We dug deep into the depths of our souls for courage we had not felt for far too long and that we hoped still smoldered in some dark recess of our being. Would but that it had not been completely extinguished, for we would need it to carry us out into the brittle, sharp air. Little Timmy had fallen down the well, and we had only a faint inkling of his whereabouts. If we were to rescue him before the bitter cold overtook him, we would have no time to waste. Out into the darkness we flew on wings of Jeep to elicit a rescue we all hoped would not end in disaster.
Now that we've got the Harlequin romance novel opening out of the way, we can commence with our normal juvenile program. A bunch of Jeep owners went out for a long weekend of wheeling the white stuff. While it's true that in the 1970s the phrase "wheeling the white stuff" had more to do with imported product from Cuba, nowadays we're talking about driving on good old FDA-approved snow.
Sunny one minute and stormy the next, never take Mother Nature for granted or she'll slap you upside the head. Storms roll in fast in the mountains, so keep a sharp eye out for impending bad weather and keep a satellite radio or cell phone handy in case you need to call for extraction.
Our pal and fashion mentor, Clifton Slay, put together a weekend run for a bunch of buds that covered three trails outside of Empire, Colorado. The group used The Peck House - a haunted hotel established in 1862 - as its base of operations, returning each night to recant trail war stories and snuggle with Casper's hot teenage sister. In all, the group hit the Fall River Road trail, Spring Creek trail, and the Bill Moore Lake trail outside of Empire. Here's a little winter wheeling, Colorado style.
Now a somewhat frequent face in off-road magazines, Nate Marsh made the trip in his TBI 350-powered '73 Wagoneer. The rig uses a TH400 to turn the 203/205 doubler. Axles are a Dana 60 front and 14-bolt rear with 4.56 axles and Detroits to spin the 40-inch Goodyear MT/Rs. | 
"I'm not only a member of the Wahl mustache and nose hair trimmer fan club, I'm a client." | 
We don't know why we enjoy tormenting Clifton with pet names for his vehicles. His new Unlimited conjures the name "Monkey Butt Red" even though he says it's orange. Regardless of our shenanigans, the Unlimited is very well set up, with Dynatrac Pro Rocks front and rear spinning 5.38s, a 5.5-inch Rubicon Express lift with a Poison Spyder Customs-fabbed triangulated four-link in the rear to remove the track bar, and armor up the whazoo. Hey, whazoo, monkey butt. Told you we'd be juvenile. |