SeaRubi
Explorer
East Coast terrain is a nice, large primer for what you would encounter in the Pacific Northwest. :ylsmoke: Imagine Colorado heights matched with East Coast terrain and you've got the PNW in a nutshell.
There are thousands of miles of logging roads and jeep trails cut into the Cascades after WWII. All of it goes from dusty to muddy to snowy and all of it contains big root ledges, rocks, and everything in between. I'd say half of it is all off-camber with life ending consequences for careless mistakes.
The oldest Jeep club in the country is the Yakima Ridgerunners, and all those old timers swear by the skinny tire and spirited driving. Nowadays, inside of the same club, everybody wants to prattle on about how much better their fancy high tech creations are over those old Willys Jeeps that carved the trails into the hills in the first place.
The difference that I came to accept wasn't a question regarding the efficacy of new vs. old technology, but rather making note of the sharp relief in character between old timers and young bucks like myself. Those fellas had been across both ponds and watched a great number of their countrymen die on the battlefield. Those same years of my life during their age were spent sucking down lattes in a nice office. For them, pushing a little jeep through the mountains for fun was a welcome reward for protecting their country. For me, it became an excuse to spend money.
In our age of Easy Button living we've been trained to only accept instant gratification and cannot be bothered with inconveniences like trudging through mud and snow in a pouring rain while digging out with a small shovel, grinning ear to ear and loving every minute of it. Choosing a skinny tire is to choose character, determination, perseverance, a touch of insanity, and a spirit for the hunt. Those are all properties of the driver that are worth upgrading in tandem with tires and suspension bits. I feel like I still have a long way to go, but I find it much more fulfilling than bolting parts onto the truck.
Likewise, the Camel Trophy events were a reminder that not all of life's challenges should be ironed out with technology. That reminder and the promise of adventure will remain intact long after the next wave of automotive technology supplants the current thinking of what's best. For those of us chasing a part of ourselves that we didn't know existed before finding it one day - up deep in the mountains alone, hopelessly stuck, and realizing how much those lattes didn't matter in the greater scheme of things - a small tire and a manual winch can offer huge advantages.
cheers,
-ike
There are thousands of miles of logging roads and jeep trails cut into the Cascades after WWII. All of it goes from dusty to muddy to snowy and all of it contains big root ledges, rocks, and everything in between. I'd say half of it is all off-camber with life ending consequences for careless mistakes.
The oldest Jeep club in the country is the Yakima Ridgerunners, and all those old timers swear by the skinny tire and spirited driving. Nowadays, inside of the same club, everybody wants to prattle on about how much better their fancy high tech creations are over those old Willys Jeeps that carved the trails into the hills in the first place.
The difference that I came to accept wasn't a question regarding the efficacy of new vs. old technology, but rather making note of the sharp relief in character between old timers and young bucks like myself. Those fellas had been across both ponds and watched a great number of their countrymen die on the battlefield. Those same years of my life during their age were spent sucking down lattes in a nice office. For them, pushing a little jeep through the mountains for fun was a welcome reward for protecting their country. For me, it became an excuse to spend money.
In our age of Easy Button living we've been trained to only accept instant gratification and cannot be bothered with inconveniences like trudging through mud and snow in a pouring rain while digging out with a small shovel, grinning ear to ear and loving every minute of it. Choosing a skinny tire is to choose character, determination, perseverance, a touch of insanity, and a spirit for the hunt. Those are all properties of the driver that are worth upgrading in tandem with tires and suspension bits. I feel like I still have a long way to go, but I find it much more fulfilling than bolting parts onto the truck.
Likewise, the Camel Trophy events were a reminder that not all of life's challenges should be ironed out with technology. That reminder and the promise of adventure will remain intact long after the next wave of automotive technology supplants the current thinking of what's best. For those of us chasing a part of ourselves that we didn't know existed before finding it one day - up deep in the mountains alone, hopelessly stuck, and realizing how much those lattes didn't matter in the greater scheme of things - a small tire and a manual winch can offer huge advantages.
cheers,
-ike
