We’ve put over 10,000 miles on our 2000 Land Rover Discovery II in the past four years.
Ever since watching John Wayne lasso rhinos in the movie “Hatari!” I’ve had a soft spot for the English rigs. (Yes, I know that wasn’t a Rover he was sitting on, but in my imagination it was clearly a Series II Rover 88.) And hence it always will be.
I’ve explored a wide variety of Land Rovers over the years, including a Series III 88, Range Rover Classic, Disco Series I and II and a RHD D90 turbodiesel.
Here in Oregon, we are lucky to have Tillamook State Forest less than 90 minutes away. The trails are well-maintained and vary from easy runs under the power lines to technical rock crawling.
Rover guru Doug Shipman found me the Disco II, with just 210,000 miles. On our first trail run we discovered some deficiencies that led to the fitting steel bumpers front and back, rock-sliders and installing the linkage to make use of the center-locking-differential. Those upgrades changed the truck from being hopeless to moderately capable off road.
Last Sunday the Pacific Coast Rover Club held its first run of the season. Club President Bruce Franklin and good friend Lou Tauber set it up, with 15 rigs assembled in Sandy, OR. We traveled up Highway 26 for a few miles, then turned off on Stillwater Creek Road, a narrow road that goes up to Trillium Lake.
I have warm memories of Stillwater Creek, as I used to have a cabin near it. When my daughter Alexandra was seven years old, I bought her a Honda XR50. I was on my XL250 and we would ride the 10 miles down Stillwater to the General Store in Rhododendron for morning coffee and donuts.
I will always recall the pride I felt as she buzzed along beside me on that mountain road, very brave and very determined.
The Rover gang had an interesting mix, ranging from Series rigs to LR3s and LR4s. LR3s have gotten to an affordable price point, and their bugs are largely worked out, so we are seeing more of them, and fewer Discos and Classics as they age out.
This was my partner Schön’s first time going off a paved road with the Disco, and she enjoyed splashing through the puddles. Though perhaps not as much as Nolan, the seven-year-old driving an LR3 while sitting on a parent’s lap.
The Rover events are unique, as there are always lots of kids and dogs around. I recall one time when we were inching along in compound low and 10 kids decided to have a footrace with the Rovers. The kids won.
I welcome the official start of Rover season, and look forward to more events, getting our rigs dirty and stuck in the snow. Then celebrating the messes we managed to get ourselves out of.
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