So who here is part or RAW? - Raleigh Area Wheelers

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Welcome to the board. I personally invite you guys to come out to the workday on Jan 25th. You will meet lots of new people and people will see you are serious in what you say through actions rather than turning everything into a he said she said.....


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Welcome to the board. I personally invite you guys to come out to the workday on Jan 25th. You will meet lots of new people and people will see you are serious in what you say through actions rather than turning everything into a he said she said.....


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That sounds great snappy! Do currently have a meetup time set the outpost?
 
9 am at hunt camp is meeting place and time. I will be cooking a large pot of brunswick stew ready around 3 pm for a late lunch for all volunteers.
 
Justin- Thanks for your positive response on Facebook. We look forward to seeing you and any other RAW members on Saturday at our Quarterly Meeting. We are always looking for ways to spread the "Tread Lightly" way.

Facebook response---
Thanks for taking the time to send us some great information. As a club in its beginning stages we need all the help we can to do this the right way. The core of the R.A.W. family is all about sharing and growing this hobby/sport that we all love so much.

As a club, we want to be sure we help to fight for public land access as we all have felt the pinch this past year. Many of us enjoy going to the Outer Banks that have suffered from restricted access and increased fees. We all enjoy Uwharrie and have seen the impact of Kodak Rock being closed. And if by miracle Tellico opened up, we would be there on day 1.

With all this being said, don’t let the past few days give you or any other group the wrong idea. We started as a group with an open Facebook page to post pictures and have transformed into a formal Non-Profit that wants to give back to our local community and more importantly, wheel! All of this has taken place within one year.

If your club is open to it, we would love to drop in on your next meeting. We want to be sure to do this the right way so it only helps out our hobby/sport spread even further. So please keep us posted on those details and thanks again for the information.

-R.A.W. Family
 
Great to see this thread turn in a positive direction! And club too for that matter.

As a club that wheels responsibly and supports things like SFWDA and Blue Ribbon Coalition while practicing Tread Lightly you will see your club grow in a positive way. Hope to see you out at the work day, and wish your club the best as you make these positive changes that will reflect us all on this board and nation wide.

No one sees us working for hours to preserve the land, to construct water run offs and silt traps that control erosion on a trail. No one sees us building bridges, spreading grass seed and hay, no one sees us hauling out truck loads of trash. No one sees responsible people taking part in a great family oriented hobby. But everyone sees when someone wheels illegally, spinning up the land, littering, trespassing, driving recklessly and endangering others. Lots of eyes and attention on that crowd, that's what makes headlines and makes us all look bad. Keep that in mind and inform your club how important it is to wheel responsibly.


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Welcome Justin, Glad to see the positive comments. I lived about 5 minutes from Page Rd my whole life, I know the area and people well. My Parents still live off Lumley Drive,right near there. This site has hands down the best people I have ever met wheeling, it's a great base of knowledge. Everyone starts somewhere, sounds like you guys are off to a good start, Congrats.
 
Welcome Justin, Glad to see the positive comments. I lived about 5 minutes from Page Rd my whole life, I know the area and people well. My Parents still live off Lumley Drive,right near there. This site has hands down the best people I have ever met wheeling, it's a great base of knowledge. Everyone starts somewhere, sounds like you guys are off to a good start, Congrats.
Thanks man. My wife and I just moved to the area a year ago from Wilmington. When I moved here, I knew no one. Thanks to jeepforum and wranglerforum that quickly changed. I look forward to meeting and wheeling with you guys soon.
 
Glad to see this post heading in the right direction and welcome to the forum. keep an eye in the upcoming events. As a member of the Rock Corps i would like to see your club make the trip west to the Flatts for our open ride on the 18th if you guys are down for a road trip! There will be other rides through out the year there that last all weekend but is a great place to wheel with many challenging trails and hill climbs. There will be camping only on Friday night this ride but there is hotels right beside of the property if you wanted to make it a 2 day trip. Hope to see your new club there and good luck.
 
Thanks man. My wife and I just moved to the area a year ago from Wilmington. When I moved here, I knew no one. Thanks to jeepforum and wranglerforum that quickly changed. I look forward to meeting and wheeling with you guys soon.

