the night.
Day 2:
The night before day 2 we drew the first departure time of 8:00 AM and would be the first team out on the trail. We quickly learned that this was the best place to be as the trail conditions deteriorated substantially throughout the day as 60 trucks passed through. We woke up to an ominous fog and within our first mile of leaving the farm we had to use our Maxtrax to get through some pretty terrible mud. To make things worse it started to rain and the conditions continued to get worse.
We spent the majority of the day navigating up a quickly flooding creek and spent 2 hours winching up the infamous “Mt. Vollers”. We learned early on day 2 that the Nitto Terra Grappler AT’s I was running were a poor match for the mud in Vermont: combined with the weight of my truck I might as well have had summer slicks. Despite the tire disadvantage I would like to state on the record that we were the first team that reached the top of Mt. Vollers, or as Pete likes to say “We winched a Sienna to the top of that mountain.” The winch-fest was pretty hard on our overall morale but luckily it was nothing that a bottle of scotch couldn’t fix.
Day 3:
We woke up tired, hung over, and beaten to hell on Day 3. I managed to pass out around 7:00 PM the night before in the comfort of the Land Cruiser but I realized I must have missed one hell of a party after wandering up to the fire pit in the morning. Luckily for the majority of the day we were blessed with good weather and moderately dry trails. We were also able to utilize the OEM electronic traction aids of the 200 Series to get us out of some situations that would have otherwise required a winch. Those gadgets truly amazed us. The two most challenging parts of day 3 were a long muddy strip of trail with no trees to winch off of and the last strip of trail which included a 3 ft deep rut. With some careful winching and spotting from Pete, we were able to get our trucks through both unscathed and get back to camp for the evening.
Day 4:
The final day of the VOT was a fun and relaxing day of easy to moderate trails. After the past 3 days everyone was in dire need of a way to decompress and this was it. We were also joined by Ben in the 4Runner as his partner Roudy was unable to continue after suffering 3 flats. After a few hours of driving we got back to the farm and hit the challenge trail. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to complete it due to tires that just couldn’t get the job done. Matt and Pete in the JK along with Ben completed the rest of the trail with ease. Our team decided that we didn’t want to stay overnight again in Vermont so we packed our gear and parted ways.
Looking Back:
I really have to give a huge thank you to Matt and Pete Henwood for everything that they did from getting my truck built for the VOT to sharing their experience and knowledge. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have been able to participate let along make it through without their support. For this they have my eternal gratitude and respect. I especially have to thank Pete though, he pulled so much winch line for me and never gave up, nor did he ever complain, for this I’m pretty sure I’ll be buying his drinks for the rest of our lives.
The VOT is probably the most difficult event I’ve ever participated in, it will challenge your truck, your skills, but most importantly your mental toughness. At no point did I think that I wouldn’t be able to complete the event, but at no point did I think I would be able to just breeze right through. The only advice that I would give is get yourself some mud tires, take more photos, and bring a partner. I’m glad to have been a part of the first VOT and I hope to return again in the future.
Great write up Alex! Nice pics.