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If the future of off-roading were left up to 13-year-old

Montana Damron, we’d all let go with a collective sigh

of relief. Incredibly well mannered, the New Mexico

teen was in his element at the 2008 FJ Summit in

Ouray, Colorado. For Damron, it was a chance to see

old friends met in 2007 and to make new ones in

2008—and to wheel the notorious Black Bear Pass on

the first day of the Summit.

by Keith Sheffield

Top: Repeat after me: eyes on the trail, do not look left…. Photo by Keith Sheffield

Center: Putting Trail Team-taught skills to work in the rocks. Photo by Keith Sheffield

Bottom: Needs more cowbell… Summit base camp at the Best Western in Ouray. Photo by Kristin Kritz

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“I liked the views,” he said. “The trails are way green. You don’t get that in New Mexico.”

Damron spent his Summit reconnecting with veteran off roaders like Mike Paulson from Yellville, Arkansas, checking out other’s rigs, getting under the hood of a couple others, and of course, getting a little wheel time as dad allowed.

The FJ Summit began in 2007 as a way for members of FJCruisersforums.com to meet each other in a scenic location, share stories and wheel through some epic country. Designed as a family friendly event, the number of rigs and attendees doubled in 2008. 287 FJ Cruisers took over the streets of Ouray from July 16-20, bringing almost 600 people to town.

While the 2007 Summit saw mostly stock FJs on the trails, the 2008 Summit wit-nessed a parade of trucks that had spent the past year getting built into rock crawlers and expedition rigs. Stock or built, everyone who attended the 2008 Summit shared a common outlook—“Let’s have some fun.”

Choked with smoke for weeks, I couldn’t leave the Lake Tahoe Basin fast enough. Hundreds of California wildfires poured thick smoke into the Sierra. Even 100

continued on page 26

Main Street in Ouray on Sunday morning, FJ Cruiser stampede about to commence. Photo by Kristin Kritz

Telluride in the distance—the express route is not recommended. Photo by Keith Sheffield

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Chris Segal lives in San Diego and is known as Frogeye at FJCruiserforums.com. We bumped into each other almost daily at the Artisan Bakery and Café in Ouray before we each rendezvoused with our respective trail groups. The welcome sign in the Main Street window prompted a few Summiteers to walk through the door. The delicious breakfast sandwiches and awesome coffee kept us coming back. A 2007 FJ Summit veteran, Segal found the 2008 Summit presented the perfect opportunity to explore Colorado’s San Juan’s and reconnect with his brother. See Segal’s build thread at www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/member-build-ups/55571-el-frog-go-frogeye-s-fj-buildup.html.

Keith Sheffield: Your brother experienced this FJ Summit thing in full force in Ouray. I recall him likening it to a cult, with many sub-cults. Were you able to bring him into the fold by the end of your trip?

Chris Segal: My brother had a great time on the trip and towards the end of the trip he kept asking me what our gas mileage was about every five minutes. Just like a true FJ junky with a Scangauge II…. And he started to pick up on the some of our lingo like, “What run are we doing today?” He admits to being very overwhelmed by all of the FJ talk but he really had a blast meeting people and seeing parts of the country he has never seen before. Plus Jeff and I didn’t grow up together, so this trip gave us lots of great bonding time.

Sheffield: You approached the Summit differently this year, waiting for the trail groups to go out first, then you went and ran trails on your own or with a few friends. Why?

Segal: As much as I love to meet new people and socialize, I just didn’t want to be stuck in the traffic jams like last year. Even with the staggered start times, groups tend to run into the back of other groups. This happened to me every run last year, which resulted in a very slow follow the leader type of run. So this year, I just decided to run the trails I wanted to run after all the runs went out. And it worked! No traffic and a nice small group of friends. I just didn’t

want a traffic jam in the middle of the mountains to take away from all the beauty. I like to park and stretch my legs. It’s so nice to not be on a time limit and to just do what you want to do out there. We investigated some mines, hiked up some ridges and just plain chill-axed whenever we felt like it. And we always made it back for the awesome meals at the Best Western.

