Appleton Area Recreation Area - High Centered in Minnesota

This past Sunday, I visited my dad in West Central Minnesota at the Forest City Stockade, which was having its annual Rendevue. The Appleton Area Recreational Area was just an hour West, so I headed there after lunch when I visited with my dad and brother.

I've noticed that besides the Iron Range offroad park, none have well-documented entrances on maps, nor great signage on the roads to find them. I entered where the ATVs and motorcycles start because that's the one I could find. If I didn't have such bad allergies, I would have spent some time mapping out the entrances better with pins on google maps. Then see if I could update them on the map. (I can get stuff added to Waze)

Overall I enjoyed the Appleton location. It's over 20 miles of trails for ATVs, Motorcycles, and offroad vehicles like jeeps and Broncos. They have several "easy" trails that beginners or even an AWD vehicle with 4 or 5" of clearance might handle. I barely had time to scratch the surface of the place due to getting high-centered in one place and spending too much time messing around and getting loose.

They have several obstacles to try, and while airing down, I checked out a log climb to try. I thought I could make it, and if someone was there to spot me, maybe I could. But due to my 2 door wheelbase, I had both front and rear trying to get up the ladder, and I just couldn't make it. After I backed down, I saw what was actually in my way; the forward mounts for the rear suspension hung down a bit. They took out some chunks from some of the wood. Of course, I had three motorcycles stop up the hill to watch me fail in my big bad Bronco.



If I weren't just sneezing and sniffling all the time, I would have looked around for some rocks and maybe stacked some to get me over it. But I moved along. Lots of elevation changes at this park, some steep hills to go up and down, good mud here and there, with a large sandy area and a large muddy area. Everything you might want.

I spied some culverts to try and get them up with no problem, but trying to go down the other side, I miscalculated the space and ended up high-centered on the top. I also tried to be as smooth as possible, but I still bounced off the RCI steel skidplate, bending it a little.



The suspension was at full droop front and rear and just not getting any traction. Maybe 37's would solve this problem? I have a recovery strap, soft shackles, and a cable come-a-long. But the come-a-long, I couldn't get the cable to unspool and was starting to be uncertain what I was gonna do. I knew some motorcycles were running around, which I could hear, but I hadn't seen any jeeps or other 4x4s. But thankfully, as I was pondering my silly fate, I spotted a Side By Side heading down a trail, so I ran and waved them down. A father and son who were at that park for the first time backed up. I put my strap on it, and they helped give it a little tug, and that's all it needed. (Two honks when I'm ready, one when they can stop)

I burned a lot of time there, so I drove around a little more, working my way back to where I came in to fill my tires (I aired down to 15psi) and head home. I did play in the mud a little, so the wheels and all are pretty dirty. I'll have to pull the wheels and skid plates off before winter to clean everything with a scrub brush.
365 miles, 20.5MPG, 7 hours 58 minutes runtime for the Bronco.

What did I learn?
#1 When you have allergies, driving a few hundred miles with no roof on a vehicle isn't a good idea.
#2 I really gotta go out with another vehicle. I just am too gunshy to try things when I'm on my own. There was a black-marked trail that I wanted to try, but I couldn't try it by myself.
#3 Appleton is worth another visit. It's 3 hours west for me, but it's a nice spot.

It's dirty again. But too hot to wash.

I recorded some of my adventures along with my sneezing. I hope to do better next time.