Another Around the World Tacoma

Beautiful photos. Clear and I can zoom in and they are still sharp, which is great.

I love that you had a young admirer asking about your rig and you got a chance to share all the details with a fellow enthusiast who was truly interested. Those are always great moments.

The scenery is beautiful. It's fun you have some water (rivers/creeks/lakes) to see, drink from, and play in (floating the creek/river like you did would be awesome.)

The red tailed hawk photo - you got all of one wing so that makes the photo still GREAT! Not being able to see the tip of the other wing just kind of enhances the pic by saying "hey, this thing is big!" It is a wonderful picture.

Sidewall puncture is a downer. Glad it happened in an area you could easily swap it out. I'm surprised you are only replacing the one tire. The new tire will have a larger diameter than the other three (that have 26,000 miles of wear on them.) Is that not of concern, especially if it is a rear tire (i.e., differential will have to 'slip' constantly to keep adjusting for unequal rotation of each tire?) I was under the impression that a 4-wheel drive needed to have all tires matching in diameter to put the least stress on the drivetrain. At the least - keep a diameter match on each axle (meaning TWO new tires on front or rear) so 2WD running was stress free on drivetrain. Maybe that's an old wives tales/not true? I ask 'cause you're an engineer and I'm genuinely learning here.

Love your trip reports. You are living the dream.

 

Frog,

I appreciate that. I too enjoyed talking with him, and listening to his siblings talk about the fish they caught in the river. The parents seemed happy too, as I was distracting their kids while they were loading the rafts into their truck bed and strapping them down. Haha

Thank you. Yeah, the water is incredible. The Snake River is breathtaking as well. Massive, and fast flowing. Though I will say, the mosquitos are not our favorite things, but we are managing.

Speaking of Red-Tailed Hawks, check out my next post. Still not perfect, but definitely exciting.

I had the same thoughts about different diameter tires too, back in the day. I had a discussion with a guy here on TW and he shared some info explaining how it isn't that big a deal actually, the differential can handle those small variations in diameter without issue. Plus, this new tire will be the spare, and will be mounted to the back door. The tire I put on the truck on the bridge is actually the same age as its opposite, just a few thousand miles less wear. This is because I have two matching new tires up front, as I swapped my unused spare onto the truck to match the new tire I got back when I had the dual punctures in Ensenada, Baja. So we are all good there.

Some folks even go so far as to say that you can have two different tire sizes (within reason) and still not be doing any damage, but I won't be taking it that far. Haha

Thank you. I really appreciate hearing that!

 

I totally called it.

But first, another Light Morph of the ever popular Red-Tailed Hawk. The books I read say that if you see a bird of prey, chances are it is a Red-Tailed Hawk.

Perched atop a tree. I saw it land while having my morning tea, and quickly scurried over to the truck to grab my camera.

Absolutely magnificent.

Red-Tailed Hawk - Light Morph Sitting by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Surveying the landscape

Red-Tailed Hawk - Light Morph Head Turned by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Perched just long enough for me to get those two shots, it quickly took off. With the camera on Aperture priority (though I do have a function button set to Shutter priority, 1/4000th, I just forgot to finger it) this was the best I captured as it flew away.

Red-Tailed Hawk - Light Morph In Flight by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I totally called it, like I said. I could just feel it.

Not even 24 hours in to our stay, here the absolute beast of a creature was.

I was cleaning out a water bottle while talking to Stacy, and I heard a noise. My response was so instantaneous I can't even believe it thinking back on it now. It was that type of response that comes when the apex predator suddenly realizes it may not be so apex in this very moment.

Not even 80 ft from the truck, thankfully minding its own business, without a single care about us, was a Grizzly!

Stacy had the bear mace at the ready, but this Grizzly (Ursus arctos horriblis) was slowly sauntering along away from us.

Check out those ears!

Grizzly - Ears by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

And the telltale prominent shoulder hump

Grizzly - Shoulder Hump by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Meandering away

Grizzly - Back by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Grizzly - Rump by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Even at that distance, through the grass and the trees, one could tell that this was a large, powerful creature.

I have been hyper vigilant ever since.

