The Luffinator

The Luffinator is the title I am now giving to my talented and always entertaining brother in law, Richard.

I have been meaning to update my blog for quite some time now obviously and I have a lot to post about, but wanted to quickly get in here a memory from this summer that I do not want to forget, however I'm sure that Richard would like for everyone to forget.

It was at the close of our four-wheeling trip you see below, all of us were cleaning up the machines and emptying out the truck and trailer. Kevin (anotha brotha) had showed Richard how to take the governor off when backing the four-wheelers up, thus allowing them to go much faster. Richard thought this was pretty neat and would try it out while backing up one of the wheelers in the driveway. I stood and watched the entire thing and as he got up a lot of speed, turned the handlebars, and what seemed to me in slow motion flipped that dadgum machine over on to his head. Just too much speed, the tires gripping the asphalt and the momentum sending him on his butt with the machine nearly landed on top of him.

It was one of those moments that at first is kind of scary, I had to check to make sure Richard was okay, but as soon as he confirmed to us that he was fine, Kevin and I could not stop laughing. Really, the only thing that was hurt was his pride. It was one of the funniest things I saw all summer and is another classic Richard event that I plan on remembering and harassing him about for a long time.

The photo above is of course not Richard, but is a funny one I found online that paints a great picture of how beautiful this event was.

King Mountain Adventures

At first glance the mud and tundra looks mild enough that the thought of having to cross the alpine swamp seems a light task compared to some of the rocks we've climbed and outstanding boulders we have tackled. A few of the trails across the mud do seem like they would be less challenging than others, I don't know what exactly Richard was thinking when he plowed his gnarly machine into one of the deepest bogs around, and stopped even quicker than he had driven in. He was stuck so fast that his bodies momentum almost carried him over the handle bars. Luckily one of the four-wheelers we were riding had a wench and we towed his muddy machine out with little problem.

Possibly that saddest part about the ordeal of Richard nearly burrying a machine is that once he was out and we all got across the alpine swamps, we made it to the top of the peaks, hung out a bit and on the way back I had the unfortunate pleasure of swamping my wheeler to the point of not being able to see the wheels. I had even driven back on the same trail that we all made it over on, but with all of us tearing it up and the little machine I was driving, that bog almost sent me over the handlebars when it quickly grabbed me. Then I too was left stranded and open for the scoffs and laughing of my brother-in-laws, even Chuck had to throw in some harassment.

The entire trip was incredible and one of the best four-wheeling trips I have ever been on. This type of boulder climbing and mud slinging on a wheeler is something that I have never really done. The 4x4 capabilities of those machines was pretty amazing and made for some good riding. My only other big riding trip that have been on would have been to the sand dunes in either St. Anthony, Idaho or Southern Utah. The best one being my buddies bachelor party (of sorts anyway) that four of us went to the Dunes in St. Anthony for a weekend and had a great ride, that is until my good buddy Jason launched his wheeler off a ridge cornace and endo-crashed it at the bottom of the hill. It added some real craziness to that trip, but was a great adventure for sure.

I am stoked about getting out more and more here in Alaska and really getting to know so much of the rad terrain that surrounds me. Everything is so big and gnarly here, it leaves a lot of challenges and I am so excited to keep rolling out the adventures.

Trooper Diggin

It is not much for power under the hood and definitely does not have the big mud tires or a lift kit underneath it like most four wheel monsters do, but this little sport utility vehicle is a Trooper!

Since our first trip earlier this spring down to the river bottoms with Ryan and his Jeep the boys have been wanting to take the Trooper down and go "diggin" with it. I must admit that I have been a little interested myself to put it into four wheel drive and see how she does. Though I can't say that I have had much opportunity with this vehicle since we got it to get out into the mountains or mud, I have been a little apprehensive to push the little thing too hard for fear of finding out that something is wrong or the four wheel drive doesn't work. Amy is insanely fearful about this sort of thing! We put it into 4wd the other day just to lift the front tires up onto a snow bank a little bit and she was through the roof. She clings to all the handles and totally freaks out even though the back tires are still on pavment. Meanwhile the boys in the back are loving all of it and only wanting to do it again and go higher.

Needless to say, just the boys and I headed off last Saturday to meet up with Ryan and his Dad for this epic adventure. I packed a lot of snacks for the boys and we stopped and got a package of hot dogs for a little fire cooked dinner down on the river bed.

All in all the trip was very fun and I think the boys loved it. The Trooper did very well in four wheel drive and ran excellent. The only complaint that I have about it is that the tires are just street tread, so in the mud they spin a whole lot to get very little done. I do need to throw some BF Goodrich All-Terrain tires under neath it and then she would be just fine.

We had a gourmet fire roasted dinner, accompanied by honey-mustard Pringles that were just divine, and played around until about 10:00PM. I would have liked to be home earlier than that with the young boys, but we are now getting over sixteen hours of daylight and all of us are having a hard time getting used to the fact that bedtime now comes long before the dark.

The only hang up on the whole evening was when Ty and Dane were playing by the river, throwing rocks into the water. Ya you can already guess what happened uh! It was as if it happened in slow motion though. Ty backed up the hill behind Dane and reached down for a rock. I was a little distance off and could see what Ty was doing so I hollered to him not to throw rocks right there, he would have to go back down by Dane who is about four feet away and down hill below Ty. The little stinker kept about his business and got ready to throw this rock about baseball size down to the river. I could see what he was about to do so I started to holler even louder, trying to get him to stop. I yelled out "Ty, Ty, Ty" each time getting louder, because the kid was not listening whatsoever. Sure enough he threw that rock as hard as he could and it thumped Dane right smack in the temple of his head, with a loud pop. It was really weird to watch it all unfold right in front of me and know what was going to happen, even anticipating it enough to instruct Ty before hand not to even pick up the rock, but that kid is mischief.

4 x 4 and Guns

These pictures were taken recently on our excursion to the river banks on the mighty Matanuska River here in Alaska. They were taken with my iPhone and by my wife who has been known for producing less than stellar photos when she is behind the lens. As you can see in a couple of them, she has her finger in the way and it shows up in the bottom of the photo.

However low quality the photos may be from the phone or due to Amy's talents it still show's our little diggin adventure we had over one of our last weekends. It was still a bit cold, but we didn't let that stop us from getting outside and having some fun.

My buddy Ryan has an old 1980 CJ Jeep that he has been dying to take us out in for a few weeks now, so we finally hooked up with him and his wife Tisha and got out on the river banks. We also took our little twenty-two rifles to shoot at some targets and plink around a little bit while we were out. I hate to admit it, but I think Amy came away as the victor in our friendly shooting contest. She doesn't shoot much but when she does it is seems to be on target for the most part.

Ryan took us boggin down thru the river and into some pretty tight trees that wipped you in the face a little bit if you weren't careful. Ty wasn't so much a fan of the trees and the bouncing around in the back seat of that jeep with Ryan at the healm, but Dane absolutely loved it. Dane did not want to get out, but instead wanted to keep riding in the back and go through as much water and mud as he could get Ryan to find.

This trip we did not have the Trooper, because it was still in the shop for its extensive mechanic work that it has recently undergone. Some of you may know the happy times that we have had with this vehicle, but needless to say we are keeping that thing for the rest of my life. That thing will be what my boys drive to school when they get their licenses. Anyway, its good I guess because Amy really loves that Trooper



Well whoever reads this if you wouldn't mind leave me a quick comment by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post and simply letting me know that you were on here, if not no big deal, thanks.

I can't wait to get out more this summer as Alaska finally warms up a little bit, you should get out too.

Trek On