Happy to see the club heading in a positive direction, look forward to meeting members at the Jan 25 workday as well.

http://treadlightly.org/education/learn/online-awareness-course/ Here is a link to Tread Lightly awareness course, this would be good for all members to take, it is very informative.
Also check out there website, there are many tools on there to help you guys out. Many of us are very passionate about wheeling, it is more than just a rig and a trail to a lot of us, it is an extension of who we are so we take it seriously. Good on you for having the fortitude to post up and talk about the situation.

http://www.nc4x4.com/forum/index.php?threads/jan-25-2014-uortc-4wd-101-training-uwharrie-nc.120275/ Here is a link to the 4wd 101 class at the Uwharrie Offroad Traing center. This class is outstanding no matter if you have been wheeling for 30 years or 3 days. Many of youre members may be interested in this.
 
Welcome Justin, I am very happy to see that the admins/leaders want to do the right thing for the 4wd community.

As Always on the 4x4 world actions speak louder then words.. it would be great to see you guys at cnc4x4 quarterly meeting saturday or even the workday in Jan, flats rides etc.. NC4x4 has a ton of great people and clubs and as you will see if you hang around most of all the clubs get a long great..
 
Hi, my name is Josh Steelmon, and well the only picture you all decide to put up here is of me, in the green hoodie holding a coke-a-cola bottle. ( and thats all it was) I dont wheel and drink EVER! Im not a member of Raw, but I am a member of another jeep Club, but only for about 3 months now. I have only lived in the Raleigh area About a year and a half, I am originally from Hickory NC. (not city folk) I started building my jk in August, also had a xj, and tj, before both stock though, this is my first built jeep (I put on all the bumpers and rock rails, skids, and wired the lights my self, I had a little help with the lift, (not gonna lie) and well I am still building it but aren't we all. Mine is the Black Jk in the middle of the picture. And Im embarrassed about it to be truthful. Before this day the only place I have ever wheeled pretty much was Uwharrie, and yes I have been up Daniel many times lol....I normally don't like MUD at all, Im more of a rock guy, yes its true, a jk rock guy mall crawler, hell has frozen over for sure! But hey I said why not when I heard there was mud where we were going, new years day and all....side note (I've washed my mall crawler 3 times since and swore never to go back.) Like some of yall have pointed out I am a relative "newbe" to the sport but that is NOT an excuse for my ignorance on this day. I normally "tread lightly" everywhere I go and I did on this day aswell. This was my FIRST time riding around this place, But I knew after seeing where we ended up that it probably wasn't on the up and up as much as i thought, but some others with us had been there before so I assumed it was ok <(dumb I know). Yet again NOT an excuse cause I know power lines are normally never ok. Before seeing this post and before seeing the aftermath of this ONE time ride trickle through my jeep club (not RAW) and on our facebook page, I had already planned on just waiting for Uwharrie to open back up or go to the beach or go to the western part of the state (where im from) BEFORE I WHEELED AGAIN. Besides it being bad for our sport and possible causing a bad name for my club (that I had no intention on doing) and respect greatly, I just didn't enjoy it like uwharrie, or anything I have wheeled LEGALLY. In other words, its just not worth it to me. I would rather be a respected part or a good group of legal wheelers. I also mean no disrespect to any of the RAW guys with this post. This is just how I feel personally now that I see first hand how serious this issue is to my fellow Wheelers. I DO apologize for my actions and hope that this hasn't set our efforts to get and or keep a good name for my club and our sport back in any way. I will be in uwharrie on Saturday the 25th to help do my part in keeping our trails open and helping us to keep a good LEGAL safe place for us to wheel. And Im sure that some others in our club will join me. I cant wait actually, I know it will be a good time. Although Some of the comments here are a little brash and harsh, I see why people get so heated about this subject cause I would rather have a good name and a great legal place to wheel as well but just get all the facts about who you are calling out and talking about in that way before you do so, find us on facebook and ask if we know the rules and try to help us learn. Not all people with new JK's are D-bags and just mall crawling assholes or whatever yall said. I know some people are harder to convince then others and some just don't care, but I want to learn all I can and help to teach others as well. I love this sport and want to help it, NOT hurt it! And will do all I can to LEARN MORE and help others to learn as well. If any of you think I'm a pussy or a bitch for saying this, I'm sorry you feel that way. I think it takes more of a man to admit when he has done wrong and swallow his pride then to sit back and say he'll do whatever the damn well he pleases. I was wrong in riding that day and do know that now, And did shortly after getting home a reading some threads on this subject, not just after seeing this. Anyways guys I hope to meet yall out on the LEGAL trails one day. And hope to see yall on the work day at Uwharrie on the 25th. Hope this has cleared some things up and eased some minds that not all of us are D-Bags lol and are willing to do the right thing . If you guys have any questions or anything just give me a shout, I'm not on here much but look me up on facebook and ill be happy to listen to anything constructive yall have to say. Thanks for reading guys. I know it was long haha
 
