Last Sunday I took Illabot Creek Rd., in Washington’s Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, up to the Slide Lake trailhead for some winter fun and snow driving. Here are some photos and some trip notes at the end in case you go.
Chained up and ready to go.
Read the rest of this entry »
In this video some guys from the Australian 4×4 magazine 4WD Action head down to Tasmania for some overlanding and camping. The trails are wet and tough, and it’s fun to watch them slog their way through. This classic Aussie stuff.
Link:
Original video
There’s a great post on the Expedition Portal Forums about a guy and some friends that do some overlanding through Idaho’s Bitterroot Mountains and the Morrison Jeep Trail in Northwestern Wyoming. Early on they suffer the consequences of some deferred maintenance (in dramatic fashion) but get truck home, fix it, and get back out on the trails.
The photos are amazing.
Link:
The SOS Report on Expedition Portal
Greg out on the dunes. All photos: Nik SchulzWCXC is back, albeit on a very limited basis while I make a living and write a book about spending a few months living on a mile-wide British island. (More on that later.) Still, adventures are being had and it’s time to get some photos up.
A few days ago, Greg, his wife, Abbey, and I, went to the Oregon Dunes in southwestern Oregon. See the photos after the jump. It was nice camping there, if a bit noisy.
Link:
Oregon Dunes
.
I found this great video on Expo the other day. In 1995 Austin Vince and seven friends went traveling around the world on motorcycles along the longest route possible. They started in their home country of England and covered about 40,000 miles visiting 44 countries. Great stuff.
All photos: Gregory McDonaldOur friend Greg at continues his Lost Coast adventure on his blog, gadmachine, aside from being a top-notch adventurer, he’s very good at getting very close to very large animals. This bull elk basically walked into his camp at Usal Beach.
More photos after the jump.
All photos: Josh Ashcroft
We’d been planning to visit the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area on our way home from our summer sailing trip. Then in Portland we had the good fortune to run into someone that had actually been there. Amazingly, he recognized our truck from this blog and flagged us down to say hello. To make the most of the chance meeting, we got together for a coffee and swapped travel stories. He said he’d been to the dunes not two weeks before and that they were definitely worth a visit. And he bought us coffee. Thanks again, Josh!
It turns out that the Oregon Dunes are largest coastal sand dunes in North America. They stretch along 40 miles of coast, cover 5,900 acres, and crest to 500 ft. You can camp there. What’s more you can get out and explore this coastal park in your 4×4, motorcycle, or ATV. And we wanted to do just that.
A couple of days later we were in Florence, Oregon, at the northern end of the dunes. (Coos Bay marks the southern end.) We had our orange flag mounted and we were ready to hit the sand. And this is where it becomes a Reader Rides story because, despite my airing down the tires, the truck was packed to the gills and just too heavy to make it up any of the inclines without getting bogged down. Rather than get stuck a half hour before sunset with our summer’s worth of supplies, we packed it in and headed to Coos Bay for the night.
So let me tell you about Josh’s trip. It was hosted by Northwest Overland and featured training by 4×4 veteran, Bill Burke. They covered driving skills, tackling inclines, winch and Pull Pall recovery, and field repair by the looks of it. A lifted Tacoma snapped both its CV joints. But it also looks like they had a great time.
And Josh was kind enough to provide these fantastic photos, more of which, after the jump.
Links:
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area site
General map including camping, parking, trailheads, etc. (pdf)
Detailed map of riding areas and campsites (pdf)
There was a great post by Sinuhe Xavier on Expedition Portal last month called Risk and Reward in the Utah Backcountry. The short story is Sinuhe and his buddy go scouting through Utah’s Canyonlands National Park and the place flash floods on account of heavy rain.
The even shorter story: the photos are amazing. Check it out.
If you follow this blog, you’ve probably seen our good friend, Greg. He and Natalie and I trucked through the Sierras together, following in Mark Twain’s footsteps. He also joined us on the California Backcountry Discovery Trail last year. You may even have seen his nicely modified Mitsubishi Montero on this blog.
Well now Greg has started his own blog. It’s called gadmachine. Besides having a penchant for adventure, Greg’s a great writer and an excellent photographer. I think you’ll enjoy his site.
Check out his first trip post about exploring California’s Lost Coast. Here’s Part 1 and here’s Part 2. Or read more of this post to see some of my favorite photos from Greg’s Lost Coast trip.
Link: gadmachine
