My time at Jericho Mt. State Park in Berlin, NH.

[Blmpkn]

A buddy of mine that I go visit from time to time is rapidly deteriorating due to having advanced, untreatable M.S. He's told me a few times how much he misses doing crap with vehicles... so I decided to good way to get him out of the house and have some fun would be too take him out wheeling for the day.

I reside in Gray, and my buddy Josh lives in Sebago, about an hour apart from each other but either way about an hour and 45 from Berlin.

I should of taken more pictures on the way up, but it was a beautiful ride through the western Maine foothills and into the white mountains of NH. Windy as a bastard though.

It's only a couple minute drive from downtown Berlin to the road up to the park, and but a few more minutes to the visitors center and the trailhead.

The 4x4 trails built at Jericho are unlike any other in the northeast. NH was kind enough to let the North-Woods Off Road Club build and maintain them for anyone to come and enjoy.

The first trail they built is a bit of a doozie, while it's technically a blue trail.. they reccomend you more or less have a purpose built wheeling rig to attempt it. It's just shy of 3 miles IIRC and they say you should expect to be on it for 4-5 hours. Most of the pictures on the little brochure I'm sure were taken on blue trails. The past few years they've started building greens/blacks/reds.

Green trails are two-way, in case someone decides they've gotten in over their heads (which according to Mr. Grumpy at the desk... happened shortly before we got there lol. Some people went in, couldn't make it past the first 'obstacle' turned around and came right back out.

The harder trails are one-way, so be prepared. If your rig decides to break on you, or you get too stuck.. the off road club will come recover your rig for.... probably a lot of money.

We stuck to the green trails. I was sort of surprised at how technical, tight, and chunky some parts of them were. I don't think I'd want to bring a bone stock 2019+ through there if it didn't have the fx4 skids.. but my truck did well enough with a 2.5" level and 32" tires. Only got close to my rockers on a rock once, pretty easy to avoid body damage on the sections we did.. as long as your not much longer than a new ranger.

About to hit the trail.

First bit of 'trail damage'

(Fiance about to wing a leaf at me) To the left in front of the truck was the green trail, but you could take a quick little blue section that hooks around back to green If you stay right.

I couldn't even tell where the trail went here

The only other people we saw out there was a few folks in 2 wranglers from Vermont, they putted past us right after I took this.

Made it out alive.

Headin' on home.

I have a few minutes of video I'll try to edit together later on today and post up, it's not YouTube fame status footage by any means lol but it'll paint a better picture than my crummy photography.

I'd also like to get out there again before they shut for the year, for the purpose of getting some much better footage (and youtube millions naturally). Doing the remaining green trails we didn't get to would be a plus too lol.



Overall, we all had a great time. Guy at the counter was kinda a dick.. but what else do you expect from a state employee? The fiance did well, and didn't murder me with incessant 'nagging' about not breaking my truck.. even the couple times I scraped frame. My buddy had an EXTREMELY good time hobbling around on his braces acting as my spotter (scared the shit out of me personally, asked if he wanted to wear my wheeler helmet just in case he takes a tumble lol) and I finally got the chance to do some "real" wheeling in my truck we took our time while we were there, I didn't keep track of how many miles we did but we were in the woods for a solid 4 hours and DIDNT get to the green sections I crappily highlighted below.

10/10. One of my new favorite places for sure. I think it would be one hell of a great spot for a TRS get together. There's camping available on site, with a plethora of hotels/b&b's within 15 minutes of the park, nice little lake.. beautiful location.

 

[Jazzer]

Nice writeup and good karma for you for showing your buddy a good time!

-Nazzer

 

[Blmpkn]

Nice writeup and good karma for you for showing your buddy a good time!

-Nazzer

Thank you! I'm really not the best at write-ups but I did my best.

And thank you for the Karma bit as well. His story is real unfortunate..he got diagnosed 15 years too late for treatments to really do anything, his family is next to worthless regarding HELP, he's been through the wringer of living in assisted facilities/hospice.. very stereotypically had medications and personal belongings stolen.. not cared for the way they get paid to care for people.. it's all way too sad.

He's now living with an ex wife, who.. at least makes sure he has food and meds.. but leaves him alone 95% of the time which is NOT GOOD considering he's a massive fall risk and at risk for seizures so bad they can finish off what remaining brain function he has left.

Hearing your friend say they want to quit getting the treatments that keep them alive because it's painful to live and torture being stuck in a room all day playing videogames is an absolute heartbreaker. I NEEDED to get him out and have some fun.

God forbid I ever end up in his position.... id more than appreciate someone doing the same for me.

 

[Blmpkn]

On a happier note....

I've edited together the video I managed to get, and it's uploading to YouTube now.

I have trash cell service at the house when there's leaves on the trees though.... hopefully by the time I'm ready for bed it's done uploading and ill post it up lol.

 

[Blmpkn]

Here it is fellas, even made a little stop motion funny for you guys at the end lol so you better appreciate it

*nobody barfed during the filming of this adventure.

My camera person thought they should really focus on the bottom half of the vehicle at parts for some reason lol, she really tried.. next time I go ill have more cameras/angles/footage/whatever.

 

[Blmpkn]

Headed back to Jericho this morning

Come-a-long, 50' of straps, means to deflate the tires and my harbor freight 12v compressor make up the bag of gear I take along. I doubt I'll need any of the actual recovery gear as I'll probably stick to the green trails again.. it's just required by the park.


Also bringing the 12v cooler I bought last year.. filled with enough hotdogs to kill an individual in pristine cardiovascular health


Video will be coming eventually

 

[Blmpkn]

Had a great time again!

Did every bit of green trail they had, and might of wound up on a bit of black at one point on accident? Not entirely sure.

There was MUCH more metal-to-rock contact on this trip over last year's trip with the truck lol... no body damage... but came damn close a couple times

It was a lot wetter yesterday than It was when we went last year.. and I will say that I think I do indeed miss that rear e-locker.. although the lack of locker DID make things more exciting!

Editing on the video is in progress.

 

[bilbo]

Looks like a beautiful area and a good time! I had an Xterra ~10 years back but never did much off-roading with it. I was always too worried about body damage. It had an offroad package that included a rear locker and a couple other bits. Sometimes I miss the truck but not the fuel economy. My full size V8 pickup gets much better mileage.

 

[ericbphoto]

Looks like a fun place

 

[Blmpkn]

Looks like a beautiful area and a good time! I had an Xterra ~10 years back but never did much off-roading with it. I was always too worried about body damage. It had an offroad package that included a rear locker and a couple other bits. Sometimes I miss the truck but not the fuel economy. My full size V8 pickup gets much better mileage.

Nissans seem to really guzzle the fuel.. and yeah body damage is no good for a daily driver lol. The rear quarters on these just unbolt though.. so that's neat just in case..

Looks like a fun place

You'd have a ball with your rig I'm sure.

 

[Blmpkn]

Here it is gents! Good editing practice... whether or not it's good editing though.. eeeh better than the last wheeling video I made though for sure.