A Day of Off-Road 101

On Saturday March 29th, Gear Grinders convened Off-road 101 course of instruction out at Wagon Wheel OHV area. The weather was as perfect as it could be and even the big “W” cooperated.

Attendance included George & Susan Croll; Bill Dorey; George Graham; Dan Kus; Bill Martin; Tom Perkins & guest; Ed Rockdale; & Scott Wood. Taking advantage of the good weather, the Shaw family (Matt, Ciegi, Grason & Barhett); the Kuttor family (Frank, Francis, Mark, Helen, Frankie and Mark’s sister Kim, who was visiting from Utah); the Bricker family (Noah, Leigh, Emerson and his little brother), made it a weekend of camping out. We had some new faces joining us also: Scott Frastaci & Patrick Nelson; and returning guest Chad Marxsen.

Class started at 8:30 with a course on dealing with trail disasters caused by tires by Matt Shaw, who was recovering from a bad case of Bronchitis which made him lose his voice. Mark jumped right in and kept things going until Matt found his voice again.

We started off with a demonstration of how to plug various size holes, which was followed by hands on practice of plugging as many types of holes as possible that Matt and Mark could imagine. Matt showed us how to take a piece of wire and stitch a long cut together. Highlight of the training was when Matt and Mark were showing us how to pop the bead on a tire. We learned to try a variety of techniques until we find the one that works! We closed the session when the old timers broke out their tire plug kits they carry in their rigs. Although there was a wide variety, Bill Dorey’s kit was the crowd favorite. Thanks Matt and Mark for a great class!

When we got tired of playing with tires, we broke for lunch and a quick March club meeting (see the minutes for details.)

After lunch, Mark Kuttor took us away from camp and to a pile of rocks across the highway. Things kicked off with a great class on the basic rules for spotting, assessing your surrounding terrain, hand signals/terminology, vehicle basics and differences, and the techniques of picking a line in various terrain situations. Then Mark took us into hands on training by allowing those that wanted to rock climb obstacles and/or spotting someone over rock piles to hone their skills. I think everyone learned a lot about what they could (or not) do with their rigs. Thanks Mark for a job well done!

Thus, we had a great day of learning off road techniques that will serve us well on the trail. So, if you were new to four wheeling or an old hand who was looking for some practice or just refreshing your memory, this was a day well worth spent.

Thanks Matt and Mark for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience. We all appreciated your time and we all learned something new.