Though I have to say, I cannot wait to see another one (from the same safe vantage point of course, i.e. being just two feet from a metal box that I can get inside of!).

What an experience!

 

Man, I can only imagine what it was like being that close to such a large animal in the wild that could do some damage if it really wanted to. We saw a couple of California Black Bears on our way home the last time we camped, and they seemed massive. Let alone seeing a grizzly!

Hope y'all are still enjoying the dream!

 

Oh, it was certainly something else. We will be in Yellowstone sometime early next week, and I hope to see more large predators, but there is something much different about seeing one while you're all alone, as opposed to parked on a street with hundreds of other people. Haha

Most definitely. It somehow continues to get better and better it seems, as we slowly settle into this different style of life.

Hope you are well too my friend!

 

What headlight bulbs are you running?

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain the tire situation. It's good to know a slight difference in tire circumference probably isn't a big deal in real world running of the truck. I destroyed one tire (1st gen 4wd Tacoma) on an elk hunt. Got to small town w/tire shop and just wanted one tire to replace bad one. He convinced me I'd destroy my transfer case and differential doing that so I ended up getting 4 tires (Cooper snow tires). Other than the cost, that turned out to be a great purchase as those tires were amazing in the snow and boy did we get snow (Monument, CO, 2006 to 2007 winter = 206" of snow @ our house.)

Great new hawk picture! Such amazing birds to see fly. Graceful and powerful. Can't believe you got it on 'film'. I have a bird of prey that comes to my backyard periodically but danged if he'll ever let me get a picture.

Grizzly bear in camp! Wow. That's an adrenaline dump right there. Glad he/she just walked on by & didn't come closer to sniff out what food you had to share. As you said, they are crazy strong and fast. Definitely no joke when they mean business.

Other than the skeeters (which are a damn nuisance!) you really are in beautiful country and meeting nice people is one of my favorite aspects of traveling (I use a motorcycle vs a 4x4 Tacoma). You were nice to engage the kids and listen to them while their Mom & Dad got some moments of peace to load up their vehicle.

Exploration, adventure, meeting new people - you are doing what we all want to do: getting out in the world and EXPERIENCING LIFE vs thinking about it or reading it. Thanks for taking us along your journey.

 

I put some Sylvania bulbs in from an AutoZone a couple of years ago. I think they were their top tier bulb, but the exact name of it is escaping me at the moment.

 

Haha it certainly doesn't hurt to be more safe, and I personally plan on keeping them as close as possible to the same diameter as our travels continue.

Yeah, I love watching them, so damn graceful.

It was an experience for sure, and we have done about ~50 miles of hiking in Grand Teton NP, but no more bear sightings, even though people have told us that they just saw a bear on the trail. I even talked with a local lady who is a professional bear stalker, and she says she sees at least one (black bears mostly) every time she comes to the parks.

The NP has been quite fun for us. You see so many people, since it is so busy, and we have been making friends left and right. Made a friend who is on his way to Anchorage, so we can visit him next summer. We had a dad come over to our truck when we were outside of the Jackson Lake Lodge, (having just had a semi decent dinner at the Trapper Grill) asking about the setup and how it all works, and this and that. A great conversation. And then the next afternoon, we are on top of this viewpoint in the northeast corner of the park, and who shows up? The same guy and his family. He lives where I was born, him and his wife are ME's as well, so we just clicked. It has been wonderful to talk with people.

There is this concept called 'Urban Armor' where an individual in a busy city can't engage with everyone they meet, because that would simply be too many interactions every day. This has disappeared for us, due to our lack of being around people, so I find it lovely to be so excited to chat with curious people. And the truck, especially in the NP, attracts a ludicrous amount of attention.

This goes out to everyone, if you are ever trying to camp around GTNP, skip the Shadow Mountain NF area completely (east side of the park, kinda near the southern entrance). It just isn't worth trying to sleep up there. It's a single road that goes from the park back into the park, so everyone who sets out to camp on it simply squeezes in wherever they fit, as soon as they realize that there are no empty sites left. We had people coming and going at all hours of the night, parking directly next to us, etc. There are better places for sure. That one ain't it.