I had heard of CT in the early 90's from a buddy that was into Land Cruisers. Never paid much attention to it, now I wish I had.
OVEX 2011. On the LRE course Jim Swett rode with me and Fred Monsees rode with the GF in my Defender. Later that night at the dinner they lined up the CT guys so they could tell the crowd stories. We had the good fortune to be sitting right up front and as one CT competitor further down the line would talk about their experience the others would comment and include us in the "sidebar" (Tom Collins, Jim Swett, Fred Monsees and a couple others were right in front of us). Pretty cool experience!
In 2012 I met The Rover Shop who resurrected this thread. He is the quintessential "that guy". Good Luck on your trip Shayne.