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Summer Soft Road Meet 2014 in North Texas event report

13K views 25 replies 9 participants last post by  Machine1 
#1 ·
This is a report from the North America Off Road Subaru (Texas-Oklahoma section) Summer Soft Road Meet 2014 at Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport, Texas.

What is a Soft-Road meet? First let’s define what a soft-roader is. Soft roaders are mainly unibody vehicles with an all-wheel drive system and extra ground clearance. They have the capability to drive through forest roads, dirt trails, and some water crossings. Subaru and Jeep are known to build popular soft roaders. We had a little bit of everything show up to our meet. The meet was catered to beginners to off road, a couple of vehicles were barely broken in before coming out the wheel with us.

Who was invited to the Soft Road Meet? We started with inviting members from Subaruforester.org and our North America Off Road Subaru group on Facebook. I also extended the invite to the Jeep Cherokee forum, XV Crosstrek forum, and a couple of people from Expedition Portal.

Our venue for the meet was Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport, Texas. This park has trails for everyone from the beginner to rock crawlers. I’ve been to the park six times previously and have mapped out a route for the day. Our route was catered to the beginner off-roader starting with simple hill climbs, shallow water crossings, and ending with rocky terrain with some downhill sections.

The Group
Machine1 (Subaruforester.org, Expediton Portal) – host
DSC_1053 by jasplund91, on Flickr

GeoJosh (Subaruforester.org) – host
DSC_1060 by jasplund91, on Flickr

Tugg (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_0062 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Ron Jon (North America Off Road Subaru - Facebook)
DSC_0101 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

William Wolfen (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_0400 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Dallasmike (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_1063 by jasplund91, on Flickr

Kevin M (NAORS)
DSC_1055 by jasplund91, on Flickr

Derelicte (NAORS)
DSC_1056 by jasplund91, on Flickr

JD and Ashley (Jeep Cherokee Forum)
DSC_0071 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Ann and Tim (Jeep Cherokee Forum)
DSC_1057 by jasplund91, on Flickr

John P (friend of Kevin)
DSC_0377 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Ryan D (NAORS)
DSC_0094 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Ryan’s friend (Tacoma)
10542065_355315074620016_1748838521565352210_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Rick (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0031 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Texploration (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0020 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Pedal (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0315 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Victor (Friend of Texploration)
DSC_0108 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Fernando D (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0478 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Passengers: Shansen, Ymani, Sean J, Jacob D.

Friday evening

In preparation for the Meet the next day, I decided to remove my rear mud flaps and rear sway bar links. I was going to leave the front sway bar in this time to see how it would perform on the trails. The mud flaps had to go because they kept dragging everything on the trail. One of them was also ripped off from just reversing, the flap was caught between a rock and my tire.

5:50 AM Saturday

I woke up early morning at 5:50 to pack my cooler, camera equipment, tools, and maps. I didn’t plan on leaving my house until 7:30 AM but I couldn’t sleep any longer with the meet coming up in a couple of hours. I received a text from my coworker at around 7 asking me if I needed anything from Wally mart. I figured this would be a good time to get ice for the cooler. He was going to be riding with me to the meet and ride along with someone else since I had my son riding passenger in my vehicle for the trails.

7:30

We (Son, coworker, and I) left my house to the first meeting spot, a Shell gas station. I filled up, the place was 45 minutes away. I usually get around 10 mpg from an entire day of trails. It’s better to have a full tank than have to worry about gas out there. After getting gas, I waited along the curb near a couple of payphones at Shell station. That morning there was an autocross event about to commence at the Speedway nearby. Saw a Miata on a tow bar being towed behind a truck getting off the highway. While I was pumping gas, in the stall next to me was a Porsche 914 sitting on a trailer. It was highly modified, widebody conversion, Flat-6 from a 911, pretty nice car.

Waiting by the curb at the gas station, the first person I spot is Kevin in his Forester XT. He missed the first turn-in so I called him up. “Hola”, those were the first words I heard from Kevin. He said he saw me and was going to make a u-turn. He pulled into the Shell station and went to top off his tank. Soon after, Shansen showed up in his lowered Forester, and we had one more person left to wait for. After a few minutes of conversation I realized that it was past 8 AM and we had to get moving.

