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| Little Berkeley skips a week of 3rd grade to go to Moab! | Short Cuts | ||||
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Editor's Note: What father wouldn't want to take his son for a week of 'wheeling in Moab? I busted Little B (as he came to be known) out of the 3rd Grade for a week. One of his teacher's assignments was to write a paper about the most interesting person he met during the week. (Sorry, Kimber! He had already met you at Sierra Trek!)
Curt Hildebrand has designed some of the most innovative trail components around, including the Revolver shackle and the Z-Box hinged spring mount, both marketed by TeraFlex. The "secret new invention" mentioned below is a shock-less leaf spring suspension he was running on his Jeep. At this time, the design is sold, but is not yet available.
By: Little Berkeley - March 2002
My dad and I went to Moab, Utah. We went to meet with friends to four-wheel during the Easter Jeep Safari. Each year, the week before Easter, E.J.S brings thousands of jeepers together to drive on remote and rugged trails.
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| Curt Hildebrand in his Jeep. He painted it the same color as his fire engine. Mr. Hildebrand let me ride with him for a while. | |
I met lots of nice and interesting people, but I think the most interesting one was Curt Hildebrand. Mr. Hildebrand is a professional fire fighter. He is a professional rock-crawler and he designs parts for 4x4 vehicles.
Mr. Hildebrand has been a fire fighter for twenty years. He is an engineer, which means he drives the trucks and pumps the water. He is called an engineer, but in other stations he would be known as a Lieutenant. He works at Station No. 3 in Casper, Wyoming.
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| This is me and my dad getting ready for the Rusty Nail trail. In the middle picture, you can see the little 4x4s lined up for the start of the hard part. | ||
His hobby or second career is four-wheeling. He has been four-wheeling for five years. Mr. Hildebrand has had three Jeeps including the two he has right now. One is street-legal, the other is for competition only. He drives in three different extreme rock-crawling series. He's won once already this year. Since he is a fire fighter, his Jeeps are painted the same green that is on the fire engines.
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| Mr. Hildebrand let other people drive his Jeep. This is where he's teaching them to crawl up a tricky part. That's Mr. Wheeler driving and Mr. Archambeault taking the videos. | You can see me (in green) and my group getting ready for the Pritchett Canyon trail. | |
He also has been designing for five years. He has invented a bunch of different suspension things that help jeepers do better and better on the trail. He also showed me a secret new invention, but I can't tell you about that.
Mr. Hildebrand was born in 1957 in Anchorage, Alaska. He lives in Casper, Wyoming. He and his family moved to Wyoming when he was six months old. He is 44 years old right now. His proudest achievement is "designing something that works." I think Mr. Hildebrand is a really nice and wonderful person. I can't wait to see him next year!
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