Ultimate adventure

CELINA - Longtime off-roading enthusiast Joe Grieshop put his 1970 Scout 800A to the test when he joined 26 other drivers as part of Four Wheeler Magazine's Ultimate Adventure, a weeklong journey spanning the backroads, rugged trails and highways of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota.

The recent seven-day trek found Grieshop and co-pilot Codey Welker traversing new landscapes and obstacles, among them hilly areas, mountain tops and rocky forests.

"It would have been a neat trip to bring my wife (Tricia) on, and I would have liked to, but if something breaks we got to fix it," Grieshop said about picking his friend Welker as co-pilot. "There's no trucks and trailers. Once you get in the vehicle you're on your own."

Each year the magazine organizes a weeklong trip on which staff, sponsors and selected readers drive their off-road vehicles in exciting locales, Grieshop explained.

"They do it every year. They go somewhere different throughout the U.S., and last year was in Alaska," he said. "They just pick a neat destination and take off. It's strictly in your off-road vehicle, whether it's a Jeep or truck or whatever it is. It doesn't have to be a specific brand."

Grieshop, the 39-year-old owner of JOCO Welding & Custom Fabrication, applied and was chosen to participate in the trip with his 1970 Scout 800A. He's clocked in multitudinous hours modifying the vehicle over the last decade, including replacing the engine twice.

The sticker-covered Scout boasts a 6.2L L92 GM engine, 6L80 automatic transmission and 37-inch tires that provide for a comfortable ride over obstacles.

Four Wheeler Magazine wrote that Grieshop's Scout "can go down the road at better than 70 mph, runs cool and is super off-road capable.

Celina firefighter Mike Bruns, Grieshop's friend who happened to walk into Grieshop's shop during the interview, called attention to Grieshop's vast mechanic expertise.

"That's where having a good knowledge of the parts and the industry makes a huge difference," Bruns said. "Joe has the experience. I've seen him here countless hours looking over components online."

Grieshop and Welker were responsible for all costs, including food, lodging, fuel, repairs and fees. The two spent the first couple of nights in a hotel and the other days in tent cots.

"It was neat because twice we were up on top of a mountain next to a body of water. The second night was in a valley, but there was a stream running through it," he said.

Though Grieshop relished the chance to see stunning terrains and scenery up close, the experience was somewhat marred by the obscuring smoke blowing over from the West Coast forest fires.

"The only downfall to this whole trip was the wildfires in California and Washington. You couldn't see the sun," he said. "So all these beautiful sites and I couldn't see the mountain range next to us, which was kind of disappointing."

Each day, most of the 26 drivers had little to no idea what shape the route would take, each following the vehicle in front of them to the day's final destination.

"We didn't know what we were doing in between. We didn't know what roads we were taking," Grieshop said.

For the most part, the drivers were left to their own devices unless they encountered major trouble.

"I have a welder built into my vehicle and we carry spare parts, spare drive shafts, spare hind joints," Grieshop said. "The one guy's (vehicle) caught on fire and it burned everything under the hood. They got him all wired back up and fixed up and he was back on the trail later that day."

Grieshop said his Scout held its own, aside from a cracked shock mount that he spotted during one of the prechecks he conducted before each day of driving.

"These things take a lot of abuse so to just jump in and drive - especially once we get off the trail and we take off down the interstate - so you don't want to put your life in danger or anybody else because we're doing highway speeds," Grieshop said of the importance of prechecks.

Drivers often faced tough conditions.

"The dust gets so thick out there on the back roads," he said. "You'll drive for 100 miles and not touch pavement, and it's just a rough, dusty dirty road," he said.

The caravan of off-roaders also encountered difficult climbs.

"A lot of people had a lot of issues. It's a grueling trip," he noted. "The one road we were on we climbed like 5,500 feet in elevation in a pretty short distance … That was one of the hills where people started dropping like flies."

Outings such as these demand mechanical know-how and quick action.

"It's pretty amazing, some of the stuff that they fix on this trip," he said. "When you do this type of stuff you have to be able to turn a wrench otherwise you're going to be relying on a lot of other people," Grieshop said. "If you've never worked on a vehicle or don't know what a nine-sixteenths wrench is, if you can't tighten a wheel, you're going to be out of luck pretty quick."

Sizing himself up against the other drivers and vehicles who took part in the Ultimate Adventure, Grieshop said feels confident about himself and the Scout. Scouts were "once considered the redheaded stepchildren of the off-road 4-by-4."

"It was definitely intimidating going into a trip like this, especially when there's cameras on you because as soon as somebody breaks down there's 10 cameras that come out and start taking pictures," he said.

Grieshop has been off-roading for most of his life. He started out with four-wheelers and dirt bikes before switching over to vehicles such as his Scout.

"I was breaking a lot of bones so you do stuff like this where you still get to have that fun but you have a full roll cage and five-point harness so it's not much different than NASCAR where you can take a pretty good roll and walk away from it - hopefully," he said.

His wife, Tricia, encouraged him to buy the Scout. The couple, their two children and dog often enjoy taking the vehicle out. She can drive the Scout any time she wants, he said.

"That's the running joke. It's her vehicle. She just lets me drive it," he said.