Going to Chase Some More Badges

[Troybilt]

Looks like my wife lady is getting a new kitten. She has recently lost her cat to cancer. That was a ruff one for her. That cat was her best friend for 15 years. So the other day she come out while I was washing my truck and showed me a pic of this kitten. She has this very excited look on her face and she ask me if she can get it. I was like sure no problem get in the truck and well go get it. Then she tells me its in Arkansa. Thats like a 13hr drive from Northern Ohio. I thought about it for a second and told her your the boss lady lets do this. Pick your battles as they say

It only took me about 5 minutes to open up my Badge of Honor app to start looking for trails on the way down. So it sounds like we are going to make a short vacation out of the trip and go chase some badges. We are fairly green to trail ridding and I am not looking to get in over my head. So far we have only hit Peters Mill Run, and Flagpole Knob in Virginia. There where a few spots on Flagpole that I was very uncomfortable with being a newbie and going solo.

From what I see here are the trails that are in rout to go pick up Frankie. Anyone have any info on any of these? I was mostly wondering if some of the harder obstacles on the trails have bypasses in case I wimp out and want to go around.

Southern Missouri Off-Road Park
Pee Wee's Crossing - looks pretty easy. I think we will enjoy this trail

Guard Rail - Are there bypasses for the difficult obstacles? I have a winch if I can not make the big hill at the end.

Hot Springs ORV Park Arkansas
Snake - Looks pretty easy. I think we will enjoy this one.

Rubicon Ridge - I think this one will be more like Flagpole. We will be uncomfortable but we will make it out alive with no damage.

Fun Run - Not sure if I should or will attempt this one. What do you think?

Redbird SRA Indiana is also in are range but Trail #5 is the only one that looks close to feasible for a rookie.

Thank you for your time

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[Proximo]

@Troybilt looks like you have a nice route to get a cat. Redbird is our last stop of our October badge run. 7 badges in 7 days. Please let me know your assessment of Redbird when you get back. We are going to Bearwallow WV, Windrock Park TN, then Redbird. Our first badge was South Marble Head MI, highly recommend.

 

[Troybilt]

@Troybilt looks like you have a nice route to get a cat. Redbird is our last stop of our October badge run. 7 badges in 7 days. Please let me know your assessment of Redbird when you get back. We are going to Bearwallow WV, Windrock Park TN, then Redbird. Our first badge was South Marble Head MI, highly recommend.

Will do. I am going to run South Marble Head at some point. Kind of waiting for Holly Oaks ORV to open up so we can kill 2 birds in one trip.

 

[Jeep24MA]

I’m going to chase some myself! Good luck out there. I am new to off-roading too and will most likely be alone. What are the essentials I need to bring with me? I don’t have a winch. I have nothing so far. What are the essentials? Thanks!

 

[Troybilt]

I’m going to chase some myself! Good luck out there. I am new to off-roading too and will most likely be alone. What are the essentials I need to bring with me? I don’t have a winch. I have nothing so far. What are the essentials? Thanks!

If your going alone on trails that don't get any traffic I would think a winch is #1 . Then I would spend my cash on recovery gear.

Once you have that covered #2 may be a way to air back up. Oh and don't take advice from some newbie like myself

 

[Proximo]

I’m going to chase some myself! Good luck out there. I am new to off-roading too and will most likely be alone. What are the essentials I need to bring with me? I don’t have a winch. I have nothing so far. What are the essentials? Thanks!

Winch, hitch D-ring, snatch strap, snatch block, tree saver, and leave your ego at home. Lol. Be timid, cautious, and slow. Stop, get out, and scout. Don't be ashamed to turn around.

 

[Troybilt]

Well it looks like SMORR is closed for a private group the weekend I was planning on going. So far it looks like Hot Springs and now Bearwallow in WV.

 

[GoVR46]

I’m going to chase some myself! Good luck out there. I am new to off-roading too and will most likely be alone. What are the essentials I need to bring with me? I don’t have a winch. I have nothing so far. What are the essentials? Thanks!

A lift, bigger tires, more skid plates, differential covers, winch, recover equipment, off the grid communications device.
This is to me the very bare essentials.

 

[Troybilt]

Looks like we bumped up the trip one week. We are leaving this Friday and will be at SMORR some time Saturday morning. We will be trail ridding most of the day and then off to Hot Springs so that we can hit the trails there on Sunday. Picking up the kitten on Monday morning and driving the 13.5 hours back to Northern Ohio.

Anyone advalible to meet up at any of the 2 parks?

 

[Troybilt]

So we got back from our trip Monday night. The wife lady and I had a blast. We traveled around 1,400 miles in 3 1/2 days.

The 1st stop was Southern Missouri Off Road Ranch.(SMORR). This place is amazing. We spent all day there running the trails. We managed to grab 2 BOH with Pee Wee's Crossing and Guard rail. We also ran a bunch more trails. Nothing over a level 3. The trails where marked very well and most of the obstacles had easier bypasses. By the end of the day we where taking the harder lines. Sure they where on 2's and 3's but we where still having a ball.

The beginning of Guardrail is fairly steep with lots of loose rocks. I felt like we where going to slide right off trail and into the woods but the JT had better plans. I did somehow get off of the trail at the end and finished off the back side of a level 4 trail. I was lucky enough to have a small group of more experienced riders at the final obstacle to help me get over it. They where also nice enough to send me a few pics and a short video of me dragging my underparts on the rocks.

A cool thing about SMORR is that along the trails that us normal folks ride there are lots of trails that the crazy's like Mayhem Maker, and Light Bright take. It is easy to park off to the side and watch the action. We will definitely be going back for a weekend riding and camping trip.

The next stop was Hot Springs ORV Park. I had planned to chase some more BOH here. We where going to run Snake, Rubicon Ridge and Fun Run. We only ran Snake. Someone was broken down on Rubicon Ridge and after running Snake I wanted nothing to do with Fun Run.

I was personally not a fan of Hot Springs. Mostly for one reason. The trails are very tight. I felt like there was too many opportunity's to smash up my hardtop when we got off camber. There are a lot of trees that are just too close for my liking in spots where things could easily go wrong.

Snake was marked a level 2. From my understanding talking with another guy Snake was in need of some dozer work. Thats what they told him after he went into the office to ask why it is marked a 2. The bypass for the only difficult obstacle was washed out leaving a nice size rock cliff to climb over. The fella I talked to about it said lots of people where turning around and going back out the trail in the wrong direction the day before. The wife lady and I made it up the rock cliff after stacking a bunch of rocks. I also had to ratchet strap a tree over so as to not take off my passenger side mirror. I was able to get about 8 inches of extra clearance with the straps. After that experience and with all the trees so close to catching the hardtop we decided to call it a day. We went to the Hot Springs National Park instead.

I don't want to sound like I am bashing Hot springs. The place looked like a off road paradise. Just not for me and my new JT.

Monday morning we picked up the wife lady's new cat and drove 13.5 hours home. The kitten seamed to like the JT. I'm now calling him Frank the Jeep.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Proximo]

Bumping the badges thread.
Just an FYI, if you go for multiple badges in 1 day, be sure to check in on the app before each trail. You can not check in back to back to back. We found that out today at Windrock Park. Had to wait like 30min between each. Lesson learned before we go to Redbird SRA tomorrow, last leg of the trip

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