Martin Konkel - Nature is my opponent

The best memories that I have made in wilderness are not of times silently walking through woods contemplating my existence, but times of where I'm going full throttle like a suicidal maniac on some sort of machine.

It first started when I was a kid racing snowmobiles around my grandpa's property in Massachusetts. It was a blast, but within a few hours I had already rolled the snowmobile once, then later I got stuck in a hole where it took me a good hour to work myself free. Eventually he got rid of the snow mobiles for a four wheeler he could use year round, and things only got more crazy. I would fly down the trails, slide sideways, blast through the mud holes, etc. However, once again, mother nature had it out for me and I hit a tree head on. Only my ego was bruised. Perhaps she was getting me back for all of the saplings I was riding up on (ATV would go up in the year then slowly fold the tree underneath of it, kind of like doing a slow assisted wheelie).

Unfortunately I only visited my grandparents a few times a year, and I wanted a ATV of my own. I was short on cash, so the only thing I could afford was a 1988 Toro Wheelhorse riding lawn mower. I stripped it down, hooked it up, and soon I was attacking the terrain furiously with my 20mph mower. Mother Nature got the best of me a few times on that too, one time I completely submerged the thing in a mud hole and me and a friend had to drag it out. But we had a blast on that thing; nothing beats offroading on a 20mph riding mower that cost $50, nothing!!

Then there is my Jeep, and the memories I've made in that are priceless, espicially the one time my friend was holding on for dear life as I floored it up a steep mud cover hill. That old CJ never ceases to amaze me with what it can do, and while Mother Nature is sure to get me sooner or later, so far I've done nothing but beat her into submission under my 32inch all terrain tires.


Walking through the woods is relaxing and great exercise, but if I want to make some memories I fire up the engine on a off-road vehicle and attack the terrain with all me and my machine have to offer. To me, Nature is best viewed through the windscreen of a 1983 CJ7 and the best sound isn't the birds chirping or the leaves rustling, but that old AMC Inline-6 firing away.