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Clint Carter
Loonie Run 2012
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Clint Carter
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Curly Watts
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Jim Gerst
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Max Karker
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John Raczynski
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Ron Brimmer
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Tad Dowker
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Kal Kenerry
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Dale Larson
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Chelsea Ballargeon
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Mike Raczynski
by Clint Carter
Screaming engines in the distance and the mountains on fire with the fall colors was the start to this years Loonie Run – as always, the first full weekend in October. I arrived at Morning Wood Off-Road Park (just 30mins North of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario) Thursday morning to a sunny 20˚ C.
The group, lead by Shawn Litchy (of InnerAirLock), was already on the move to the “River Run” obstacle. I got in line and worked my way through to the Crack (aka AL's Crack). This monster crack in the rock is very intimidating when you pull up to it. Only 3 rigs are known to have made it through but many have attempted it, only to fall victim to “The Crack” and require the ‘Strap of Shame’ to get pulled back. With a by-pass both left and right of “The Crack” we pushed to the end of “The River Run”. This year only Mike Raczynski and his monster blue buggy made it through. This is a 5.3L four-seater on MOG Axles running 49” IROKS. Shawn Lichty gave it a good try… but maybe next time. Check out UnemployedFilms.com to see all the action.
Night runs are not allowed at most parks. But at “Morning Wood Off-Road Park” and adjoining “Trussel Off-Road Park” it’s almost no-holds-barred. You can go anytime you want - just try not to go alone. You need to be aware of how all the mountain trails end as some have pretty big drops and no one wants to test out their roll cage's.
We returned for dinner and met up with some people just pulling in, which gave me time to eat and finish getting my rig ready. We headed out at dusk and wheeled until 2am. There is no stranger feeling then wheeling a trail at night that you had run earlier in the day, but this time backwards with just your rock lights on - it looks like a whole new trail.
Waking up Friday morning to the sound of engines revving and a nice sunny COLD day, I took a walk through parking lot to check out the new trucks and trailers. We had a full house at Morning Wood. The Loonie Run is known for being cold, wet and occasionally - with snow. But last year they had a record high of 24 degrees Celsius for the whole weekend. The forecast this year looked good but there was a fear of snow for Sunday.
After breakfast our group headed out with Curly Watts (co-owner of Morning Wood Off-Road Park) leading the way over to the “Stairstep” obstacle. After a few throttled attempts to get up the Stairstep and one layover, we all got to the top. Before working our way to a few big muddy hill climbs that ended up being a great show, we climbed our way over to the obstacle named “Axle Wrap”. These perfect rock steps make having the right wheel base a big plus.
Shawn Lichty put on a great show and tested out his InnerAirLocks, as he did his best bucking bronco impression and landed on both drivers’ side wheels, which then rolled him on his lid. We got him up-righted and then returned to camp for dinner. With dinner over and temps dropping it was hard to get pumped up for a night run. BUT, the rain had stopped and the stars came out. It was an impressive sight standing in the parking lot looking around at the surrounding convoys & rigs - headlights and taillights shining everywhere. It reminded me of KOH (King of the Hammers) seeing everyone at Chocolate Thunder and Backdoor (but with a lot more trees). I called it quits at 1am but heard the party went on throughout the night.
Time for the Saturday morning carnage report - a broken 205 transfer case, busted wheels, damaged ring and pinions, numerous destroyed axles and plenty of character-adding body dings, dents and bush pin striping. We started the day at “Shit Creek”, a nice long river crawl with boulders and a very cool trail finish. We then made our way over to the obstacle “Outback” where Jim Gerst and his group were rock bouncing their way up to a new spot at Morning Wood.
With night approaching some of us headed back for dinner. Not wanting this weekend to end, a night run was a must. With people pretty much everywhere, we followed the closest sound and came across a group of rigs putting a beat down on “Axle Wrap”. We managed to arrive as Luke Delk (owner of Unknown Off-Road) got a rather large tree caught in his rig. Out came a chainsaw and now “Axle Wrap” has a nice new runway to launch your rig on. Luke called out “Its time to get Buck Nasty!” and launched his S-10 truggy on 46” Claws up “Axle Wrap”. It was a cold, clear night and a great end to this years' Loonie Run.
This was the 24th anniversary of the Loonie Run and the final count was about 40 trucks. There were lots of stories to go around. And about that SNOW... it snowed all Sunday morning... Ohhh Canada!
Contact information:
Morning Wood Off-Road Park:
Curly Watts & Chelsea Ballargeon – Owners
JustSouthOfSanity@hotmail.com or you can find Curly on Facebook
The Trussel Off-Road Park:
Charlene Pigeau – Owner
CharP66@xplornet.com