At 8:04 we got on the road heading towards the OHV park. As soon as we pulled onto the highway I noticed a white Tacoma hovering around our line of cars. I soon realize that it was John, he caught us just in time. It was a 45 minute drive from the Shell station to the OHV park. Mostly an uneventful drive other than a couple of people that didn’t know what a passing lane is for. The signs are everywhere, “Left Lane For Passing Only”. Some people are just clueless.

We arrived at our second meeting spot which was a road before a secondary entrance to the park. No one was there so I decided to go ahead and drive into the park. We let Shansen hang out in the back because the road into the park was rutted out from rain and his lowered Forester didn’t like it at all. We lost sight of him pretty quickly. Why was he in a lowered CUV at an off-road park? He was going to be riding along with Josh and taking pictures.

At the gate I had a little chat with the attendants. A nice couple, they remembered me from last time and asked us to tag our pictures to their page on Facebook. I did tag them previously, I just thought they were ignoring everything I posted.

Getting into the gate, there are already a few guys parked behind a tree waiting. Rick in his Tacoma and William Wolfen are already there. Wolfen tells me that the trails are flooded and we were going to have to bypass the first part of the trail that I had planned out. Well, this isn’t good news. The day before there was a thunderstorm that sat around the city and dumped plenty of water into the park. Great.

10313013_355325341285656_7350526891986599279_n by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

We hung around waiting for everyone to show up. People were slowly trickling in between 9 and 9:30. I went around meeting everyone and checking out their vehicles. I love all things off-road, I was like a kid at a car show. The Trailhawks were there, four late model Tacomas, a bunch of Subarus. One guy brought his rally-prepped Sti, but it was too low to trail ride so he rode along with Rick in his Tacoma.
 
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#2 ·
One of my coworkers showed up in his lifted Grand Cherokee. I asked if he could take me down the first section of the trail to check out how high the water was. The first thing I noticed about the trail was how washed out it was. The last time I was there was in March. The trail had deteriorated in five months. There was some exposed rock at the middle of the trail creating a good sized ledge, a sign of things to come. The first drop-in into the West Quarry, the water at the bottom of the hill looked like it would have been halfway up our doors. My coworker didn’t even want to drive through it, we took a left turn out of the puddle. He didn’t want to flood his Jeep first thing in the morning.

Leg1 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

By this time, a lot of the group was already there. Josh, the other organizer of the meet, was getting his radios ready for us to use. I told him we were going to have to abort part one, it was too flooded. We were going to go ahead and start with part two of the trail and go from there. I decided to put Ryan and his lifted Tacoma in front of me to check water depth and Rick with his winch equipped Tacoma would be at the back of the pack in case anyone needed recovery back there. We had two late stragglers that called me, they were having trouble finding the entrance to the park. It can be hard to find the first time there. I asked Wolfen if he could wait for the late guys and bring them to the area we would be at. Around this time my coworker with a lifted ZJ on a trailer pulled into the park. He was going to be one of our recovery vehicles but he never joined the group.

We had our lineup of between 15-18 vehicles ready to hit the trails.

9:50
Almost an hour behind schedule we headed towards the East Quarry towards the two hills and three wheel junction.

Leg2 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10548970_356651111153079_2903240826062921228_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10560314_356651107819746_4033865933124442023_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Video – Parking lot into East Quarry up to Two Hills:



Two Hills
The two hills consist of two short climbs, the one on the right being a steeper grade. For beginners, this is the first hill that most owners get to climb at the park. I attempted the right hill, which is the hill I normally take, but the amount of mud on the trail right before the hill was too much and collected on the tires. I probably could have climbed the hill with a little bit of momentum. I had a crowd behind me so I had to get everyone going.

We advised everyone to take the hill on the left one at a time and make a loop around to re-join the line before moving onto the next obstacle.

Video in the East Quarry and going up the left side of the Two Hills through Three Wheel Junction:



DSC_0027 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Me from East Quarry to right hill of two hills
DSC_0004 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Mike East Quarry to left of two hills
DSC_0017 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Three Wheel Junction
We named this section three wheel junction because of the undulating terrain that causes our soft-roaders to three wheel. It is a connector to the North Loop area of the park. This section was filled with mud from the rain the day before.

