The dreaded obstacle course...right well, it was entertaining. For drivers with under a years experience, they did the course like you would expect. For drivers with over a year, they did it blindfolded with a navigator in the passenger seat telling them where to go...this was entertaining to say the least. I spent the afternoon drinking beer and taking photos. Near the end, I couldn't hold it any longer and had to go to the little girls outhouse and I missed this near wipe out! I can't believe it!!!
Monday, April 30, 2007
SCARR 2007 Blindfolded Challenge
The dreaded obstacle course...right well, it was entertaining. For drivers with under a years experience, they did the course like you would expect. For drivers with over a year, they did it blindfolded with a navigator in the passenger seat telling them where to go...this was entertaining to say the least. I spent the afternoon drinking beer and taking photos. Near the end, I couldn't hold it any longer and had to go to the little girls outhouse and I missed this near wipe out! I can't believe it!!!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
The Canuck Attends SCARR '07 - Part Two
Okay, part two...just to keep JB happy...
Previously in 'The Canuck Attends SCARR '07', we left Edward and Turner Cook at Twister, the infamous frame wrenching obstacle, with young Turner attempting to conquer the trail in his '95 Classic Range Rover.
After a few harrowing minutes that thankfully his mother did not witness, Turner backed away and admitted defeat. With little coaxing on our part, Edward hopped into his Defender 110 to see if experience and rear lockers could complete what his young son could not.
He walked up it as expected.
Edward's 110 is a pretty sweet rig. A NAS (North American Spec) Defender 110, the rig is in perfect condition inside and out. Edward even pulled the stock manual transmission and installed a more efficient automatic to make this one formidable Land Rover.
Just to impress us further, JB hopped into his completely stock 2002 P38 and again, the formidable obstacle was conquered (boy, I should write commercials or something else just as tacky!).
One of the more memorable quotes of the weekend was hollered right about this time when Edward bellowed at his son something along the lines of "Go get that damn truck and finish this trail!".
Turner followed the lines already set out by his father and completed Twister - thank gawd or those of us with RRC would have to had to hide our faces for the rest of the weekend!
A word about JB and his stock P38: the previous month, his wife with a Rover full of passengers, rolled his Discovery II. From what I gathered, his insurance company paid out the cost of the rig and a while later, his local dealer called him up to tell him about an '02 Range Rover that had been traded in. Great time to have friends in high - or at least Rover - places. With SCARR so soon after purchase, he had no time to do anything on the new Rangie nor had he taken it off road before attending the event.
In true Land Rover fashion, the Rangie took to the trails and made her new owner proud while impressing the heck out of everyone else at the event! I would love to have a minute with the previous owner as the Rangie is clean enough that there was no way it was ever taken off road and it would be way too much fun to show just how capable of a vehicle their old rig was even if they were not. What a waste to only do highway miles in any Land Rover and never experience what the designers of the original Rangie had in mind way back in 1973 when the first prototype left Solihull and the world was introduced to the very first Sport Utility Vehicle.
Part Three coming soon to a blog near you!
Previously in 'The Canuck Attends SCARR '07', we left Edward and Turner Cook at Twister, the infamous frame wrenching obstacle, with young Turner attempting to conquer the trail in his '95 Classic Range Rover.
After a few harrowing minutes that thankfully his mother did not witness, Turner backed away and admitted defeat. With little coaxing on our part, Edward hopped into his Defender 110 to see if experience and rear lockers could complete what his young son could not.
He walked up it as expected.
Edward's 110 is a pretty sweet rig. A NAS (North American Spec) Defender 110, the rig is in perfect condition inside and out. Edward even pulled the stock manual transmission and installed a more efficient automatic to make this one formidable Land Rover.
Just to impress us further, JB hopped into his completely stock 2002 P38 and again, the formidable obstacle was conquered (boy, I should write commercials or something else just as tacky!).One of the more memorable quotes of the weekend was hollered right about this time when Edward bellowed at his son something along the lines of "Go get that damn truck and finish this trail!".
Turner followed the lines already set out by his father and completed Twister - thank gawd or those of us with RRC would have to had to hide our faces for the rest of the weekend!
A word about JB and his stock P38: the previous month, his wife with a Rover full of passengers, rolled his Discovery II. From what I gathered, his insurance company paid out the cost of the rig and a while later, his local dealer called him up to tell him about an '02 Range Rover that had been traded in. Great time to have friends in high - or at least Rover - places. With SCARR so soon after purchase, he had no time to do anything on the new Rangie nor had he taken it off road before attending the event.
