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| no partners | | I'd rather not distort my hiking stats, but I broke in my new Wrangler on its, and my, first off-road trek today and have to document this milestone. From a book I'd downloaded from kindle about off-road trips along the Arizona Great Western Trail, I picked out this one, known as GWT #3 in the book. It was reported to be easy, which I needed because I'd never so much as shifted a vehicle into four-wheel drive in my life. Literally. And it was reportedly short, which I needed because I'd landed from Chicago with my wife and daughter at 4:15pm. The look on the wife's face when I said I wanted to do this rather than go home was far more daunting than the thought of being caught out there after dark fell.
I'm not used to setting out on outdoor adventures with such little preparation and precautions. But I was just too eager to play this game. I was wearing business casual attire. I had no water. I don't know how to put a spare on a Jeep if a tire busts in the wilderness. My knowledge of shifting into 4WD was literally purely academic, from reading what the manual said. And I've never off-roaded before. I'm a lifetime sedan driver. So, off I went!
And it was awesome!
I was stuck in sand within 2 minutes. This was the moment when Darwin's law forced me to put theory to practice and actually shift into 4WD properly. It's hard to describe the joy of this awesome machinery that originated in World War II being put to its proper use, and working perfectly. My machine charged forward and, after 2 weeks of commuting me to my office, felt like it was finally at home. Over rocks, through canyons, slicing through thick sand, I was amazed to just be somewhere at all that a car driver--which I was until 2 weeks ago--couldn't even imagine being.
With this, the prospects of hitting isolated trailheads open up infinitely. Not to mention a chance to take all the grandparents in my close and extended family, some of whom sorely miss the outdoors because they're too delicate for hiking, back out there again. |
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| "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." --John Adams |
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