Overland Expo West 2016
- Thread starter az_max
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It has become the greatest car-camping event in the states!
It's amazing how many "expeditions" are in the works these days. I say this because the amount of money going into truck "builds" and journal subscriptions MUST be an indicator of this. Right? I had no idea that when I packed my Rubber Maid tub up in my old Series II that I was indeed participating in an expedition.
I have a very funny feeling that this "movement" will slowly go the way of such endeavors as "biker build-offs".
It's amazing how many "expeditions" are in the works these days. I say this because the amount of money going into truck "builds" and journal subscriptions MUST be an indicator of this. Right? I had no idea that when I packed my Rubber Maid tub up in my old Series II that I was indeed participating in an expedition.
I have a very funny feeling that this "movement" will slowly go the way of such endeavors as "biker build-offs".
I hope it dies off. I could pick up some of their gear cheap
But before it goes, maybe we can have a live build-off of three 'expo' trucks. We'll even televise it.My boss tried to light the carpet on fire with my fire starter. Still smells of burned nylon in here.
This is why the VT events are important to me. Peter Vollers has done a great job of keeping the numbers low while at the same time keeping it a very "local" event - from the great class IV "roads", stopping to talk about the history of specific points along the way, the food, the drink.....and people actually get out and drive on some nice trails. Crazy huh!?
The location is going to change this year, so we'll see how it goes. But I've been there for all of them since he started doing the event and it's pretty damn ideal. The only negative I see is that it's becoming a LITTLE less diverse than it has in the past - Land Rover, Toyota and Jeep with Jeep now appearing to being dominate. I just don't want to see the "light bar" crowd take over, but I can't see that happening.
The Expo event is like going to see Kenny Chesney in the largest Wal Mart parking lot vs. Willie Nelson at Roberts in Nashville. It's more "show" than anything else. But then again the VT events are non-profit/club run events, so the intentions are for it to remain "local" with net proceeds to go to small start up companies in Vermont each year.
The VT event is a good mix though mostly dominated by 4x4s, but a decent number (20-30) bikes. I even see a handful of Subaru's on some trails doing a LOT more than the what you Range Rover crowd will ever be caught doing.
I love going and then taking off on the last day to spend a good 5+ days riding around the class IV roads and back roads around VT on my motorcycle. Crazy pretty parts of New England you can bomb around - from NH, VT and NY. Fall is the perfect time to be up there too - hit up some sugar shacks up north.
PS: Maybe it's time I get a RTT and Trasharoo for the Tahoe.
The $70 Chinese bar crowd can't; but having money and good taste are not necessarily correlated.
I went off on his ridiculous price for the overland beer safari trip on ExPo like two years ago, and then happened to get a free pass for one of his day trips a couple months after. He definitely knew who I was and no VOT staff spoke to me anymore than needed to except for a bigger dude who was the trail leader in a white DII from Mass, he seemed like nice guy.
I'm doing the VOR this year just to say I went, and a bunch of my buddies are heading up as well. They dropped the price of admission this year IIRC.
Haven't kept up with it much but never realized it got this pricey. When I'd looked into it in 14' I thought it was around $500/vehicle.
This thread has convinced me not to go to ExPo east despite being just up the road
I have no intention of ever going. It's just not my crowd. And, also, I hate crowds.
Go drive down a dirt lane with all your " expedition gear" while throwing $100 dollar bills out your window.
Vermont Overland Club. There actually are a lot of benefits of joining the club and that is for a three year membership. Not something I would pay for, but I can appreciate why someone would.