Epic Locals - Humanity Matters

[woodsk]

In the long distance hiking world there is this idea of trail magic. Essentially trail magic is: Unexpected generosity, kindness, or support along the trail that lifts the trekkers spirit.

There are some really awesome stories of people going out of their way to help out travelers all around the world in incredible ways, and in incredible places. No matter if I was on 2 wheels or 4 I have experienced some simply awesome, what my dirt bike buddies called, “Epic Locals”. These are the folks who always seem to be there when things are looking their worst. This is not the best label as I know I have helped and been helped by many other travelers in my adventures. Maybe you have a better name for it.

When I was a 2 wheel guy I rode and raced dirt bikes around many parts of the US, and no matter where I was, either running an Enduro in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, riding trails in North Idaho, or bombing with my kids in many of the country's awesome dirt bike destinations. When things went wrong there always seemed to be “Epic Locals” there to lend a helping hand.

These are the old guys that let you use the welder in their barn to splint a cracked subframe, the kid in north west PA that just happened to have a couple of clutch plates for a WR400 (“nah I don’t need nothin’ for them, I was just holdin’ on to them), the guy who spend 2 hours on a Sunday getting a 6 year olds PW50 running again so the kid could ride another hour before leaving.

Many of these are documented each day on social media, but there are many, many more that are never known about because, well some folks like me, just don’t do that (or in a manner that is anyway impactful in a sea of soulless YouTube and Instagram “content”).

I wanted to capture some of these. I have had opportunities to do a lot of interesting stuff over the years, and along the way I have gotten a few bumps on the head, so forming new memories is difficult. I wanted to capture these events so I did not lose them to the stew that is my memory, so I started to write them down along the way. But I may as well share them, so why not capture them here. Even if the ones who made a difference never see it. It is a good way to continue to tell the story that many need to hear: The world is safe, friendly and waiting for you to come explore.

These stories are why I travel, and hopefully I will have more to add. If you like, maybe add some of your own. They don't have to be grand, they simply have to matter to you.

 

[woodsk]

Rigd Supply
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Disclaimer - I have some memory issues, so names are quite difficult for me.


For many reasons my 10 month “Great Western Bumble”, (no real plan, just as much dirt as I can around the US, west of the 104th longitude) had to start before I was ready. My house was sold and the 4runner became my home before it was ready. I had a prototype platform in the back, some storage boxes and a tent for 10 months on the road. For me it was perfect. I decided I would build the truck on the road.

Six weeks into the “Great Western Bumble” I have already met some great people. There was the guy living out of his truck (not by choice) that was super excited to talk to me about Starlink (once it came out that I worked in the wireless industry) and its potential impact on the transient population in the desert southwest. The hotel clerk in Nevada that performed, what I can only assume is the equivalent of a hotel clerk equivalent of an olympic decathlon, to ensure that I had a room on the ground floor that I could park right in front of so I could clean and organize my gear.

Then I ended up at Rigd supply in Orange, CA to pick up one of their tire swings. I had not spoken to them, I just scheduled the 15 min appt online. I pulled up at 1:15, backed into the garage bay and the tech got right to work. The carrier went right in, and I was getting ready to shake hands and head out when he went to double check if there was any wobble. There was, a lot. Based in his response this was quite irregular, and he quickly went and grabbed assistance ( I be live one of the MEs that work on the design), after spending a non-trivial amount of time troubleshooting the unit, and swapping out for another one, we use some calipers and determined that the hitch had a flare in it that resulted in the rear being wider by .02 in. Just enough to allow the carrier to wobble. At this point I assumed I would need to source a new hitch, and come back. We talked about it for a few mins, and I suggested that we use some steel stock as a wedge and call it good. Now to put this into perspective, these guys make a single product that mounts to the OEM receiver. This is not a mechanic shop, body shop, or fabricators. They have a passion for the thing they make and are constantly making it better, some subpar install using a shim was not acceptable to them

So they were having none of it. Then the call went out “where's Kevin?”. Kevin came around the corner, was told what the issue was, and said these words “Let’s take the hitch off mine”. If you have not seen how an OEM hitch mounts to a 4runner, it may not be what you were expecting, in order to access the hitch you have to remove the rear bumper body work, mud flaps, and several other small body components. This is not just a couple of bolts. So what these guys just said (not offered) was; “lets disassemble one of our own trucks, take one part, dissemble the customers truck, install the part there, and put them both back together without replacing Kevin’s hitch”

And that is what they did, Kevin and Sam jumped on Kevin’s 4runner, removed the body fascia, and removed Kevin’s hitch. At the same time the tech and the ME were taking apart the back of my truck. None of the guys at RIgd had done this before, and I want to stress this is not a service they offer, just the right guys at the right time.

