What’s that burning smell?

Does your head ever feel like it’s on fire because of people around you? For me, the answer is yes, and altogether too often it seems. My goal is to discuss a few of these things with you dear reader and see if the same things bother you, and hopefully figure out together how to better deal with them.

What’s that burning smell? Trail rides.

This may or may not end up episodical in nature but for now, let’s take it one day at a time. Today’s primary topic is trail rides in off-road parks.

Issue number 1: Trail parking. The act of trying to move down a trail to the next obstacle when you are suddenly entwined in several groups headed the same direction with zero common sense on how to keep going. It’s very similar to the concept of zipper merging on the highway. Everyone says they know how to do it but apparently no one can actually do it in real life.

Lines of off-road vehicles idling in the woods each impatiently waiting for someone else to move along all the while wasting precious fuel, time, and minutes off of our lives. It’s gotten to be such a pervasive issue for me that I failed to get off-road nearly enough this year just to avoid it.

Issue number 2: Random spotter guy. Usually, a passenger in someone else’s vehicle this “expert” has wheeled for years and will start randomly shouting at anyone nearby on how to drive an obstacle. It usually consists of telling someone to turn driver 5 times and then screaming passenger because they royally screwed up. They then blame the driver for not listening.

Issue number 3, and our last for today: Internet experts who went off-road for the first time but know everything. These are the folks that run around all day in 4 HI, hit every obstacle at 25 MPH, and then complain that the littlest obstacle was too hard because they don’t have this or that part on their Jeep.

Too much stress.

I don’t know about you but I off-road to relieve stress not cause it. My goal for a trip is to hit some trails, climb some fun stuff, maybe get a little muddy, eat greasy food, and probably have bacon. OK definitely have bacon.

Do you have any off-road issues like the ones mentioned? What are your solutions to my issues?