Chandler's Battleship of Doom

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That's part of the fun! Its the desert lol.
But they've been talking about Sept IIRC...

 

If it's September then I can go.. But isn't it still hot as hell then?

 

It's the desert...


But I mean like 90s thats not bad.

 

Yes but fall and spring are much better temps... 90 isn't too bad though, its dry heat.

 

That just makes too much sense.

Love the picture of the truck in the woods. Nice capture. Is that fog in the trees that I see?

 

Yeah it was early morning so the fog was still out, I thought it looked pretty cool. Here's another one from the same area, I'll upload the rest from the trip later

 

I live in the New Mexico desert, therefore i get plenty of your so called "fun". Like i said cooler temps will do wonders for Rock Therapy. And living in the desert makes you appreciate 90* days as opposed to 100+.

Can't wait to hear how the weekend trip went, is there much to report on or just dirt roads in the woods?

 

Mostly dirt roads in the woods, some stuff but most of the trail system is meant for ATVs, so I played on some trails but a couple of close calls kept me on the wider trails. But I really want to go back and explore some of the waterways on foot/kayak

 

Frickin' love your truck man! Keeps me moving forward on my own..

 

I definitely want to do that one as I've been told that it's beautiful. Did you do the whole three day route or just a section?

 

Thanks man

It was really nice down there, likely going to head back only spend more time hiking around and exploring the waterways. I am going on a limb and say I did most of the route, the only part I did not do is a small stretch on the southern side that leads to pavement along with 50miles of backroad pavement roads that is considered the route by my understanding. I decided to find a new route back to the route I came down and went out the same way I came, all in all it was 130miles off road but I only spent 23hrs including a nights rest.

 

Right on. Going to need some time to get the Tacoma squared away and the trailer to arrive, but I'd really like to get down there and do that one.

 

Alright so a little report from last weekend down to the Ozarks to attempt to run the Ozark highlands trail/overland trail/High watermark trail. I really have no idea if each are different routes but most searching and mapping lead me to believe for the most part the trail just has 3 different names, Ozark highlands being the only actual sign on the trail (hence the reason of being unsure if their are different routes)


So I spent some time trying to get the truck ready thursday night after work, mostly focused on wiring. I planned on getting in right around sundown so I wanted my lights plus I wanted air just in case the closest gas station didn't have air (it didn't fyi)

So I diddle dangled with getting the spod in its place, even if its just for the time being. Well I put the battery back in the cab and tightened down the battery terminal while I almost welded the 13mm wrench to the "molle panel" and the battery post. Well that frightened me a little and being unsure about having the battery up against the bare panel like that, you know electrical fires n stuff. So I said fuck it and pulled the stock battery and threw the pelfrey cage back in, also I put the spod back in its original place and even wired all the accessories back in it. Then I put the battery in to finally move on to packing my shit. But fuck me, the battery posts on the new battery are backwards and wouldn't work


Alright so after wasting 2hrs I pulled the battery and the cage back out and in went the stock battery with the spod connected to it. Why I just didn't do this in the first place, well Im sure I had a good reason before I wasted my time. Alright got the truck packed up with the cooler, GROUND tent, sleeping bag, and this sweet Exped megawatt 10 (super comfy) that I just picked up, and normal camping supplies with a change of clothes.

Alright Finally headed down to Arkansas friday after a respirator fit test (yearly work thing) That took much longer than expected to my 10 min test had a 2.5 hr wait after my appointment time Somewhere along the way I filled up the jerry cans expecting to cover every bit of 140miles and knew I would be cutting it short on gas so they were likely needed especially if something goes wrong. Finally rolled into the trail head around 6pm with about 1.5hr of day light left to find a campsite, the search was on.

So the very start of the trail is a water crossing, not too worried but I couldnt exactly see the trail on the other side. Now this wasn't because it was far away but the trail was overground on the other side and looked like it hasn't been used for quite sometime, little uncertain what was to come for the rest of the trail. So I start into the water and notice around the trees that were to my left was a family of 4 all sitting on their camp chairs looking out what was probably a nice peaceful river. It was kind of funny the look I got while driving through the water giving them a nice friendly wave as if it were a normal thing happening

So to my surprise after crossing the water and the overgrown trail section the road was a nice maintained dirt road, no ruts or anything. For majority of the miles I cover the trail was actually really well kept, this was kind of a disappointment but the scenery was beautiful so I was content.

