Off road adventure anyone?

[Jewels]

We might be in for the end of March, I saw it on the google calendar and talked to Rex about it. Depends on if we can get the Jeep in trail riding order, things are looking good in that way at the moment.

[V1GiLaNtE]

In for late March. But preferably not the 31st... I'll be in Texas...

[Kaan]

we have springs for you

[V1GiLaNtE]

^^ I'll be up soon.. When the IRO track bar shows up at my door. then we have work to do..

[ScottyB]

guys, imma take this baby off topic for a hot second. bear with my simple n00b mind. i thought of making this a thread in the "tech" section but figured it wasn't worthy, so mods do to this post what you see fit.

how do you search out unimproved, forestry service or dirt roads via online maps like, say Google? is it possible? i'm trying to plan a camping trip deep in western NC and would love to spend half the day bombing around on rough gravel and dirt roads (NOT rock crawling or "wheeling" in the standard 4-low sense) as we find trout fishing spots. all the roads look exactly the same on a digital map and color satellite imagery is typically for shit, which is understandable since Google probably doesn't want to waste high-res satellite images on an endless sea of trees in an uninhabited wilderness. so, ah, bascially is there a Google maps that shows forestry/dirt roads?

my best bet so far has been to hunt down PDF files of NC county maps and atlases, which show road types (great!) but the damn roads are poorly labeled (curses). so i end up having to reference back to the google maps to figure out WhereTF i'm looking at on the county map. and back and forth and back and forth.

do i just need to hike up my girl pants buy a paper map of each national forest i intend to visit, or will that only cover trail systems? it may be a wise investment but i tend to lose/tear/soak paper maps and they aren't cheap.

also, this area i intend to camp in is like 5 hours away, so i can't exactly do recon runs on the weekend.

[Kaan]

buy the hard maps. they will be better when you are out there anyway since sometimes you dont get cell service.

also most clubs delete anyone who posts a google map with trail heads and stuff. they dont want the riff raff to find the spots too easily. also call ahead to the forest service in the area to make sure roads and trails arent closed. that happens from time to time.

[HAULN-SS]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/North-Carolina-Atlas-Gazetteer-Delorme/dp/0899332773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328102080&sr=8-1">http://www.amazon.com/North-Carolina-Atlas-Gazetteer-Delorme/dp/0899332773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328102080&sr=8-1</a><!-- m -->

That right there is what you want. We use a virginia one for exactly what you just said - finding trout fishing spots. The stocked streams are marked, and so are forest service roads and whatnot.

[ScottyB]

thanks for the tips. i totally understand about trying to keep the tourists out. its the same mentality with the best fishing streams lest you bring in all the rednecks who poach them and shit the place up. i'm willing to do the legwork i just didn't know the best way to find the info.

looks like i'll be making friends with the local outdoors shop, they have acres of topo maps and atlases. anybody else really like poring over maps for fun?

[JPolen01]

This past Saturday, Chris, Lincoln, and I went on a little offroad adventure. We took Chris' stock cherokee and went up 33 and made the first left, which I think was Sleepy Dunkle Road or something, and followed it down the mountain. At first it was just an simple gravel road, but once we hit the bottom and ventured back into the trees it became a nice little adventure. A few water crossings and some mud, but nothing a stock jeep or SUV couldn't handle. Not sure what you guys are looking for, but it was definitely a good beginner trail. We went pretty far, the round trip was around 3 hours I would say. We would have gone further, but it was getting dark, we had a half tank of gas and no reserves, and weren't with anybody else. We talked about getting a group together, some extra gas cans and going further. If anyone is down for this we can try and organize something.

[Tyler.M]

@JPolen01

I'm down. I'll make sure to bring my hillbilly accent and banjo, just in case we meet some locals.

[JPolen01]

@JPolen01

I'm down. I'll make sure to bring my hillbilly accent and banjo, just in case we meet some locals.

We saw plenty of forest people out there camping. It was odd because the weather was cold and rainy.

[Cody]

That sounds fun, when would you all be down to do this? Maybe we can find some camping in that area and make that our destination. Right now I'll leave the destination for our 4x4 trip up in the air for suggestions but an excursion somewhere before then sounds dope.
Tyler- if you actually play banjo that's BA

[Jewels]

I know that I was talking to Dan about this, and he and I agreed that we'd be up for some trail riding, but not everyone can commit to camping cause there's a lot of other things going on. I'm jealous Jon, I would have loved to gone out for the afternoon. Any chance the next time you guys plan to head out, you can post up on the forum. Even if no one else comes at least it was out there. We couldn't have come, but I would have loved to know about it.

[premiershine9]

I'm down to see if a stock WK 2010 cherokee can handle a moderate little trail- missing the wrangler I gotta admit

- If we end up killing one of my tires I may need to borrow Rex's Fail rated plate for the way home HA

[JPolen01]

I know that I was talking to Dan about this, and he and I agreed that we'd be up for some trail riding, but not everyone can commit to camping cause there's a lot of other things going on. I'm jealous Jon, I would have loved to gone out for the afternoon. Any chance the next time you guys plan to head out, you can post up on the forum. Even if no one else comes at least it was out there. We couldn't have come, but I would have loved to know about it.

We talked about doing it again, but we wanted to get a solid 3 or 4 other rigs to head out with us. If we can all agree on a free weekend (and Chris has gas money, averaged about 10mpg on the trail I think) I'm sure I could get something together. Last weekend it was a spur of the moment thing. They called and I went. Thought about calling you and Rex,but I knew Dan was there and yadda yadda yadda. Anyway sorry for the rant, but let's pick a weekend and do this. Your jeep as well as dan's would be more than capable. We saw an old ass legacy and a newer outback on the trail, but I was curious as to how the got up on hill after one of the creek crossings :dunno:

[Tyler.M]

I got my mom's ghetto xterra that I can tag along in too. Sounds like it'd be fun, i'm down. I think I have a tent somewhere too

[JPolen01]

Woops forgot to say, that I'm not advocating a camping trip just yet. I would just like to get a group of us out there to explore the terrain and maybe then figure out a camping trip. This would be like a Saturday afternoon excursion type deal.

[Cody]

I'm game for camping. Especially if it's just me and Tyler

[CaptainHenreh]

I'm game for camping. Especially if it's just me and Tyler

...

Phrasing, dude.

[JPolen01]

Rex, when are you and Julie free?

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