Journey to Overland HQ

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
So guys.

It has been a reasonably quiet last 2 weeks so I dont really have much to report.

I am however going away this weekend, and it should be really good to just get out bush, we have a bigger group then ideal, but I think because everyone is experienced it should be pretty good. We are headed to one of the more remote sections of Arizona and from what I hear there is some good technical driving to be had. So ill make sure I get you some pictures and give you a bit of a low down on how it all went early next week.

I should also have the video from the Sedona trip up sometime next week, so keep an eye out for that.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Safe Journey.

PS, rumpig, Im going to need to start getting supplies sent from back home soon... they serve rum and coke over here with white rum :(
 

Rumpig

Adventurer
PS, rumpig, Im going to need to start getting supplies sent from back home soon... they serve rum and coke over here with white rum :(
that is just wrong, sorry to hear....lol
looking forward to the report from this coming weekend :cool:
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
The big weekend

Well this was an action packed trip. We headed out on Saturday morning from Prescott, 4 cars for this trip, the only scary thing is that they were all Land Rovers. We had in tow the OJ LR4, Chris’s Range Rover Sport, the LR2 Trek and Chazz in his very modified LR2. Thankfully we only had a few faults, and all were clearable.

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Photo Credit: Scott Brady

The route that we took was a rather enjoyable one. Scott had run this route before so knew that it was going to be slow going, which was very helpful inside knowledge. Even with 4 capable cars and experienced drivers the rocky terrain still kept things at a slow pace when on the “difficult” section of the track. From Prescott we headed towards Wickenburg, cutting into Box Canyon, just outside Wickenburg. From there we headed through to constellation Rd and traveled East. We then hit the fun part of the trip when we turned off the manicured dirt road ( Left at a water tower for anyone interested). The route got pretty slow from this point averaging less than 10mph. It was steep rocky terrain, where concentration was key to making sure you made it through without doing any damage.

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Photo Credit: Scott Brady

After about 2.3hrs of driving and photographing we hit a corral that we camped at for the night. We had a great campfire feed for dinner, with some sausage and veggies wrapped in foil and thrown on some hot coals. We hit it off even more for dessert with a deep fried tortilla filled with chocolate, marshmallow and cinnamon snaps :)

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Photo Credit: Chazz Layne

A Good night around the fire was met with great pleasure and laughter from the whole group, as we all enjoyed each others stories.... and they kept trying to give me a hard time for being an Aussie.... Its ok... I had one of guys convinced about drop bears :)

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Photo Credit: Chazz Layne
The morning saw a communally cooked breakfast.... due to some poor decision making, we tried to start cooking before the fire was quite ready... but anyway we had fun, packed up camp and bailed out.

Sundays drive was also very rugged, but we kept up a reasonable pace. We decided not to push for Kings Crown, instead we pulled off the trail about midday and made a B-line back to Wickenburg.

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Photo Credit: Me :)

Overall a great 2 days out, with some fun and adventure had by all and I got to experience another side to Arizona.

This weekend I have a video shoot around Sedona and Black Canyon... but I cant say much more then that, so I wont have a huge amount I can write about next week, but Ill try to pop something up at some stage.

Also make sure you check out the video for the Sedona trip a few weeks back 36 Hours Of Adventure: Sedona
 

Rumpig

Adventurer
Drop Bears...PMSL...lol
looks like you're having a great time and seeing some beautiful country going by the video and latest pics you've posted :cool:
 

p1michaud

Expedition Leader
Troy,
Great to see you joined the forum! It was also nice chewing the fat and drinking free XXXX beer compliments of Roothy and the 4WD Action crew last April at the Birdsville pub! Liked your Swag article. Looking for Swag testers in Oz yet for an OJ comparo? I'll keep an eye out for your Australian inspired content. Perhaps you could do a piece on Australiana (I was riding my pushie to uni while wearing sunnies and pluggers the other day...).
Enjoy Prescott and your adventure.
Pierre
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
G'day Guys.

So I Have had one hell of a busy last week/ weekend. Over the weekend we had a few members from Salsa Cycles and SRAM join us to help them launch a brand new product to the market. A full suspension Fatbike. Essentially a mountain bike on fat, 4inch tyres.

Basically I spent the weekend shuffelling them to their different destination that they needed to be take to ride all the trials. we also had all of their camping gear and spares to make life easier. On the up side I got to spend some time in a few areas I hadnt been before.

Devils Bridge in Sedona, Crown King, Black Canyon Trail and most importantly the Rock Springs Cafe.

Devils bridge was quite nice as we had a short hike while we waited for the bikers to do their run. The best thing about it was that it reminded me of how much I enjoyed all aspects of the outdoors and not just the 4wding. While it was certainly not a difficult track it did have some very steep steps in some areas to try and get up to the "bridge".

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We then headed out of Sedona and down into Oak Creek Canyon where we spent the night around a great campfire. What made this trip so impressive was the people on it. Within 15 minutes everyone was getting along like a house on fire, telling stories and giving each other a hard time like we had know each other for years. It reminded me of many of the nights I had had around a fire when I was just a wee pup... like 4 or 5 years ago :)

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Hitting the road the next morning we drop the bikers at the head of Black Canyon Trail (BCT) and they were about to embark on a 18 mile journey across the dessert, in about 3.5-4 hours....

