#USAONDIRT a 5,000 mile OffRoad Journey Across America

[itsdchz]

Said hello and added a few words on OLB! Glad to see you here posting for us too!
LOVE the trip so far!

 

[gm350reratliff]

Awesome trip! I've always wanted to do that as well. Thanks for sharing with us!

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

This morning started out the same as the other mornings in Colorado, waking up freezing and wondering why I didn't just go ahead and pack the big sleeping bag I thought would take up too much space. Even though it's not really cold the mid 40s just seem chilly when you left the 90s and the days driving lead you through 80degree temps just to arrive to a high spot in the terrain 10k+ ft high and it's cold!! Mix that with the seemingly impossible task to try and catch your breath and it becomes a bit of a nuisance at times. We traveled through more beautiful terrain up until we took off the trail to go to Mess Verde National Park and see the ruins of ancient civilization that made what I interpreted to be small community in the rocks. What an awesome sight to see. The hike to see it was a swift reminder that I am out of shape and I even caught Kristi in a slight gasp a certain times. The trail said to take 45 min to an hour and was wmiles with stong decent and accents. We did it in 30min on the dot so I consider that a win!! Starting out we had big plans of all these areas of the park we wanted to see. We quickly figured out that we had underestimated the physical aspect, it wasn't like these places were just right off the road side, they were a hike! We saw enough to satisfy us, for now. This is where I would say having the National Park Annual Pass is good because we still have multiple others we want to see. We pressed on back to the Trans America Trail and then headed towards Moab. We stopped at a campsite along the way that was a bit too rich for our blood due to the fact that we were only tent camping and not really using many amenities so we carried on. We found a beautiful place outside of Lasal UT On San Was Mountain in the National Forest. The price here is Unbeatable guaranteed!! Part of the thrill of this trail is the fact that you really don't know where you will end up at the end of the day. With a teammate like the one I have, it really doesn't matter. As normal, we each get out and immediately go straight to a routine we have and usually have camp complete with kitchen and full sleeping arrangements done within 20min. After 320 miles today, I'm spent and we are enjoying nice mid 60s weather tonight. Unfortunately I am have the most EXTREME technical difficulties at the moment. My phone is full and can't do shit and Kristi loaded all the pics for this day to her personal FB instead of the one I specifically designed for the trip. Then to top it all off the laptop is done. I'm not sure what happened but it has worked absolutely fine until this trip specifically when I need it. So I will get pics asap when I figure out how. Hopefully all the electronics don't fly off a cliff in the mean time

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Day 12 Yesterday! The coverage is spotty so that's why I've uploaded 2 in a row today. We are experiencing EXTREME technical difficulties with Laptop and phones so the pictures will come later. Today we woke up after an amazing night of camping. The temperature was phenomenal the wind was just right and sky's were clear. We couldn't have asked for a better spot to stay or a better price!! After hanging out long enough to make and eat breakfast and clean out the fridge we were back on the trail. We came over Mt. Waas in a pretty technical but easy trail and arrived at beautiful views of the Canyons. We traveled into Moab where I had planned to get a hotel room. Apparently they have something big going on in Moab because everyone was either book or way out of our reasonable range. While in the area we went to Arches National Park where we set out to see the Arches. A slight misinterpretation of the map led us to hiking up a trail that was 3mi long 1way. We were prepared for 100yrds and didn't know how long it was after we found out the 100yrds wasn't the case!! We finally made it and got to see an amazing natural Stone arche called Delicate Arch. We left there and came to the sand flats recreation area where we did a little bit of Offroading in the pretty technical Jeep trails through out the park. It was more so a test for to see if Kristi would be able to stomach the more insane ones!! She is out on the huge up hills and down hills and really off camber spots. It's okay though because she makes a great photographer. Tomorrow we will eat at the diner and then play a little more I'm these Trails then hit the road. We finally got a chance to use the solar shower today and we both enjoyed being able to take a shower for free!! Till tomorrow, Peace.

