Tundy, house and beetle build thread...and exploring.

what you left your slingshot?

Come on...we could go down them after sunlight...

 

@aero3685 To follow up on BS thread stuff. When off roading solo, I wouldn't turn off your vehicle when Stopping, only bad things can happen. Let the cooling system work under no load (stopped) for a while before you finally turn it off. Learned that in Army and always follow it Religiously regardless of who it bothers.

 

Thanks. Yeah when wheeling I usually don't for that reason and since I'm usually charging stuff. Glad I forced myself to learn that lesson while it wasn't a big deal!

 

Driving across the damn country to get my spare replaced... Back to Coeur d'Alene. I learned that discount tire has no stores in wyoming or Montana.

Guess I'll inquire about how the warranty works when I'm not in driving distance to them. Got pictures and video downloaded. Wishing i had a Tesla that could drive while I worked on that.

 

Cruise control and a straight road, wing it

 

Don't tempt me.

Pulled through a gas station scale. $11. Eh nope I'll try the road side ones if i ever see one that isn't busy.

 

Any reason you are weighing?

 

Probably so he can find out how much weight he's gained now that he has a freezer for stocking up on ice cream

 

Just get them to give you 4 for your trip, you can fit 4 stacked on your topper right?

 

In for body damage pics.

 

Sub'd for MGM taco goodness

 

Just curious

 

Made it to Coeur d'Alene. Tires being swapped out and a balance and rotate while I'm here.

I guess I might go ahead and work on the Morrison write up and get back to the trip report after since its more fresh in the memory. And since people like carnage pictures...

 

Wrong! Discount Tires in Cheyenne, WY
Kinda out of the way for you though.

 

Yeah, north Denver metro area.

I guess there's one in Kalispell as well. Damn forgot to ask about the warranty when I'm in bfe

 

They said if I am too far away and need to purchase a tire locally, they will reimburse me their price of the tire. Just have to get a receipt and send it in (after calling them) or go to a store with it. Not that I'll need that in the future, but for everyone else. haha

 

I got the writeup and pictures done for the Morrison Trail.

But the carnage might be rated too high for the young eyes around here. I dont want @sean266 to get angry.

 

So. I'll maybe get around to posting about the last week or so, locations and pictures. But for now, I knocked out the Morrison Trail since it was all in one place. I have videos that I'll also have to get around to at some point. But for now, the feature presentation.


The Morrison


The Morrison Jeep Trail is one of those bucket list trails that once you hear about it (and dont have a huge fear of ledges), you want to do it at some point. I had the trip planned out that I would run the trail when I passed through since it is supposed to open on July 15th of each year. I later learned that due to the snow, it usually opens later in the year. The forest service confirmed that in the weeks leading up and said it should be open a week or two later. After we confirmed that it was open, we had a few of us that would be able to get into the area to get it done.


Above the switchbacks looking east




I drove about 6 hours to arrive later on Friday night. I knew there were reports of a large rock on the trail that fell during the winter and may have blocked too much of the trail for a ‘wide’ Tacoma. The boulder ended up being more of a pain in the butt for the planning and organization than a physical obstacle. I got there on Friday, spotted the rock just above the first switchback and there was no traffic on the trail. I drove up to it to make sure I could get past. I was able to make it happen and then had the fun opportunity of backing down that switchback which is a ledgy/rocky corner. It was quite interesting. I made it back down, ran out to pass on the trail info. The other two tacomas were going to be there tomorrow to round out our first, second and third gen tacoma posse.


The famous switchbacks of the Morrison Trail is on the right…




Vehicles on the trail for scale (mostly smaller UTV’s and atvs. White JK is the bottom most, older CJ5? And old black Toyota pickup at the top)




Saturday rolls around and due to miscommunication around the boulder issue and the lack of cell service, the group didn’t assemble until too late in the day. The switchback section of the trail takes hours to complete and the traffic that was already on it, and the looming storm did not seem like a great idea. We decided it was smart to push the trail back until Sunday and work on good food for the evening. On the way out, it was raining, I was adjusting my CB squelch and hit an unsuspecting rock along the edge of the trail with one heck of an impact. I instantly heard hissing and knew what that was. I reluctantly called out that I had a flat (since I didnt want the Cooper tire owners to bash the Duratracs). Thankfully… he likely hit the same rock, and also had a sidewall tear. We had the pleasure of changing two driver rear flats in the rain. A group of atv/utv’s came up behind us and they said they earned two or three flats as well during the day.


It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong




We got dinner… a DELICIOUS dinner and decided what to do from there. Nowhere was open to get replacement tires with it being Sunday. Being that we drove a combined 30 hours round trip to get to the trail...we went against better judgement to do the trail; with neither of us having a spare tire, and running different sizes. We would only have the second and third gen Tacomas on Sunday and had help in the area if we happened to need it.


We got an early start, the 4.5 miles leading up to the switchbacks is slow… and rocky. We started the ascent of the switchbacks at 11:20. Even though we have ‘wide’ vehicles and the maximum wheelbase you want for the trail, we were making good time. Most of the turns would require a three or four point turn, but we only needed a little spotting on a few corners. It was HOT with no breeze or shade.


The ‘new as of this winter’ rock feature