This was simply amazing. Along the way I found out that Kevin also ran a non-profit that focuses on providing disabled veterans opportunity, training and support in the form of off road adventure. I know that off-road riding has helped me in many ways, and the group over at www.trailtherapyoffroad.org are making it so others can get this help as well.


So 3.5 hours into my 15min appointment, the OEM hitch from Kevin’s 4runner had a new home on my 4runner, the tire carrier was installed and I was on my way again. The team at Rigd asked for nothing. They were simply motivated, full of pride in the gear they make, and most importantly, Epic Locals. Humanity matters.

 

[woodsk]

@1EPICFJ (Mike) and Joost
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I started the “Great Western Bumble” with an OZTent RV-3, since I had to leave earlier than expected it was the best option. Over the first week of traveling I grew to dislike the OZTent, by week six it had turned to a passionate loathing. It is an awesome tent, but it just did not fit with what I wanted to do.

I had never spent much time in Southern California, and I was having a great time walking around and exploring the LA area so I decided to spend a few days there. I was poking around online and I saw @1EPICFJ post that he had a Camp King RTT for sale, it was not just a RTT Mike had set it up for a big guy. I am a big guy myself and he had done everything I would do to the tent. So I sent him a message explaining that I would like to buy the tent, but I had to source a rack and have it installed. He and I messaged back and forth a bit, then we got on the phone. Mike said “hey I know a guy that may be able to help out, let me give him a call”. Since I was in the LA area I had reached out to front runner and while they did have racks they were not doing installs. So as I am searching for a place to install a rack, and figuring out how I would get the rack to the installer, I get a message from Mike. Mike says “Send an email to this guy Joost, tell him that you are the guys we spoke about and see what he can do”. I really didn’t have any expectations when I fired off the email. The reply came 15 minutes later from Cody “Can you be here on Friday at 9:30am, we have the front runner rack, we can install it and we can use our ceiling lift to move the tent from Mike’s FJ to your 4runner”. This is Wednesday evening.

I cannot tell you how excited I was about this, loathing the OZtent had become a hindrance to me traveling and in less than an hour of reaching out about the tent, this was potentially solved.
I didn’t know Mike, and I didn’t know Joost. But they saw an opportunity to help someone and they took it. Without the promise of repayment, knowing I would be on my way likely never to return. It was just a simple “yeah we can help”.

So Friday morning we all assembled at Joost’s shop in San Marco, Rhino Adventure Gear. After chatting for a bit Joost and his tech (Justin?), settle in for what would be a full day of labor, seriously this guys did not stop all day. Installing a rack takes time, so Joost and team dismount the RTT from Mike’s FJ so he can take off. Before he does though, drives me around to ATMs so I could grab cash.

Joost and Justin are busy installing the rack, and while looking around I see they had some RLD awnings. I had just spent 9 days in the desert and an awning was on my mind, so I asked “feel like putting on an awning?”. This is not a trivial task and these guys had fit me in, so I assumed the answer would be along the line of “we will have to schedule that”. But the actual reply was “if we push we can be done by 5:30, does that work?”. Hell yes it works!

So at 5:15 that evening, I am pulling away with a new rack installed, the Camp King from Mike and the new awning from Rhino. Tonight I am literally sleeping easy. All because Mike and Joost said “yeah we can help”. Humanity matters.

 

[WeLikeCamping]

I've got one. I'll call it "The man from Socorro"

Late one summer, I planned a loop trip to see the NRAO/VLA and try to get some late summer full-moon rising shots over the array. This was to be a road-trip, dragging my quad behind the MIL's Roadtrek for any off-roading I wanted to do. And I wanted to do. At the time, OHV use in New Mexico was so confusing to figure out that I decided the loop back would be through the Arizona White Mountains, terrain I was familiar with. I had a week of freedom, just me, the road and my wingman, Ziggy the adventure Pug.

The weather was perfect as I drove east, following historic cattle tracks and camping at an awesome site in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, near the Plains of San Agustin. The next day broke crisp and sunny, as Ziggy and I wandered around the campground, exploring some old cattle artifacts - long, narrow concrete troughs that could water a lot of cattle at once. From this point, Drovers would push the cattle east to the railhead and pens at Magdelena. I broke camp and headed out to the VLA, visiting some of the scopes and taking lots of pictures. At the dish maintenance facility, Ziggy decided to go exploring on his own, and I ended up chasing him down for a good bit. The day was getting long, and I had planned to camp southwest of here, closer to the town of Reserve. I reluctantly pointed the Roadtrek west to find my camping, a popular campground in the mountains. I made sure to stop in at Pie Town to grab a slice of some awesome pie for my evening dessert. Heading on down the road, I wound south into the mountains.

