Do you remember seeing the program on the Discovery Channel about how this guy helicopters into a wilderness area and is dropped off and then survives finding food and shelter using only a knife? Well this isn’t that kind of story. I seem to remember he was a former Israeli commando or something. He was good. You really have to marvel at his skill. I simply went off-roading for the first time and survived.
Four of us (Elden, his son Mark, Al & I) met yesterday afternoon to go off-roading. The topography around Las Cruces is flat desert of scrub brush and cactus interrupted by outcroppings of small hills to ever bigger mountains. And unlike Colorado where mountains are tree covered our mountains are bare rock. It is these bare mountains and hills that attract off-roaders.
There is an event called the Chili Challenge each year that attracts off-roaders from all over the country. The last event in February had 250 vehicles climbing over some very unforgiving territory . This is where we were headed so I wondered what it was I was getting myself into.
There were two vehicles and four of us so we flipped a coin as to who would ride with whom and off we went. Actually before going anywhere I had to learn how to use the harness. A regular seat belt would not do here. We were harnessed in with straps going over each shoulder, around the waist and between the legs. I’ll have to say that once in I sure felt secure.
Now we were ready so we gunned the engines and took off. I believe we drove about 5 miles or so out past the small town of Dona Ana and off into the hills. When driving on the interstate you can easily see trails heading up and over the mountains. I had often wondered what they were all about. Well now I was going to find out.
My driver was Mark. During our conversation I found out that he has completely flipped his vehicle and had to rebuild it. He has also been in some pretty hairy (think scary, frightening, I’m going to die, help me God) kind of situations a time or two. He took his wife once & got into a hairy situation. After they got out of that situation she looked at him and said with some heat in her voice, “DON’T EVER DO THAT AGAIN”. He doesn’t take his wife anymore. So what was I doing here? He assured me that he doesn’t do totally stupid things anymore.
The experience actually was pretty tame. We did go up some gravely paths that were fairly steep and we did go down some pretty steep paths but I simply smiled all the while praying to God that I would be good if He would keep us safe. There were a few gulleys we traversed that bumped us about a bit but we did not try climbing any house-size rocks so it was actually fun.
After winding around some trails, turning around after encountering dead ends and riding up and down we headed home.
I’ll include a photo of a Chili Challenger and then some of our experience. I’m glad I had the opportunity to share this experience. Keep in mind that it was too difficult to take pictures in the hairy situations so what you see of us is pretty tame stuff.
Shalom.
