OWNER: ALI SEDAGHAT
@KATETHEJEEP PHOTOS: FRANK MARTINEZ
@FRANKS_LENS, @TRUCKY_MCTRUCKFACE
M
y accidental exposure to the off-road scene was kicked off by what was most likely the absolute worst experience I’ve ever had as a father and husband. It was the first day of the new year in 2017, my wife and I decided to be spontaneous and take the kids sledding to kick off the year on a high note. We agreed on heading out to Wrightwood, California, as it was closer than the more popular Big Bear area, and we were hoping it wouldn’t be as crowded. Unfortunately, it was bumper to bumper at a 5-mph crawl up the mountain. I relied on the WAZE app to help us navigate some backroads to circumvent the mess. The first detour nipped 15 minutes in our original ETA, so we felt really good about it. We didn’t get so lucky on the next one as the road degraded into a mess of gravel, ice, mud, and snow. Being a total novice at that time to all things off-road, I tried to push through it in my Subaru Impreza Wagon, thinking to myself, “AWD baby!” I’d later learn the difference between street tires and mud terrains, but this was not that day. I effectively got us stuck and what I thought would be a quick dig out of the mess slowly turned into what became a multi-day ordeal which had me separated from my wife and kids at one point and even had my wife asking people to help with money to feed the kids.
52
PLAYING CHECKERS
I was pulled out of the mud and snow by a local resident, Steve Ball, who showed up in his fully built Jeep TJ. He yanked me out, posed for some photos, and then decided to keep going up the road I was on. Nervous for him, I warned him about how deep the mud got beyond where I got stuck, and he simply laughed and said, “that sounds like a lot of fun.” A lot of fun? That’s when I knew I was playing checkers and not chess in the off-road adventure game. I waited a year until I was out from under my car payments and made the jump on a gorgeous pre-owned silver Rubicon. After our incident in Wrightwood, my young boys, who were thoroughly traumatized by the experience, would constantly ask me if we
would get stuck in the mud. It didn’t matter whether we were on our way to the movies, grocery store, or school; they would freak out, thinking we’d get trapped in mud. So after I bought the Jeep, the first thing I did was take them to the Holy Jim trail area up in Saddleback Canyon and showed them we were never getting stuck again and let them name her. They randomly picked “Kate,” and that’s what we’ve called her ever since.
LOCATIONS: HELL’S REVENGE N38° 34' 59" W109° 32' 9", FINS N THINGS N38° 34' 51" W109° 29' 59",
