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Off-Road in Geo. Washington Nat'l Forest

On the weekend of June 22-23, 1996, a group of mid-Atlantic area Vanagon listers got together at Massanutten Mountain for a weekend of camping, swimming, tale tales and admiring each others VWs. The location was at the Elizabeth Furnace Campground, part of George Washington National Forest in the northwestern part of Virginia. Nine buses, 17 adults, 16 kids, and five dogs attended. We all had a great time.

Three Syncro Westies arrived, and it was soon decided to get off-road, since we were in some of the finest 4x4 country on the east-coast. Derek Drew brought plenty of useful maps, and we were soon discussing our plans to do the Peters Mill Run Trail with the local ranger. He looked a tad skeptical, but when Derek saw him smirking while he gave our mightly Syncro Westies the once over I knew we had to rise to the occasion.

The trail runs north-south along the western ridge of Massanutten Mountain, which is in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley. We started from the north, with a modest ford through Peters Mill Run. From the factory, VW Syncros have snorkle air intakes, a water protected ignition system, and are good for crossing about a foot of water. No challenge here, but the stream was pretty, clear, and a nice transition to the forest.

We began a gradual ascent, over a mix of dirt and rock. The trail was quite narrow, and overgrown. Supposedly open to all 4WD vehicles, it seemed more likely to fit off-road bikes and the cycle-like All Terrain Vehicles. So Derek, as ever superbly prepared, brought out his rechargable pruning tools, and with Pat Horrick's assistance, cleared the way. On we went, past intersections with a hiking trail or two.

The trail got rockier and bumpier as we climbed. This part got me thinking about the off-road capabilities of conventional, rear wheel drive Vanagons. They can make a good showing, especially if you have tires with an aggressive tread and perhaps slightly oversize, which gives you the advantage of a little extra ground clearance. So far, I did not think the AWD part of this operation was getting much use. Still, a real Synco advantage over conventional Vanagons is the super-low, 'granny' first gear. In my 'normal' first gear, with the engine at the bottom of the green range of the tach, 1500 RPM, I'm travelling at about eight miles per hour. With the 'granny', I'm doing about five miles per hour at the same RPM, and that really represents the minimum speed, without slipping the clutch. So the ability to go slow when the going gets rough is a big help in getting wherever it is you want to go.

About four miles up we had climbed well above the stream. We then discovered one of the highlights of the trip, a beautiful spring-fed pond right along the trail. We had it all to ourselves, the temperature was in the high eighties, the trail was dusty, and jumping in seemed to be the only reasonable course of action. We ended up spending a good forty-five minutes at this beautiful spot.

From this point, we were close to the top of the trail, where it crossed the ridge at about 2600 feet of altitude. The descent was the part the ranger said we would not be able to make, that we would want to turn around on top of the ridge and retrace our steps. "Huge ruts and boulders", he said, bikes and ATVs could get around them, but not us. Well, I'll admit it was interesting. The map shows an 800 foot descent in about a mile and a half. So something like a 1 in 10 drop, but of course, that was the average: some was steeper and some was not. In this section we also found the rutted areas, nice and wet from the previous night's rain, but nothing as bad as my experiences in the Range Rover Test Area.

Another reason for all-wheel drive is that sometimes you can't keep all your wheels on the road. This is where the differential locks on the Syncros comes in handy. One nasty spot had us on a steep, uneven downhill followed by a tight lefthand turn. Most of the vehicle weight was on the front wheels, and the right rear became totally unloaded, i.e., was off the ground. This happened to both vehicles, but the differential lock kept sending power to the rear wheel on the ground. Some fun!

A little later the trail narrowed again, and we stopped to clear more brush. Then we heard cars going by on the main road. In a few minutes, we were back on the blacktop. A good time was had by all.

Tom Forhan