Rhyolite Railroad Loop & Ghost Town

Brian Hoag

Brian has been 4 wheeling since 1976. He first learned at age 7 that "The best things in life are dirty" in a brand new 1958 Jeep FC-170 on his aunts Nebraska farm. That forward control pickup seemed like it would go anywhere and he was hooked, even though he didn't know it yet. Jump forward to 1972... Brian's first duty assignment in the US Air Force was as a vehicle operator assigned to the USAF Survival School at Spokane, Washington. Part of his duties required hauling equipment and transporting vehicles to a remote training area in northern Washington national forest locations, and he often would be asked to take radio equipment to a mountaintop radio antenna site. The road was awful, or at least seemed that way in a 1967 6 passenger Dodge Power Wagon with 45 lbs of pressure in the tires, but it also hooked Brian on backcountry 4x4 exploration. Brian's first 4x4 was a used '76 Ford F150 pickup. It didn't take very long to figure out that the long wheelbase of the pickup didn't work well on the narrow Colorado trails near his home, so he traded for a brand new 1983 Chevy Blazer S10. The S10 was a nice vehicle, but it wasn't a Jeep, and that was what Brian ultimately wanted. Well, it didn't take long to move over to the Jeep brand, and Brian has been the proud owner of 7 Jeeps of one sort or another over the years. Brian has been 4 wheeling from Mexico to Alaska. After moving from Colorado, he ended up in southern Nevada where his current home is completely surrounded by public lands with thousands of miles of back roads and trails to explore. He recently moved to eastern rural Nevada, and looks forward to sharing trails in his new area.