This is a road?

The whole reason Dave and I went camping was so he could take his Jeep off-road...sort of. Technically it is a legal road and in order to drive on it you have to have a registered vehicle, license and all that good stuff. But I should back up.

Dave has what some might call an unhealthy obsession with his Jeep. He's always driven a Jeep and frankly, when the New England snows come through, I'm glad he has the ridiculous vehicle he does with the big knobby tires and full-time four wheel drive. We've successfully navigated where the Toyota Camrys of the world could not, without getting stuck on the side of the highway. Especially memorable is the day that we drove into work on the highway that only had one lane plowed. Bored with the other drivers topping speeds of a whopping 15 miles per hour, Dave said screw it and "plowed" his own lane, driving in the untouched snow, several inches deep, the entire way into Boston. It was quite efficient actually. And I digress...again.


This is Dave's Jeep during an off-road trip a few months ago. He's done a lot of stuff to this vehicle to make it worthy of climbing rocks and such, and yes, it's supposed to be all flexy like that. Lots of stuff that I won't embarrass myself by trying to repeat here. I sort of understand it all, but not enough to feel confident explaining it. I know that it's lifted about 4 inches (try climbing into that in a skirt and heels--I can do it successfully now) and he can disengage the front end. I'm stopping there.

Back to this weekend. Saturday morning we headed out to meet up the group of other off-roaders, mostly Jeep drivers, but some others as well. After a little confusion we finally found them. Sixteen trucks in all were going on this adventure, which is a pretty big group. You always want to go with people so they can help guide you over the obstacles (or pull you out of a hole), but once I saw all those trucks lined up, I knew it was going to be a long day.
At the meet up point, the drivers take air out of their tires and start adjusting their vehicles, such as disconnecting important parts of the axles or rods in the undercarriage so the vehicle will be more flexible to climb over rocks. Much to my chagrin, we ended up at the back of the bus, but in hindsight, this ended up being a good thing. Typically the middle is better, or at least one person behind you, so that you can be pulled in both directions if you're in a tight spot.
After all the vehicles were ready and the group organizer explained the trail to those who hadn't been on it before, we headed out to the starting point. Off-roading is not for people who get motion sick or anything. It's a lot of jostling around and going at weird angles with your truck, waiting for it to topple over, even though it actually is firmly planted on those rocks. The trick is for the driver to know where the obstacle is, how high it will come under the vehicle and whether there is anything important it might hit (read: break) in the undercarriage. The point is not to break your vehicle, or even bang it up really bad (although some of the guys on this trip might disagree), but to test the limits of the modifications you've made to your vehicle and get over the hurdles. And it's not a bad thing if you get stuck to a point that you need help getting out.
Since we were the last to get on the trail ("road," whatever), we had to wait for everyone to negotiate through the rocks before we could really get going. That included watching the guy in front of us almost take off his rear axle.
It's a bad picture, but essentially, instead of putting his tires on top of the rock, he went to straddle it and didn't have the clearance to do it. Dave helped him back up and try it again, this time successfully. About 1/4 mile up the trail is the first obstacle. The last time Dave and I were on this trail was two years ago and the trail was definitely in "better" condition. Rain has washed away some of the rocks and dirt, making it even more challenging, and overuse by off-roaders has really taken it's toll. Currently there are very few roads/trails to off-road on in our area of New England (all of Massachusetts, and most of Southern Vermont and New Hampshire). Therefore, the trails that are available get so much use that they are becoming difficult and potentially dangerous to use. It's a current source of frustration for Dave, who really likes this activity. It actually looks worse in person. You literally will get yourself stuck between a rock and hard place. The hard place being the tree. Like this guy did with his Land Rover.
He was stuck like that for a while and in trying to maneuver back and forth, he ended up breaking of his driver's side taillight and bending the metal a bit on the tree. Eventually, after tying up to two different trees, he was able to pull himself up using his winch. Although in doing so he ended up losing power and possible scraped up some pretty important stuff in the undercarriage (after several other people went through, we found motor oil on the rocks and we thought it might have been his).
Success...if you don't count breaking your car.

The difference between Dave and some of these guys is that he drives his Jeep every day. It's his car. And he cares that is doesn't look like it's been beat to hell. Some of these guys don't care, or they have another vehicle and they'll push a little harder on their off-road vehicle because that's what it's for.
This was a full-size Dodge truck that we thought would either high-center because of his length or lose his bumper completely because he kept crashing it down on the front rock.
He eventually made it through without a tow, but it was a long and painful process. The funny part was after his first attempt and not being able to get through, his girlfriend jumped out, not wanting to be along for the ride any more! (I don't blame her at all.) Robbie, the first other driver we met that morning, ended up getting his little Wrangler stuck pretty good too. He was an admitted new driver (and running tires that weren't really the best) and end up towing himself up.

All in all, we watched as 14 of the other 15 trucks got themselves through the obstacle. The 15th took a go-round because he had lost oil pressure in his beat up '86 Chevy truck on the way from the meet-up point to the trailhead. Dave didn't want to risk it. Watching some of the other vehicles with similar features to his struggle and beat themselves up was too much. He knows how hard he can push his Jeep and what it's limits are, and wasn't afraid to admit that it wasn't equipped to handle this kind of challenge. And while this used to be the most challenging obstacle on the course, who knew what the rest of the trail looked like at this point.

I was definitely pleased to not have the knots in my stomach of wondering if we would make it out of the trail, let alone make it home. And if I'm being honest, it took almost 3 hours for 15 cars to go approximately 1/4 mile. Staying on the trail would have made for the LONGEST. DAY. EVER. And a very cranky Colleen for Dave to take back to camp.

But I was also disappointed for Dave because this is something he really likes to do and was looking forward to the trail run. He decided to call it a day, and felt good about his decision. He told me later that when he got into this activity, he set a threshold for how far he was willing go, in terms of the modifications and height to his vehicle and for the damage he'd be willing to take on and Saturday's trail ride would exceed that threshold. If he ever has the money to do so, he can pick up an old beater Jeep and jack it up even higher, but right now, he's happy to hang up his mud tires, so to speak and come back to this activity at another time.