II. The Narrative
In the Beginning...
I got the FJ on 6/15/07 at a dealership in the suburbs of Chicago. I lived in Milwaukee at the time and had just graduated
college. My previous car was a '99 GMC Sonoma 2WD 2.2L pickup, so the FJ was a major step up! It appealed to me largely for practical purposes (cargo space, people hauling, reliable), looked really cool, and after years of a 2WD pickup on bald tires in the midwest I was ready for some four wheel drive...
I had never been offroad in my life and the closest I'd ever come to any kind of 4x4 activity was once witnessing the RAMINATOR monster truck at a tractor pull event in Wisconsin. The idea of using the FJ for offroad definitely hadn't hadn't occurred to me.
It wasn't until I'd moved to Tucson for
grad school in August of '07 that the thought of going offroad began to enter my mind. I was in a bookstore, paged through a copy of
"Backcountry Adventures: Arizona", and decided to purchase it. It was all downhill from there...
August 7, 2007 - Redington Road
I was very nervous my first time on the dirt in the FJ (first time in any vehicle for that matter, if you don't count the forest behind my highschool
) so I selected something really easy and fairly local. Redington is a dirt road on the east side of Tucson that accesses many popular 4x4 trails in the Rincon Mountains. But I wasn't planning on doing any of them!
So, having no idea what to expect and completely ignorant of proper etiquette on such a road, I set out... I went slow, waved at people like an idiot, and the day went off with no problems. It was a blast! I was hooked and decided I must do it again the next day...
August 8, 2007 - Trail 4436
I woke up the next day, eager to get out and explore some more. I figured I'd head back to Redington, select a random 4x4 trail, and turn around if there was anything shocking or ridiculous. As luck would have it, I happen to pick one of the easiest in the area... I made it to the end where there was a HUGE hill climb which I decided not to attempt (having been back to this spot a number of times since, that was definitely the right call
).
To demonstrate what a n00b I am at this point, look at this picture. I took it because I thought that was about the craziest thing that you could possibly drive over... I was the king!!
August 10, 2007 - Trail 4436
My girlfriend was in town from Madison, WI to visit and somehow I convinced her that we needed to go out and wheel! Since literally the only spot I'd ever been was Trail 4436, I figured I'd play it safe and head back out there rather than stumbling into some hilarious trouble elsewhere...
Since it wasn't just me, I was able to appear in a pic!
I brought some gloves and we picked up a bunch of trash along the trail... a fulfilling day!
There's an optional obstacle on the way out that I could no longer resist despite the odd circumstances (girlfriend in car, otherwise alone, no experience on any obstacle, etc). The front bumper didn't quite clear, but we made it over no problem... I was officially pumped. Must find more rocks!!
August 18, 2007 - AZFJ Dinner
If I had to pick any single day as the most transformational experience in the whole FJ journey, it would be the time I first met the crazy AZFJ folks for a nice steak dinner in Tempe. Considering I'd only ever been on one trail in my life and had never seen a modded FJ, you can imagine how a sight this was:
It was a fun time with a good group of folks...
August 22, 2007 - Chiva Falls
The AZFJ crew, under the fearless leadership of TrAiLbUs1, had planned an invasion of Tucson to run Chiva Falls. I was very nervous to really wheel with a group for the first time (a night run after the steak house meeting was more a bunch of goofing around) and didn't want to be caught in a bad situation... so to bone up on the trail, I sneaked away for an incredibly foolish solo night run of Chiva!!
It turned out to a ton of fun... foolish 'attempting huge obstacles at midnight alone in a stock rig' fun, but fun nonetheless.
August 27, 2007 - Chiva Falls
I head back again once more before the AZFJ run during the daylight to really get an idea of things... I did many of the same obstacles, but was able to get more pictures. Getting pics rock crawling alone is pretty interesting... you kinda have to get out of the truck and get them all yourself.
September 1, 2007 - CB Install
In a bizarre act of impulse shopping I picked up
a crazy CB at the Radio Shack down the street and began the task of installing it. I had a basic crimp thingy setup (technical term) and spliced the radio into the cigarette lighter power.
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