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all the newer JKs in that picture says a mouthful. buncha newbs that paid someone to lift their mall crawlers and now just want to run through mud holes close to home. they have no idea of the underlying culture of responsible offroaders, not that would care if they did tho.


I do know and I do care, but i am new to this and just didnt really realize the magnitude of this issue till after reading the mean and crazy harsh things yall are saying about us. I truly hope you dont just talk about people this way all the time...I hope you read my other post on this thread before you reply to me. Like i say in the other post, ignorance is NOT an excuse for me and i did know that illegal wheeling wasn't well, legal but i didnt understand the effect it may have on the wheeling community as a whole. I do now. Please in the future dont jump to conclusions about people you dont know before you get the facts, it can be hurtful and make you look bad as well. Thanks and i hope you have a blessed day.
 
Josh, I wouldnt take the JK comments to heart. I'm sure people said the same thing about TJ owners when they were fairly new and will say the same thing about whatever comes out next. The important thing is that you realized that wheeling on power line trails, or any private land in which you dont have permission, is both illegal and very bad for the 4x4 community. Most of us, when we were first starting out, wheeled the same types of places until we were taught not to do it. I applaud you for standing up and admitting this. Now take what you have learned and teach others how to be responsible off roaders for the betterment of the hobby.
 
I did get a good response from Justin after he deleted my link to this thread. While we all started somewhere, it is important to guide those around us. I'll look forward to seeing these guys on the trail, at a possible upcoming meeting, and hopefully letting their actions speak. It is so easy to get heated over the subject. Those of us in CNC4x4 have had a couple similar experiences with new members and our club has gotten very good about politely educating our membership.

Justin Wrote:
"I saw the link, I did delete it. I didn't want any of our followers nor our members to get the wrong idea about our group. We as an organization do not encourage trespassing. As people gain interest in the off-road "hobby" they often do end up trespassing. You learn quickly that trespassing is an issue. Good luck with your build, by the way, I am sure that local trails aren't any fun for a buggy such as yours. I look forward to meeting you if you do plan to meet us at an upcoming meet and greet"


I made the following suggestion:
"Regarding the illegal trails. Rather than deleting posts that encourage doing the right thing, as an admin and club that recognizes that trespassing is an issue, it would be easier to simply suggest that people should meet at the local areas (that you have permission to ride at) or suggest a group ride to something a few hours away that is legal. Continuing to allow posts and discussions about illegal locations only gives the impression that RAW condones this activity."
 
Josh, I wouldnt take the JK comments to heart. I'm sure people said the same thing about TJ owners when they were fairly new and will say the same thing about whatever comes out next. The important thing is that you realized that wheeling on power line trails, or any private land in which you dont have permission, is both illegal and very bad for the 4x4 community. Most of us, when we were first starting out, wheeled the same types of places until we were taught not to do it. I applaud you for standing up and admitting this. Now take what you have learned and teach others how to be responsible off roaders for the betterment of the hobby.


Ohh I know not too take it to heart, I just want to make sure that some people know that publicly bashing people isn't the best way to get a positive response back most of the time. Better to ask questions and then help teach rather then preach ya know. I just would never say anything like that about someone i had never met. And i expect the same. Not all are like me and i understand that. But thanks for the comment. It was better then most lol
 
I wheeled anywhere I could get away with it when I first started wheeling many years ago. It finally bit me one cold night, and I got a trespassing ticket that cost me a weekend of community service. I ended up working at a Fire Station waxing trucks, mopping floors, and cleaning out their shed.

Illegal wheeling is like Fight Club. First rule about illegal wheeling is don't talk about illegal wheeling.
 
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