Sheffield: How did your wife let you take off for several days road tripping across the Southwest with your brother? Is she that cool?

Segal: My wife is that cool. She hardly ever tells me that I can’t do something. I’d love for her to join me but she suffers from an inner ear problem that causes her to get carsick and get vertigo

very easily. I do miss her when I’m gone but there is nothing better than returning home to a loved one. Having time apart gives both of us time to reflect on just how lucky we are to have each other. She said that Jeff and I would be fighting by the second day in the FJ but we never did. We had an awesome time.

Sheffield: Given your time in Ouray, your raffle bounty and the subsequent trip along the Kokopelli Trail, what did you take away from the experience this time?

Segal: This was a very magical trip indeed. Yes, the karma gods were on my side for the raffle. We are all so very fortunate to live in this great country. I cherish the freedom I have to do the things I want to do. I’m very thankful for all of my friends and family. The most important thing that I took away from this experience was that we all need to force ourselves to get away from our everyday lives and see our great country and experience it with friends and loved ones. Life is way too short and we need to live it up every single day. Lastly, even though we all live all over the United States, the FJ community really is a great bunch of people who are caring and fun loving and I’m proud to be a part of it.

“This was a very magical trip indeed.”

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25

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ToyoTa Trails

miles to the east, as I rolled along Nevada’s U.S. Highway 50, there were no blue skies above The Loneliest Road in America.

A thick haze of white blanketed the dry lakebed east of Fallon. And not that I was in a hurry to know but I wondered if this is what Purgatory looks like. Soon enough, the smoke faded away, blue skies appeared and the swath of black asphalt contrasted beauti-fully with the sagebrush, Pinyon pines and 7,000-foot mountain ranges on the horizon.

At the time, I felt like I was driving the only FJ Cruiser on east-bound Highway 50. And I wanted everyone following me to know where I was headed.

“Meet Me In Ouray!” I had chalked the message on my spare tire several hours and hundreds of miles ago. That’s right—I’m on vacation, joining my friends at the 2008 FJ Summit. We were leav-ing our jobs behind, coming from all across the country to Ouray. And we were anxious to get off the blacktop.

The FunJunkie

My plan was to ride shotgun in someone’s rig as we wheeled the Black Bear Pass trail run. Yes, the same Black Bear Pass that C.W. McCall helped immortalize. The “You don’t have to be crazy to drive this road but it helps” Black Bear Pass.

Sometime back in February, my friend Maureen Turner (the same Maureen Turner who spent two years with the FJ Trail Teams and now swears she’s retired) helped me find a passenger seat for the Black Bear run. I needed to talk to Bill Brecheen, an Internet forum moderator known as “Dragon” on FJCruiserforums.com.

continued on page 28

After midnight… FJ Cruisers burning the midnight oil on Engineer Pass. Photo by Kristin Kritz

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Known as MrsTennesseesquire on FJCruiserforums.com, Nashville, Tennessee, resident Stacey Knight, as well as her husband Terry (Tennesseesquire) and daughter Makayla, were a big presence at the 2008 FJ Summit, rolling into Ouray with the Smokey Mountain Cruisers. When she’s not off-roading with her husband and daugh-ter, Stacey’s the Executive Administration Director for the State of Tennessee Commission on Holocaust Education.

Keith Sheffield: What became the most memorable part of the 2008 Summit for you?

Stacey Knight: There are two things that I will always remember from this year’s Summit. The first would be sponsoring the kids raffle and seeing the excitement and joy on the kids’ faces as they all walked away with a prize in their hands. The second is getting to actually play in the snow on top of Ophir Pass. We don’t get much snow in Tennessee anymore and being able to act like a kid again and enjoy the snow during the month of July was a lot of fun.

