TEXT AND IMAGES BY RANDY HYNES
The sound of tree limbs clawing across paint and sheet metal filled the truck with a sound that was both deafening and nerve-racking. The overgrowth along the narrow trail slapped the windows with a vengeance. Mud splattered across the windshield as the tires spun their way through the soft earth.
Its rockers were rusted, the paint severely scratched. The windshield looked like a spider web, but when in 4WD, the truck never failed to travel where the air was fresh and the streams flowed clear. The state of Michigan would have said the boy driver was too young for such exploits and driving without a license was illegal, but the boy’s father thought it was important for his son to experience the outdoors—I followed my fatherly instinct.