PARA Event: Written by Jason Wachtel

   I went up to maine to attend the first meeting of a new rover club. PARA - Portland Area Rovers Association. The gathering point was held at a local high school. Les from Rovers North and Land Rover Scarborough attended to help the fledgling club. There were about 10 vehicles present. Most were series, and it was a good mix of all flavors of series including a diesel lightweight, and a couple range rovers, and one D90.

The trail was a climb up Abbot mountain. The trail leading in was sand at first. I however did not stay right enough of a ditch and ended up sliding in and sitting at 30 degrees. A little teamwork pays off fast. with people holding the rover on one side, having a spotter for my tires and inching in 1st low it was easy to recover. We then proceeded down a rock ridden trail. Mostly bumpy and not many rocks sizeable to kiss your diff. Their is a right hand turn 1/2 mile down the rocky trail. The trail is wide and climbs up mount abbot. The great thing about it is that there are many approaches to take so driving personality and styles really come out. The terrain was rocky with loose gravel. The gravel on the rocks was quite slippery under foot but not bad for tires. This first ascent was easy with most vehicles grinding dirt on the right hand side. Land Rover Scarborough had to find every difficult obstacle and climb over it though. It was nice to see an experienced driver show the capabilites of the range rover. He almost flipped it trying to climb a 3 ft. rock face.

After the first approach we made several more short climbs, watch vehicles, take photos, chat, climb some more and so on. There were several ATV's buzzing around from time to time and we were passed by extremely modified jeeps on the way up. One of these jeeps ended up snapping his rear drive shaft from over extending it on the way up. By lunch time we stopped at a good sized clearing. An SIII broke a half-shaft, or so we thought. After pulling both it was clear that something in the Diff had gone. It is a shame as I brought spare half-shafts and offered them up but unfortunately it wouldn't do. Another rear rover axle broke afterwards but the driver had spares at home and descended from there.We continued the climb to just short of the top. There was a short meeting and donations were made.

Originally the plans were to camp. However with rain being in the forecast and the warnings of hair raising trails laden with heavy running water that frightened our guide from Scraborough, and something about a free pig-roast sent almost everyone down. I stayed up there with the D90 and we ascended to the top. Just had to reach the top! We hunted around and found light cover on one side of the mountain. Camp was formed between two vehicles with a tarp raised between them. With firewood gathered and chopped under light rain, tents pitched, and chairs laid out we settled back to a beautiful view of Maine, sirloin steaks and some cold beer. The rain was light and stopped completely about midnight. After camp coffee we descended slowly and carefully the next morning doing some trailside cleaning as we went. No torrents of water and no broken half-shafts.

The trail is about 1.5 hours north of Boston and is a good climb. It is an easy day trip and there are other trails in the area.

Jason Wachtel

SII 109 3door

photos from the trail