Where Have You Off-Roaded Today? 3rd Gen

Use VLED or use @MESO Ultimate LED lights. {Off-Road thread}

 

Buffalo Bill Reservoir, Wyoming

 

Just a cruise along the back roads...
Nothing technical, but damn the view was nice!
This is Tassajara Rd, Carmel Valley, CA

 

Wheeling down i40 at about 84mph and BANG!!! Damn 18 wheeler shot a rock into my windshield. Hopefully the crack doesn’t spread before I get back home tomorrow and have it filled. LOLOL I laugh in order not to scream in anger. “Counts as off roading, because of rock” :/

 

That really sucks. Since I've gotten my Taco, I am more wary of large rigs on the road. I give at least 5-6 car lengths and try to put an full lane between us as pass by them. I hope it doesn't grow as well.

Where on the windshield did it hit? I wonder if someone locations crack faster than others.

 

So 2020 came with colormatch clear lens tail light?

 

I have a 2016 TRD Off road now. Love the truck, have put over 4,000 miles of off road on it in just the last year. All for remote fishing trips.

However... my best 4x4 ever was my 1986 Ford F150. Had that truck for 13 years, my full time driver, did not own a car or other vehicle. In that time, I changed the clutch once, and the radiator. That was it. Other than that, usual brake job, battery, starter motor once, etc.

That truck had around 40,000 miles of off roading here in BC. I always do solo remote trips so that I don't have any fishing competition, and I prefer the remote quiet above all else. Don't want to see or hear other trucks of any type. Most trips I never see another soul.

The Ford was 300 6cyl, 4 speed manual, low end grunt like no other. Bench seat, interior was steel floors with rubber mats. Interior door panels were all steel, interior roof steel. No carpeting or cloth or cruise or A/C or power windows, or any niceties. Drain plugs in the floor behind the bench seat. I would pull those and hose out the inside of the truck after each trip, then towel dry it. Never rusted.

I wish a guy could still buy a new truck like that, just basic bare bones, no modern technology, no computers.

Put it in 4-low, 1st gear, take foot off the gas and the clutch and get out and walk beside it on a steep uphill or downhill rock climbing. I can do that now too with the Taco using crawl control, but something about a clutch that can't be beat for off roading.

The pic taken around 1994 or so. That road had a 2,000 foot drop-off on passenger side, and 200 foot cliff on driver side and one truck width for two miles of that scary road. Abandoned mining road, but lead to a top of mountain fishing lake. No turnaround spot on this road, but zero chance of meeting another person here.

Plan was to fish the lake that day, return to my tent camp at lower lakes later in the evening. Nope, snowed at the top (6,000 ft elevation), and too treacherous to drive in the evening so ended up sleeping in the truck that night. Bench seat handy for that.

Pic also of my Taco on one of 20 fishing trips this summer. I will pass judgement on the Taco after 5 or 6 years of remote trips. Hopefully it stands up as well as the Ford did!

 

Come up to BC Canada. I do 30 remote solo trips per year, in several different areas of the province. Back country is mostly all open, and also very clean. I never see garbage or damage at any remote spots, or even semi-remote spots. Campers, hikers, 4x4 folks, fisherman, hunters, are all pretty respectful up here.

The largest ranch in all of Canada, the Douglas Lake Cattle company in Merritt, just lost a court battle and had to open their roads to the public. That ranch is about the only spot in all of BC backcountry that was behind lock and key.

Local fisherman have lobbied the government for years to open the gates, as the lakes are public property, not private. The main road through the ranch, is also public, not private. However, the billionaire USA guy who owns the ranch, had gated the road through for many years and would fly in out of country fisherman to fish these lakes and stay at the lodge on the ranch.

Here in BC, sport fishing is everything, and local fisherman took them to court and won.

On a remote fishing trip of mine this summer, I took a wrong turn getting out of the bush (hundreds of miles of logging roads, none mapped), and by accident ended up going through the Douglas Lake ranch lands to get myself back to the highway into Merritt and then back to Kelowna where I live. Could not have done that a year ago when the gates were locked.

The ranch owners have nothing to fear. No one will be driving their trucks through the ranch grazing lands. Folks will stick to the road in and out and fish the public lakes that are now accessible. On my drive through at the height of fishing season, I did not see another truck or another fisherman. There are thousands of fishing lakes in BC and many that get zero pressure. Not many will be fishing the lakes at this spot even with it now accessible.

Here are a couple of pics of that ranch land. Very beautiful. The road in and out is dirt/gravel, but not a 4x4 road. No shortage of 4x4 roads in BC. I have been to many lakes, that I don't go back to a second time as the roads in are too rough for too many miles. 4-low first gear for 10 miles in, same getting out. Then another 50 - 100 miles of logging roads back to the pavement.

Too much chance of a breakdown 100 miles off road with no cellphone. I am almost always solo on my trips, so have to take extra care and not push my luck.

 

Made it to Arizona for the holidays, I'm sure they hate my Washington plates like I'm a snowbird, but I got some wheeling in. Looking to do some more while here, I miss the Homeland.

 

Passenger side, right at about eye level to my 5’6 passenger. The rock was tiny ! I guess it hit just right on a corner of the rock.

 

I love AZ. Two trips out there since September. Sucks that my family that lived in Phoenix for 30 years now live in Dallas. Bleh

 

Kaena Point , Oahu, Hawaii

 

I love BC and love the freedom you guys have out there for offloading. Here in Ontario, we have basically NOTHING to enjoy, south of the algonquin. Southern ON has no crown land so there is nothing we get to enjoy, unless its private land.

 

MADE IT BACK ACROSS TN AND MY WINDSHIELD CRACK DIDNT SPREAD !!! Safe in the warm garage and out of the snow. Yes, I yelled that. I was jumping for joy in my head when I made it home. Fck replacing a windshield. Now to get the little crack filled this week. Muhaha haha

 

where can i go offroading in south fl? i live in broward county but i wouldent mind driving an anything under an hour.

 

Driving through micro climates as you gain elevation is always a good time!
These are some clips from driving the Tassajara Rd in Carmel Valley, CA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cm50EmOwB4

 

so jealous. we have hardly any snow here in utah

 

She's dangerous tho, let me tell you that lol

Here's some pics from Lytle Creek, Ca. Right after heavy storm and few weeks after.

 

That's so awesome.. I love up country Maui. I just moved recently from Kihei, lived there for 7 years and had to move due to work obligations. Miss it everyday.

 

Would love to venture into snow covered mountains for the season- nice video, looks fun. Mele Kalikimaka