7th Annual Willie Vasquez Memorial Run: Reported By Detective John "Bulldog" Acconi

Members of the Long Island Off Road club where responding to the June wheeling run located in NH. The details are as follows: Angela and I departed from Port Jefferson Station on Thursday at approximately 1200 with my mother-in-law, Alyssa and Kaiser. We got to exit #4 in CT on interstate 95 at 1400 hours and were in traffic. Alyssa who is four years old only asked "are we there yet" twice. My mother-in-law who is in her 60's asked if we were there yet and how much further every five minutes.

We arrived at Seven Maples Campground at 2030. On Friday night I met up with the other members of Long Island Off Road that were camping at Gretchens. The following members where there: Joe with his 2011 Dodge Ram, Mark with his 2010 Chevy Tahoe, John Carter and his Toyota, Jim and Bob, and of course Bob and the Howler. The campground is located at 278 Bonds Corner Road. There is no sign and you have to know where you are going to find it. I only stayed for approximately 1 hour and then I went back to Seven Maples campground.

The next morning on Saturday I arrived back at the campground at 0830 to meet up with everyone who stayed. We left for the trails at 0930. We were waiting for Mike G. and his friends. We left for the trails and met with some of the guys from Baystate offroad and they gave us a map and we departed for the trails.

The first trail was marked a green trail and that trail led us to a blue trail. The blue trail's first obstacle was a rocky up hill climb covered in mud and as the first couple of rigs went through the trail got dug out and that much harder. That was when Kevin, driving a Toyota pick-up, bent his rear drive shaft and pulled over on the side of the trail to let everyone go by. The next obstacle was another rock ledge in which you had to come in on an angle to get over it.

The third obstacle was off camber to the passenger side across a wet covered rock. Then you had to turn hard left and climb up hill between two trees with rocks in the middle. Once you got past the trees you then had to turn hard passenger and come around the tree without crushing your door and fender.

After that was a rocky climb up. The members of Long Island Off Road then got to a spot that one black trail and a red trail crossed, we all agreed to turn around and try a different trail.

We then had to come down the same obstacles to get back to the green trail. We headed down the green trail and reached a blue trail with some tight squeezes past rocks and trees. Once you got past that it was a steep drop off the passenger side. As you came down you had to turn hard passenger side before going over a drop off on the driver's side.

We all got back to the field and some members loaded their trailers and got ready to go to dinner. I went back to Seven Maples Campground. The next day I did not go wheeling as I had to go to another campground to meet up with other members of my family.

2. On my way to the next campground my navigator and GPS advised me to take route 20 through local towns and streets. I finally pulled over in the town of Hartland CT. to get out my GPS from my Jeep and that is when a female named Tina walked up to me and said "ARE YOU PLANNING ON SELLING YOUR JEEP?" I informed her that I was going to be buried in it. She advised me that there are a lot of trails to ride in the area and she gave me her number and informed me that the club should come up and that she would be willing to show us some of the trails in the area. She then gave us directions to the campground and we were off. I arrived at the campground without incident.

3. The tow rig with the trailer and the camper had no problems climbing the hills coming home on route 8 in CT. I was able to drive in overdrive and cruise at 65 to 70 miles an hour.

The above information is being submitted as preliminary information and is subject to change as additional information is discovered during this on-going investigation.