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[SirWilliamGoes]

With the beautiful camp site and weather this morning it was tough to get up. After Kristi finally telling me I had to get up we headed out of the recreation area and into town in order to eat at the diner. I had full anticipated that we would get a hotel in Moad however the rates were way out of budget so we camped instead. I finally got to you my solar shower that I built for the trip and even think that I impressed Kristi with the design when she used it after seeing me get clean!! Up until know I believe she thought it to be gimmiky and not working!!! While at the diner we had service so I was going to take the time to get all the phone files cleaned and transferred to the laptop to free up space and to get all the scattered date in order, I was wrong!! The laptop gave out and is blinking caps lock and scroll lock and will not power on at all so it's out of commission. Intead with the use of 4g we loaded a video uploaded some photos and freed up space. This trip has taught me a few things 1 I have horrible luck when it comes to electronics and 2 never buy a phone without a memory card 3 always buy a big memory card! I freed up about 6gigs between the phone, the videos take a tremendous amount of space. We traveled through the most beautiful scenery imaginable in Utah up and through Green River. It seemed that ever corner was something new to look at. Once we determined that Ephrim and or Yuba was too far we called it a night at the first pull off on BLM lad we found. I have an app that shows BLM land and as long as the map of the area you are in is loaded you're good to go. It was night when we came in but I'm telling you now I just know that the scenery is going to be amazing when we get up. Till tomorrow, peace.
I just got a new memory card so hopefully we have the memory thing figured out now!!
For pics go to
facebook.com/USAONDIRT

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[SirWilliamGoes]

With the beautiful camp site and weather this morning it was tough to get up. After Kristi finally telling me I had to get up we headed out of the recreation area and into town in order to eat at the diner. I had full anticipated that we would get a hotel in Moad however the rates were way out of budget so we camped instead. I finally got to you my solar shower that I built for the trip and even think that I impressed Kristi with the design when she used it after seeing me get clean!! Up until know I believe she thought it to be gimmiky and not working!!! While at the diner we had service so I was going to take the time to get all the phone files cleaned and transferred to the laptop to free up space and to get all the scattered date in order, I was wrong!! The laptop gave out and is blinking caps lock and scroll lock and will not power on at all so it's out of commission. Intead with the use of 4g we loaded a video uploaded some photos and freed up space. This trip has taught me a few things 1 I have horrible luck when it comes to electronics and 2 never buy a phone without a memory card 3 always buy a big memory card! I freed up about 6gigs between the phone, the videos take a tremendous amount of space. We traveled through the most beautiful scenery imaginable in Utah up and through Green River. It seemed that ever corner was something new to look at. Once we determined that Ephrim and or Yuba was too far we called it a night at the first pull off on BLM lad we found. I have an app that shows BLM land and as long as the map of the area you are in is loaded you're good to go. It was night when we came in but I'm telling you now I just know that the scenery is going to be amazing when we get up. Till tomorrow, peace.

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[Toffees]

This looks fabulous. Eager for more pictures and updates, plus a few noob questions:

It's described as a dual-sport trail, but it looks like all are wide trails. Is that correct?

Are you using maps or GPS? Do you like them? If maps, can you show pictures of them? (I'm a bit of a map nerd/snob.)

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

This looks fabulous. Eager for more pictures and updates, plus a few noob questions:

It's described as a dual-sport trail, but it looks like all are wide trails. Is that correct?

Are you using maps or GPS? Do you like them? If maps, can you show pictures of them? (I'm a bit of a map nerd/snob.)

I'm using GPS and yes they are all pretty wide. Wide enough for a 4runner


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[SirWilliamGoes]

