Living in a state where heeps outnumber all other brands of rigs by 2:1 combined, we absolutely relish every opportunity to show them what our Ex’s can do. We joined a NAXJA clean up run on one of our favorite trails because 1. The coordinator is a friend of ours, and yet another friend was going to be joining also 2. He did not have a good turnout for this clean up run and we don’t mind helping 3. IT’S ONE OF OUR FAVORITE TRAILS!! So we clean up the trail and close to the top there’s a fork. To the left is the easier route, to the right.......well our friend the coordinator didn’t think a 94 sport with coil spacers, add a leaf and 31’s, nor a 96 XLT with TT, add a leaf and shackles on 31’s would be able to make it......challenge accepted XJ boy!! Our coordinator buddy took the left trail while our other buddy led the way up the more challenging side, followed by Leila, then myself. Our buddy struggled a bit on the main obstacle, but his 1 year old 2” lifted 35” tire rollin willy’s edition JKU still has yet to fail him on anything he points it at. He went up a ways and parked, then came down to spot us through. Just as Leila started toward the obstacle, 3 REALLY built JK’s come down the trail and pull over just after the obstacle to let us, the uphill traffic have the right of way. They got out and started watching. Even from as far off as I was you could see the eye rolls and boredom set in as they were sure they would be waiting a while. Leila gets to the obstacle and starts crawling up through it. First attempt, she’s just a hair too far to the right and a massive rock stops her in her tracks. She backs up a couple feet, made the tiniest of adjustments to the steering wheel and starts crawling up again, using the hand throttle to set RPM’s, and slipping the clutch just enough to mount a big rock on the left while missing the big one on the right. From here it takes perfect tire placement and just the right amount of steering input at precisely the perfect places, or you’re taking home a sheetmetal art piece carved out by the rocks themselves right into the sides of your rig. Our buddy spotting got her through the rest perfectly and her ever improving sense of making the truck an extension of herself actually made it look rather easy. As she drove past the JK guys, she heard one say to the others “dude, that’s a chick wheeling that, (this is the precise moment she drives past them so they get a little peek inside her rig, noticing the 5speed shifter) AND IT’S A MANUAL!!??” They gathered their chins off the ground and turned to watch me come up next. No eye rolling this time, just looks of curiosity......can this 4dr make it at easily as the 2dr without getting high centered? Our buddy points out the first rock he wants my driver tire on and I promptly put it there. He guides me through with the same ease as Leila, albeit I did get a lovely thump underneath that there was just no way to avoid. Had to give the 4dr just a tad more coaxing to crest the top, but did so easily. Leila had gotten out of her 94 and walked back down to watch me come up the rest of the way. As I gave him that last bit of necessary skinny pedal, Leila again hears one say to the others just as I came over the top with another stock-ish Explorer “WHAT IS GOING ON TODAY!!???”
We finish the rest of the trail, do a bit of shooting, and decide to head down the same way for the fun of it. As we’re about to enter the obstacle, a large group of heeps rounds the corner down below so we have no choice but pull in where the JK’s had and wait. Turns out this is a group started by by a husband and wife team, and who also own a 4x4 shop, are leading this group up the obstacle. Leila had met this couple through a meet up shortly after arriving in Colorado from Texas, and having noticed how everyone here wheels heeps, she started to search for a heep to buy, and talked to this shop owning couple about necessary mods to it to help a Colroado wheeling virigin have a decent chance at making it through some stuff. “When in Rome” and all.....Well.....she met me a short time later and fell in love in my rig, the General. Once she had told them she was looking for an Explorer and not a heep, they quit talking to her. (Not uncommon for some of the JK crowd around here. They even turn their noses up at heeps other than JK’s!!) Fast forward to the day of wheeling and Leila now in her own Ex......until now, they hadn’t spoken to her in over a year. They stopped next her and it didn’t take them long to realize who she was, and they non’chalantly stuck their nose in the air as the wife told her “you’ll want to turn around, there’s a pretty tough obstacle right there.”...............We just stare at them unsure of what to even say.......Finally, Leila says: “We know, we just came up it a bit ago.” The smugness in their look turned to disgust and without another word they started up the trail once more.
The next day one of Leila’s heep driving girlfriends calls her up and asks “Were you guys wheeling on Cascade Creek yesterday?”........Leila: “Yes we were but how did you know?” .........friend: “The subject of two green Ford Explorers wheeling Cascade dominated our page last night and there’s not too many green Explorer duo’s wheeling these parts.”
We have tons and tons of stories, but this one is by far my favorite.