With the clock ticking I picked up the pace to find a campsite, I came across a couple but the spiders have these huge webs in the trees that ruined every spot I found. I just couldn't stand the thought of a million little spiders coming down onto campsite during the night and get a good nights rest lol. So I found one large area what all open away from the trees, but after coming over a hill no more than 150yds was 50+ elk so that was an awesome sight to see but not a campsite for me. So father down the trail I went, and no more daylight. Finally came across a sign that said campsite in 1mi, and started to see some vehicles parked off the sides with their tents. Going back to how nice the road was, the first vehicle I noticed was a G37 just like mine lol.

So I found a campsite in the main area, among many other campers. Not really where I wanted to find a spot but I was able to sleep well here so thats all that really mattered because the goal was to cover as much as I possibly could by saturday evening. I started off by setting up the awning to help with covering the tent in case of early morning showers and set up the tent underneath it. Having owned this tent for 4-5 years Ive never actually used it or set it up, so that was a pleasure during the dark. After getting everything ready for sleep I cooked some ramen noodles real quick and read a chapter of "a walk in the woods" before getting to sleep.

Early and not so bright I woke up at 6am to get packed up and ready to go by sunrise (630ish) I backtracked a little to a bridge that I wanted to take a picture on but was too dark when I first crossed it. So I started down the road passing with everyone still asleep in their tents thinking how nice it would be sleep in right now. One of the last campsites off the side sat a white access cab with the new ray10 wheels, not even a mile away from where I camped myself. Wish I could have chatted with him but I'm sure waking up at 645 to some stranger asking about their truck wasn't a good idea lol.

Now most of the road is well covered with trees so good views are few and far apart so most of my time was spent driving 20-30mph stopping whenever I found something interesting. I stopped at what looked like a side trail but turned out to be a campsite, I was greeted by an older couple and their grandson. They were really nice people and gave me some history and what it used to be like down there, even pointed out some good places to check out on a map they gave me. Im glad I drove down that road because it was probably the best campsite I came across the entire way, hopefully I can secure that one next time I go.

I drove down to a paved camping area to check out, mostly because the river came through at the edge of all the sites and offered a good place to kayak or swim. Heading back to the trail I went off another direction to check out what looked like a decent trail finally, I made my way down little and found out it was clearly meant for a 4wheeler like 99% of the trails off the side in the park. I crawled over a large rock and against a tree what was a point of no return for the truck, the trail got tighter and tighter with no where to turn around it wasn't looking so good for me. At the end it dropped down right beside the river, I knew I could make it down but up was going to be difficult.

It took me a couple of times to get back up that hill, it required a locked rear and a bunch of skinny pedal but I made it. Now back over the large rock and tree was an even bigger issue. The sliders were resting on the rock, causing the truck to turn but it was pushing the rear wheel over the edge and into the small tree. So I had to lock the rear again but it only pinned the rock between the slider and the wheel with the other wheel hanging off and the bumper against the tree. Finally after moving forward and backwards while turning every direction I managed to hop over the rock.

So even with most of the trail being super easy I was able to find trouble off one of the side areas

All in all I managed to cover 130miles offroad, I wasn't able to see everything but I know have a good idea where everything is and that was the main point of the trip. I really enjoyed all the trees and aqua colored water the park had to offer and can't wait to make it down again for a longer trip.


Sorry in advance for all the pictures being bunched up together

 

Looks like a fun trip

 

Few familiar spots in those pics

 

Do you have the route that you took by chance? I'd like to compare it to mine to see what I may have missed

 

Unfortunately I didn't record our route. Wish I did.

We followed pretty closely to the route that I have posted on the thread I created.

 

Just ordered some CVs, truck hasn't been happy now that all the grease is gone. My plan is to replace and re boot the factory ones to have as spares, hopefully the threads are okay on the one side I was having trouble with before.

Started replacing the fender hardware with stainless, I went with black oxide bolts at first so the hardware wouldn't stand out but it would just rust too fast looking ugly.

 

CVs got replaced, started aligning the truck only to forget that I need a second set of hands to measure toe. The wife is super busy so I made an appointment at firestone tomorrow morning since Ive had a lifetime alignment that I bought forever ago. My only issue with firestone shops is trying to find one that has a rack that clamps onto the tire vs the wheel, the local one clamps onto the wheel so I had to swap the stock wheels on.


Pulling the 35s off I noticed a screw in one of the tires, not even sure how long thats been there lol. So tomorrow looks like ill be plugging that tire

 

Sunday is the Distinguished Gentlemen's Ride in STL so I cut out a mustache from some leftover vinyl for the bike