Videos of Three wheel junction headed south:





Pictures from Three Wheel Junction:

DSC_0118 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0120 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0127 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0134 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0113 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0137 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0073 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0071 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0062 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0060 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0040 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
 
#3 ·
Our next section was the South Loop.

The South Loop includes two notable sections. One of them is called High Top, the other section we labeled as the Four Hills. This is a popular group picture area within the park. The additional water and mud from the day before made this Loop a lot harder than it has been previously.

This is a map of the South Loop, we ran the route in reverse direction (clockwise) from what was noted on the map. The map is from a previous meet.

Leg4 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

A section of High Top that we normally try to climb with some of our vehicles was a little washed and rutted out. I attempted it at the last meet in the Spring. I named it One Three Hill because of the selection of climbs (3). It sounds like the name of a show called One Tree Hill if anyone remembers that on network TV.



Tugg was in the middle of attempting to climb it when we started moving towards the four hills. We told him that we would be back, but we never did keep our promise.

10593071_355314637953393_4252024493225995214_n by
machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10571988_355314841286706_2388112677988464379_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10603866_355314854620038_1624607222460455573_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Lining up near One Three Hill waiting to go to the Four Hills area
10506580_355314541286736_6452040481822545633_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

1045AM
By now it was starting to heat up. The Texas heat was starting to get noticeable. It took us near an hour to get everyone past the Two Hills and Three Wheel Junction and now we have the South Loop, complete with mud, to complete in an hour before lunch time.

South of One Three Hill headed towards the Four Hills was a muddy section leading to a steep short climb.

Video of South Loop clockwise from One Three Hill:



I attempted the steep climb towards the Four Hills. In previous attempts I was successful at it but this time there was so much mud on my Coopers that I could not get any traction up the hill.

This is a video of a previous attempt:



DSC_0096 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

This time it just wasn’t going to happen. We all bypassed the climb with a trail to the right of it. This bypass led to a plateau area and down to the Four Hills section of the South Loop. Coming down the plateau was a sharp turn down to a muddy downhill.

Sitting on top of the plateau with my tires still caked with mud

DSC_0144 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Videos going down into the four hills:





DSC_0158 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0150 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

This guy had one question, “How the hell did you guys get down here?” Hahaha, I was telling him that there were about 12 of us left coming down the trail.

DSC_0165 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0182 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0155 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0174 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0166 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0186 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0101 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0092 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0086 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0085 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0078 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Coming up, the group pictures and finishing up the South Loop.
 
#4 ·
The Four Hills

We called this the Four Hills area because it used to have four short hills up to a plateau. Now there are actually seven hills in the area. I might be changing the name. Going up these short hills are usually easy, but with the mud the easiest way up these short hills is with a little momentum. Even the Jeep Wrangler on 4-Lo with the diffs locked had to take a couple of attempts.

10549944_356651157819741_5223873378423624097_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10506830_355290114622512_3392418093149389513_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0167 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0170 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10560552_355315151286675_465800691279682581_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10497904_355315201286670_7960364718747727004_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Once we all got to the top, we took a water/drink break and lined up for some photo opportunities.

The hosts:
DSC_0194 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_1052 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1050 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1049 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1048 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1047 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_0113 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

DSC_0117 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr

Leaving the Four Hills, we had a muddy rut section to traverse and some more mud afterwards. The Tacomas were having a little problem with crossing over the muddy ruts because of their wheelbase.

1801270_355315331286657_872460938158082029_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10511469_355315394619984_6889605225902378773_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
 
#5 ·
Here’s Tugg giving Kevin some assistance over the rut:



DSC_0290 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0267 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0275 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0240 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0246 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0256 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0222 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0202 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0277 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

We finished up the South Loop and headed back through Three Wheel Junction to head towards lunch at the picnic pavilion.
 
#6 ·
Back through Three wheel junction:





William Wolfen followed by my coworker Mike in his Dodge Ram
DSCN2432 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSCN2431 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_0318 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0313 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0297 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0295 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

12:04
Lunch at the Pavilion

1940026_355325231285667_5403249021308615936_n by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10486304_355325254618998_2476822451536586228_n by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
 
#7 · (Edited)
A view from the pavilion:

overlook 1 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

After lunch, our plans were to take a new perimeter road that had been opened up recently. During lunch Ryan decided to head down and scout the trail to make sure there weren't any flooded areas.

