My First Land Rover

It all started in the fall of 1992. I was scanning the pages of a local used car trader publication when I stumbled upon an ad in the heavy equipment section that read "FOR SALE: LAND ROVER JEEP, 4X4 $1,500 OBO"! I was instantly captivated, I had always wanted a Land Rover, ever since I was a small child watching Wild Kingdom. But up until this time I had always thought that these vehicles were out of my reach, unatainable a rich man's toy. But there it was in black and white, just before my eyes, a real Land Rover...and it was for sale only two counties away. A few days later I made a journey to Hot Springs, NC...and there it sat, a ragged old 1965 Series IIa 88" Hardtop. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen...I took it for a test drive, and the rest is history!

One of the first excursions I took the old Rover on was to a Southern Appalachian wilderness area known as Shining Rock. It was fall, and the mountains were beckoning with their beautiful colors so some friends and I piled in the Land Rover headed to the hills. One of our campsites was in the windswept gap in the photo above.

We had to haul in all of our wood since the area is mostly grassy mountain balds and there is little wood avaliable.

I practice the environmental ethics of "Leave no Trace" and "Tread Lightly" whenever I can. This means packing out what you pack in and try not to dammage the environment in both your camping, foraging, waste disposal and driving practices. Just remember: the person who comes behind you will either enjoy a beautiful campsite or have to pick up your cast off garbage. Please be respectful of our natural areas and leave them for others to enjoy.

On another excursion, I had fun crossing several small streams while exploring the Parsons Branch Primative motor road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the boarder of Tennessee and North Carolina (the crossings were concreted in order to prevent erosion).

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