Day 15 we woke up in Yuba State Park with wind rain and cold. We decided that we needed to make a run for it and pack up before the storm came and boy were we right!! Unfortunately we had to do without our normal breakfast and coffee so we decided to stop at the local cafe / hotel and get our fix. The 4runner was driving off balance from all of the mud that we had gone through the day b4 and was in need of some mud removal so I stopped at the car was b4 breakfast and gave her, and myself, a good spray down. We ate breakfast and loaded pics and videos and then carried oon down the road. Unfortunately the first spray job made the balance and drive worse than b4 so I went back for another!! After I got that squared away we headed out of town in hopes to make it to West Windover where we could get a much needed room at a hotel. When we arrived we found the rooms to be too high and determined that we would rather have one in Idaho where the temps were already in the 30s. We traveled all through Utah and in then back out of Nevada. We started looking for campsite around a little town or what used to be a settlement named Kelton Utah. After hours we finally found a decent site, I got out to check it out and noticed what looked to be a small cave in the rock formation. While walking up the rock I thought I had heard something and wrote it off then while looking around I heard a loud noise in which I had never heard then hurried down the rock asking Kristi if she had heard it as well to which she worriedly said yes what was that. I had no idea what it was and we weren't gonna stay to figure it out, we were gone!!! After further thoughts I think it may have been a bear den, not sure though and don't care to find out!!! After driving 540 miles today we found camp at Curlew National Grasslands where the low is in the high 30s which is way too cold!!! We are super spent and don't wanna get out the heat of the truck but know we have to!!! Till tomorrow, Peace

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Day 16 we woke up to a wet cold tent this morning but the sun came out quickly to warm us up. It felt so good that I almost didn't wanna get out of bed. We both really would like to see Yellowstone National Park so we decided to get off the Trans America Trail and head to Yellowstone via boring roads aka interstate. I will say that have a speed limit of 80 sure helps and I really wish that the Eastern states would jump on board with the idea. We determined that after 15days of camping we would like a hotel and found one in Rexburg, Idaho. We also found a C-A-L Ranch Stores that had a 5lb propane tank with my name on it, and super friendly staff. I've never been so excited for something so stupid but you have to understand why. 1) I can't find one for less than 70$ at home which is insane because a 20lb cost 30$ 2) I think that the small disposable 1lb tanks are so wasteful because you can't refill them and they are just an overall waste of lots of material. We checked into the Motel 6 here in Rexburg and we are very impressed with the first impression. That may not mean much since we have been living outside for the past 15days!! None the less, we will enjoy no less than 2 hot showers a piece and will travel into town to do laundry and grab a bite to eat we will consider this a rest day!! For the life of me I can't understand why they would build a brand new hotel with no laundry room but hey no biggie. Here is the landscape we looked at today.Till tomorrow, peace.

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Hey guys here is Episode 3. In this episode we travel from Mississippi to Arkansas on the Trans America Trail
https://youtu.be/ZqiKTvLIYOQ

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Day 17
We woke up refreshed after our first night in a hotel!! I literally took 3 showers just to savor the feeling! I think that Kristi enjoyed two herself!! We ate out the night before and did some laundry, pretty boring for a Saturday night but it was alright by us. We stopped at the local Walmart to pick up a portable heater for the temperatures that will be waiting for us in Oregon. We then traveled to Yellowstone National Park and saw some of the most amazing natural wonders that this Earth has to offer. We could have literally spent a week just exploring the park alone. It never ceases to amaze me that we are always rushing and never have enough time it seems to really soak it all in, I guess that's what happens when you only have a month to explore 15+ states!!! I rekon we will just have to continue to explore the rest of our lives!!! After enjoying a small portion of what Yellowstone had to offer we headed back down to the trail. We found camp on Bureau of Land Management Land called Pipeline Campground which is just fantastic. We couldn't ask for better sunset and it's right on the Snake River which feeds Mine and Kristi's inner #Cancer. Tomorrow we will be back on the Trans America Trail headed west. We plan to make a stop at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve if the time permits. We hope to make it into Oregon tomorrow since we are starting to be in a crunch for time. With the #wildfires and potential snow we are keeping a close eye on everything. Last year I was unable to do a large portion or Oregon due to the weather and I certainly don't want a repeat. Oregon looks to be beautiful but for some reason she doesn't seem to want to cater to my travels as well as other states. Here are some pics. Till tomorrow, Peace.

