bman

So I know that this is a little late...but better late than never! Over Labor day weekend I was up in St. Helen, MI riding the trials, we had a great time. The landscape is a forest in the sand which makes for a very enjoyable ride, albeit not very challenging terrain but the scenery is great. Like I said we had a great time, well all except for one part of the trip.

I was up riding with my brother who has a can-am Maverick when on the trail we encountered a large group of riders. To allow ample room to pass on the trail my brother pulled over to the side and I followed suit, we just happened to stop by a watery mud hole about the size of my Jeep maybe even a little bit bigger. This was not really a problem, the first guy in the oncoming group had an older CJ, (I waved) he slowed right down and went off the trail to avoid the mud/water hole, he was followed by about 8 quads/side by sides who all did the same thing. The problem I had was when the last person in the group approached, it happened to be a lady driving a JKU. When I saw her come out of the corner just up ahead my honest first thought was, hey I get to wave!!, then before I could do anything she hit the throttle and drove directly through the mud hole at a high rate of speed. It amounted to the equivalent of someone coming up and throwing a 5 gal bucket of nasty dirty water right through my drivers side window, I was soaked. My wife in the front passenger seat was also soaked along with my son sitting behind me. This kinda put a downer on my entire day as well as my brother who was in a side by side with really no protection at all, his entire family was covered, but I think I got a little more than he did. My son is only 7 and he is a pretty emotional kid, he started crying but I settled him down pretty quickly.

I get it, we are on the trail and supposed to get dirty but I really think that there was no need for what she did. Heck when you encounter oncoming traffic on what is basically a one way road you at the very least should slow down. If she hits that hole wrong she comes crashing into my jeep, as it was she was probably only about two or three feet from hitting me, which is way too close. She was probably doing at least 20 mph when she hit the water.

We confronted her and told her in so many words what kind of person we thought she was. My always perfectly clean Jeep was now dirty on the inside as well as the outside. I think the best part of the whole incident for me was when my son was starting to cry and I was trying to settle him down, I told him everything was going to be fine and in a half crying voice he said..."but, but Dad, how are we going to get it all clean? That's my boy!!

What gives, I don't have a ton of experience on the trails I'll admit, my brother does and that is why I am riding with him a lot. With every person/group we encounter we slow down and pull off to the side, and sometimes even stop like we did in this instance. These trails are mostly snowmobile trails, they are not the widest in some spots and if you drive like an idiot through them you are going to get hurt or if your in a vehicle and you hit something small like a quad that person is going to be in serious trouble. I for one could not live with myself if I was stupid and hit a quad with young kid driving it, that would be horrible.

Albino Lizard

Yeah, that is definitely over the top. I'm not a huge fan of mud. I got mud everywhere on my last Rubicon trip and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the jeep fabric cleans up. Try not to get too worked up. She will get hers eventually.

bman

Yeah I was kinda worked up in the moment but I settled down real quick. I too am not a mud guy, I totally agree with you about the clean up though. It seemed like my seats cleaned up with the smallest of effort. I think I spent more time cleaning the dash.