This has been super awesome to follow. I'm several months late from the last update, but I have loved following along on this. It's great to see where you started and have ended up with your build. Gets me excited for whatever I buy, too.
I'm looking into buying a new (used/new to me) vehicle that I can daily and also take off-road. I've recently moved to Boone, and didn't even know I had trails nearby me until you mentioned a few. A friend of mine recently bought a '12 Touareg TDI that he wants to take off-road, meanwhile I'm still looking around. He used to have a '02 Xterra that he took just about anywhere available in/around Charlotte.
I want something fun to drive on pavement (I have a lead foot), with decent MPG, that I can take off-road some weekends. For perspective, I drive an '05 Civic coupe right now, and most of my driving is on 421, I-77, and I-40 -- visiting Charlotte and Wilmington; I hardly do any city driving. I have a 2020 8-foot bed Silverado I drive for work, and as much as I love it it's definitely bigger than what I'd want as a personal vehicle. I visited dealerships over the weekend and out of 27 cars I test drove I've narrowed it down to an Xterra, RAV4, Ford Edge, Patriot, or a Crosstrek. I still have 9 other vehicles I want to try though, I just didn't have a chance. The last vehicles I want to try are a Forester, Outback, Cherokee, RX 350, GX 460, A5, GMC Terrain, FJ, and Tiguan.
Love the photos and your thoughts on everything, though. Hope you get to enjoy some more this summer!