We were planning on taking the power line north route from the pavilion into the perimeter road:

Leg6 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Heading down the powerline road:

powerline shot by machinecrewchief, on Flickr



On the way into the perimeter road we ran across our Recovery crew telling us that there was 3-4 feet of water in some spots. We all decided to turn around but Ryan in his Tacoma didn't get the message so he kept going into the perimeter road.

10356335_865599176798485_4319348265963703500_n by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Even with a 4" lift, 32's and aftermarket lockers he was sitting on frame spinning all fours. A fellow named Bill recovered him. We didn't see Ryan again until a couple of hours later, now we know why.

Because we couldn't do the perimeter route, we re-routed to what used to be a passable downhill/uphill in the stairstep section of the powerlines. Section 3C on the previous map next to hamburger hill was our previous entry point into the lower section of the spider webs. We found that section to be impassable due to the fact that we probably would be able to get down the hill with careful spotting, but going back up would have been impossible. The rain had washed out the dirt and left huge boulders on the trail. We also didn't have a good idea of how flooded the Spider Web area towards the perimeter road was. One of my coworkers in a 6" lifted ZJ Cherokee found the bog hole in the spider webs and had water up to his seats and center console. His engine stalled while going through the bog hole.

On to plan C.

Plan C involve taking a route called ridgeline that was the highest trail in the park.

Leg5 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr



When we stopped in the video, I was looking for our depth-finder Ryan and his Tacoma. I later found out he was stuck down in the Spiderwebs. We sent Tugg up front to check on the water depth, he went around it and backed into it.

DSCN2437 by jasplund91, on Flickr

Tugg's muffler went underwater backing in so we went ahead and told everyone to go around this water hazard.

DSCN2438 by jasplund91, on Flickr

We arrived at a section one of the members called little death valley. Every one of the Subarus scraped their front bumper on this short dip.

 
#8 ·
Kevin's "little Death Valley" probably cost us about 45 minutes of time. It was 3PM, around 100 degrees, We were finding rocks to stack at the bottom so that we wouldn't rip our bumpers off. We still ended up with a couple of casualties, the XV Crosstrek ripped it's bumper off the mounts. Tugg worked extra hard on this section, there was even a little frustation setting in. As soon as I crossed the valley I had a little bathroom emergency, so I had to abandon the group for 15 minutes. I don't think anyone noticed I was gone.

DSC_0346 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

You can see the rocks stacked at the bottom so that our tires could drive over them and give the front bumper some clearance:

DSC_0347 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

The Trailhawk made this section easy with its superior approach and departure angles:

DSC_0375 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

This section was also a good test of breakover angle:

DSC_0379 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

To the left was a tree and the right was a 40 foot drop off, we couldn't take this at an angle:

DSC_0336 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSCN2440 by jasplund91, on Flickr

10465440_355315474619976_7988774437997466657_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0358 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

15220_355348027950054_5347110518971761072_n by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0368 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Once we were out of there the views were amazing:

DSC_0331 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

A few random shots from the Ridgeline trail:

DSC_0329 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0333 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0339 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10476055_355315551286635_3450223749397588905_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

For next time, I think what would help for the little Death Valley would be some 2x4s. I know we could bypass this trail, but there is a technical section at the end of it that I wanted everyone to experience.
 
#9 ·
Our exit from Ridgeline involves a rocky downhill section that also involves one of the wheels leaving the ground. We sent Tugg under a tree to take a break. Josh and I spotted everyone down this section, Josh worked the upper part, I was down at the exit.

Josh at work:

DSC_0387 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Me being lazy, hot, and tired:

DSC_0399 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr



Tugg on his way down:

DSC_0384 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Videos never do hills any justice, this is how steep the descent was:

1974198_356651357819721_2646207982954839255_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10505071_356651324486391_1848113390535288885_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10469670_356651407819716_3178922052073661080_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10471207_356651367819720_4422912120080347513_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10428405_356651387819718_8248755945015425546_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10532821_356651514486372_8557978172286795743_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10551503_356651434486380_4271106884028096177_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Tim heading down in his Trailhawk:



10582854_356651447819712_1998986142823526741_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Most of the Subarus were on street radials and thankfully we didn't get any tire punctures this time around. Up next we have the Raptor hill, send off a couple of people, and the final section of our day.
 
