Midwest West Meets/Midwest BS Thread

I like to hear this. Let’s do late September or early October.

 

and i doubt 'they' have photographers in America's scenic heartland?
are most in the desert and out west?

 

I’m honestly not sure. I have all my old equipment though. Maybe I’ll bring some of it next time and get some non phone photos.

Edit. I was super tired when I wrote this lol

 

Having some decent pictures taken of my truck that I don’t have to take myself might help too.


@Shellshock looks like this when I hand him my camera and tell him to take a picture.

 

Not a professional photographer, but I was very happy with some of the pictures I got last fall at the pipeline.

I can't wait to get some pictures of the 4runner up there. Maybe next weekend, if the rain settles down a little.

 

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAJAHAJAJAJAHAHAHAHHAHABAHA *breath* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

He was so stoked my wife was taking pictures lol he said it’s nice for someone to take pictures while we are on the road.

 

thank you in advance for avoiding the 'muggy' months

is the Michigan takeover in August still ....?

 

I'm thinking of setting up a Wisconsin camping outing on the weekend of September 14th, so a few weeks after that would be great. I'm really looking forward to getting down there!

 

It’s so hot here. It’s going to be a terrible summer here. I know it.

 

Keep us updated on this. I know @Shellshock and myself (plus whoever wants to go of course, no solid planning yet) are trying to go to Colorado in September too.

 

i'm already halfway (give or take) to CO
...and a pending 1st class ride there in a supercharged v6 singlecab tacoma with near 300hp

 

Maybe we should try to pick some dates.

I'm leaning toward the weekend of the 14th because I'm sure there will be a lot of people up north on labor day weekend and possibly the following week.

I would love to do a Colorado trip, but it's not going to happen this year. I might just start planning for next year.

I'm hoping to scout the location for the camping trip this coming weekend. The only thing that might change my mind on the dates is that there's limited access after labor day. I'm hoping to find out what that means and then make reservations

 

A guy I used to know had a 1st gen Tacoma, lifted, big tires, and supercharged to 360 hp (he claimed). He gave me a ride in it once and he had no problems roasting the 12" wide mud tires he was running.

Fun truck!

 

Usually camping is no problem until you get past October 15, then places start to close down

 

There is some sort of change after labor day at the campgrounds I'm looking at. I'm not sure what it is. That's what I'm hoping to figure out.

I don't want to do the trip in August, because it's likely to be about 90° and humid as hell. I don't want to wait until October, because I tried that last year and it was raining and about 35° and nobody went.

 

A reminder that the 2nd Crawlers and Coffee event will be THIS Sunday! We are meeting at Starbucks parking lot at Streets of Woddfield at 8am. We will push off at 930am to River Road Rally park which opens at 10am.
*A safety flag is REQUIRED at the park. If you already have one, I suggest bringing it with.*
Hope to see lots of you there!!

 

Wife and I have taken the truck out the past two weekends for day trips with the kids to try out the trucks capabilities and what it’s like to run with three kids in the back. Last week we just did the glade top trail which was very pedestrian in terms of “off road” but today we did part of the added portion of the trans Missouri overland trial or what ever it’s called. I found a chunk of road that starts down at blue eye mo. And works it’s way up to connect with the southern point of the original portion. We jumped on at Ava MO and went to Willow Springs. While most of it is easy gravel roads we did hit one nasty section that has been washed out and is a no go. I was impressed with my truck running through the loose washed out stream crossing and then having to turn around in the gravel wash out and head back up a fairly gnarly hill. Rear locker on a trd prerunner is sweet. It served me well in some sketchy spots today. The high ground clearance of the trd package and performance of the 11+ year old suspension was amazing. Need to figure out how to notify people of the washed out and flooded spot that requires a reroute. Would have saved me the gnarly down and then back up plus the turning around and steam crossing but it was a great learning experience for me.

As a side note, I HIGHLY recommend driving this route. We had no idea what we would run across today but found 2 awesome mills, one on a trout ranch/resort with a beautiful bar inside and one in Topaz mo that is privately owned. We got a 1 hour private tour from the owner and it’s the most impressive of all the old mills is SWMO I have ever seen. Might try to write a small trip report if there is a place for that (maybe other forums).

We are looking forward to tackling more of this route and getting to the colder weather so we can camp and enjoy more time out there.

 

Sign me up for colder weather. It’s currently 45 up here in Minnesota and I’m not gonna complain. Way better than the 90 it is at home.

 

Keep the cold weather away from me!

I'm planning on heading to mall crawlers and coffee in Illinois tomorrow morning. If anyone else is going, definitely say hi! I'll be hanging out by the 4runner which will probably still be muddy from today.

I hit the pipeline today in Wisconsin. I didn't run too far on any trails because I was alone and I just don't trust mud puddles.

I did, however, climb this big rock I found last year. I pulled up a bit to get a good picture. The , I thought, "that's not really that steep. I think I can climb it."

I put it in 4LO, and turned on the multi terrain to the maximum setting. I took it slow and didn't even spin a tire! This truck is a beast! It walked right up like it was nothing. The pictures don't really do justice.

 

Yeah.........
Summers up north. Winters down south.