About this Guide
This post is meant to be a best practices guide for OTG members who wish to hit the trail or go camping with their fellow OTG members. We recommend that anyone who plans to host/lead an event, read this guide in its entirety even if you've led groups in the past. The first thing you'll need to do is get in touch with OTG to have your event published on our website.
Hosting Events -- Be Your Best Self
It's important to be your best self. That means being reliable and leaning into your patience while leading the group. Our members have driven 12+ hours to attend OTG events, so it's import that you remain committed to running the event. As the group leader, you'll be setting the general tone for the event. Tap into your enthusiasm of overlanding and the great outdoors, and others will surely follow your lead.
As the leader, you'll want to bring a can-do mindset in case things don't go as planned. You may find yourself out on the trail and someone's rig breaks down, which can turn into a stressful situation depending on the severity of breakdown. It's important that you remain calm and collected, helping the person/group to work through the issue. You should never leave a person behind to fend for themself. Come up with a plan that works for the group, and be direct and decisive once a decision has been made.
Types of Events
There are generally two types of events that you'll find on OTG's event calendar.
Trail Run Events
The first is a Trail Run event. A Trail Run can be a single day event out on the trail, or a multi-day event traversing a designated route (doesn't have to be an OTG route) or a particular area/region. Generally speaking, we recommend capping the group size to 12 or less. Large groups can become unwieldy on the trail, and other trail users may not be happy with dealing with such a large caravan of folks.
BaseCamp Event
The second type of event is a BaseCamp event. A BaseCamp event is a camping event, and if it runs multiple nights, the camp is at the same location throughout the event. BaseCamp events are a fantastic and typically low stress way to bring larger groups together. For BaseCamp events we typically recommend trying to offer a variety of activities throughout the day. This may include options to go hiking, swimming, exploring the surrounding trails in your vehicle (if there are any nearby), playing games (cornhole, frisbee golf, etc), and more.
Planning Your Event
Planning is a critical piece to ensure the success of your event. If you are planning a Trail Run event for a route that's published on OTG, get in touch with us as we can likely make some recommendations and provide advice if you need any help.
Acquaint yourself with the local regulations for the places you plan to visit. This may include items such as:
Once you've covered all of the local regulations, there are other items you'll want to consider when planning your event:
Logistics of Running Your Event
Leading up to the Event
Template for Creating Your Event Thread
See the next reply for the template.
This post is meant to be a best practices guide for OTG members who wish to hit the trail or go camping with their fellow OTG members. We recommend that anyone who plans to host/lead an event, read this guide in its entirety even if you've led groups in the past. The first thing you'll need to do is get in touch with OTG to have your event published on our website.
Hosting Events -- Be Your Best Self
It's important to be your best self. That means being reliable and leaning into your patience while leading the group. Our members have driven 12+ hours to attend OTG events, so it's import that you remain committed to running the event. As the group leader, you'll be setting the general tone for the event. Tap into your enthusiasm of overlanding and the great outdoors, and others will surely follow your lead.
As the leader, you'll want to bring a can-do mindset in case things don't go as planned. You may find yourself out on the trail and someone's rig breaks down, which can turn into a stressful situation depending on the severity of breakdown. It's important that you remain calm and collected, helping the person/group to work through the issue. You should never leave a person behind to fend for themself. Come up with a plan that works for the group, and be direct and decisive once a decision has been made.
Types of Events
There are generally two types of events that you'll find on OTG's event calendar.
Trail Run Events
The first is a Trail Run event. A Trail Run can be a single day event out on the trail, or a multi-day event traversing a designated route (doesn't have to be an OTG route) or a particular area/region. Generally speaking, we recommend capping the group size to 12 or less. Large groups can become unwieldy on the trail, and other trail users may not be happy with dealing with such a large caravan of folks.
BaseCamp Event
The second type of event is a BaseCamp event. A BaseCamp event is a camping event, and if it runs multiple nights, the camp is at the same location throughout the event. BaseCamp events are a fantastic and typically low stress way to bring larger groups together. For BaseCamp events we typically recommend trying to offer a variety of activities throughout the day. This may include options to go hiking, swimming, exploring the surrounding trails in your vehicle (if there are any nearby), playing games (cornhole, frisbee golf, etc), and more.
Planning Your Event
Planning is a critical piece to ensure the success of your event. If you are planning a Trail Run event for a route that's published on OTG, get in touch with us as we can likely make some recommendations and provide advice if you need any help.
Acquaint yourself with the local regulations for the places you plan to visit. This may include items such as:
- Always follow Leave No Trace & TREAD Lightly principles.
- We recommend getting your event published at least a month before the start date (short lead times lead to poor attendance).
- Are the trails/places we are visiting currently open.
- Is dispersed camping permitted? If it is, where is it permitted and are there any regs/rules that I need to know?
