Kentucky Adventure Tour :: 1000 Miles of Adventure
After more than a year of wanting to do this trip, I finally convinced a few friends to join and we had an adventure. The plan was to drive down Friday and run the route Saturday-Saturday, giving us 8 days to complete the roughly 900-1,000 mile loop. We started out in Slade, KY going counterclockwise and got to Matewan, WV completing 822 miles, including the hard sections we ecountered along the way. I didn’t take into account how short the days are this time of year (last week of October) and figure we could have completed it if we had the extra daylight, but it was worth it to see the colors in the forest this time of year, was bummed we didn’t get to do hard 11, that’s an awesome trail (ran it during the 2019 Red Clay Rally)
All in all it was an awesome trip! It was the longest stretch of consecutive nights out I’ve had in the truck and was pleased to find my setup is pretty comfortable and works well for extended trips. Some of the non-hard sections of the Kat are just as challenging as the hard sections.
Did a lot of stuff I had put off in preparation for the trip…
New amateur radio (Icom 5100A)
Made a mount for the iPad and phone
Made some limb risers
New rear wheel bearings
New LCA ball joints
New tires (same 285/70 STT Pros)
Fixed my really flexy bumper - I was lazy and didn’t extend the hoops through to the bottom plate, big difference!
Repainted said bumper
Made a dual jerry can mount so I could take water and gas cans
Other oil change, etc. stuff
Tried to at least take the time and grab some pics from my phone, thankfully my friends got some too.
All cleaned up and heading out
Spaas Creek was really cool
I believe this was on Hard 1, was inching in and the front just dropped. Obviously, I wasn’t taking pictures at this point.
Random morning coffee pic, the usual breakfast.
Saw a whole lot of this, it was beautiful.
Second night campsite was on a creek
Fun spot on Hard 3
Hurricane Zeta helped ensure we didn't run out of mud.
Love driving on the top of a mountain in the fog
Too many cool bridges to count, or take pics of
And wild horses, had a few extra apples and they were at my door.
Too many cool rock formations to count or stop at
And finished up in Matewan
Sorry for all the pics...