A Maccoun Moment or, “I Better Lock the Hubs”

This requires a little set-up. Many years ago, (seriously, many) a bunch of young cops took their 4WD Toyota trucks to the snow. I rode with Jim in his truck. As is always the case, Jim was being super cautious, driving very conservatively and, not surprisingly, we were bringing up the rear. I know Sgt Zorro had a truck and I'm pretty sure Mark Sakauye was driving one also. I can't remember if Deputy Chief (now) Brian had his own truck or was riding with someone else.

Anyway, the road's getting wetter and snowier as we head up the hill and Jim keeps giving warnings that nobody is paying attention to. Jim keeps talking about stopping to “lock the hubs” and eventually we do. Jim's really in Eyore mode now about the dangers of black ice and what not. As we're going down a pretty steep hill the lead guy tries to stop and start to slide. On black ice. And pretty much everyone behind him also slides and spins and I think about 4 trucks slid into each other. Jim's watching this, from a very safe following distance of course, saying something about “flatlanders”. Jim was almost the only one who didn't bash his truck that day (a fact he's probably already yelled into his computer screen about 3 times as he read this) and “locking the hubs” at our house has come to mean being extra careful and cautious, basically being in Maccoun mode.

So, fast forward about 22 years. We're driving down the dirt road to the Fern Canyon trail and we come to a stream crossing. Connie says “lock the hubs”. I can hear Jim's voice saying “don't be stupid, flatlander” as I'm looking at the water trying to gage it's depth. I'm thinking I probably would lock the hubs, if I had any. The ranger had said she drives her Ford Taurus down this road. I'm looking at the water thinking it must be a home retention vehicle. So after a few moments of trying to estimate the depth, current, best way across, etc., and realizing there's a fair amount of water on the other side indicating others have crossed successfully, we cross without incident. I'm feeling pretty good about myself and my truck at this point, although it's probably not a big deal since it's pretty tall - Connie needs a ladder to climb into the thing. I start talking about going back and driving through the water again while she takes pictures, stuff like that.

We get to the parking lot at the trail head and I'm looking at all of the large trucks there. Then I see it. A Honda Fit. Then I see a Civic CRX. Neither of them seems to have water running out from under the bottom of the door. I'm suddenly a bit less impressed with my water crossing efforts. I guess they must have locked the hubs.