The 4th Annual ECXC saw a total of 53 trucks
throughout the weekend. It marked the first time ECXC broke the 50
vehicle mark. We would have had 54, but unfortunately
one of our attendees had truck problems on the drive up Friday morning and
couldn't make it. Both Friday and Saturday set new records for
single day attendees with 43 and 48 trucks respectfully. Friday
marked the first day that we were on the trail with rain, and boy did it
rain. We had some rain during the the first ECXC, but not while we
were on the trail. The rest of the weekend had great weather.
Rausch Creek is tough enough when it is dry, so the rain made for a very
interesting first day on the trails.
In true MAXC fashion, each night saw a nice bonfire to enjoy.
Kev0153 came out of retirement and graced us with some awesome
pyrotechnics each night. Once again we set up camp at Echo Valley
Campground just one exit south of Rausch Creek Off-Road Park. Echo
Valley continues to prove a very gracious host for the rowdy bunch of
wheelers we can be. Our camping area was a little tighter this year,
with close to 45 tents and a Pop-Up camper.
 Friday
saw 4 groups go into the woods. Rausch Creek had recently opened a
new entrance into the woods when they acquired their own office, apart
from the MX Park. With the rain, it took some time to get all 43
trucks into the woods, but from there is was smooth sailing. We had
2 stock groups, an stock/intermediate group and an intermediate/hardcore
group. The trails are really rated for and by Jeepers, so some of the
stock trails can flirt with intermediate while some of the intermediate
trails flirt with hardcore for our Xterras.
Saturday turned out to be a great day. The sun shined brightly all
day, giving some of the trails a chance to dry out a little.
Saturday set the all time record for single day attendance with 48 trucks.
We sorta threw the trail assignments out the window and let some of the
larger groups split into smaller groups and guide themselves. For
the most part, Rausch Creek is well mapped and easy to navigate. We
had something like 7 groups go into the woods.
Every year Saturday night is set aside for what we like to call the
Saturday Night Blow-out, where we chow down on great food and raffle off
donated items from our many sponsors. This year
Destination
Xterra donated a keg of Bass Ale. For dinner we had a Roasted
Pig, Maryland style crabs, Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, grilled Italian Sausage &
Authentic Polish Kielbasa. This year we had some great sponsors, ARB,
Warn, Calmini, Skid Row Automotive, TJM, NismoStuff.com, Arlon,
Shrockworks, Automotive Customizers, Marlboro Nissan, MasterPull,
XterraXcursions, Extreme Photography and the previously mentioned
Destination Xterra. ECXC also provided Water, Soda and Mike's Hard
Lemonade & Iced Tea as well as a 3.2 Megapixel Olympus Digital Camera and
a Garmin eTrex GPS to give-away. We partied until well after
midnight with NJAX setting up the All Night Go-Go with slushies that
tanked a few people.
Come Sunday morning, most folks were too
partied out and/or hung over. Sunday set a new all-time low for
single day attendance with 6 trucks. Considering the condition of
most folks around the campfire when it finally died down, 6 is an
impressive number.
ECXC 2004 definitely ranks among the best
ECXCs to date, but it won't compare to ECXC 2005. If you couldn't
make it for 2004, be sure to make 2005. You don't want to miss ECXC
2005.
-Michael |
