Where Have You Off-Roaded Today? 3rd Gen

Eastern Sierras

 

Eastern Sierras, fallen trees ahead on the trail… had to take an alternate route

 

Shoulda knew better than to start an adventure when it's a front coming in as I proceeded to go up corkscrew gulch the worse the weather got. I had zero visibility as I went up the famous switchbacks. Very unnerving as two Rubicons were coming down the switchbacks also in zero visibility. When I reached the high point of 12,000+ feet It was pouring cold rain.

 

Just finished a 3 day fishing trip, alone as usual as I prefer. Exploring new small lakes. Two nice lakes to myself, both hard to reach. Eight rainbow trout, catch and release. Nothing big, max 15 inches.

The first day though (the sun pictures) it blew 40mph all day and constant thunderstorms. Stopped for maybe 30 minutes. Very little fishing that day. Temp was 80F.

The next day, it rained hard and non stop for 16 hours. I fished 2 hours in the pounding rain, but no wind that day. Temp was 46F. Mudfest that day, the roads turned to axle grease and deep rutted wallows.

Both great small lakes, and I plan to go back and hope for better fishing weather. Name of lakes withheld, as usual. A lot of pouring over maps, and so many wrong turns in the bush, typical.

The eagles were way cool. The one adult would not leave that perch. An eaglet had left the nest and was on the ground. One adult would come back with fish (skimmed from the lake surface) and quite a screeching when it returned. Then off it would go to hunt again with the other adult not leaving that perch or letting the eaglet from its sights.

 

Looks like fun! what bumper do you have? It looks like a one piece with the skid plates included, are they?

 

Naches, WA. Started at Bear Lake and ended up in the Oak Creek Wildlife Area. Toured the upper ridge. This was after the rocks but before the silt. Truck went from Cement to Quicksand in a hurry.

 

Mount Union and Groom Creek. Prescott, Az

 

Florence Oregon
Siltcoos Dunes

 

Did part of the CO BDR section 4 (Starts in Buena Vista, CO and heads up towards Gypsum, but I bailed out around Leadville due to anticipated 4th of July crowds).
Near the start of BDR CO4 there are some tunnels that aren't technically part of the BDR, but I thought they were kind of neat.
Then just some different terrain, nothing overly demanding (other than I found one water crossing, not the one pictured, that had a pretty sever drop into it that I thought might have eaten my rear bumper when I dropped off of it). But some pics of the BDR CO4 from BV to Leadville (fun day, some slow terrain, then it would open up and some faster roads, and a few fun, and easy, water crossings):

 

Hanging out & camping along Point Sublime Trail on the North Rim of the canyon this weekend

 

That place was awesome. We day tripped out there from Vermillion Cliffs.

 

Broken Arrow and a couple other trails in Sedona, AZ. An absolute must if you’re ever in Arizona. Breathtaking views and a neat trail.

 

My first real trail outing - Ellis Peak loop in West Tahoe. I’m blown away by how well the Tacoma climbs. Some of the sections I came across I thought would be a struggle, the truck just walked right up.

 

Made the best out of my long weekend. Went out to Gunnison national forest and did a couple forest roads. Next day my wife and I drove Cinnamon Pass, American Basin, California Gulch, and Poughkeepsie Gulch. By far the most scenic trip I've taken.

 

Naches, Wa the last 4 days. 180 miles of trail/fsr

 

20 KM up to the end of Florence Lake service road, too bad the acess to that lake is a steep walking trail down, and I don't plan on leaving my truck in a backroad parking lot till I get my cat protector skids on

 

NE of Helena

 

Another day searching for a small fishing lake. One of those ones in BC with no name and no data. So many of those lakes here and 80% of the ones I look for end up being hike-in only.

Found it, but 4 hours of taking dead trails before I finally found an access point. Lots of soft deep mud bog. Had to to walk a few spots in my chest waders to make sure it was passable. Too late in the day to fish and rained all day. Fish it next trip on an earlier start. A nice small lake with 12 inch jumpers.

 

That sounds like fun - and your truck looks surprisingly clean.