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Today started out as many others have for me, COLD!! I feel sorry for me because we haven't even begin to get into the cold temperatures yet and still here I am whining about the cold. The campsite we found last night was awesome, the only way it would have been better would be to have some warmer weather but other than that we couldn't ask for more. We quickly set off back to the trail and after some short bit of pavement we were back on farm roads. Kristi and I have never seen so many potatoes in our life. With the truck after truck after truck, semis pulling multiple trailers full, you would think that Idaho is the only spot potatoes are grown. Like I'm astonished at the fact that we as a society can even eat all these potatoes!! Really, we have been here only a few days and gathered a snapshot of the day to day activities and if this is normal that's an ass of potatoes!! Anyways, shortly after the farm land it turned to prehistoric lava rock which was really neat, although it made for extremely low travel speeds because the road was pretty rough. We were originally gonna stop at Craters of the moon but did some research and found that we wouldn't have seen much more that we already had gotten to see driving through and around the actual monument so we made the decision to press on. Shortly after a brief stent in Arco, we started up the mountains where it had began to rain. We dealt with muddy roads nearly all day from that point on. The high mountain passes were really cool but the storm and weather made for not so ideal conditions and bad pics. We came across a group of college students that were part of the Student Conservation Association, they had managed to get their full size Dodge Ram in quite a pickle on a road that looked as if the heavy rain literally swept it away. We stopped to see if I could help and my Little Ol' Apple (Toyota 4Runner) pulled them to safety. I was happy to help and even happier that I could this time since that last person we tried to help we couldn't. From there we continued on into Ketchum where we had read that we could find the best potato in Idaho. This was must since we had seen so many potatoes I was now craving one. I had the best prime rib sandwich I have ever tasted and the atmosphere was pretty cool too. The baked potato was good, but no difference than the potatoes I've had before!! We then tried to make up some ground and decided that we would make our way into the sawtooth national Forest and try to get over the mountains and camp on the other side hopefully lower so the temperature would be high and also maybe beating the rain. After about 2hrs of driving we came to a complete stop on Forest Road 227 where it was blocked because of a mudslide. It looks like this has been an issue for some time because their are cement barriers blocking it. We had to backtrack and the route was to take until well into dark and included some more mountain passes. Not wanting to attempt this in the dark and rain we decided to hunker down at a campsite in the forest and we will get up in the morning and head out. We have opted to use the big tent that Lauren let us borrow because it holds the heat better and we have a living room of sorts since it's raining. The low is supposed to be in the 30s here. At this point we are dreaming of when we can get to SoCal where it's 85!!! Till tomorrow, peace.

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Day 19 was tough we woke up cold and wet and looked out side to see heavy snow!! We have gone through all the seasons this trip and we are ready to go back to summer!! We drove nearly 400 miles and made it over the infamous Wolf Mountain which last year had stopped me in my tracks. We made it down the mountain and found a nice camping area in which we decided would work. When unpacking we found the big tent to be filled with water, not wanting to tackle that at the moment we left it open in hopes it would dry and set up the little tent. We decided to leave the rain fly draped over the ten and velcro on the rails but opted to not allow it to act as an awning which is definitely the way to use this particular tent in the low temps. I woke up to slight wind and rain and hurried to let down big tent so it wouldn't get anymore water in it. From there the wind and rain turned to just steady rain. Nice to sleep to, bad to camp in!! Now we have 2 tents that are soaked. We stayed warm though and the bugs are non existent in these temps. we are now pressing on to Port Orford and will make it no matter what today!! Then it's off to the warm temps again!!! Till tomorrow, Peace.

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Day 20
Today we woke up to more rain. It was actually a nice temperature for us since we had found a way to let the rain fly stay up against the tent and not opened as if trying to catch a breeze. The problem was that 1) it started raining so everything was soaked 2) it had also started to condensate all on the inside so everything was wet. We gathered the energy to get up and then started packing in the rain. I put big tent in the roof basket hoping it would dry with the wind. That worked out well till we came across more rain!! At this point we have two soaked tents and really there's nothing we can do about it. I really don't know what a solution would be to this problem. The Trans America Trail took us near CVT so we stopped to have a look at some far more luxurious caping tent than what we have, these mount on the top of the 4runner and would be very cool, I still don't know how you would avoid wet though. From there my grandma called who is also on a traveling adventure and they were stopping in Eugene will traveling to Canada. We decided we would get off the Trans America Trail to meet them. Afterall we were in serious time crunch and at this point had run out of days to be on the TAT. We took boring roads into Port Orford OR where we arrived at 10pm local time. We made our plots in the truck and that's where we are camping tonight. Again, bot tents are wet and it's still raining!!! We are excited though to see the sunrise since we are right on the ocean, and to think people spend millions for this view!! P.S. We can't wait until we get sunny weather and we are just ecstatic about going back into the desert at this point!! Till tomorrow, Peace.

