Qwaaazy 8s, what’s that?

Several years ago at the Fall Color Tour In Colorado a group of folks looking for a little more challenging trail than the main group was running that day decided to head over to Chinaman Gulch. There were 8 jeeps in this thrill seeking group. I’m not sure who started it, probably Jpet, but they started calling the group the Qwaaazy 8s. Later that week I showed up for a Saturday run up to Grizzly Lake and this group was also the Qwaaazy 8s although I’m pretty sure there weren’t 8 jeeps this time but the name started to stick.

Since then, when a few of us get together to take on a trail a little more challenging than your basic forest path, we call ourselves the Qwaaazy 8s regardless of the number of rigs involved. 

So who are the Qwaaazy 8s? Anyone who is one of our flat fender friends that has been with other flat fenders on some of the more difficult trails. Trails include: Pritchett Canyon, Cliffhanger, The Rubicon, Hal John’s, Tuttle Creek, Windrock, Rusty Nail, The Maze In Sand Hollow, The Escalator on Hell’s Revenge, Poughkeepsie Gulch and others in the East and Midwest that I haven’t tried and, because I am old, can’t remember right now as I type this.

At times there has been some controversy about the spelling of Qwaaazy, but the current spelling seems to have settle in as correct.

I have been where the same Jeep boonie hat for all the years I have been wheeling with Jeff. He gave it to me on our first meeting but it’s starting to get a little nasty, even after multiple washings. I talked to Jeff and Brian about maybe getting a Qwaaazy 8s hat but that I needed a logo. Jeff came up with the initial idea, Brian’s daughter fleshed it out some then I took it to the art teacher at our school who did the final logo design.

 

The day that we decided at the FCCT to break off from the group and run Chinaman Gulch Mike Picard at his driver's meeting announced that we were doing this run and if anyone wanted to join us were crazy. Since there were eight jeeps the comment was made just call us the Qwuaaazy 8. It has stuck as the group that breaks off from the crowd to do things a little more challenging. Or at least this is how I remember it's start.