What It’s All About

Craig posted on November 21, 2010 22:49

When my last truck died, a lot of people didn’t understand why I was so down. “It’s just a truck” they’d say. Agreed wholeheartedly, it is “just a truck” but that truck was what made possible a whole bunch of fun for my son and I. Not just “Overland” trips, but day hikes, exploring, snowshoeing, and my son’s favorite, sledding. “You can do that in any car though”. Not really. For example, last year we went to get our Christmas tree and we were high centered in the Toyota RAV4 when there were mere 4” ruts in the snow. My wife even yielded and said, “Man, this sure isn’t as much fun without the Land Rover. Last time we made it all the way into deep snow.” Being able to go that extra little bit is often the difference between an average time and a fun time, a campsite next to everyone else or a remote secluded spot next to the perfect stream, or in the case of today the difference between thin slushy snow and perfect powder on a super long sledding hill. Today my son and I were very glad to have a truck again.

So here we are a couple of months after getting the RRC and it’s starting to come together. When I saw snow up in the hills I realized that it was time to put down the wrenches and use the truck. An hour later and Soren, Khuno, and I were packed up and headed off to find the perfect sledding hill.

As we headed up the snowy road, I started doing my “worst case scenario” calculations to decide how far up we should go. I had a shovel, a snatch strap, my SPOT, and a locking transfer case. I decided to leave it in AWD so I could put it in 4WD if I got stuck. Realistically though, if we slid off the road it wouldn’t have helped. I’m looking forward to getting my winch mounted and getting a set of chains that fit the new tires, but more importantly I’m really enthusiastic about doing a snowrun with other trucks. In the end, we were able to go quite a ways past where the Suburus were parked and found a great hill. What a great Father/Son day outdoors.

Soren and Khuno at the bottom of a great sledding hill.