- Are there any regulations or bans in effect for campfires or gas powered camp stoves?
- Is a permit or certain papers required? For example, Mexican auto insurance is required if you want to visit Baja/Mexico.
- Are there any fees required to enter a certain park, preserve, trail, campground, etc?
- Are there any regulations regarding pets (if you are permitted them on your event)?
- Are there any regulations regarding trailers? Some campgrounds and parks (Grand Canyon NP) do not permit trailers of any length.
Once you've covered all of the local regulations, there are other items you'll want to consider when planning your event:
- What are the expected conditions to be like during your event? Will the venue be open and accessible?
- Free events unfortunately means flakers. Consider this when planning your max group size, as there will likely be some flakers. We've noticed high demand venues (Death Valley, Baja, etc) tend to have a much lower rate of people flaking. We have some tactics to help weed out the flakers. But generally speaking, engaging with event registrants is the best way to gauge who is coming to your event.
- Let people know if there are any opportunities to refuel or resupply along the way. How many days/miles do they need to be able to travel in the backcountry?
- Ensure that everyone brings enough fuel for the trip. For events that cover 200+ miles of off road travel between fuel stops, we recommend that participants carry 5 extra gallons of fuel as a precaution.
- Will you allow children or pets allowed on your event?
- What will you be using for communications? We strongly encourage you to use FRS or GMRS, as less and less people, especially newcomers are using CB and/or Ham radio these days.
- What sort of weather should people anticipate? This will help them plan around the appropriate clothing to bring.
- Is there any specialized gear or other items that you recommend people bring?
- Will there be any activities out of the vehicles, such as going on a hike? You should include all planned and/or option activities in your itinerary along with approximate mileage for hikes.
- We try to create inclusive and family friendly environments. Generally speaking, we usually recommend that attendees keep any firearms at home or stowed away in their vehicles (and adhering to all local laws and regulations). If you plan to include target shooting at your event, this should be outlined in the event itinerary, as well as registration form so attendees are aware of the planned activity.
Logistics of Running Your Event
Leading up to the Event
- Create an event thread in the OTG Trail Run & Basecamp Events subforum. Use the template at the bottom of this thread.
- The event thread should be the main form of communication for everyone attending the event.
- For trail run events, share the GPX file at least 10 days prior to the event. This should be posted in the event thread you created.
- Be sure to get the complete registration list from OTG before your event.
- The week of the event, we recommend checking with everyone to confirm they will be attending (you can do this via email). We recommend also sending them your contact info (phone, garmin, zoleo, etc) if they need to get in touch with you.
- Check-in on the event thread at least 2-3x a week, and you should be checking in on a daily basis leading up the event. We recommend adding replies to the event thread and engaging with the event participants.
- If you need to cancel the event, you should let all registrants and OTG know ASAP.
- When the group meets the first day, be sure to introduce yourself, while outline the plans for the day.
- Make sure everyone who is registered is at the event. If someone is a no show, we recommend trying to contact them first and if you can't get in touch, give them a 30 minute cushion to show up.
- Designate a "sweeper" for each day of your event. This is the last person in the convoy and their responsibility is to ensure that nobody in the group gets left behind.
- When leading the group, make sure the person behind you sees where you are turning. We recommend calling out all turns and/or trail obstacles out on the radio.
- If traveling with a larger group, you may want to consider splitting the group in two if you're hitting a busier trail. You'll want to designate a lead and sweeper for each group.
- Call a group meeting each morning and set the expectations for the day. Cover items such as the general plan and things you'll do for the day, when will snack and lunch breaks be, how long will the group be driving, are there any technical trails or anything the group should be aware of along the way.
- We recommend setting expectations when you plan to hit the trail each day. Do this on the first day when the group first meets, and then remind the group each night at camp. Generally speaking, we typically do not recommend trying to hit the trail before 9am, unless you're with a small and super efficient group.
- Do not leave anyone behind. You should be aware of how many vehicles are in the group at all times. You should never leave a fellow event attendee out on the trail to fend for themselves.
- For Trail Run events, we recommend that the event host carry the minimum recovery gear: shovel, kinetic snatch rope, tow rope, along with hard or soft shackles.
- If your event traverses technical trails that require a spotter, only one person should be doing the spotting at any given time. If more than one person tries to spot a vehicle, politely but firmly remind them that only one person (and call out this person's name) should spot at any given time.
- Keep the group together. We strongly discourage people from leaving the group to explore on their own or with a small group. Of course, if someone needs to leave early to get back home, that's fine, but it's important to try to keep the group together at all times.
- This should be common sense, but any driving while under the influence (alcohol, medication, illicit or legal substances) should never be tolerated.
Template for Creating Your Event Thread
See the next reply for the template.
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