Mud-N-Yer Eye 2008 report

The Mud N Yer Eye Frolic, hosted by Mountain Transit Authority(MTA), is one of the longest running four-wheeling events in the country. This year was the 32nd annual event and for many, it's the traditional opening of the wheeling season. We had 194 4x4 vehicles and about 600 participants this year. MTA is a small club of only 15 families, so we depend on volunteers to help us manage the event. We had about 40 volunteers, mostly friends and fellow four-wheelers, to help us this year.

The Frolic is held at Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area in Hollister, California. The wheeling area of the park has 24 miles of trails on 800 acres of land. The trails range from easy fire roads to black diamond hill climbs and cover almost 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Some of the best sections of trail that MTA maps out are uncharted and virtually unknown.

Everything starts very early on Friday morning with participants lining up to get a good campsite-it's first-come, first-served. By lunchtime on Friday, the camping area is like a small town with people picking up registration packets, meeting friends and kids playing. In the afternoon we set up an RAMP TRAVEL INDEX (RTI) ramp for a little friendly flexing competition.

MTA maps out a self-guided trail route with challenging routes for all vehicles including some alternate "hard way" sections for those with more capable vehicles. The trail this year covered every major area of the park. Along the trail we set up two games to provide a little competitive fun. Treasure Hunt had participants searching their vehicle for all sorts of odd items. There was also Toilet Toss, where passengers had to toss a wad of toilet paper through a series of open toilet lids painted with appropriate pictures. For those who didn't score well, there was an option to eat live worms for extra points. We were a little unsure about this at first but the participants had a lot of fun with it.

The trail started through some low lying trails in the trees and gullies, then climbed up towards Hector Heights, the highest peak in the park. Along this section was an optional section that dropped down into a small, wooded canyon called Lost Hollow. The climb out of Lost Hollow is a steep, rutted ascent between trees and over exposed roots with a few tight turns thrown in for good measure.

The main trail became very steep as it climbed up the mountain. The last section at the top is a small piece of trail called White Rock. It's one of those trails that looks easy when you start at the bottom and turns into loose, slippery rocks as it turns steep at the top. We stationed some trail crew at the top with winches for those who couldn't make it their own. The trail then wound its way back down to the lower sections where we had some other special routes chosen.

The first of two difficult sections is one that we call the Jungle. It drops off the main trail into a creek overgrown with trees and bushes. The creek is really just a V-shaped cut that runs up to a water bar at the main trail. It requires concentration to keep your tires from dropping into the cut and potentially flopping the vehicle on its side. After exiting the Jungle, the next challenge was the V-Groove. This section is very much like the Jungle, only bigger and deeper. There were sections that required keeping your tire up on a near vertical wall of hard-pack dirt. As expected, this is where our trail crews spent a lot of time spotting and winching.

The trail ends at a developed area called the Obstacle Course. This is an area developed by the park with various types of obstacles to play on and test your wheeling skill. One of the obstacles is the Mud Pit. It's about 120 feet long and 6 to 8 feet deep. The challenge of the mud pit varies every year with the rain. This year the mud was thick and sticky which made for a lot of participants trying to run it. The sides of the Mud Pit were lined with people in chairs enjoying the show. It's a fun way to end the day's trail run.

Saturday evening begins with a catered barbeque dinner. After dinner, we have a live band with dancing under the stars. Years ago the stage was a flat bed trailer, the dance floor was laid out with hay bales and we used a generator for power. Today we have a raised and covered stage, a concrete dance floor, bench seats and power, all of which were built for the HHSVRA by MTA over the years.

Sunday is awards and raffle day . We gave out awards for trail games winners, a hard luck award for most breakage, largest club attendance, longest distance traveled and, of course, muddiest truck. The Frolic is a family event and we hold a kid's raffle as well as an adult raffle. All kids are given a raffle ticket for a chance at a main prize. After the main prizes are raffled, any kid who didn't win is given a grab bag of cool kid stuff. Our main sponsor, Stevens Creek Toyota of San Jose, CA, gives us a Warn winch every year. We usually have a set of tires and other high value prizes from local 4-wheel drive parts suppliers and shops. Smaller items are donated by other Toyota truck, Land Cruiser and 4-wheel drive clubs. MTA members also donate to the raffle and are not allowed to buy raffle tickets. All raffle prizes are won by the participant that’s our policy.

This year was one of our best events ever. The weather was perfect, the participants, raffle and food were all great. The Frolic is our one fundraising event each year and it generates enough money that we are able to make sizeable donations to Blue Ribbon Coalition, Toys for Tots, Cal4Wheel Association and local charities. All the net proceeds from the Frolic are donated back to the community. We keep only enough to provide seed money for next year's event.

Written by Phil Johnson