Mighty Maine Event
October 2, 2004
Hosted by: K&B Automotive, Ellsworth, ME
Saturday morning was an early one for Ian and I. To get to the Ellsworth, Maine region from ECR takes a little time so we had to head out early. Making matters worse was a blanket of dense fog over the coast of Maine on this October morning. So what is the vehicle of choice for a foggy October morning? Yup, you guessed it, a 1995 Defender 90 with no top and no door tops. Luckily once we got to the Ellsworth area the fog burnt off and it turned into a picture perfect day. We met at K&B Automotive and Brett from K&B lead us out of town and to the base of Schoodic Mountain.
One of ECR's nearly stock D90's handled the day with trouble free ease and we even converted a few non-believers over to what a D90 can do off road.
Along the trail there were a few steps that required serious effort. The Jeep in the image above got hopping a little too much and landed with all the vehicle weight on the left rear. This blew up the differential and ended his day. This Jeep was doing double duty as the lunch wagon, so now that the lunch wagon was "lunched" we transferred the people and gear into other vehicles to head to the top.
The views from the trail were amazing and the combination of ledges and loose rocks proved to be a great mix of "doable" but very fun off roading.
Here you can see, sort of, the lone Discovery on the trip negotiating a tight corner with a lot of loose rocks.
At the top of the mountain we were treated to one of the best views I have seen this year. You could see from Bar Harbor to Banger and you could even see the mountains that surround the ECR shop in the distance. It was clear and warm and one of the best spots I've ever had lunch in.
We had a lot of the Jeep guys checking out the D90 (see image above) to see just what made this almost bone stock Defender do so well.
After lunch we "posed" the rigs for a group shot before we headed back down the trail and to some other trails in the woods surrounding the mountain. We had a great day off off roading with great people who drive all kinds of vehicles, from Toyotas to Jeeps, Land Rovers and even a Suzuki Samurai. After the trails we headed back to Ellsworth and had some dinner. The ride back to ECR that night was a little chilly, but luckily we have done this many times so we had all the right gear on board to make it comfortable. In Searsport I mentioned something to Ian about how nice the night was, and about that time I started to see rain on the windscreen. We put on our foul weather gear and headed for ECR in heavy rain. Next time I'm going to keep my mouth shut about the weather. In the right gear with the right vehicle (in our opinion) we had a nice ride back and arrived at ECR safe and sound later that night.
It was a great day that could not have been much better. Many thanks to Brett and the guys from K &B for the great trails, and to the organizer for the invite, we had a blast.
See you on the trail,
Mike Smith, ECR
Back to the Table of Contents
East Coast Rover Co.
21 Tolman Road
Warren, ME 04864
email: ecrover@midcoast.com