I arrived at the campground just before sunset. The road in was a bit rough, and the last cattle guard I drove over was a bit pot-holed, and when the trailer bounced off it, there was a loud banging sound. Much louder that it should have been. I was tired, and still rolling, with my destination minutes away. I finally rolled into my campsite, popped the side doors and the canopy tossed out a chair and cracked a beer. I'm not a big campground fan, and normally would have gone dispersed, but for this trip, I was glamming it. I sat there enjoying the first wisps of my cooking fire, and looked around my site. I was pulled into what I call a "side-tie" a boating term for tying up along a wharf, which is similar to a pullover roadside campsite. Anyway, I'm just sitting there looking around and I notice my trailer wheel. It was not looking good. The whole thing was leaning at an angle that looked bad. I investigated closer. The wheel was more or less just hanging on to the axle and wobbled freely. Not being a tire or suspension guy, even then it was clear to me that things were not as they should be. I whipped out the jack and raised the trailer. The wheel hung forlornly from the axle. I removed the cotter-pin and the nut, the wheel more or less just fell off. The bearing buddy was gone. The bearings were gone. The races were gone. Well, except for the one that appeared to be welded to the axle. The grease was gone. So, there was not much I could do at this point and the nearest place with any sort of repair shop was a 60 mile drive away. I had several more beers. I resolved to drive to the repair shop in the AM and see if I could get some help. I had several more beers.

Got up early the next morning, and with a fresh attitude, I dropped the trailer, and Ziggy and I headed off to the gas station in the middle of nowhere. I arrived about an hour later to see a man exiting a trailer behind the shop, carrying a bag and wearing camo. We greeted and I explained my sad story. He sympathized with me. He agreed that I was in a difficult situation. As he headed to his truck, he told me he had three days to punch his Elk tag and if I still needed help then, to come back and see him. Hmmm. The next closest town was a hundred miles away. I drove back to camp.

So, I've got my assorted broken hub parts laying out on the trailer, while I'm trying to think of a different solution. As I'm doing this, the man from Socorro walks up and strikes up a conversation. Turns out he was a retired dirt-track racer who still maintained a shop and car, but did not race. He offered to look at my situation and as he is doing so, he offers up, "I was walking through the forest over there a quarter mile or so and I came upon what appeared to be a dump, lot's of old rusted broken-down equipment and parts just laying around gathering rust. I happened to notice a couple of hubs sitting there and we might be able to salvage them". This was an intriguing idea and we discussed it a bit more as he offered to walk me over there to look it over. I grabbed a pack and said, let's go! We find the dump and wander around until we find the hubs - which appeared to be in pretty decent shape, despite the rust and laying around on the forest floor. The man from Socorro tells me he thinks it might fit my trailer. I was out of options, beyond being stuck in the cg for another week or so, so I picked one up and put it in my pack. We headed back to camp.

Fortunately, while I may not know much about axles, at least I was smart enough to bring the tools that allowed us to do a trailside repair. We got back to camp and he offered to help me try to fix the hub. Of course, I humbly accepted his help. Dude spent about two hours cleaning my old axle and fitting this hub we found to my axle was a perfect fit - there was even enough grease to reasonably grease the whole affair. The man from Socorro led the charge on this repair, explaining and showing me the steps to fixing this problem as he did it. He showed me tricks on how to set and test the tightness on the axle nut. In the end, he completed the repair for me, taught me a few things about axles, wheels and hubs and would accept nothing but thanks. I was overwhelmed with gratitude not only to this man, but to the karma that brought me to this place at this time, when what I needed was right there. My trip was saved, and I packed up and headed to civilization, where I found a trailer shop to repack the bearings on both hubs.

To this day, I take that lesson I learned and while I may not be a trailside mechanic, I will always help a fellow in the weeds. I also carry a grease-gun and check my hubs frequently. Edit - took some digging, but I found some pics.

 

[Ace Brown]

Love a story like that!


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[woodsk]

Kindness on the road is what makes it possible for us to make these trips to remote and what some call "wild" or "undeveloped" places.

The places where people like "The man from Socorro" take the time to help, simply because they can.

We can plan and prepare all we want, but we still need them

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[highwest]

I've got one. I'll call it "The man from Socorro"

I had a very similar thing happen to me on a dirt road in Baja. Saved by a fellow traveler that had way more hub/bearing experience (and advice) than me.

I generally stop for anyone in the wilderness on the side of the road just to make sure they’re okay. I’ve only been able to provide tire plugs and the air compressor, but at least it’s something to keep paying it forward.