newleaf: ATV on Crack.

Yesterday, my friend Ian, a student up here on an elective, took me Off-Roading in his 1999 Jeep YJ. I've never done off-roading before, and wasn't even sure what it would involve. All he told me before hand was, "wear some shitty clothes, because you might get muddy". In a CAR? I wondered. But good thing I listened.

It was incredible. I had never really witnessed what a vehicle can do when you push it to the rocky limits. It really made me respect these Jeeps, and not your average SUV at that. These machines are like ATV on Crack, with roll-bars and all. The experience gave me a whole new appreciation on 4-wheel-drive (for quite often our trip depended on just two or sometimes just one wheel to keep us going). There's quite a lot of technical skills it takes to do off-roading safely. You don't just go recklessly into the woods and tear up the trail. But it was amazing. He even let me drive his jeep for a few practice trails. I've always wanted to drive a Jeep. Working the long stick of this heavy-duty machinery was just a blast.

Ian preparing his blue beast for the trip.

Entering into the trails. We choose trials that were meant for ATVs in the summer or snowmobiles in the winter. They are like obstacle courses, basically, with hills and poddles and mud and all. We went about 30 minutes south of Dawson Creek into the Bear Mountain and Radar Lake area.

Me behind the wheel of his blue beast.

The mighty Jeep tackling another muddy route.

Ian and I scouting out this mud pile to find the best seam to take.

More surveying the area before keeping on.

This was probably the riskiest area. Down a steep slope and onto a bridge that was blocked, so we had to go on the side and into the stream where we almost got stuck.

Our car richly embedded into the stream and the front bumper catching on the log. We successfully backed the car up and got enough of an angle to craw up the log and get out of trouble.