Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1545994
The Inaugural Wapack Run The Inaugural Wapack Run Ashby Animals of Ashby, MA Ashby Animals of Ashby, MA By Jim Bird By Jim Bird 28 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Ashby, MA – 28 June 2026. The faithful started gathering around 7 AM when the gates opened at Allen Field in Ashby, MA. The Ashby Animals were hos ng their first NETRA turkey run, the Wapack Run, and it promised 90 miles of cross-border single track, two-track, and gravel roads. And they delivered. Event ckets were limited to 200 riders, and those who were wai ng to see what the weather would be missed out. Tickets were sold out a week be- fore. Both public adver sements and private conversa- ons made clear that the first 40 miles were "lots of single track, much freshly cut ". In the private conversa ons, this was o en followed by "Jeff Grant was the Trail Wizard for this, you've been warned". They weren't kidding. It was obvious a monumental amount of work went into this loop. Cu ng trail through laurels is like cu ng through tangled wads of rebar. It is not a quick process. A last-minute decision on my part to bring the 300 two-stroke instead of the 430 four-stroke was a good call. I had thought that we may be riding some of the old Tri-State Turkey Run tracks since that had been hosted years back in nearby Winchendon. But, nay, t'was not to be. In any case, my local crew was pre y excited and we weren't going to miss it. The start was only 35 minutes away and we knew the Animals would put on a good show. The Animals enjoy an impressive amount of well-earned community support and had permission from 43 private landowners to run the track through private property. And this is all less than two hours from Boston City Hall. Rumor is, one land owner had heard what was going on from his neighbor and wondered why the track wasn't going across his totally overgrown (to Stephen King creepy levels) an- cient farm field. He was told that there were no trails there and there really wasn't enough me to go cut some ….but for sure the Animals would loop back for the 2027 run. That didn't sit right with this fellow, so he got out the big tractor with the big brush hog and went to town pu ng in some brand new 7-foot-wide, serpen ne, twisty track through some of the densest hedgerows I've ever seen. At least twice while riding that sec on, I got startled by well-shaded spectators tucked into the brush with the mandatory lawn chairs and coolers. Any me a rider went by, they would leap