Yes, I do I remember those days. Suspension technology was pretty much limited to stock, lift springs didn't flex at all. Some were starting to run 35's, but most ran 33's and anyone on a rock trail w/44's would have been a laughing stock. There certainly were a lot less people on the trails then as well, if you saw anyone at all it wasn't more than 5 rigs all day, no one was in a hurry, and everyone was friendly. Unfortunately just like the tire size that has all changed as well.
I was by no means a pioneer of the trails, but I was a pioneer of wheeling Toyota trucks, and likely one of the first to take an IFS rig down Fordyce creek trail(Sierra Trek for those who know it through the event/magazines). Back then it was Cruisers V. Jeeps, and they both believed the trucks didn't belong on the trail. Here are a few thumbs of my pristine 7 month old dent/scratch free(at least at the beginning) rig w/open diffs running 31's on the upper section of Fordyce Creek Trail in August of 1990.
Top of Which hill 3(Or squeeze rock as I came to know it)
A lot of the old mining landmarks are now gone, and bypasses have been added since then. However, even in stock form I made it with almost no body damage. I had 3 2" long primer deep scratches over the right rear tire, and one dent in the lower air dam which occurred just as we were getting to committee crossing.
Unfortunately that is where the good luck ran out. Committee X-ing was flowing rather high and fast, the 4' hole in the middle swallowed the truck and it floated before it hit a rock hard enough to blow the right rear bead and ank up to the door handles. If I was righting a Mastercard add it would be something like this, "One new truck: $25k($41-61K in todays dollars), one 9hr tow bill: $1200($2-3k) , one dealer repair bill: $4470($7300-11k), 8.5 hours to go 1.5 miles in the forest: Priceless.
I can laugh about it now, but having to abandon a brand new truck in the woods for 5 days w/o a clue of how to get it home, let alone repairing it, wasn't an enjoyable experience at the time. Fortunately back then nobody touched abandoned rigs, unlike today where they part them out shoot them fool of holes or set fore to it.
Funny, it is about 3 weeks shy of 20yrs since that outing, and while I have 1000's miles and hours of trail time behind me, I can remember it like it was yesterday.
