11^th Annual Truckhaven Challenge the Biggest Yet!

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By Geoff Teare, VP Administration

Like a snowball rolling down a hill, the Truckhaven Challenge just keeps getting bigger and bigger! Drawn by the great trails and always-superb January weather, a long line of vehicles rolled into camp all day Friday and even into Saturday morning!

On Saturday morning the poker run begins. The goal is to follow the orange markers through the canyons and hills, stopping at all the checkpoints along the way to draw a playing card and take part in a “game of skill”, then find the way back to camp before the course closes at 4:00PM. We also throw in a collection of optional “green routes” for those unconcerned with vehicle longevity!

With the blue sky above, the Salton Sea behind and the dry mud hills ahead, participants drew their first playing card at the starting line (Checkpoint 1) and were released on the poker run course at 8:00AM sharp.

Their first stop was at Checkpoint 2, where along with drawing their second card they got to play their first game and begin collecting points on the back of their scorecard. Checkpoint 3 was next, where the new game of “pushrod drop” was a lot tougher than it looked! Checkpoint 4 was the last along the trail and participants got to try their luck with a very light set of “darts”. The last Checkpoint, number 5, was back at the registration desk where folks got to draw their last card and guess how many M&M’s were in an odd-shaped jar.

As always, the participants faced a wide variety of terrain to test both their vehicles and their riding/driving skills. Long sand washes, rocks, tight & twisty canyons, talcum powder-like uphills and a few seat-soiling downhills made for an exciting day’s ride. Although only 20 miles in length, it took many vehicles most of the day to complete. We call it the Truckhaven “Challenge” for a reason!

One of the fun things about this event is the variety of vehicles entered. We get everything from dirt bikes and ATV’s to buggies and tons of 4X4’s. This year, the 4X4 class itself had a wild variety of entries: Kawasaki “Mules”, innumerable jeeps and assorted small 4X4’s, rock buggies and mud trucks as well as a 4 wheel drive pre-runner Rolls-Royce! All had their own way of dealing with the ever-changing terrain.

After the run, the great Trailmasters Four Wheel Drive Club BBQ began! These guys and gals outdid themselves this year with the greatest fixin’s for their burgers and ‘dogs that you could sink your teeth into. The food was so good that they completely sold out of everything right as the raffle was about to start! Perfect timing! To top it all off, they then donated all the money taken in to CORVA. You guys are the best!

Once again, we had another pile of goodies to raffle off from the Off Road Industry. Thousands of dollars worth of product later, our top prize of the evening was a T-Max 9000 winch courtesy of Stutz Industries! During the raffle we also gave out cash prizes to the winners of the poker run and checkpoint games.

On Sunday morning, CORVA President Ed Waldheim broke out his cooking gear and (with help from a collection of volunteers) served a great breakfast to benefit CORVA’s N2DIRT program. The eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes were scarfed down en masse. It was delicious and Ed has promised he will be back next year to do the same as it was a big hit!

At 9:00AM we held both the Satellite Safari and the Kid’s Games. The kids games have been a tradition on Sunday morning and gives the little ones a chance to burn off some energy and win some little goodies of their own.

The Satellite Safari is now in its second year and it too is increasing in popularity. Participants were sent out into the hills to find an object at GPS coordinates we gave them when they signed up. The objects to be found were wooden stakes with a letter of the alphabet written on them. Each participant had 3 hours to find five specific stakes of the 26 stakes we had placed. They were placed in an area covering about 10 square miles of hills and canyons. Since everybody’s set of coordinates was randomly drawn, they were on their own and couldn’t just “follow the guy in front”. Yes, it was tough, but we did have a few winners!

This was the biggest Truckhaven Challenge yet and the largest event CORVA has ever held! With over 400 vehicles entered and more than $25,000 taken in, all previous records were blown away! Thank you to everybody that attended!

To be sure, we will be back next year, and are already making plans for more improvements. The dates will be January 20-21, 2007. Mark your calendars now!

Here are the winners:

This year we had more help than ever and a big “Thank You!” goes out to every one of you. The event simply could not be held without your hard work:

And last but certainly not least, a big word of thanks to the OHV businesses that donated product to our raffle. These companies go the extra mile and deserve first consideration when you go to buy off road parts and accessories!

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This page last updated March 13, 2010