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Off-road event planned for end of July

The Wagonhound Annual Off-road Event will be on Friday, July 29 through July 31. Event representative Travis Winger said, “Wagonhound, in general, is a collaboration between Central Wyoming 4x4, which is a local nonprofit road organization here. I’m the vice president of that. We’ve got several members locally and we’ve worked with a local landowner, and we’ve worked with them for probably six to seven years now to try to get this park established.”

The developed trails are on private land of about 2,000 acres. Winger added that the activity on the trails is meant to be used responsibly. Winger said, “We want to take care of the land that we have to use. We don’t want to tear it up, and we’re very big on cleaning up after ourselves. Pack it in, pack it out, stay on the trail.”

The park is open for the majority of the summer and is shut down during the winter and during the hunting season. However, it is open to the public. The types of vehicles typically used on the Wagonhound trails are large buggy-style off-road rigs, medium to mild build Jeeps, side-by-sides, four-wheelers, dirt bikes, and mountain biking. Winger said, “It’s a general use area.”

For those interested in using the trails, Winger recommends looking up Central Wyoming 4x4 on Facebook and messaging them. Winger added about how they are funded and said the organization is on a donation basis. Winger said, “If you go out and use it and you want to see more things like this happen and you want to keep things like this open and support them, there’s a donation box out there. We’re kind of going on the honor system. There’s not a recommended donation. There’s just whatever you feel you can contribute to pass some money along to the landowner. So they want to keep it open and help with funding to maintain it.”

Winger also provided driving directions and said, “Go to the turnoff to Legend Rock. The parking area is by the corrals about, I’d say, two to three miles down that road. We’ve got a kiosk set up down there that people should be able to see. We’re still working on some signage and things. It’s still a developing process.”

The Wagonhound Annual Off-road Event is open to the public with no charge to attend. Winger continued and said, “We are inviting people from around the country. We’ve seen people from all over Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, and Utah. We’ve even got some from back east that are coming all the way out. And it’s just a chance for people to go and explore the park. Saturday will be guided trail runs around the park for various levels and we’ll have different runs based on the capability of vehicles. Just to kind of get out and explore the park.”

Winger added about the event and said, “Saturday night we will have dinner. It’s burgers and brats, sides and things like that. It’s kind of a fundraiser.” The time of the dinner will be around 6 p.m. when everyone returns to camp. The dinner is open to the public and costs $10.

 

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