In true Land Rover fashion, the Rangie took to the trails and made her new owner proud while impressing the heck out of everyone else at the event! I would love to have a minute with the previous owner as the Rangie is clean enough that there was no way it was ever taken off road and it would be way too much fun to show just how capable of a vehicle their old rig was even if they were not. What a waste to only do highway miles in any Land Rover and never experience what the designers of the original Rangie had in mind way back in 1973 when the first prototype left Solihull and the world was introduced to the very first Sport Utility Vehicle.
Part Three coming soon to a blog near you!
Friday, April 27, 2007
The Canuck Attends SCARR '07 - Part One
Last October when I was at the Solihull Society's National Rally at Moab, Utah, I met a couple of the guys from the Texas Rovers group. Jim Edson and his wife Vangie invited me to the clubs annual Land Rover event - South Central Area Rover Rally - held at Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area near Gilmer, TX this past weekend.
Texas is amazing and the people even better. There was more then a little stress about the event on my part. It is a strange feeling walking off a plane someplace you have never been, hopping into a vehicle with a near stranger and driving into literally the middle of nowhere.
Event Coordinator Jon Button - JB - did a great job of alleviating my stress. Combo tour guide/babysitter (yes, I do need one those periodically), he showed me such exciting things as the drive thru 'Beer Barn' and three hours of the backroads of Texas before dropping me at my motel in Gilmer.
Eastern Texas is a beautiful part of the US and well worth visiting. It had rained heavily the previous week so everything was lush green and in bloom - perfect for a photographer!
Friday morning was my first taste of the Barnwell Mountain Rec Area. Traditionally an iron strip mine and then the 'old picnic spot' near Gilmer, Barnwell is 1600 acres of trails. I heard both 70 miles and 200 miles of trails wind their way around the mountain so I am not sure which to believe but I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least seventy miles.
Barnwell is cooperatively maintained by a bunch of the local off-road organizations with each one having specific trails to maintain as well as their own camping area. It is a truly unique area and I think the guys got sick of listening to me go on and on about how great it is to have a place like this were all your trails are within a few hundred meters of each other. Hopefully they at least realize how lucky they are even if they did get sick of me talking about it!
Another completely unique aspect of Barnwell is the erosion factor. Normally this would not be a good thing and whenever there is erosion damage to a trail or gravel road in British Columbia, the trail is closed and the environmentalists get on our case about destroying our natural areas (I agree with them part way but figure BC has enough wild area that I am sure we can all share. Don't believe me? Look at a satellite picture of the province and you'll see it is pretty much 90% uninhabited if not more).
In Barnwell, the erosion is intense - a trail can completely change after one good rainstorm. It keeps the trails a challenge for the local clubs as you never know what may be different which is kinda' cool when you consider that there are only so many trails to begin with - seventy miles of them but only so many...
Barnwell is famous for its red dirt that, from what I have been told, never comes out of your clothes and is near impossible to wash off your Rover. All I now is that I am still blowing it out of my camera and even after washing, my once white socks are an interesting shade of beige.
After registration and paperwork was complete, JB and I went for a drive so he could show me a bit of the place. We didn't get very far before we stumbled upon Edward Cook and his son Turner. Turner was attempting Twister - a frame wrenching, suspension stretching bit of trail in his '95 Range Rover Classic...look for Part Two soon!
Texas is amazing and the people even better. There was more then a little stress about the event on my part. It is a strange feeling walking off a plane someplace you have never been, hopping into a vehicle with a near stranger and driving into literally the middle of nowhere.
Event Coordinator Jon Button - JB - did a great job of alleviating my stress. Combo tour guide/babysitter (yes, I do need one those periodically), he showed me such exciting things as the drive thru 'Beer Barn' and three hours of the backroads of Texas before dropping me at my motel in Gilmer.
Eastern Texas is a beautiful part of the US and well worth visiting. It had rained heavily the previous week so everything was lush green and in bloom - perfect for a photographer!
Friday morning was my first taste of the Barnwell Mountain Rec Area. Traditionally an iron strip mine and then the 'old picnic spot' near Gilmer, Barnwell is 1600 acres of trails. I heard both 70 miles and 200 miles of trails wind their way around the mountain so I am not sure which to believe but I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least seventy miles.
Barnwell is cooperatively maintained by a bunch of the local off-road organizations with each one having specific trails to maintain as well as their own camping area. It is a truly unique area and I think the guys got sick of listening to me go on and on about how great it is to have a place like this were all your trails are within a few hundred meters of each other. Hopefully they at least realize how lucky they are even if they did get sick of me talking about it!
