Smiliesafari wrote:Great vids, Tom. Do you ever consider walking those creeks so the van doesn't drop into a washout?
So far I have not had to walk any.
The one in the photo, I watched a stock Tacoma go thru first.
On the two longer river crossings the water was crystal clear and the river bed was solid and rocky.
Two others were on the Owhyee trip following others.
The one where the water was flooding over the road was the closest thing to blind that I've done. When we got there, there was a stock H3 that had already crossed and was sort of sticking around to watch us. I seat scouted it and made a SWAG (sophisticated wild ass guess) . I stayed left and ended up dropping a bit at the end. Brian went after me, and did not want to drop like that so he stayed middle/ middle right and it was pretty shallow as you saw.
The bikes, of course I just through those in for fun. Thats actually one of my favorite trails, but I'm still trying to figure out how to capture it on film. It doesn't look like much of a section there like it actually is. The entry into the camera view at top right is tricky with an obstical and a huge rut that you have to take at a slow speed, but it doesn't really show at all in the video.
I think I'm pretty conservative. I really don't want to push the envelope and get stuck and tear up the van. So far I've been stuck twice, both times high centerred in late spring frozen mountain snow. Growing up in lower Michigan you'd look at snow that high and could just blast thru it or make some tracks a little further each time until you could finally blast thru it. In the mountains of Washington, the snow gets to be 10 to 30 ft deep so what is left in the spring has all been compacted down by the weight of all that snow above it...so I've learned.
It's a lot easier to get high centerred on. doesn't blast like lower Michigan snow.
But, man, that Detroit Locker with the slightly aired down MT's sure are nice.