#10 ·
After Ridgeline we went to the East Quarry to hang out around the Raptor Hill. We named it the Raptor Hill because the magazine Mustangs and Fast Fords used the hill for a photoshoot of a Shelby modified Ford Raptor. We take pictures of our vehicles on that hill every trip out there. This time the pictures were a little different.

DSC_1073 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1074 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1079 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1080 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1081 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_0432 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

Tugg drove over to us and calmly told us that if he hit a certain speed on the Raptor hill he could feel the Forester leave the ground:

DSC_1082 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1083 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1084 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1085 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1086 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_1087 by jasplund91, on Flickr

My kid was actually able to get it on video.



Random pictures around the east quarry:

DSC_0402 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0408 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0403 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0400 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

At this time we sent off Kevin, Derelicte, Ryan, and his friend. We found JD in the Trailhawk and Fernando joined the group in his 4Runner.

Our next route we were going to take was a technical section called the Asplund connector, drive past the Boothby entrance, and head back towards the powerline road using the southwestern perimeter road.
 
#11 ·
The Asplund connector is a short technical section with a few rocks and a muddy section at the end. It was in the woods in the southern end of the trail so it was actually not too hot even though it was around 4PM. I planned for us to be in this section for the afternoon because of both difficulty and to beat the heat.

Heading into the connector from the powerlines trail:

10530506_355315674619956_1044966080181352499_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

This trail was one of the few that actually had signs noting the trail rating, this one was a double diamond:

10497044_355315701286620_7019528918129194876_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10495070_355315781286612_8098226164153904019_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

10495019_355315727953284_8102659125907521315_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0450 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0451 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0452 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

I love the sinister looking eyes of the Trailhawk:

DSC_0444 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0446 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0447 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0457 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0461 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0466 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0468 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0467 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0469 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

When we arrived at the perimeter road, there was one muddy section that Josh was able to get a video of:



The only picture we have of the carnage:

10483905_355315837953273_5180531099225074968_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
 
#12 · (Edited)
A couple of randoms from the end of the day:

DSCN2446 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSCN2449 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSCN2447 by jasplund91, on Flickr

DSC_0482 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0481 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0477 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0476 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

DSC_0473 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr

And we have reached the end of my event report. This was a great event overall. I made a bunch of new friends, hopefully I'll get to see them again at the next meet. We made it through with only a few bumps and scratches. No one that came to the event that never off-roaded before can be called an off-road newbie anymore.

Would I have done anything differently? I think for next time I'll get there before everyone else so that I could scout some of the trails, I may bring some 2x4s for the little Death Valley, and maybe I'll actually use my Gopro again to record and not leave it in the back seat. Even though I love all of us being on the trail together at the same time, breaking up in smaller groups (As originally planned) would probably allow us to go through more trails.

I would like to thank everyone that came out and helped, I would also like to thank everyone that took pictures and videos for us. Our next event will probably be slated for Spring Break, I'll know for sure by January.

On this forum I would like to give thanks to Geojosh, Shansen, Kevin, Tugg, Dallasmike and William Wolfen for all the help with this awesome meet.

Thank you for taking time to read through my report and enjoy the pictures and videos!
 
#13 ·
Lovely overview.

The 'carnage' isn't all that bad. When it starts to cool off I plan to fix it up a bit, but the fog light cover went right back in and the worst of the dent popped out, along with the side of the bumper cover fitting back against the body.

I can definitely say a lift is in order after this trip. The forester is an exceedingly capable softroader, but the angles hold it back. Currently looks like 1" spacers and alignment kit, followed by one size up tire sidewalks should get me what I want.

Overall, great fun. Damage comes with the territory, and I regret nothing. I didn't buy it to baby it in the garage, and it's treating me very well out in the real world!
 
#17 ·
I'm now thoroughly scratched myself... Can't entirely say I'm happy about it, but I'm over it. Too much fun to get hung up on. I figure I'll take after TUGG and plasti dip it eventually. Probably in a nice forest green. So many things before that though. And I'm glad I saved you from the water, though one of the Tacoma guys went through it and up the hill in 2wd mode and said the water wasn't more than 2' deep, though that's deep enough to be on our doors. Glad we avoided it.
 
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