ROC Fest 2015

ROC Fest 2015 was the first of a new annual event put on for the ROC community. Held on BLM land in Fallon, Nevada, this camp-out style event allows for numerous offroad adventures, including fast trails, technical trails, lake beds, night drives, sight-seeing, BBQs, campfires and fun with friends new and old.  This year’s kick off event was amazing, and the ROC Team thanks all those who participated and helped to make it a great success. This event is intended to be the finale to our offroad season.  For that reason, we have chosen this amazing location with more than 335 miles of mapped trails.  We had a number of organized group drives each day, and also provided maps to all participants, allowing adventurous drivers to go out and explore on their own. It is not possible to do a play by play recap of the event, as there were so many activities and events going on throughout the weekend. Therefore, the recap below highlights only the main group runs led by the ROC Team. As stated before, there were many other outings and activities participants took part in, and each individual can share their own stories on the specific forums they belong to if they so choose. ROC Fest started Friday morning. We kicked off the weekend with a 45 mile fast trail loop.  12 trucks hit the trail late morning and found some great switch back sections throughout the loop. With the rain the weekend before, some parts of the trail had big mud puddles, which meant none of the trucks  stayed clean for long. At one point, a large mud puddle reached up and grabbed one of the trucks and would not let it go. We quickly pulled the truck and driver out of the mud and then continued on. Then, a first time Raptor owner went through a wash out and discovered the stock tie rods on his truck were not that strong. Luckily, we plan for such things and had spares on hand, allowing us to make a quick fix and get back to the fun. Saturday was our BIG group run, which covered a 120-mile loop. We left camp later than planned because some participants had too much fun around the campfire the night before and were therefore moving a little slower than usual. Who would have guessed? Once again, the rains from the previous weekend really did a number on the trail, making it slow going on one section in particular. Despite hitting far more washouts throughout the loop than we did when we pre-ran it, we were able to complete the loop without any major issues.  After completing about 70% of the loop, half the group turned to camp while the rest of us did a photo shoot at Calico Hills before completing the last 30% of trails. By Sunday morning, many participants were tired and ready to head home.  As many participants had a long drive home, they packed up and headed out early.  For those of us with a little energy left, we drove a 61 mile, down and back trail.  This trail was fast and had some very technical sections to get through.  Additionally, there was a lake bed to play on, allowing for some fun photo opportunities as well as an exciting end to an adventure filled weekend. You can see all the images and videos from the weekend in our gallery titled ROC FEST – 2015. We have over 520 images, so the images posted to the gallery are some of the highlights from the three days’ activities. For those of you who were unable to attend this year’s event, don’t fret, we are making this an annual event.  ROC Fest 2016 will be held on the 2nd weekend of October 2016.  We hope to see you and your friends then!