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- #21
Had a fine time in the forest yesterday. I took the 40 without the doors and with Sarah in the nag nav seat. Robert and I shot down 553 and started up Dickey Bell then headed to the Dutch John Parking where Mike and his wife, Marie, were just pulling in to meet us. It's crazy how much alike our 40's look - metallic green body, metallic black top/sides.
From there, we got behind Mike and made our way to Rocky Mountain Loop, Dutch John and Falls Dam before running out of time for the day. Oh, and there was a little stopover at the mud pit where Robert tried to paint his white Blazer brown and almost flopped it in the process. Looking for that picture... While Robert's wife, Stacey, was screaming in the passenger seat we watched a Tacoma towing a Cherokee out of Falls Dam but missed that photo op.
I only took the 40 in the dirt once since late 2012 so I was wondering if all the time spent in the 80 was going to have me hating the ride or not, but it was definitely a blast driving the old machine. Yes, power steering would be nice, but these trails are fairly easily handled without it. The narrower track width was good to have and let me choose some lines differently from what I got used to in the 80. I might have been a bit unnerved by a section of the Dickey rock climb without the doors but I scrambled up it pretty damn smooth for me, sweaty palms and all. 15PSI in the KM2's probably didn't hurt.
We only saw a very small handful of other trucks on the trails. There were a few quads that we came across (and one particularly stupid and rude rider), but they were pouring in as we were leaving. The bikes were most numerous. There was almost an incident as we approached the Dutch John hill descent (where it's carved into the earth) when a biker came flying up it as Mike was about to slowly crest the hill to go down. It shook the rider up a bit but he was unharmed and the other 6 in his group let us pass. That should teach them to not blindly assault a hill with no shoulder that ends in a blind downhill turn (from their directional perspective). And even if he was going up as the spotter for his group...just stupid. There was one other pack of bikers that was racing around and they seemed pretty bothered that they had to share the trails. We moved over as best we could when we heard them coming (as we did for all OHV riders) but their glances and fingers told us how they felt. I imagine they were racing since none of them really slowed down except to weave through our convoy.
My pics don't all seem to be transferring to the laptop, so here's one of Robert in the pit and a salad I made last month.
From there, we got behind Mike and made our way to Rocky Mountain Loop, Dutch John and Falls Dam before running out of time for the day. Oh, and there was a little stopover at the mud pit where Robert tried to paint his white Blazer brown and almost flopped it in the process. Looking for that picture... While Robert's wife, Stacey, was screaming in the passenger seat we watched a Tacoma towing a Cherokee out of Falls Dam but missed that photo op.
I only took the 40 in the dirt once since late 2012 so I was wondering if all the time spent in the 80 was going to have me hating the ride or not, but it was definitely a blast driving the old machine. Yes, power steering would be nice, but these trails are fairly easily handled without it. The narrower track width was good to have and let me choose some lines differently from what I got used to in the 80. I might have been a bit unnerved by a section of the Dickey rock climb without the doors but I scrambled up it pretty damn smooth for me, sweaty palms and all. 15PSI in the KM2's probably didn't hurt.
We only saw a very small handful of other trucks on the trails. There were a few quads that we came across (and one particularly stupid and rude rider), but they were pouring in as we were leaving. The bikes were most numerous. There was almost an incident as we approached the Dutch John hill descent (where it's carved into the earth) when a biker came flying up it as Mike was about to slowly crest the hill to go down. It shook the rider up a bit but he was unharmed and the other 6 in his group let us pass. That should teach them to not blindly assault a hill with no shoulder that ends in a blind downhill turn (from their directional perspective). And even if he was going up as the spotter for his group...just stupid. There was one other pack of bikers that was racing around and they seemed pretty bothered that they had to share the trails. We moved over as best we could when we heard them coming (as we did for all OHV riders) but their glances and fingers told us how they felt. I imagine they were racing since none of them really slowed down except to weave through our convoy.
My pics don't all seem to be transferring to the laptop, so here's one of Robert in the pit and a salad I made last month.