Sheffield: I think it’s very amusing your family has the FJ because your hubby was super obsessed with it, yet when it came time to pick it up, you were the giddy one. And then you had a hand in starting up the Smokey Mountain Cruisers… explain yourself!

Knight: Oh boy! I guess I do have a lot of explaining to do… ha ha. Yes, I admit I was not too thrilled about the FJ at first because we had put a deposit down on a TRD and it was just coming out and it was something I had not seen or driven yet. Plus it was all black and we both said we would never own another black vehicle. But when it finally came in and we went to pick it up and they pulled it up on the lot, it was love at first sight and I was jumping up and down in the sales tower and pointing at it and saying “That’s ours!” I became addicted quickly once we took it off road and I began participating on the FJ Cruiser Forum. In the beginning, there were just a few of us that showed up to a ride and we each lived in different states but were about 2-1/2 hours from each other. After a few months went by, we had all become like a small family and couldn’t wait for the next event to see each other again. Terry and I kept talking about starting a club and in January 2008, that dream finally became a reality. We began with 12 and now we have 40 members that represent nine states.

Sheffield: What was it like seeing Ouray and the southwestern part of Colorado for the first time? Then returning to it again?

Knight: Seeing it for the first time was just overwhelming and breathtaking. Ouray kind of reminds me of Mayberry. It’s a small friendly town and the locals are happy to see you when you come into the shops and restaurants. They don’t mind shar-ing with you some of their favorite places and things to do and they just do a really good job of making you feel like you belong there. Last year, we were able to let our daughter Makayla kind of venture around town without us constantly being by her side because, again, it is a small, safe town and that made for an enjoyable trip for her—and us.

Sheffield: Any major differences between the first two FJ Summits that stand out for you?

Knight: I would have to say yes and no. The Summit Committee did an excellent job in organizing both of them. The first one will always be special because it is where I first met many of the forum members that I am in contact with everyday. This year’s Summit was more personal for me and felt like a family reunion in many ways. We got to see old friends and make new ones.

I got to know some of the families better because of our par-ticipation in the kids raffle and two members of our club (Flying Brickett and Missmy60) were a part of the band that opened the Summit meet and greet on Wednesday night. And Terry and I participated with some other forum members to plan a surprise for the Summit Committee. I think being more involved in the Summit this year made it mean that much more to me.

Sheffield: The FJ Summit is really developing the reputation as a significant family event. You and Terry include your daughter Makayla in this ongoing adventure. Has this vehicle brought your family closer?

Knight: Yes, in many ways it has. I know when I say that in front of people who don’t get this whole FJ thing, they look at me like I’m crazy. But honestly it has brought our family closer together and no other vehicle has ever done that before. We look forward to packing the FJ up and going to the next event. It allows us to escape from our everyday routines and enjoy places that we may have never visited before. Terry and I swap up driving and taking pictures and Makayla enjoys taking video of all of the action. Makayla loves being picked up from school in the FJ and she requests that we leave it covered in mud and not hide the trail rash. All of the boys are envious of her and they can’t wait for her to tell them all about our latest off-road adventure. She has already stated that if Toyota comes out with a bright red with a white roof, it’s hers. I can see a fight over that one because that is what I have been waiting for. Don’t be surprised if this becomes a three FJ household in the near future.

“Yes, I admit I was not too thrilled about the FJ at f ir st . . . .”

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One of the Summit pack about to meet up with the snowpack. Photo by Keith Sheffield

With any luck, the only thing careening down to Ouray is the stream. Photo by Keith Sheffield

A day of trail rides is not enough—headed back out after supper. Photo by Kristin Kritz

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And sure enough, I had the passenger seat booked in Brecheen’s rig. That was until two weeks before I left the smoke-filled Tahoe basin. Unbeknownst to me, I’d hon-orably given up my seat to a much more attractive passenger. Another passenger seat in another rig needed to be booked. Brecheen sent me a private message through the forum.

