Jun 09, 2024
Kicking off my off-road adventures for 2024, I planned a weekend trip with my family to go off-roading. With the grandkids' schedules so varied with sports, it's impossible to get everyone a chance to go off-roading, so I set up this weekend to do just that.
We found an Airbnb that was about 40 minutes away from the park that could fit 11 of us.
Friday morning, I went up with my wife, and we scoped out the recreational area a bit. My wife decided she didn't really enjoy much of it, so that limited some of my adventuring. We also found out we could check into our Airbnb early.
During that Drive, we were on Skull Road, did not take the Leaf Lake Loop, found that the Horseshoe Loop and Little Foot trail were closed, bypassed the Mud Run, and then came back up the main road and out.
Saturday Morning, I was back at the park, airing down (12psi), and the first set of grandkids and parents were figuring out how to do it. A family of four plus a driver doesn't fit well in a two-door Bronco. But 3 in the back was how they decided to do it.
This first run was really tough. Most of the area is wooded, and there were a lot of flying bugs—some mosquitos but mostly other things like gnats. It turned out our 4-year-old grandson was very unhappy with the flying bugs.
We drove all the way down to Y1 and thought we could try the Crater Crawl. It actually had some really fun elevation changes, with crawling up some steep, loose rocks. But what seemed like the exit to us (was actually the beginning where a sign showing this as a hard draw was at) we ran into a downed tree across the track. I figured I could get over it, and that's where the challenges started.
Let's just say a number of things happened, including my son out to direct me over some rocks and me backing off the trail while stuck on the tree. There were lots of opening and closing doors, windows down, and a 4-year-old grandson just screaming about bugs. We aborted that attempt (my son says we had one or two rocks to go), did a 12-point turn to get turned around, and made our way out, including stacking rocks at one point.
Licking our wounds (all my mudflaps were ripped off, and the nerf bar on the drivers side got a little more squashed), we continued Up into the trail leading to The View.
Later the second set of Grandkids, three kids in the back, and my son's fiance in the passenger seat We went down Hug the Bank, Wayne's World and generally tried to take it a little more easy, but on this trip the 7 year old decided he didn't like the elevation shifts. So we wrapped up that run pretty fast and made sure not to have the 7 year old or 4 year old anymore.
Our 13 year old grandson got to do some driving. The 12 year old soon to be granddaughter decided she didn't want to try. There was a section down by Gumy's rocks that looked possible and I tried to go into, but I immediately got hung up on a rock on my passenger nerf bar. And extricating me from that tweaked the passenger side nerf bar quite a bit.
Other trails we ran were 47 trail, On the Edge, and the last trail was the mud run where we got the Bronco nice and dirty, while being cautious not having a winch to get me out of the mud.
The most interesting was when were heading back to the parking area with the 7 year old that doesn't like elevation changes, a line of about 5 Jeeps came by on the trail, with the first guy stopping, and said: "We're heading down to run high and low voltage, ya wanna come along" and the 7 year old in back shouted out NO!
So what did I learn?
#1 - I know which kids to take where. There are easier trails around closer to home that the little ones can hang out on, as well as some in more open areas.
#2 - I would have taken the mudflaps off, but the plastic rear bumper insert for one bolt is loose, so I can't get the mudflaps off the rear bumper, so I've been leaving them on. They're off now.
#3 - I need to get some actual rock rails if I want to do the very difficult trails at the Iron Range. We never intended the Nerf bars to be a solution other than a temporary one to make it easier for my mom to get in.
#4 - RCI full skid plates are still holding up. The central plate has deformed quite a bit now and I'm gonna have to remove it and bang it back into being flat. But while the mudflaps were ripped off and the mounts for the nerf bars are looking a little like they were made of spaghetti, I've had no real damage. Even backing into some trees off the trail didn't leave any permanent marks.
We found an Airbnb that was about 40 minutes away from the park that could fit 11 of us.
Friday morning, I went up with my wife, and we scoped out the recreational area a bit. My wife decided she didn't really enjoy much of it, so that limited some of my adventuring. We also found out we could check into our Airbnb early.
During that Drive, we were on Skull Road, did not take the Leaf Lake Loop, found that the Horseshoe Loop and Little Foot trail were closed, bypassed the Mud Run, and then came back up the main road and out.
Saturday Morning, I was back at the park, airing down (12psi), and the first set of grandkids and parents were figuring out how to do it. A family of four plus a driver doesn't fit well in a two-door Bronco. But 3 in the back was how they decided to do it.
This first run was really tough. Most of the area is wooded, and there were a lot of flying bugs—some mosquitos but mostly other things like gnats. It turned out our 4-year-old grandson was very unhappy with the flying bugs.
We drove all the way down to Y1 and thought we could try the Crater Crawl. It actually had some really fun elevation changes, with crawling up some steep, loose rocks. But what seemed like the exit to us (was actually the beginning where a sign showing this as a hard draw was at) we ran into a downed tree across the track. I figured I could get over it, and that's where the challenges started.
Let's just say a number of things happened, including my son out to direct me over some rocks and me backing off the trail while stuck on the tree. There were lots of opening and closing doors, windows down, and a 4-year-old grandson just screaming about bugs. We aborted that attempt (my son says we had one or two rocks to go), did a 12-point turn to get turned around, and made our way out, including stacking rocks at one point.
Licking our wounds (all my mudflaps were ripped off, and the nerf bar on the drivers side got a little more squashed), we continued Up into the trail leading to The View.
Later the second set of Grandkids, three kids in the back, and my son's fiance in the passenger seat We went down Hug the Bank, Wayne's World and generally tried to take it a little more easy, but on this trip the 7 year old decided he didn't like the elevation shifts. So we wrapped up that run pretty fast and made sure not to have the 7 year old or 4 year old anymore.
Our 13 year old grandson got to do some driving. The 12 year old soon to be granddaughter decided she didn't want to try. There was a section down by Gumy's rocks that looked possible and I tried to go into, but I immediately got hung up on a rock on my passenger nerf bar. And extricating me from that tweaked the passenger side nerf bar quite a bit. Other trails we ran were 47 trail, On the Edge, and the last trail was the mud run where we got the Bronco nice and dirty, while being cautious not having a winch to get me out of the mud.
The most interesting was when were heading back to the parking area with the 7 year old that doesn't like elevation changes, a line of about 5 Jeeps came by on the trail, with the first guy stopping, and said: "We're heading down to run high and low voltage, ya wanna come along" and the 7 year old in back shouted out NO!
So what did I learn?
#1 - I know which kids to take where. There are easier trails around closer to home that the little ones can hang out on, as well as some in more open areas.
#2 - I would have taken the mudflaps off, but the plastic rear bumper insert for one bolt is loose, so I can't get the mudflaps off the rear bumper, so I've been leaving them on. They're off now.
#3 - I need to get some actual rock rails if I want to do the very difficult trails at the Iron Range. We never intended the Nerf bars to be a solution other than a temporary one to make it easier for my mom to get in.
#4 - RCI full skid plates are still holding up. The central plate has deformed quite a bit now and I'm gonna have to remove it and bang it back into being flat. But while the mudflaps were ripped off and the mounts for the nerf bars are looking a little like they were made of spaghetti, I've had no real damage. Even backing into some trees off the trail didn't leave any permanent marks.
2D Base Mansquatch: Ord 11-24-2021; VIN 3-16-2022; Schd 5/9/22; Sticker 5/4/22; Modules 5/10/22;Built 5/11/22;Shipt 5/12/22;Delv 5/24/22
Deano Bronc, Lots O Fords