Carrots! I was speaking with a great friend of mine who I was supposed to go winter four-wheeling with this past week. Due to some scheduling conflicts, I wasn’t able to go. My friend decided to go alone and brave the winter snow wheeling trail just outside of Boulder, Colorado. Of course, I asked “how did it go?” expecting the answer of “dude! It was incredible, and you should have come, damnit!” Instead, my friend detailed how an innocent hill climb turned into a multi-hour winch extraction utilizing every piece of recovery gear he had.
Do you think that led us to say “well, that sucks, no more winter four-wheeling for us!” Of course not. My friend was tickled pink to have actually used his recovery gear, and to have extracted himself from a hairy situation. I lamented that I wasn’t there to provide assistance and to see the predicament myself. So, what gives? I think the average person would tremble at the thought of being stranded miles in on a trail in the snow. The adventure spirit seems to be wired a little differently.
Within the communities of off-roading, camping, overlanding, rock climbing, mountain biking, or any other adventure-based hobby you can think of, I think that preparation through mindset is probably a commonality. That is to say, you have to be prepared to problem solve: the broken axle, broken tent pole, broken climbing rope, flat tire, etc. These are all sticky wickets that are not going to be remedied by someone panicking or shrugging their shoulders.
So, I try to maintain that mindset of preparation in which I make sure I have the right gear, the right attitude, and the right skill set to deal with the myriad of problems that four wheeling can present to my regular non-Jeep life. I’m not a huge New Year’s resolution kind of person. I workout consistently throughout the year, eat healthy throughout the year, and try to maintain good habits throughout the year. I’m not trying to sound pompous or better than anyone, I just truly believe consistency in those areas is paramount- and I like the way I feel being “healthy” in general.
However, not everything is rosy: I have to seriously work on being less of a negative thinker in my personal life: not assuming that something is going to break, the glass of milk is going to get spilled, or the kid is about to have a meltdown. Instead, I need to make sure that I don’t let my mindset of preparation that works so well in the adventure world get in the way of the real world. It’s an interesting balance: being prepared for any situation without ruining the enjoyment of the activity itself.
I know this post isn’t really related to Jeep-specific stuff. I sat down and thought about writing about my new plans for 2022 for my Jeep: new axle, bigger tires, more lift, etc. Don’t worry, I will be posting plenty about gear that I’m using, modifications on the Jeep, and adventures that I embark on. At the same time, I wanted to give credence to the idea that problem solving on an adventure is a little different than problem solving at home. My New Year’s resolution, if we insist on calling it that, is to be more positive, less alarmist, and enjoy the damn moment.
Get Out There Colorado 