It's not often you skip a raging party, only to show up the next day for the clean up. Maybe we watched one too many teen party movies in the 1980s, but there's that image of the grand piano winding up in the swimming pool, the mutant biker gang showing up and making off with the homecoming queen, and the magazine supermodel coming to life and finally making you a man. With all that going on, why would you want to show up the next day to pick up empties and mop up the mess?
For us, time constraints meant we wouldn't be able to catch the Western Main Mountain Jeeper's annual Maine Mountain Jeep Jamboree event held in beautiful Bethel, Maine. While we did miss out on the hundreds of Jeeps running miles of muddy, slick trails with gorgeous scenery, club member David Smith invited us to go out with a group of members the day after the event to learn more about how the club cares for the trails, fights soil erosion, and generally ensures the land will stay open and accessible for recreational use in the future.
In the end, we learned a lot about what it takes to keep Eastern trails open and healthy. And it didn't hurt that the members we hung with drove a really bitchin' assortment of Jeeps. For more information on the club's activities or to see about joining them for a run, visit www.jeepmaine.com.
While CJ-3Bs have taken the brunt of many a Jp joke, we found ourselves secretly pining for an example like Jon Spence's '53. Jon's high-hood runs the stock F-head 134, a T-98 four-speed from a Postal Jeep, and the stock Spicer 18. The Dana 25 and Dana 44 axles house 5.38 gears and turn 34x9.50-15 Swampers on 15x6 steelies. The suspension is stock, but Jon built the tub himself, incorporating 3/16-inch material in the rockers and rear tub corners. | 
Much of the trail reclamation and protection involved laying hay over deep, muddy sections and diverting the flow of rainwater and runoff away from tire tracks and into natural channels. This keeps the runoff from gaining momentum and digging deep troughs through the trails. By the time spring rolls around, you'll hardly be able to tell a vehicle was ever on this land. | 
One of the big Jeeps, T.J. Copeland's '80 CJ-7 was running an Electromotive distributorless injection system on the 258, a 6.32:1 T-18 tranny, and a Dana 20 T-case. T.J.'s modification list is extensive including items like the narrowed Wagoneer Dana 44 front, trussed wide-track Model 20 rear, Detroits and 4.56s, AGR steering, and 38.5x11-15 Boggers cleared by a spring-over with 2 1/2-inch packs and a 2-inch body lift. |