dentedvw
uıɐƃɐ ʇɐɥʇ op ʇ,uoʍ ı
- Location
- Bountiful, UT
Let me set the scene for you. It's 1933, and a storm is blowing in, but it's not a rain storm, no sir. It's a dust storm.
Okay, it wasn't really that bad. It wasn't the panhandle of Texas in the thirties. Even still, there was people, dirty desperate people camped along the road, being covered in silt. Ears assaulted by dirt bikes and quads and cars and trucks and... you get the picture.
But not me buddy. No way. I went up far enough that I couldn't see anyone in any direction, and that's where I hung my hammock, burned some wood, ate food from a can and slept like a cat. That is to say with one eye open because I still can't sleep outside comfortably. Goodness knows I have tried. Maybe it's because I am alone, or maybe it's because I am afraid I will be visited by a bear.
I slept a few, fitful hours. But I was up and around at six in the morning, leaving me plenty of time to kill before meeting up at Ten.
At the appointed time, several people showed up, we accumulated two extra Jeeps who wanted to tag along, and we were on our way. We never found the guy in the black zj who was to meet us near the Forest Lake turnout, so we went up towards Mineral Basin.
Mike, in his CJ-5 that he has owned since it was new in 1979, showed us how it got done back in the day. He motored on through a lot of things I didn't think he could, but eventually he became my passenger when his transfer case revolted and refused to provide juice to the front axle in low range. Low range is crucial for those of us in wee Jeeps. Mike was excellent company, and we laughed and cringed together as I coaxed my nearly stock Rubicon up Mineral Basin, nearly dumping him out once as we teetered on the brink of rolling over.
I brought a better camera, but forgot to charge the battery, so I took all of these with my phone. Speaking of pictures, let see some more pictures, shall we?
This is Medsker's Power Wagon, a real workhorse for sure. It would probably have hauled three of our Jeeps up most of Mineral Basin without breaking a sweat, but a large rock laid one of it's skid plates down low. By the way, that's not Medsker under the truck, he accepted a volunteer to remove the offending skid plate. Good people here, you know?
So with the "Large Rock Modification, he was prevented from steering, which I hear is something you want to be able to do easily when you are piloting a barge through rocky trails. :greg: Seriously, I like the cut of this guy's gib, he drives this truck like he means it, it is striped, dented, missing bits, oh, and it's a 2011 with about 4000 miles on the odometer. Most of these trucks are living a pampered life cruising to the mall, but not this one. It's being put to the test. It's a pretty sweet machine. It too was to be parked for the last parts of Mineral Basin however, as there was blood in the water, and the rocks had a taste of Power Wagon already. It and the CJ-5 were stowed safely and we were off to have lunch.
This fellow came all the way from Caifornia! We just met him in the parking area at Tibble Fork Reservoir, and he joined us. His rig is adorned with California dents, they are slightly more liberal than the dents you get here. Just saying.
We took a lot of breaks for one thing or another, not that it was a bad thing. I was getting properly abused by my seat belt, and I welcomed the frequent chances to get out. Besides, the scenery here is AMAZING. Incredibly awesome. Some of you might be used to this, but some of my dreams came true today, and you all got to be part of it. It was really moving, you have no idea. I have long dreamed of wheeling in Utah, in the mountains. Really, thanks.
Venture's TJ is NUTS! It's so full of awesome fabrication, I barely know where to begin. Everywhere I looked on this Jeep was another custom one off doodad. I don't know if this Jeep has a build thread here, but WOW pretty much sums up my impressions. I think someone got some better pictures of this rig, mine were mostly blurry or crooked. It's as though I have one really short leg.
Okay, it wasn't really that bad. It wasn't the panhandle of Texas in the thirties. Even still, there was people, dirty desperate people camped along the road, being covered in silt. Ears assaulted by dirt bikes and quads and cars and trucks and... you get the picture.
But not me buddy. No way. I went up far enough that I couldn't see anyone in any direction, and that's where I hung my hammock, burned some wood, ate food from a can and slept like a cat. That is to say with one eye open because I still can't sleep outside comfortably. Goodness knows I have tried. Maybe it's because I am alone, or maybe it's because I am afraid I will be visited by a bear.
I slept a few, fitful hours. But I was up and around at six in the morning, leaving me plenty of time to kill before meeting up at Ten.
At the appointed time, several people showed up, we accumulated two extra Jeeps who wanted to tag along, and we were on our way. We never found the guy in the black zj who was to meet us near the Forest Lake turnout, so we went up towards Mineral Basin.
Mike, in his CJ-5 that he has owned since it was new in 1979, showed us how it got done back in the day. He motored on through a lot of things I didn't think he could, but eventually he became my passenger when his transfer case revolted and refused to provide juice to the front axle in low range. Low range is crucial for those of us in wee Jeeps. Mike was excellent company, and we laughed and cringed together as I coaxed my nearly stock Rubicon up Mineral Basin, nearly dumping him out once as we teetered on the brink of rolling over.
I brought a better camera, but forgot to charge the battery, so I took all of these with my phone. Speaking of pictures, let see some more pictures, shall we?
This is Medsker's Power Wagon, a real workhorse for sure. It would probably have hauled three of our Jeeps up most of Mineral Basin without breaking a sweat, but a large rock laid one of it's skid plates down low. By the way, that's not Medsker under the truck, he accepted a volunteer to remove the offending skid plate.
Good people here, you know? So with the "Large Rock Modification, he was prevented from steering, which I hear is something you want to be able to do easily when you are piloting a barge through rocky trails. :greg: Seriously, I like the cut of this guy's gib, he drives this truck like he means it, it is striped, dented, missing bits, oh, and it's a 2011 with about 4000 miles on the odometer. Most of these trucks are living a pampered life cruising to the mall, but not this one. It's being put to the test. It's a pretty sweet machine. It too was to be parked for the last parts of Mineral Basin however, as there was blood in the water, and the rocks had a taste of Power Wagon already. It and the CJ-5 were stowed safely and we were off to have lunch.
This fellow came all the way from Caifornia! We just met him in the parking area at Tibble Fork Reservoir, and he joined us. His rig is adorned with California dents, they are slightly more liberal than the dents you get here. Just saying.
We took a lot of breaks for one thing or another, not that it was a bad thing. I was getting properly abused by my seat belt, and I welcomed the frequent chances to get out. Besides, the scenery here is AMAZING. Incredibly awesome. Some of you might be used to this, but some of my dreams came true today, and you all got to be part of it. It was really moving, you have no idea. I have long dreamed of wheeling in Utah, in the mountains. Really, thanks.
Venture's TJ is NUTS!
It's so full of awesome fabrication, I barely know where to begin. Everywhere I looked on this Jeep was another custom one off doodad. I don't know if this Jeep has a build thread here, but WOW pretty much sums up my impressions. I think someone got some better pictures of this rig, mine were mostly blurry or crooked. It's as though I have one really short leg.
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