Each fall, a parade of Jeeps led by rescue vehicles and race organizers Judy and Doug Wilson, of Bethel, winds its way through Bethel village as part of Jeep Jamboree U.S.A.

This year’s Jeep Jamboree will be held Oct. 3-4 in Bethel.

Starting at Cross Street, across from the Gem Theater, they head up Main Street, circle the Common, then head back down Main Street.

Jody Wilson said being in the lead and passing Jeeps still exiting Cross Street — 170 Jeeps in all — is quite a sight.

Jeep Jamboree U.S.A. is based in Georgetown, California. Registrations for Bethel’s jamboree typically sell out just minutes after they are announced online.

“Everyone wants to come to Maine for the foliage,” Judy Wilson said, adding that they often come three or four days early to go to the shops and restaurants.

The Wilson’s began as guides in 1991, then took the helm of the Bethel event from organizer Geoff Gaudreau, of Bethel, in 1999.

In the 1990s, when the Wilsons were guides, stuffed in their very small Jeep were three kids and an English setter. Nowadays, their kids — Danna (Wilson) Louison, Dane and Drew Wilson — help with the jamboree. As for their 70-year-old Jeep, a 1954 Willys CJ3B, it hasn’t retired but “is an old man Jeep,” Doug Wilson said.

Part of the fee to join the jamboree goes toward sandwiches that Telstar High School juniors will be making Thursday night.

Jeeps will line up Friday morning, Oct. 3, and again Saturday morning, Oct. 4, for the parade. On both evenings the Bethel Fire Department will hold a jamboree car wash at the Bethel bus garage.

Last year, people from 22 states and two Canadian provinces came to the jamboree.

The Wilsons and their crew typically run 10 different trails ranging from stock and scenic to moderate to modified. The modified jeeps have huge lifts, big tires and stronger axels.

Jody Wilson said they are fortunate to have a lot of property to use for trail rides. Sunday River Ski Resort gives them permission to go on its land, as do six of the club’s members. They access state, forestry and public lands, too — about 75 miles of trails in all.

One scenic trail goes past Screw Auger Falls in Newry. Landowners Laurie and Bob Brown, of Upton, serve the riders pie, donuts and coffee. A realistic looking highway exit sign on the trail gives a nod to the pies and to math nerds, too. It reads, “Exit 3.14.”

“People come from around the country and look forward to the race … they can forget about the world, go out and bang around in a jeep in the Maine woods for a weekend,” Doug Wilson said.

On the day after the event they do trail cleanup, Jody said.

“If it’s a muddy, wet fall, we have a lot of work to rake in all the ruts,” she said. “We put grass seed down, then hay and mulch over it. This year where it’s so dry, we’re probably not even going to leave tire prints.”