Or maybe too many words.
I'm still processing.
I asked for a beginner trail.
The guides asked what we were driving. They felt we could handle a moderate trail. I squaked and was assured that it would be light moderate.
Since we've been back it's been clarified by different people as a moderate/pro, moderate/advanced and moderate/expert. Oy.
It started out light moderate and we were comfortable.
Similar to what we do on our own.
We were right behind the trail leader.
It was fun to see a train of Jeeps behind. 28 in total.
We stopped so everyone could air down.
Then the trail got real.
Crazy shit.
I was hanging on tight and in many spots hunkering down and hiding my face so I couldn't see.
I was making gutteral sounds.
There isn't a way out. It's all just forward motion.
There were NO roads. We were on mountain rock bluffs.
At one point we slid sideways off the rock/moss and landed on a stump. I was laying on the door telling Eric we're on the stump. He backed up and went further left and we slid right back onto the stump. The rock guard saved Oscar's doors.
At another point we got stuck, centered on another stump and new friend Bryan had to winch us off.
I was definitely complaining about the severity of the trail.
At another point we watched the guide go over a hill and basically slide/fall over the other side. Eric was following but he hesitated and I leapt out of the car. He made it but admitted that it was scary and it was a fall down. Omg. Hiking down was rough too. The guy in the guides Jeep hiked up and helped me down. He said he didn't blame me because slidy rock is scary. Uh ya. So why were we out there?!
In this Jeep is an injured man.
He got run over by a Jeep.
Full on, run over.
Yes, he was standing in a stupid place.
We're not positive but we think the fellow that ran over him was in his group. Then he panicked and lodged his Jeep up against trees and needed help to get it back down to get the injured man.
28 Jeeps and Eric was the only one here with a medical kit. He ran off to help. We haven't heard an update on him. He did sit up and Eric was able to lift him into the back seat. Then the Jeeps all moved so they could get out behind the trail guide.
Then we all waited for two hours for someone to guide us out. No one came, well they did but they also didn't know the way out. We eventually got out and shockingly met up with parts of our group.
The end. Thank God.
We think Oscar is ok.
If Eric liked Oscar before we can safely say that after seriously pushing boundaries today and learning what driver and Jeep are really capable of it's now a full on love affair.
Eric was helping all over the place. Lots of people stuck. Gladiators don't do so great out there. Roof top tents were stuck. Big tires were rubbing and ripping inside fender walls. We could hear the bangs of everyone bottoming out. Eric made skid plates for Oscar, they saved him for sure. Lots of people were complaining about not being prepared. Needing rock guards, skid plates, winches and hooks. I feel pretty lucky we made out as well as we did.
We did sign up for another trail tomorrow. I was told since we did so great on the moderate/advanced trail that we'd be bored on the beginner trails. Haha. Nope, I won't.
We're doing an adventure trail to Wolf Lake and listening to a guest
YouTuber talk about trail safety and overlander adventures. The guide is Heather and she drives a Tacoma. So we 'should' be fine.
We've met some great people.
We have new friends to hang out with.
I think we'd come again but be WAY more mindful about which trail we're on. I want to follow someone in a pricey car they drive on roads, not these crazy guys with the little beat up toys that they're happy to tear up.