Another completely unique aspect of Barnwell is the erosion factor. Normally this would not be a good thing and whenever there is erosion damage to a trail or gravel road in British Columbia, the trail is closed and the environmentalists get on our case about destroying our natural areas (I agree with them part way but figure BC has enough wild area that I am sure we can all share. Don't believe me? Look at a satellite picture of the province and you'll see it is pretty much 90% uninhabited if not more).
In Barnwell, the erosion is intense - a trail can completely change after one good rainstorm. It keeps the trails a challenge for the local clubs as you never know what may be different which is kinda' cool when you consider that there are only so many trails to begin with - seventy miles of them but only so many...
Barnwell is famous for its red dirt that, from what I have been told, never comes out of your clothes and is near impossible to wash off your Rover. All I now is that I am still blowing it out of my camera and even after washing, my once white socks are an interesting shade of beige.
After registration and paperwork was complete, JB and I went for a drive so he could show me a bit of the place. We didn't get very far before we stumbled upon Edward Cook and his son Turner. Turner was attempting Twister - a frame wrenching, suspension stretching bit of trail in his '95 Range Rover Classic...look for Part Two soon!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Finally I can post to my blog again!
This has been nuts! Its been over a month since Blogger has allowed me access to this blog...not that much has gone on I guess...well, no, that's not true at all - its been a heck of a month and I don't even know where to begin!
Let's travel backwards in time to start with the Pacific Coast Rover Club's Spring Women's Run on April 7th in Portland, Oregon. Pamela Petroff organized the event and as with everything Pamela does, it was a well-organized and fun day. Some pics of the day are on my gallery and eventually an article will be in Land Rover World (if I do my homework tomorrow!).
Backwards isn't working I guess - let's talk about SCARR '07. On the 19th I am off to Dallas, Texas for the South Central Area Rover Rally. This promises to be an interesting event for this little Canadian chickie and I have been assured that if the Dallas Stars don't win at least one game against the Vancouver Canucks between now and the 19th, I won't be getting picked up at the airport...pressures on and I guess it would not go over so well if I wore my jersey ;-) Anyway, again I am putting this together for Land Rover World and I am really looking forward to this event. I met a few of the members at Moab in October 2006 and I am excited about the opportunity to meet more of them before this year's Solihull Society's National Rally in Montrose, Colorado - the more the merrier at these events.
Oh, and in June I am heading to England for Land Rover World's Annual Show at Eastnor Castle! The truly exciting part is that John Carroll, the editor of the LRW, is going to arrange an opportunity for me to test drive the new Defender! Hard for non-Land Rover fanatics to understand maybe but the Defender has not even been released in the UK yet and the chance of it ever coming to North America is pretty slim (NA is getting way to regulated when it comes to the specs necessary to meet for importing vehicles).
This will have to be continued tomorrow - too much to write about for one day! So tomorrow expect to read about C.A.A.R.F. and B.A.R.F., pet food recalls and much much more!
Let's travel backwards in time to start with the Pacific Coast Rover Club's Spring Women's Run on April 7th in Portland, Oregon. Pamela Petroff organized the event and as with everything Pamela does, it was a well-organized and fun day. Some pics of the day are on my gallery and eventually an article will be in Land Rover World (if I do my homework tomorrow!).
Backwards isn't working I guess - let's talk about SCARR '07. On the 19th I am off to Dallas, Texas for the South Central Area Rover Rally. This promises to be an interesting event for this little Canadian chickie and I have been assured that if the Dallas Stars don't win at least one game against the Vancouver Canucks between now and the 19th, I won't be getting picked up at the airport...pressures on and I guess it would not go over so well if I wore my jersey ;-) Anyway, again I am putting this together for Land Rover World and I am really looking forward to this event. I met a few of the members at Moab in October 2006 and I am excited about the opportunity to meet more of them before this year's Solihull Society's National Rally in Montrose, Colorado - the more the merrier at these events.
Oh, and in June I am heading to England for Land Rover World's Annual Show at Eastnor Castle! The truly exciting part is that John Carroll, the editor of the LRW, is going to arrange an opportunity for me to test drive the new Defender! Hard for non-Land Rover fanatics to understand maybe but the Defender has not even been released in the UK yet and the chance of it ever coming to North America is pretty slim (NA is getting way to regulated when it comes to the specs necessary to meet for importing vehicles).
This will have to be continued tomorrow - too much to write about for one day! So tomorrow expect to read about C.A.A.R.F. and B.A.R.F., pet food recalls and much much more!
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