“FJ FunJunkie is your man, as he would love to have you ride along. Mike, meet Keith. Keith, meet Mike.”

That was it, the only communication I had with Mike Kirsch, an avionics technician with the U.S. Navy. We’d never met formally and in a few days we were about to run the “You don’t have to be crazy to drive this road but it helps” Black Bear Pass.

When I caught up with Turner in Ouray, she said I’d been paired with the perfect driver for the occasion.

Cue the Camera Crew

Mid-July and it’s still Spring above 8,000 feet. Tall grass remains lush and green on the hillsides and we splash through a run-off puddle as the sun’s glare breaks around the mountain, half silhouetting the convoy. No rain clouds this morning. This is perfect chamber of commerce weather. Someone should be filming this.

Trail leader Brian “Woody” Swearingen’s voice crackles over the CB. We’re going to park it once we get around the bend. The film crew shooting for the Toyota Trail Teams needs to take advantage of the light.

The break gives everyone a chance to stretch and take photos. The San Juan’s are putting on a show this morning. Thundershowers kept the mountains hid-den for the first half of the Summit and now, the smile beaming across Mike Kirsch’s face couldn’t be wider. Eight years with the U.S. Navy, Kirsch lets out that he’s thinking about life after military service. Maybe very soon. Maybe a career with the U.S. Forest Service. A job that gets him outdoors.

At least that’s what I got from our conver-sation as we ambled along the trail, inter-rupted here and there by bumps, epic views and the occasional stop for the film crew. Kirsch had been all smiles and good vibes since he, his seven-months-pregnant wife and their 4-year-old daughter arrived in Ouray. If you want to feel good about life, wheel with FunJunkie.

The group stops at the summit of Black Bear Pass and takes in the fact that we are standing at 12,840-feet in elevation. Swearingen hikes up a little rise and sur-veys the trail below. The mountains open up with meadows lining the canyon floor and snowfields wall in the trail.

We’re not far now from The Steps. The sec-tion isn’t very technical, it’s just very nar-row. Terrifying to some. There might be a little tire slip on The Steps. You might have a tire right on the ledge, the quick way to Telluride just below you. The convoy gets underway once more. The trail is about to get exciting. Kirsch is all smiles again. A

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T2 Cruiser minds the speed limit at the summit of Imogene Pass. Photo by Kristin Kritz

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Mike Kirsch’s FJCruiserforums.com handle says it all: FJ FunJunkie. It was a rare experience finding anyone having more fun at the 2008 FJ Summit than Kirsch, whether it was wheel-ing on the trail with friends old and new, or walking the streets of Ouray with his wife and daughter in tow. (By the time this Toyota Trails is in your hands, there may be a new Kirsch in the family. At Summit time, Kirsch’s wife was seven months pregnant.) With eight years in the U.S. Navy, Kirsch took ownership of his 2007 FJ Cruiser while he was stationed in Hawaii. Now in San Diego and still with the Navy, this avionics technician contemplates a career after military service, one that will allow him to work outdoors, where he likes to be.

Sheffield: What became the most memorable part of the 2008 Summit for you?

Mike Kirsch: Wow, starting this out with one of the hardest ques-tions, huh? How can I chose one memorable part? Looking back at it now, I remember mostly the anticipation. Not just on the caravan out (which was a blast!) but also every morning while we were there. I woke up about two hours early every day because I felt like a child on Christmas morning. I couldn’t wait to start the day and didn’t want the nights to end. If I were to choose some highlights, I would have to say, first and foremost, having my wife and daughter on top of Imogene Pass playing in the snow in the summertime with all the amazing scenery surrounding us. I felt like I won the lottery and had not a care in the world. Next I would definitely put in that first section on Black Bear, definitely a heart thumper. Not too technical but def-initely had a high pucker factor after hearing some of the horror stories about tourists taking the quick way down to Telluride, if you catch my drift. I’d also have to put the raffle in on the list. So many great sponsors and prizes. Watching the faces of the people light up as they walked away with prime swag was awesome. And last, but not even least, were all the folks I met. Most people who know nothing about the FJ and watching us from the outside would think it’s just a bunch of people with the same truck. I find it’s more like a family brought together by chance from a great vehicle. I’ve never experienced such kind-ness and hospitality and downright fun times from a group of (then) strangers in my life.

