Trail Ratings From a Trail Guide Point of View
We trail guided at the amazing Crawl 4 the Cure event in Gilbert, Minnesota this year. It is a supurb event, put on by a great organization, led by wonderful people with huge hearts, raising money for Multiple Sclerosis and we get to do some off-roading at the same time. We look forward to attending this event every year. Several years ago, I was encouraged by my friend Gemini Kuether to try trail leading for this event and she would “trail gun” for me. Which is the person at the end of the group who makes sure we don’t lose anyone. I am very familiar with the Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle Park up there as we have been going there every year for more than 20 years. With that said, the trails do change from year to year. What was easy last year might be extra spicy this year. You just never really know until you’re on the trail. The beauty of the trails in Gilbert is that there are alternate lines or parallel trails on many of the routes throughout the park. Some of the trails can be as easy or as hard as you want them to be.
Traditionally, off-road trails are rated on a 1-10 scale. With 1 being easy and 10 just less than impassable. In Minnesota the trails are rated on an easy, medium, hard, and what the heck scale, like ski slopes. Most trails are rated around the hardest obstacle on the trail. For example, a forest road might be considered easy overall but because of the big rock in the middle of the trail it might be bumped up to a medium trail. Unfortunately, this rating system can be kind of vague and open to interpretation. What’s easy for one person, might be challenging for another. As a seasoned off-roader, I interpret the difficulty scale in the following manner:
- Easiest – Can be completed with a stock 4X4 vehicle, aired down tires and minor under vehicle scrapping. Or, a front wheel drive vehicle in “send it” mode.
- More Difficult – 4X4 vehicles with 33” plus size tires and good skid plates/rock sliders.
- Most Difficult – 35” plus size tires, lockers front and rear, and good skid plates/rock sliders. Doable with 33” tires, lockers, skid plates/rock sliders, and a winch. Great trails for isolating weak areas in your off-road build.
- Extremely Difficult – You are now entering buggy territory where they dance a delicate dance with gravity. Or, if you have very encouraging friends your Jeep with 33” tires should be able to make it “just fine”.
As a trail leader I’m looking for trails that are fun to explore, keep the group moving, and keep it interesting. This year we were leading an easy group. The easy groups can be a mix of seasoned drivers looking for a scenic tour of the woods to fresh off-roaders with limited off-road experience. Vehicles can be a mix of daily drivers to full on buggies. I look to create a memorable trail experience for all who attend. Maybe push the limit of some drivers and vehicles to further develop their off-road driving skills. If you don’t like a little bit of a challenge, why are you there? Another consideration is the vast number of people who attend The Crawl. We had three easy groups running around the park with about six or more groups completing the medium and hard trails. The easy groups typically cover more ground as they get stuck less and have less broken parts compared to the other groups. As a trail guide, we need to be familiar with the area and flexible when picking routes as we might have to adjust our route on the fly more than a few times during the day. This year I decided to change it up and drive some of the lesser used trails in the West Unit (a.k.a. Virginia Expansion). I found a route that was passable for most vehicles and not likely to be previously traveled by anyone in the group. Most of the trail was fairly easy apart from one small challenging section. Which became good practice for navigating mud and rocks due to the rain that day. Most of our crew thought it was great fun with only small grumblings of it being “more of a medium” trail. The good news is nobody was forced to complete that section and there was a spot to turn around and easily catch up with the group as we circled around. One of our group gave the hill a shot but decided to circle around and catch up with us. Which was great because I like to develop skills, not wreck vehicles. To put it in perspective we were leading the group in my completely stock daily driver, a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Sport 2 door with a manual transmission. My 15-year-old daughter drove the whole day without issue. We didn’t need to recover anyone, and everyone completed the whole drive with their vehicles intact. In my book, that is considered a win as a trail guide. Yes, I did make some people a bit uncomfortable, but I’m O.K. with that.
Trail guiding isn’t for everyone, and many times things don’t go according to plan. Part of being an off-roader is the ability to adapt to changing conditions, trail obstacles, and vehicle problems. It is important that we work together and encourage young and new off-roaders. Take the time to guide them through the tough sections. Teach them safe recovery practices. Inspire their desire for exploration and adventure. Let the young ones experience the fun of bouncing around on the trails, let the older ones drive your vehicle. Ride with them, talk to them, teach them how to pick lines, explain trail etiquette, how to respect the land, and be a good example. We need the younger generation to want to develop more trails and maintain the ones we currently have. This is a great hobby that can and should be enjoyed by all who choose to take the road less traveled!
“The Most Profound Off-Road Vehicle Modification!”
“Breaker, Breaker Is There Anyone Out There?”
“Recommended Recovery Equipment for Off-Raod Adventures”
www.MN4WDA.org