We went out last Saturday to attend the third annual Crawlin’ To A Cure event in Eagle, CO that supports Breast Cancer Awareness and raises money for the Keepin’ ’Em Real Scholarship Fund. We’ve been attending this event since the beginning and seen it grow to what it was this past Saturday. The progress has been amazing, both in terms of the course, the rigs, and the crowd in attendance. With buggys, Jeeps, and pickup trucks coming from all over Colorado and some driving in from Moab, UT, the event is starting to attract some attention, and that’s a good thing.
The fundraising this year targets a local scholarship designated for students from families who have been touched by cancer. Something a little different than raising funds for the national breast cancer awareness cause, but we think that keeping the money raised local is a nice step going forward. Now, on to the pictures!
We got to the event a little late, so we missed the first go round with the stock / lightly modified vehicles which is our favorite part…just seeing what a Jeep can do as your daily driver and weekend wheeling machine. Apparently, the $100 entrance fee didnt deter any of the drivers from going all out with their rigs, even if they do need them to get to work on Monday. This guy late in the evening had the flags flying as he soared over a few jumps on the tamer of the two courses.
Another pretty stock Jeep was rolling through the JV course with the hard top on and aired out the first jump with all 4 wheels off the ground! Kinda went against the theme of the event which was “crawlin,” but we’ll give him a hall pass since it was pretty cool to watch.
One Jeep we wanted to see do more later in the night was this old rust bucket. It was pretty much being held together with duct tape and bungee cords, but damn if it isn’t cool looking! Unfortunately, two obstacles into his run, there was an abrupt stop, followed by the gentleman holding up a shiny object…his shifter! Fortunately, after some fiddling, the reverse gear still worked, so he backed his way on into the staging area. Would have liked to see what he could’ve done, oh well, that’s Jeepin!
After the stock / near stock classes went through, it was time for the rigs built to rock the trails only. Very fun to watch what a machine can do…like scale a small building! This Jeep with flames on the hood was probably our favorite driver of the night. It still resembled something you could buy at a dealership, but definitely had a lot of love put into making it an off road machine…and it showed on the course. The first run through was impressive and as we recall, the driver put in one of the top times of the night.
Later on, a lady (maybe the first driver’s wife? we weren’t sure) got in the drivers seat to see what she could do on the Varsity course after driving her own Jeep on the JV course earlier in the night. The results were impressive over the first three obstacles…she was killing it! Then came the big ramp and things got interesting to say the least. She came in a little hot and off angle, rolling right off the side and into the guard rails. Fortunately, everyone was okay and the Jeep lived to drive again later in the evening…Impressive!
This wasn’t the only casualty of the night as this friendly roofed buggy took a tumble as well. The good folks who put on the event were prepared with an earth mover ready to right any wayward vehicles in short order. Sometimes, with a little help from the course crew who also did a great job directing drivers through some of the trickier spots on the course.
Rounding out the gallery is a couple of our favorite shots of the night when the light was just right and the dirt was flying off a few of the obstacles. Hopefully, it gives our readers an idea of how this event is progressing from where it started a few years ago to where it is now. Pretty impressive growth for a local off road event.
That’s it. Special thanks to everyone who put on the event and we’re glad we could make it out again this year to support a great event and a great cause.
