Our first “real” 4X4 venture into the desert

The organizers of the 2015 Western Winter Blast volunteered to lead a 4X4 trip out into the desert for all that wanted to go. Having never really done any off road traveling with the Tracker – a 4X4 – we decided to give it a try. It turns out the the couple that volunteered to lead the way and members of their family and we were the only ones who wanted to go. They said that it would take about 2 hours to reach our destination, we would explore the area – some cabin I think, and then 2 hours back. We would leave the highway about 5 miles south of where the event was held and follow the wash to the cabin.

We left the highway and almost immediately climbed a couple of very steep hills – I seriously thought the Tracker might fall over backwards on both of them. That was fun but the rest of the next 20 minutes or so were very brutal. They had told us the creek bed was “washboarded” but we imagined the washboarding that dirt roads get between gradings. This “washboard” had undulations that were about a foot or so and were throwing us and everything in the Tracker around like we were in a cocktail shaker. We pretty quickly decided that we could not take this for the next 4 hours and turned around. I don’t know if that is normal or if it has anything to do with the Tracker vs. a Jeep, or whatever but maybe next time. The trip back to the highway was much easier and more fun because we were not following anyone and could take our time vs. trying to keep up with the “big boys”.

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