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[Ojai4Runner]

Congrats!

Dude, you made it to the west coast. And WITH your beautiful lady. Seriously, she is waaaaaayyyyyyyyy cuter than you are.

I'm just assuming you know Hwy 1 is closed in parts of Central California so plan accordingly.
Division of Traffic Operations - Road Information - California Highway Information
i *think* you said you planned on driving down the coast hwy to LA. However you make it, I'll wave as you pass Ojai.

Safe travels and thanks for sharing both last years trip and this one. You're guilty of inciting wanderlust and that's a good thing you've done.

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

Dude, you made it to the west coast. And WITH your beautiful lady. Seriously, she is waaaaaayyyyyyyyy cuter than you are.

I'm just assuming you know Hwy 1 is closed in parts of Central California so plan accordingly.
Division of Traffic Operations - Road Information - California Highway Information
i *think* you said you planned on driving down the coast hwy to LA. However you make it, I'll wave as you pass Ojai.

Safe travels and thanks for sharing both last years trip and this one. You're guilty of inciting wanderlust and that's a good thing you've done.

Glad you have enjoyed. I agree she does look way better than me!! You wouldn't know of any really cool spots in Pismo do you? We have hopped off 1 because my sidekick doesn't wanna do the "turny" roads anymore!!! We came far enough to see the beautiful Pacific Coast though!

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[SirWilliamGoes]

After making it into Port Orford late last night the sleep was good. We decided to sleep in the rig at Paradise Point. I was comfortable and Kristi was somewhat comfortable. When I started prepping for the trip I made sure that everything could be packed inside or outside relatively easy so that way when we got to city if we had to we could stealth camp inside the 4runner. I let Kristi know that when we got into the city's portion of our trip this would be a necessary skill because it's harder and a lot more expensive to camp in those places. She told me that she was fine with sleeping in the front seat. This system works out great for me because I'm the one stretching out but I foresee Kristi getting tired of it quick. We drove down the 101 then to the PCH / 1 where we found some camping areas but 45$ just seems outrageous to set up a tent for a night or to even park anywhere. We found a spot to cook dinner off the hwy and down a little trail, it comes to a fence that says private property and we didn't cross the fence. We have the most amazing view!! We cooked dinner, no one bother with us so we figured we will just sleep here and be gone the first thing in the morning. The worse that can happen, in my mind, is someone tell us to leave. In that case we get a jump on tomorrows travels. Here are some pics, btw the west coast is amazing and breathtaking, if you haven't seen it go now!!!! Till tomorrow, Peace.

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[SirWilliamGoes]

Day 22 full write up!!
This morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the Pacific Coast complements of someone who lives there!! We had traveled some ways until we found a pull off where we were greeted by a family of deer. We traveled some ways down until it came to fence that said private property so we didn't cross. After cooking dinner we pressed on and truck camped!! We decided that cooking breakfast would be a little too much perhaps we would wear out our welcome, so we moved on to a daytime recreation site. We then traveled down the Pacific Coast Highway and we're meet with some pretty time consuming construction. Kristi had grown tired of the constant switch back and we had seen beautiful coast so we decided that we would hope back on the 101. We came into Pismo Beach, California at around 6pm local and had a good pizza at Dels Pizza, it was decent but Kristi and I are both now spoiled by Brown Dog in Telluride, Colorado. We came across Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area where we camped on the beach for 10$ it was awesome!!! People in off-road buggies trucks side by side you name it all having fun for the weekend. This also gave me a chance to repair / plug my tire which picked up a large nail at some point. Today we will make it into Los Angeles. Till tomorrow, Peace.

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[gm350reratliff]

Watched all three episodes at work tonight (what else are graveyards good for) and really enjoyed them. Definitely on my bucket list of trails to do. Should've done this before I had kids.

Can't wait for the rest of the vids/updates!