name for the truck?

KP showed me this trail he found. He has this thing about scouting out places to mud/off-road. That's Kenneth for ya. Anyway. We had some time to kill so we decided to go check the place out. Hoppin the curb and onto the trail. The first part was actually kinda nice; it was just pretty much a dry dirt trail. But around a bend w/ a large puddle next to it and you got to this really eroded place w/ alotta ruts. I found my truck has pretty good rut-beasting power for a 2WD, relatively low, 4 cylinder, small toyota pickup. We of course got out to find a good path around the deepest of the ruts to prevent getting stuck. After that it was a nice dirt path w/ a couple of ruts, but not too bad. After that the trail turned to an underbrush trail. It had apparently been cleared a while back and used alot and was starting to grow back. The ruts only had grass, but there were some small trees that I had to run over or go around to get through. It kinda went around to no where really and came back around to the beginning. The end was actually pretty rutty and bumpy though.

The reason I told you guys all that isn't just to relate a nice little trail, really...

After church tonight, Steven (long-haired) wanted to go off-roading/mudding, so KP and I took him over to the trail. For the water spashing, mud-flinging experience, we also were going to check out the big puddle. We drive over there and depth sound the puddle. It's really not all that deep: two or three inches or so. Well, I'm like, I can take it no prob, I took that big puddle back at KP's old house, this one's no different. I back up to give some speed-up room and gun it into the puddle, spash and through. I turn around to go pick KP up 'cause he stayed out to take a picture of it or something. I go, and to keep from hitting him I have to go back into the puddle. Well, I hit the puddle and am slowing down because of the aforementioned reason, and as I speed up to go around, my back end spins and slides into the mud and water. I try to gun it, but nothin' but spinnin' the wheels: I'm stuck. KP pushes some and I make it out though. I get stuck again 'cause of the slippery conditions, but once again, w/ some rocking and pushing, we get it going again (thank goodness my trucks light). We continue on and come to a fork in the path. We're like, let's take the other one and see where it leads (sense we had already taken the other one earlier). Come to find out, the other path led to a low-water bridge of sorts. We, once again, exit the vehicle to investigate it. Come to find out, the little stream is only about a meter across, but in a ditch that's shaped like this: \_/. After much deliberation, I make the exectutive decision to go bad and around 'cause I don't wanna get stuck w/ my gas tank on empty. On the way out, through the rutty part I almost got stuck two or three times, spinning out and such. The problem, I think was that the dew had set in and evrything was wet and slick. Well, that's pretty much the end of the story.

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Here's 10 tips for off-roading and/or mudding:

1. ALWAYS HAVE A MUDDING BUDDY.
2. Always pre-scout a trail before jumpin in head-first. Stop and exit the vehicle and check close-up if you have to.
3. YOU NEVER KNOW A TRAIL. you may have gone once, but things can go differently.
4. If in doubt: don't try it.
5. DEEP WATER = BAD THING. Don't try to "beast it through," water'll mess stuff up.
6. Never over-estimate your truck, and never underestimate an obstacle. See #4
7. Never go immediatly after or during a rain.
8. Never go when the dew has set in.
9. Higher ground is your friend.
10. THE BIGGER THE TRUCK, THE BETTER.

Well, that's my two cents.