I went to the IceBreaker last year. It was my first time offroading in my new to me 4runner so I was not accustomed to hearing loud BANGS under my vehicle. Because of this, I had a very tense first time experience. I joined the BEGINNER group and got more than I bargained for. Our trail guides did not seem to know where they were going and we found ourselves in some spots that were NOT ideal for stock vehicles. Did my 4Runner make it through? Yes, but I was puckering big time on a few sections. I slammed quite hard about a dozen times. It was a very stressful trip.
Most of the morning went well, but after lunch we ran into a few tricky spots. I believe that the guides were honestly surprised to find the trail in the condition that it was in. It was badly washed out in one area in particular. I even have a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdWg_njIIRM. This was my friend in his lifted 80 Series Land Cruiser. He had a 3 inch lift on 33s and he still had quite a bit of trouble. The reason he was trying to go up that berm was because the trail leading off to the right hand side at 2:09 had MASSIVE rocks that could have damaged a stock vehicle. Remember, I've never been offroading in my life at this point, but you can hear me in the videos trying to help spot for him. The "trail guide" was just standing right next to me not offering any assistance at all.
We ran into a few spots like this where each and every vehicle in the train was really struggling to get through some tough terrain. Because of this, the day stretched out quite longer than planned. Earlier that morning, we had all agreed that we wanted to get back to camp around 3PM. Because of the unforeseen difficulties, we didn't end up getting back to camp until close to 7PM.
I went with a friend of mine so we reserved a camp site for our rigs ahead of time. If you do this, your family will greatly enjoy themselves. There are a few "group campground" areas that I would probably avoid if you want a good nights rest. It was a pretty big party in those areas. I highly recommend camp VII site I. It sits directly next to a quiet, excluded lake that is really one of the best camp sites I've ever visited. Call ahead and reserve it though because its a favorite! You can check out the Cove here
The Cove Campground. Call them up. They are very friendly and will give you all the information that you need.
It was a rough first time experience for me, but I would go again now that I have more offroading experience. Just talk to the trail guide, let him know your expectations and you should be fine. Let me know if you have any other questions [MENTION=137555]Sleeter[/MENTION]
