The wife got me a 4x4 safety clinic class for my birthday. That was FUN.

Fun trip this weekend, I had a complete blast at Hollister, CA which has an off road park nearby. I thought it would be fun, but not this much. Definitely gave me the wheelin bug.

The clinic was run by a group called Esprit de Four. The Esprit group is very mellow, not intense at all. Great for newbies. Reminds of the differenct between the cycling crit folks and cyclocross folks.

Day starts off w/ check in and inspection. There's about 41 cars, so they split us 4 groups. Pretty broad range of vehicles, including 2 other FJs but not in my group. Lots of Jeeps, mostly from the club. Most of the clubbers noted they wanted to see mine in action since they hadn't before.

In class we learn the basics. That was pretty helpful, though most of it was familiar to me. The same concepts apply to mountaing biking/cyclocross.

We headed up to a trail on the way to a ravine that we were given the choice to straddle w/ a spotter. A couple heavily modded CJs did it and then a stock Land Rover Discovery. After seeing that, I figured that my Toytec lift could handle it. WHAT A BLAST!!! The spotter was FANTASTIC, definitely made the experience much better. And it's very evident what a good spotter can do. Apparently I was the fastest up the cross and everyone seemed pretty impressed w/ the FJ's capabilities.

Bummer for one of the Scout's on our trip. Looked cool but had way too many mechanicals, including front hubs that didn't lock. I almost had to tow him.

We headed out to the obstacle course and stairs. I was aired a little too high and spun a bit but made it on the 3rd try at the stairs. Some hit the gas too much and bottomed out, including an Xterra that flattened his tow hook. In the obstacle course, I was fine. But the spotters took others like an Xterra, on a different route and broke some mud flaps. I don't think the spotters were as good as the first one, but the driver was also a little heavy on the gas.

We then took some practicing reversing on a hill. Myself and the guide were iimpressed when I let off the brake and just had the emergency on. It held w/ no lunge. Nice work Toyota.

All in all an great day and FANTASTIC intro for a newbie. Highly recommended.


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