Sheffield: I think you were a Summit rookie like myself. What were you expecting from Ouray and did you get what you want-ed from the experience?

Kirsch: Indeed, this was my first Summit. I actually expected less from it. I figured we would run some trails and have a couple group dinners and events. Man, was I wrong. The summit is nonstop energy and the town of Ouray was simply beautiful and to have the sheriff, the mayor and all the other officials showing up and really having good times with us made me real-ize that we were welcome there, and not just a group taking over a hotel for a convention. I got way more than I wanted or expected from this amazing event.

Sheffield: How much fun was Black Bear Pass? Any times when the heights and sudden drop-off issues got to you? They got to me a couple times but hopefully I was good at hiding it.

Kirsch: From a straight 4x4 aspect, out of the trails I did, Black Bear was the best. Some of the other trails were longer or had more scenic or historically significant spots, but the top of the falls was totally worth the time. If I didn’t do this trail, I would have been disappointed. As you know, the trail opened the night before the official runs, so that was really great. As for the heights issues getting to me, well, if they didn’t I wouldn’t have had fun. The fear and tension is part of the experience of four wheeling. If I wanted to feel safe and warm, I’d stay in bed all day. As for you being good at hiding it, I’d say you did alright, until I noticed the puddle on the seat after you got out the truck….

Sheffield: What was it like getting to know someone riding shot-gun on a trail like Black Bear? We hardly knew each other beforehand and yet I put my blind trust in you as the driver and you put your blind trust in me as your cliff-side spotter....

Kirsch: That was kick ass. Besides sitting down for a few drinks, I don’t think there is a better way to get to know someone than to drive with them for a few hours. Either way, you are shar-ing the same confined space and conversation. The difference is, the pub is for after the trail. As for the trust factor, I was completely trusting of your judgment and thankful for it. I would have run the trail alone but having someone sitting shotgun is so much more fun and helpful. I would run shotgun with you anytime, brah!

“I woke up about two hours early every day because I felt like a child on Christmas morning.”

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quote from the movie Animal House comes to mind.

“Oh boy, this is gonna be great.”

“T’ Hell You Ride”

Our convoy pulls around a bend and Telluride slaps us in the face, even though it’s thousands of feet below. All at once, the San Juan Mountains open wide and want to swallow us up. Carved by glaciers, the val-ley is vast and we are small. It’s incredible, it’s breathtaking… it’s… it’s awesome.

There’s that feeling again… “Oh boy, this is gonna be great.”

Swearingen, with the help of a couple oth-ers, spots the group through the treacher-ous Steps. I’m out of Kirsch’s rig with my camera. I need to photograph this—it may be a long time before I’m able to return. At least I tell myself that’s why I’m out of the rig. That sounds better than the truth. In a few minutes, I just might have a litter of kit-tens. Right here. On the trail.

One by one, each rig negotiates The Steps and disappears around the bend, where

a series of knife-edge switchbacks await. The Powerhouse and Bridal Veil Falls stand watch over the valley as throngs of tourists pound the pavement in Telluride.

I catch up with Kirsch down the trail at the Ingram Creek waterfall. He’s standing on top of his rig. The creek crashes behind him before it pools up and then runs

across the trail and over the cliff. It’s time for us to traverse the switchbacks. There’s the smile beaming across his face. There’s that excited feeling again.

“Oh boy, this is gonna be great.”

Illustration by Vince Peterson

Pristine mountain meadows provide the perfect locale for a lunch break. Photo by Keith Sheffield

What passes for a road in the mountains of Colorado…. Photo by Keith Sheffield