I’m known for taking that attitude when off-roading. While I was out with Zac, he got the chance to prove that after four recoveries haha. We still had a great time and even Chloe kept saying she was still enjoying it. We were 30 seconds from the end of the ride and I might have failed to give the mud proper respect and got stuck in the ruts you can see behind me (lower left). Zac didn’t have enough weight or traction to recover me so we had to winch using several big bushes as anchor points. I might have popped the tire off the rim’s bead in the process of winching (on an underground root I somehow managed to dig up with the wheel as I was coming up out of the rut), lower right pic). The ground was too soft to use my normal jack and platform so Zac drove me home and the Jeep spent the night on the trail. (Three of us, our gear, and two dogs filled his Jeep for sure) The next morning, my amazing wife offered to rescue me in her Subaru 🤪 by loading it full of everything we might need to jack it up and/or winch out some more (upper right). Luckily, the spare tire change only took 30 mins with a real jack (and some wooden planks my dad saved), and I drove right out the rest of the mud bogs first try in about 13 seconds. It was a good thing because a bad storm was blowing in right at that moment. It took out several trees that blocked the road so we had to go the long way home. incidentally, this was the exact same time that Columbus was getting hit with tornadoes.
The upper left shows me all safe and sound at home after the jeep spent the night on the trail. Still one of the cleanest it’s been after off-roading. Partially due to not having mud tires flinging stuff everywhere, and partly since my new wheels sit inboard 3/4” more so I get a little better fender flare coverage.
Do I regret not having mud tires and selling my beadlocks yet? Hmmmm. I don’t think so. I sure realize how important it is to make sure you have your stuff with you even if you’re doing light off-roading. I’m not planning any more treks for a while so we will see what’s next…
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