This thread is for the general discussion of the Big Dogs Offroad - Spring Fling. Please add to the discussion here.
Big Dogs Offroad - Spring Fling
- Thread starter Galactica
- Start date
94hokies
Member 2025
I'm probably one of the most frequent attendees of the Big Dogs events and have signed up for this one as well.
Pros:
Trail levels from 1-10 allows you to pick your comfort level. 1 - 3 is definitely folks that don't intend for any damage potential. I'm usually in 5 that will run 6-7 trails with bypasses available
Great participation to meet new folks and see lots of other rigs
Camping sites are decent and there is a hot shower hut
Plenty of room for trailers both at the meeting area and the individual sites
Cons:
Biggest complaint is the cost, you are paying $105 to Big Dogs and paying The Cove on top of that on a per person basis
Personally this group has taught me the power of every person having a radio, radios are not common here
Groups can be large, especially on Sat with upwards of 10 Jeeps per group, note again the lack of radios
These are pretty rock heavy trails as well as narrow paths. I've knicked my hardtop twice now on narrow creek runs, bent a control arm on rocks and scored both differentials to the point of leaking (OEM Diff covers) doing things the 37" tires were doing that my 35's where questionable life decisions.
I always trailer now, it is pretty easy highways then a bit of gravel when you get close.
The old complaints of drinking on the trails and poorly organized events are years in the past now, other than the radios it is a fairly decently run event.
Pros:
Trail levels from 1-10 allows you to pick your comfort level. 1 - 3 is definitely folks that don't intend for any damage potential. I'm usually in 5 that will run 6-7 trails with bypasses available
Great participation to meet new folks and see lots of other rigs
Camping sites are decent and there is a hot shower hut
Plenty of room for trailers both at the meeting area and the individual sites
Cons:
Biggest complaint is the cost, you are paying $105 to Big Dogs and paying The Cove on top of that on a per person basis
Personally this group has taught me the power of every person having a radio, radios are not common here
Groups can be large, especially on Sat with upwards of 10 Jeeps per group, note again the lack of radios
These are pretty rock heavy trails as well as narrow paths. I've knicked my hardtop twice now on narrow creek runs, bent a control arm on rocks and scored both differentials to the point of leaking (OEM Diff covers) doing things the 37" tires were doing that my 35's where questionable life decisions.
I always trailer now, it is pretty easy highways then a bit of gravel when you get close.
The old complaints of drinking on the trails and poorly organized events are years in the past now, other than the radios it is a fairly decently run event.
a couple of our members are. they started a different thread.
Threads have been merged to reduce confusiona couple of our members are. they started a different thread.
I generally attend, however I have I river trip planned. If canceled, I’ll hit up BigDogs, I generally run the 7/8 group and camp in Camp 3.
94hokies
Member 2025
Another great trip, here's our wrap up. Addressing the price again and how it works. There is both a Big Dogs and a Cove cost. Big Dogs is a one time cost to particiate in the event, so a single $105 for the whole two days and no single day option. The Cove costs are what start to add up since it is per person and also no single day option. For us, it was another $75 x 2 for me and a passenger. So total of $255 for two days of guided trail runs, camp site included large enough to park truck, trailer and Jeep, night trail rides, bonfire. Not bad if you are doing the whole event.
The issue I think is for folks that can only make one day. I had three more passengers come out on Sat just to ride and no need for a campsite but the Cove fee is only one option, so they had to shell out $75 x 3 to be passengers for 8 hours on the trail.
Back to the event review...tale of two extremely different days
Friday the trails were all still very wet from the Thursday storms and trails that should have been moderately difficult were giving us all a very hard time. All but 1 Jeep was on 35s and higher but no one could get much traction. Friday we also had two broken axles and a busted U-joint, so a lot more waiting around than usual. Still a great day but probably only about half of the day was actually doing the runs and half working on getting the axle folks back to a place where they could limp back to camp. I ended up getting a stick through a sidewall for about a 4" gash.
We did the easy "Night Ride", the level 1-3 trails that was about two hours. Problem was that it left at 7, so only about half was in the dark. The higher level version left about 8:15 but with no spare and never having been out in the dark I opted to go out with the lower group.
I've been running the 5-6 group for several times now and starting to see the same folks and getting the same guides. With my three addl passengers I was able to easily get an extra shotgun seat from one of the other drivers so that I wouldn't need to put three across in my back seat. Very friendly folks across the board here on all my times out.
Saturday the temps heated up a lot but the whole site is wooded so it was pretty manageable. We only had one mechanical issue and it was on the first run so pretty much no down time the entire day. Got a solid 7 hours of trail time, again trails were much more difficult than usual and we had to do a bunch of rock stacking and winching on trails we normally would not have. There are two trails that run through creeks the whole length and those were a lot different with them swelled up from the storms.
The radio usage was better than past, but still far from the level of communcation that I've seen on our club trips. Spotters were pretty good, both of the guides in our group have been there a long time so knew how to get us up and around. On 35's with 3-4" lift we were right in line with the 5-6 level stuff we were doing and there were some harder lines that the 37-40s would take.
Hope that helps and next Big Dogs event is in Sept. We are also planning on doing Camp Heep.
The issue I think is for folks that can only make one day. I had three more passengers come out on Sat just to ride and no need for a campsite but the Cove fee is only one option, so they had to shell out $75 x 3 to be passengers for 8 hours on the trail.
Back to the event review...tale of two extremely different days
Friday the trails were all still very wet from the Thursday storms and trails that should have been moderately difficult were giving us all a very hard time. All but 1 Jeep was on 35s and higher but no one could get much traction. Friday we also had two broken axles and a busted U-joint, so a lot more waiting around than usual. Still a great day but probably only about half of the day was actually doing the runs and half working on getting the axle folks back to a place where they could limp back to camp. I ended up getting a stick through a sidewall for about a 4" gash.
We did the easy "Night Ride", the level 1-3 trails that was about two hours. Problem was that it left at 7, so only about half was in the dark. The higher level version left about 8:15 but with no spare and never having been out in the dark I opted to go out with the lower group.
I've been running the 5-6 group for several times now and starting to see the same folks and getting the same guides. With my three addl passengers I was able to easily get an extra shotgun seat from one of the other drivers so that I wouldn't need to put three across in my back seat. Very friendly folks across the board here on all my times out.
Saturday the temps heated up a lot but the whole site is wooded so it was pretty manageable. We only had one mechanical issue and it was on the first run so pretty much no down time the entire day. Got a solid 7 hours of trail time, again trails were much more difficult than usual and we had to do a bunch of rock stacking and winching on trails we normally would not have. There are two trails that run through creeks the whole length and those were a lot different with them swelled up from the storms.
The radio usage was better than past, but still far from the level of communcation that I've seen on our club trips. Spotters were pretty good, both of the guides in our group have been there a long time so knew how to get us up and around. On 35's with 3-4" lift we were right in line with the 5-6 level stuff we were doing and there were some harder lines that the 37-40s would take.
Hope that helps and next Big Dogs event is in Sept. We are also planning on doing Camp Heep.