Suzuki 4x4

This year I was invited to help out with GonZookin 2005. This is a yearly event, held at Paragon Adventure Park in Hazleton PA. With more people attending and more vendors sponsoring the event, GonZookin has reached a point where additional staff were needed.

I arrived at Red Rock Campground on Thursday afternoon to help Jeff Johnson (one of the original organizers of the GonZookin event) set up the registration and information area. Even though the event didn't officially start until Friday, a few people arrived early to claim their campsite for the weekend. After the registration tent was assembled and my personal campsite was set up, I joined the early birds gathered around the campfire to share their wheeling stories and off road adventures.

For a lot of the attendees, this was their first organized Suzuki event. Lucky for them, GonZookin is the perfect event for beginners. With over 140 miles of trails, Paragon Adventure Park offers something for everyone, from leisurely trail rides for beginners, to hardcore rock crawling that will challenge the best-built competition buggies. All of the trails in Paragon are extremely well-marked, so it is very easy to navigate using the free maps provided by the Park. In addition to the navigational markings, Paragon marks each trail with a color code that describes the trail rating. On the back of the map is a description of each of the 90+ trails in the park.

It has been my experience that most Parks aren't set up very well for spectators. If you want to watch the hardcore drivers bashing their rigs, you need to be driving a rig capable of tackling the hardcore trails. This isn't the case with Paragon. Many of the novice trails run close to the hardcore trails, so it's easy for someone in a stock or mildly built truck to access and watch the more extreme rock crawling action. There is always a small gathering of people watching other drivers test their rigs on the extreme trails.

By Saturday, the event was in full swing. Drivers, passengers, and trail leaders gathered in the staging area of the park. Rigs were divided into trail groups based on off road experience, vehicle capability, and the comfort level of the driver. Each group was assigned a trail leader, and a CB channel. From the staging area, the trail leaders navigated their groups through the park.

I returned to the campsite early Saturday afternoon to assist with the barbeque dinner. Dinner was cooked on a massive grill built on a trailer. The grill takes over a hundred pounds of charcoal just to get it warmed up, and is fed a steady diet of 25lb charcoal bags to keep it hot. In addition to the massive amount of burgers and hot dogs that were sizzling on the grill, other staff members dished out hot wings, potato salads, and other delicious food to the people arriving from the park.

After dinner was cleaned up and everyone's food had settled, most people returned to the covered pavilion for the raffle. Each year, sponsors from all over the world generously donate items to be given away at the event. Everyone who attended the barbeque was given a free raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets could also be purchased, with the proceeds from the dinner and the raffle going towards next year's event.

In order to keep the drawing impartial, all of the winning numbers were drawn by the children who attended the event. One by one the winners were drawn, and the prizes were collected. Almost everyone won something, and a good time was had by all.

After the conclusion of the raffle, a projector was set up in the pavilion, and a small group gathered to watch off road videos. Others wandered around the campsite, visiting old friends, and making new ones.

By Sunday the event started to wind down. While many people were breaking camp and packing up, quite a few others grouped up and headed to the Park for another day of wheeling.

  I tagged along with an intermediate group, tackling some new trails that I hadn't been on before. After hitting a few trails ourselves, we decided to stop at one of the rock gardens and watch the buggies from a safe distance. By mid -afternoon we all headed back to camp for a late lunch and to prepare for the ride home.

For more information about the event, go to www.gonzookin.com

For more information about Paragon Adventure Park, go to www.paragonap.com