The first Silver State run – aka Reno to Vegas – was easily one of ROC’s largest events. With the goal of always making each run better than the last, for the second time around we used a new starting location and 50% new trails. Despite some interesting weather to start, this event turned out to be another great run.
This year’s group of 24 trucks headed out Saturday morning to hit the first canyon trail section. This was a well known trail section that had some great views as well as some fun drift sections. The trail did have mud, which is the scourge of raptor owners as it gets everywhere. Only issue to the start of the day was a loose battery connector. This was a quick fix and the group continued on to the next stops.
Making great time, the group made it to the fuel and lunch stop. Here, we could see the very ominous clouds in the distance that clearly had rain in store for us. Heading to the next section, a group poll was taken to detour toward an old mine camp. Here we saw a place left in time. We could also see lightning and storms all around us. This was amazing and scary all at the same time, as you could feel the storm approaching.
Sadly, one truck had a catastrophic failure of the diff and 4 trucks stayed behind to help and tow the truck to the hotel. The rest of the group headed on and ran into a flash flood that came running down the trail. It was truly crazy to see the water rushing down the trail, as there was no clouds overhead, or even close to where we were at the time. The rest of the day was an interesting mix of heavy rain and clear skies. Needless to say, the trails were fun and the weather added a little extra excitement into the mix. We all made it into town at the same time as the tow group, so we all headed off to dinner together.
Day two included a stop at what turned out to be the highlight stop for the day, Gold Point, NV. Here we discovered a living town lost in time. We found buildings that take you back to the early 1900s as well as many relics of mining days past. The group became three different groups from this point on due to trucks requiring repairs, drivers choosing to sleep in, and other trucks getting stuck the sand. The main group did ¾ of the day together before splitting up once again, making us four groups by days end.
Despite the odd group splitting, everyone made it safely and successful into Las Vegas. This year’s Silver State run was a blast, and we look forward to running these and new trails in the future. See everyone on the trails.
