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Words by Brian Sibbles photos courtesy OF4WD
This year at Camp NL it was the year of the newbie. We had more first time wheelers than ever before. One of the most common questions we got leading up to the event was what can we expect when we attend this event? So we would like to give readers a firsthand account of what the Camp NL experience is like.
Tuesday August 12th
An overcast morning with a beautiful scotch mist in the air, the 88 YJ is on the trailer and the truck is loaded, ready to head to Minden Ontario for the premier event Camp NL XII. My wife Kim Sibbles and I, volunteers of the Ontario Federation of 4 Wheel Drive (OF4WD), head north towards Minden, Ontario, to meet up with the Camp NL committee already on site at South Wind Motel and Campground. Arriving at the site of Camp NL we found committee members, Chris Muir and Colin Jardine already working hard on signage and campsite staking in anticipation for the event launch.
Logistics for Camp NL is a labour intensive task, with over 315 people registered for the event, organization and planning is key. The 50 x 150 ft event tent was on its way, ordered larger due to the forecasted weather reports. Over 170 participant bags were packed with awesome swag from our sponsors, T-Shirts, and information booklets. Electrical equipment such as a site wide PA system, DJ equipment, and a 6 kw generator was getting on site and set up to support the events requirements.
Wednesday August 13th
Many of the 40 trail guides have arrived and are out pre-running trails to ensure participants have the ultimate experience. The trail roster consist of over 20 trails, 180 km in total, all requiring checks to confirm they are ready for the 170 vehicles arriving shortly. The OF4WD trail guides are an elite crew of veteran wheelers who dedicate many volunteer hours in promoting the sport and giving people an excellent safe guided experience on Ontario’s top trails.
Thursday 4pm
Registration is “OPEN”. Kim Sibbles along with her fantastic team of ladies, Laura Muir, Angie Prince, and Nikki Scott work diligently to ensure participants are all paid up, the waiver is signed, their pre-ordered shirts and sweaters are in their bag ready to be worn and early bird raffle tickets are in hand. By that evening over 80% of the participants have registered and are on site setting up their camp or moving into their motel room. 4WD vehicles such as Jeep’s, Raptor’s, Land Cruiser’s, FJ’s, and Yota’s are everywhere. The event tent is busy with old friends catching up and new ones being made. Sponsors of the OF4WD, Just Jeeps, Rock Spyder 4X4, Stangs Fab, TMR Customs, Off-road Addiction, Mild to Wild, and Grote Trillant are all set up and on hand in the vendors area offering the newest and greatest equipment available for their off-road rig. Excitement is in the air!
Friday Morning, 7am.
Camp NL Director, Chris Muir’s voice comes across the PA system welcoming everyone to Camp NL XII. The Drivers’ meeting is at 08:00 am. Early morning registration is underway and last minute participants are signing up for their trail pick and awaiting adventure. 4WD drivers are lining up in their departure location; guides are briefing the participants about the trail and safely related items. The participants can experience everything from entry-level 101 trails to extreme level five trails. Camp NL has something for everyone; rock, mud, technical, scenic, you name it, it’s here at this event. One by one the participants roll out onto the trails for a day of adventure and discovery.
Friday, 4:00 pm,
The trucks begin to return back into base camp. Everyone has had an excellent day despite the cool wet overcast weather. CT Motorsports, another OF4WD dedicated sponsor, has the MASH unit set up, run by owner Ski and his team of guys. Conducting repairs of vehicles that sustained an un-fortunate mishap, Ski asks for a donation after repairing the vehicles and at the end of the weekend donates his proceeds to the OF4WD.
The smell of BBQ fills the air drawing participants to the event tent. Rubicon Grill’s, Tony and his team are cooking Pork Slovakia with roasted potatoes, rice, and awesome Greek salad. After sharing stories from the day over dinner, participants are treated to a night of entertainment by the Stephanie Gregg Band, new this year to Camp NL, with amps and lights. Playing into the night participants enjoyed a bonfire and danced to the live music where the entertainment wrapped up around midnight with an encore set.
Saturday, 7:00am
The smell of bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, bagels and coffee is floating across the camp. A great start to another day of trail riding. Saturday turned out to be a wicked day on the trails. The heavens opened up and it rained most of the day. Water holes became deep, rocks were slippery, and mud was in abundance. Participants began arriving at base camp later in the day and despite the weather, everyone had an excellent time. Trucks dirty and participants soaked to the bone, people hit the showers and arrived to dinner in the event tent smiling and ready for the night’s festivities.
Enjoying a meal of pulled pork, fried chicken, mixed vegetables, coleslaw and baked beans, the participants browsed the vendor area taking advantage of the Camp NL exclusive deals and playing a few games put on by the sponsors. As dinner finished up, the trail guides emptied the event tent of its picnic tables and people began to snag a piece of grass with their camp chair awaiting the Saturday night festivities to start. Camp NL Director, Chris Muir welcomes everyone and hosts a fantastic evening of prizes and awards.
Camp NL is a fundraiser for the OF4WD as well as a fundraiser for the Halliburton Highlands Hospital Foundation (HHHF), which is the local hospital for the area where we enjoy the trails. Over the 12 years of NL, the 4WD community has raised over $47,000. Dale Walker, of HHHF, was on hand to thank the community and the importance of 4WD to economic development in the area. Every year HHHF sells stuffed animals, which have become a bit of a collector’s item at Camp NL. This year the toys were Siberian huskies, $20 each and if you get it now you’re also going to receive some swag from the OF4WD sponsors. All 100 huskies were sold in about six minutes. Paul and Tami Hamilton of Autoworks Off-Road bought the last three for kids at the event who did not get one.
Awards were hand made by Chris Muir. Best Trail guide Bronco Horvath Award, voted by the participants went to Liam Goudy. The Most Environmentally Conscious award went to Darlene Keeta Sine. Rookie of the Year went to Dwight Hordyk from Durham 4X4. The Most Carnage award went to Pete Hamann for blowing a tranny. Beyond the Call went to Srdjan Bungy who travelled all the way from Saskatchewan to be a trail guide, and finally the Best TB Sue Bach award went to Bret Stratton (Moose) for being awesome.
As the final grand prizes were given away, trail sign up for Sunday runs opened up, while the bonfire and the DJ sparked the Saturday night party to life. A good time was had by all.
Sunday followed with one final day of trail riding. As the facility emptied out Sunday evening, and everyone returned home safely, the Camp NL committee stayed behind to clean up and begin organizing for the 2015 event. Camp NL XIII will be held on August 14-16th so keep an eye on the OF4WD website and Facebook pages for your chance to register on-line and attend the largest family oriented off-road event in the Ontario.