New England Forest Rally

Okay, imagine a bunch of (barely) street-legal cars (mostly all-wheel-drive Subarus) doing timed races on gravel logging roads. Now imagine that these cars reach speeds well in excess of 100 mph! As Brian said so eloquently, "WHOA!"

I heard a story on NH Public Radio about the race and thought it sounded pretty amazing. So, I visited the web site just to look around. That's when I discovered that one of the spectator viewing areas was only about 10 miles from the cabin. Why not?

This was very much a last-minute affair so, on a whim, I stopped to see if our neighbor, Don Corkran (Windswept) wanted to go with me. Don's a trooper. He said, "Sure." So, off we went.

What we didn't anticipate was the choking dust and the ROCKS that the cars throw up as they hurtle down the road! Don, at least, was prepared with a creative solution to the problem.

Here's a video clip of one of the lead cars going past. Don and I were sitting on the top of a rocky outcropping, maybe 10 feet high, but very close to the road. We estimate that the cars were going at least 60 mph as they made their way around the sweeping turn right at our feet. Amazing!



Here's another clip, this time of a local favorite from Maine. It's not one of the faster cars, but it's fun to hear all the cheers. Also note that the car is a grey VW Golf. Maybe it's Davey's old car, "Bob!"