It is often said that just about the time one becomes old enough to realize what is really important, the right time and opportunity have already passed. We all have dreams and goals, but too often everyday life gets in the way of those. Enjoyment and education take backseats to work and other obligations, and we can just drone on for years without fulfilling our personal objectives. A few years back, John Mears—a geologist by trade—made himself a bucket list of trips he’d want to accomplish. He would call these trips “MDED”—Mostly Dirt Every Day. He decided that he’d do one trip a year for the next several years until his goals were met. Mears eventually pulled the trigger on his plan after spending a little time with an off-road magazine journalist by the name of Rick Pewe. Pewe—an adventurer and geologist himself—had a similar yearly trip blueprint he called “Dirt Every Day.” On these trips, Rick would have to overcome a number of complications including weather, parts failures, health, etc, and usually in a beaten-down old Jeep with his partner in crime, David Freiberger. When John first read of Rick Pewe’s Dirt Every Day (DED) trips in magazines, he fell in love with the stories. What a concept: A multi-day road trip in a dilapidated vehicle that would entail driving on dirt every day of the trip, almost guaranteeing that Fate will deliver some type of backhand slap. What’s not to love?! After John finally met Rick and spent a few days in the dirt with him, he knew he had to start his bucket list.
MDED | noun | (em-ded) |
- Abbreviation: Mostly Dirt Every Day
- A road trip with a goal of camping, exploring, and being in the wilderness every day, embarked upon by a rag-tag crew of adventurers in a bunch of classic 4x4s and trucks.
Last year, John took the first of his own version of modified DED trips, leading a number of friends through the Rubicon trail. But he didn’t just do it in a small Jeep; John mashed a fullsize extended-cab Super Duty truck through the tight trail. Upon meeting John Mears in Moab, Utah earlier this year and hearing his tales, we knew it was something that General Tire wanted to be a part of. His plans for a second trip included six days of mosty dirt every day (and some highway) in the northwest region of the country in a bunch of classic 4x4s and trucks. We would pass through much of the Palouse and see wilderness seldom seen by other humans, along with a number of cool historical sites and ghost towns. We’d climb to 9,000-foot elevations and drop down into low-lying canyons. John expected fueling issues and cooling issues to run rampant throughout the group. We could not wait!
Plans were put into effect, and eventually we decided to send two representatives from General Tire in a 1976 Ford Bronco and a 1979 Jeep Cherokee Chief to join the collection of cool and classic rides that would be logging lots of dirt miles over the next six days.
After experiencing this epic, but also educational and informative off-road trip that John Mears led us on, we’re looking forward teaming up again with him next year to see where the third trip on John Mears’ Mostly Dirt Every Day list takes us!
