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James here from Colorado FJ Cruisers, hi everybody!
I moved to Colorado for off-roading in 2011, and registered for my first FJ Summit in May 2011. I led my first trail at Summit in 2013, and attended every year until #13 in 2019. Like all of us, I was shocked when the Summit organizers announced earlier this year that they were ending FJ Summit.
Our own club has been running a smaller event each year in Buena Vista, called the Rocky Mountain FJ RoundUp. When the Summit cancellation was announced, I knew immediately that we'd be moving RoundUp to Ouray. I talked a few other friends into this crazy idea, and now we're ready to share the info!
We are happy to announce the first annual Rocky Mountain Toyota RoundUp ("RMTR"), July 19-22, 2023 in Ouray CO. Please visit the website and sign up for the newsletter, that's our primary means of communicating with attendees.
Why "Toyota RoundUp"? The RoundUp name is an homage to our late COFJ founder Jack Bottorf, who named our BV event "RoundUp". And we chose "Toyota" over "FJ" because we wanted to celebrate all Toyotas.
How far along are we in the planning? The USFS permit is submitted, we've already contracted with a caterer and have reserved the Ouray County Fairgrounds as event HQ. The fairgrounds offers a large parking lot for staging trail groups, and almost 5000 square feet of indoor dining and vendor space.
Registration Info: for our first year, we have capped the event at 150 trucks (not including vendors). For 2024 and beyond we plan on getting larger, but we need to find the limits of our venue and trail plan. What this means for registration is that we expect to sell out quickly. Keep an eye out for the e-mails, I would expect registration to open in March or April.
Our goals for RMTR: we're trying to keep the event low-cost for attendees and vendors. We're also trying to increase vendor engagement, by encouraging them to sponsor trail runs and interact with their trail groups for photos and video. For this first year with the lower attendee count, that means more spacing between trail groups and a less rushed pace on the trails.
About the organizers:
I moved to Colorado for off-roading in 2011, and registered for my first FJ Summit in May 2011. I led my first trail at Summit in 2013, and attended every year until #13 in 2019. Like all of us, I was shocked when the Summit organizers announced earlier this year that they were ending FJ Summit.
Our own club has been running a smaller event each year in Buena Vista, called the Rocky Mountain FJ RoundUp. When the Summit cancellation was announced, I knew immediately that we'd be moving RoundUp to Ouray. I talked a few other friends into this crazy idea, and now we're ready to share the info!
We are happy to announce the first annual Rocky Mountain Toyota RoundUp ("RMTR"), July 19-22, 2023 in Ouray CO. Please visit the website and sign up for the newsletter, that's our primary means of communicating with attendees.
Why "Toyota RoundUp"? The RoundUp name is an homage to our late COFJ founder Jack Bottorf, who named our BV event "RoundUp". And we chose "Toyota" over "FJ" because we wanted to celebrate all Toyotas.
How far along are we in the planning? The USFS permit is submitted, we've already contracted with a caterer and have reserved the Ouray County Fairgrounds as event HQ. The fairgrounds offers a large parking lot for staging trail groups, and almost 5000 square feet of indoor dining and vendor space.
Registration Info: for our first year, we have capped the event at 150 trucks (not including vendors). For 2024 and beyond we plan on getting larger, but we need to find the limits of our venue and trail plan. What this means for registration is that we expect to sell out quickly. Keep an eye out for the e-mails, I would expect registration to open in March or April.
Our goals for RMTR: we're trying to keep the event low-cost for attendees and vendors. We're also trying to increase vendor engagement, by encouraging them to sponsor trail runs and interact with their trail groups for photos and video. For this first year with the lower attendee count, that means more spacing between trail groups and a less rushed pace on the trails.
About the organizers:
- James - a co-founder of Colorado FJ Cruisers, I've attended 9 Summits and led trails at 7. I'm also the author of the FJ Buy/Sell guide here.
- Kathy - a Rebelle Rally participant and offroading enthusiast, Kathy is a gifted artist and does all of the club's logos / swag.
- Adam - does all the website / IT work for COFJ and RMTR, Adam has attended 10 Summits and led trails in Ouray for many years.
- Eric - a former President of Colorado 4x4 Rescue & Recovery, is a very experienced trainer for offroading and recovery skills.
- Hugo - aftermarket parts salesman extraordinaire, Hugo has attended multiple FJ Summits as a vendor and helps us coordinate with vendors for RMTR.
- Alina - the official event photographer and audio/visual support, Alina is an outdoor enthusiast with an abundance of blogging / social media experience.
