This past weekend we had a really unique opportunity! The Maryland Off Highway Vehicle Alliance (MDOHVA) has been working closely with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for a few years now. Their major goal is to get new recreational spaces opened for off highway vehicle use. They have been working together and are on the verge of opening a new off road park next summer!
The new park property, recently purchased by the state, is approximately 2000 acres spread across 3 parcels of land. The properties are near the city of Kitzmiller, MD, an area of the state desperately in need of additional revenue streams. The kind of revenue that can come from tourists coming to recreate in the area.
The state is still looking for input from the off road community and so in that effort invited representatives of the intended user group to the park. The association represents full-size, dirt bike, four wheelers, and side-by-sides. Because of our clubs involvement in the association myself (our club President) and Mike (our board member and new board member on the MDOHVA) were personally invited to take 2 of the 5 spots that would represent the full-size community at this event.
It was part meet and greet, part information session, part volunteering, part them requesting feedback.
Wolf Den Run State Park
Cherie and I met the group at the specified time, 10am on Saturday, on what we would find was Parcel A. The meeting location was a large field and was a great place for us to all get to meet one another and learn what we were in for. We decided to break into groups, with our group, lead by the Maryland DNR, heading over to Parcel C.
I won’t bore you with the details (check out our club Trail Report) but we toured around Parcel C for a few hours. What we saw was mostly trails that were wide enough for a full-size vehicle to comfortably get through. Well, after the overgrowth was cut back which we did as we found it. The trails that we covered were all traversable by a stock Jeep Wrangler, although did include some optional mud holes which were a challenge for some in the group. This part of the park reminded me of the easier getting around trails at Rausch Creek or AOAA, both in Pennsylvania.
We didn’t see any big rocks, but then again we only saw a small portion of the park.
We gave feedback on various aspects of what we saw and the plan they presented. Probably the most noteworthy was the need for big gravel on the way out of the park to clean peoples tires of mud. Even just our handful of vehicles covered the local road near the entrance with mud. An unfortunate occurrence, but one easily avoided in the future with the proper application of gravel in the park. I very much look forward to the park opening in the summer of 2019!
Swallow Falls State Park
After our day of exploring we went back to our campsite nearby in Swallow Falls State Park. The accommodations were really spectacular and our site fairly close to the bathrooms was actually pretty convenient.
Sunday morning we really took our time to enjoy what Swallow Falls State Park had to offer. I brought along the SLR and we headed off to enjoy the hike within the park. The hike immediately enters into an old hemlock grove with some trees over 300 years old. The trees really are different than most we see around, and it’s easy to appreciate you’ve stepped back in time. The hike was pleasant and takes you by 3 waterfalls. This includes Muddy Creek Falls which is apparently the highest free-falling waterfall in Maryland.
I had a lot of fun trying to capture some nice pictures of the cascading and smaller waterfalls in the forest. It was nice to just get out and take some time to capture some pictures without anyone around. Below are some of my shots, but I plan to make it back again for more.
Camera Mount Testing
While exploring Wolf Den Run State Park I got to test my camera mount with the new GoPro topper. It was super handy, allowing me to mount it to others vehicles quickly. Overall it did well, isolating the camera well (as can be seen in the video above). However a new failure occured. The top half of the mount hit a branch and pulled the rubber parts out of the bottom. Luckily the part with the camera on it was retrieved, but it was unrepairable in the field without disassembling the mount.
So the mount and rubber isolators I’ve chosen work for isolation. But I think I’ll need to add something to limit how far apart the two haves can separate. This could cause vibration transmission into the camera as it stretches to the limit. However it would keep the mount from breaking and potentially losing my camera.
I guess I have some more work on this project…
