July 29, 2019

A metaphor for my day

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July 23, 2019

Good morning from Jefferson National Forest, a rainy and foggy morning!

The whole site! 2 Tacomas, a tear drop, Flippac and Sam’s tent.

A cool log on the way to Cascades Falls.

Fungi

Cascades Falls

the 4 wheel drive trail to Butt Mountain

The fire tower was on top Butt Mountain, but you couldn’t climb to the cab.

On the way down, we took a different trail and James slid into a hole,

on Butt Mountain : )

luckily Maxtrax worked again… no damage! (other than a mud flap)

Keto Taco Tuesday. Chicken on bell peppers, cheese and sour cream.

 

July 22, 2019

Rally driver mode activated. Jefferson National Forest searching for camp spot.

July 14, 2019

Spanish moss and mountain bikes, I camped and raced at Poinsett State Park in the Spring but it was fun just riding the trails, completing the South Carolina trifecta, Harbison State Forest, FATS and Poinsett State Park a great weekend of riding.

While waiting to see where I was riding, I decided to figure out why I was flatting so much… looks like a hard hit to the rim at some point, I did bend it back.

After riding I decided to explore the dirt roads in the Manchester State Forest for a while.

July 7, 2019

Day 2 of FlipPac repair! To do: install new hinges and torsion bar, seal hinge openings, fiberglass repair the holes we drilled in the back, remount on truck. Success! Thanks again to James Hays and Elizabeth Collins I would have never been able to do the repair without them! Video

After we finished it was time to go swim and cool off!

Swimming hole at Jumping Off Rock in Uwharrie National Forest

My Taco is topless, first time in 5 years or so. I love the look but can’t wait to get my adventure truck back today!

July 6, 2019

FlipPac repair Day – goal one remove torsion bar and 4 old hinges

At the end of the day we were successful – but it required drilling holes in the back and using a 10 foot rebar to drive them out – video/timelapse here

Thanks James and Elizabeth for driving 5 hours to come help me! I could not have done this without y’all!

July 5, 2019

My Taco is naked or topless!

June 26, 2019

A solo trip to DuPont to mountain bike, hike and swim. Day 1 of biking was awesome, I have a time lapse to add, but 3 hours of joy!

After 6pm, I started looking for a place to primitive camp in Pisgah National Forest, after driving for way too long, I found this spot and made dinner, then right before I started to make camp, I noticed the sign… 15 feet up a tree…. WTF. As I started to turn around I realized I forgot where a couple of tree stumps were but noticed a two tire track heading back towards the forest service road, I will just do that.

I didn’t get out to look down the hill, I just drove into it…. see that big rock? It used to be in the middle of the trail. As my nose started down, I hit it with my bumper and became stuck at a very steep angle (in fact so steep, I was worried about oil pick up/pressure) but also was afraid to turn off the truck in case it would not restart. I switch to 4 wheel drive low and turned on my locker and managed to back up a bit, but crabbed and high centered my slider

Now I am really stuck, alone off a minor FS road – I didn’t take any more pictures because I was trying to self rescue… in the end Maxtrax saved the day and I was get off the slider, drive back down the hill (could not go backwards) and just push the big ass rock out of my way with my front bumper! It took 20-30 minutes of work!

So now I still needed a place to camp, I drove further into the woods, passed the trail head for my planned morning hike and finally found another camp spot, I go to flip the camper and POP

at first I thought the torsion bar snapped, but the hinge was what broke! That was the final straw, I am heading home…. great day, but this night has been a shit show!

June 22, 2019

I was up early but couldn’t run since the trail into the camp spot was under water from last night’s storm, good thing there is a waterfall to photograph. This is teh top of Wolf Creek Falls.

Just trying different angles

Sadly I chose to only bring my mirrorless Panasonic and couldn’t get the wide angle I wanted

That did force me to climb to a place I have never photographed the falls from.

Sam is ready to go…..

But even to leave, we had to use a chain saw.

Whenever we are here, we hike up Max Patch

Sam took off and hiked up alone, when I found her, this is what she was doing, I love she is happy in the moment and not because she hiked to the top.

Rain or sun?

Back to driving dirt roads.

a railroad bridge over the French Broad River in the Cherokee National Forest

 

of course we all crossed the bridge like in “Stand By Me.”

Camp site #2, on the banks of the French Broad.

Mini-moonshine, beer and shots of whiskey around a fire = a great night!

 

June 21, 2019

A weekend trip to the mountains with the Olde North State Land Cruiser club, the un-offical slogan is a drinking club with a Toyota problem. As always we stopped at Sierra Nevada for lunch and “provisions.”

The highlight of teh first day is running Hurricane Creek, a very rough forest service road.

Not many pictures, we were racing darkness and the trail, errr road was rougher than last year. I tested my skid plate, sliders and rear bumper more than once…. no damage to the truck!

First night camp spot was the top of Wolf Creek Falls in Tennessee. A crazy thunderstorm chased us all to bed early!