Instead of doing that, the drivers decided that pie was a much better idea so we headed to the Rock Springs Cafe, know for its incredible pie.... and well it was pretty darn good!

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We headed to the rendezvous and simply chilled out for a few hours in the desert, to the sound of birds, wind and gun fire :)

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I took a bit of time to shoot some "pretty" shots

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We headed to Crown king that night.... which was well.... interesting :) but certainly a place I wouldnt mind going back to at some stage.

All in all a great weekend.

Im hurridly writing this so that I can go Pack to do Mojave Rd starting tmr and Moab for Easter Jeep.

Have a safe Easter

Safe Journey...

Troy
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
G'day Guys. Sorry I have been a bit slack with keeping you up to date on my adventures.

I thought I would give you a quick fill in. Conveniently I happen to write an article on my recent trip to moab for Easter Jeep Safari,http://www.expeditionportal.com/adventures/2945-an-aussie-goes-to-moab.html so feel free to have a read of that.

Before that trip I went and did the run along the Mojave Rd in a Subaru Forrester, I had a great time doing that trip and im writing up an article for that today, so you should be able to have a read of that later this week on the home page.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to Moab, this time with Paul from Equipit for Cruise Moab, with some of the Toyota Land cruiser folks. This sounds like it will be plenty of fun and I will get to run some different trails to last time. It is also a slightly less formal occasion.

So look forward to some more updates next week.

Safe Journey...
 

Rumpig

Adventurer
Nice read and some stunning pics in the Moab article. Many years back i swore i never wanted to vist the USA, but the more pics i see on here and reports i read of various places, the more i want to head over and go for a drive there.
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
I used to be like that, then I saw a Top Gear US episode where they went 4WDing in Alaska and then I was like.... ok maybe the US can go on the list of places to see :)
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
Cruise Moab and Beyond.

Well guys.

Turns out we have a backlog of adventure articles so it may take a little bit longer then planned to get the Mojave Rd and Cruise Moab Articles up. In saying that, you should be really looking forward to the Crusie Moab article. Personally I think it is the best one I have done... Ill chuck it up here as soon as it is done.

So apart from that over the weekend me and Chris decided to take a spontaneous trip to the Verde Hot springs. However being the adventurous types that we are, we decided to try and get in the back way. BEST DECISION EVER.... well kinda anyway. What we thought would be a pretty smooth trail ended up being a rocky, kinda slippery windy trail up and over a mountain range. There were times when a big rock on the trail made it almost impossible to pass without falling off a cliff. It offered some stunning views and enjoyable driving. We made it down to the Verde river around 2, and stopped for lunch, however where we made it too the river crossing was closed. This meant that we had another 1.5 drive back and around to reach another crossing. Once we hit that, it was a pretty easy crossing, just reasonably long.

We hiked to the hot springs and chilled out there for a short while before heading back out. On our way out, we ran across a family who had had the unfortunate luck of getting a flat, while having a flat spare.... Well i guess my time of carrying around an ARB tyre repair kit, and hours bored at the end of the days at 4WD shows back home, finally paid off. We were able to patch one of the tyres and get them out.

Overall a great and rewarding day, a proper adventure so too speak.


So as some of you may know it is Overland Expo this week. So im a touch on the busy side getting ready for that. I will certainly get around to posting some pictures for you at some stage in the not distant future.

Safe Journey...
Troy
 

zeroland

Adventurer
Be sure to get plenty of ideas from the expo so that we can host one ourselves.

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
So the last few weeks have been interesting.
I first of all had Overland Expo. Which is essentially a gathering of many world travelers that all just share a passion for exploration and adventure. This could be in/on anything from a motorbike all the way through to Unimogs (a 4wd truck often used by the military) with big campers mounted on the back.

After that adventurous weekend I had a few days back in the office before I headed for the western coastline. Flying in to LA was a bit of a nightmare as I lost my passport on the flight somehow, this will be a bit of a setback in the coming weeks but hopefully It can be sorted out, or found. Anyway, after that it turned into a pretty good weekend. I met up with one of my oldest friends Alice and her BF Cameron. Sadly I got crammed into the back of a convertible camaro due to a shortage of rental cars, at least this was pretty much the worst of my problems for the days to come.

Day 1 saw us leave LA as fast as we could.... which is not very fast with traffic on a Long Weekend. we set our sights on Santa Barbara for lunch. It was a nice little town but being a saturday it was very busy, we wandered down state street and headed down to the Pier. Overall a quaint little place and somewhere I dont think I would mind spending some time one day... but who knows.
The night was to be spent with a guy I met through OJ called Matt who was kind enough to invite us to his little house in Shell Beach, about 2 hours Nth of SB. While overall an uneventful drive down the 101 shell beach turned out to be a great place to spend the evening. After watching the sun go down we headed out for some tasty Mexican and a few beers before bed finally called.

Hwy 1 is an area of the United States coast that I would encourage anyone to see if they have the chance. It is full of high cliffs, rolling mountains and a road that is to die for. Our trip took us from Shell Beach along the coast all the way to San Fran that sunday. Along the way we stopped in Morro Bay, Big Sur and Monterey, all of which are awesome little places in their own right.
San Fran is probably my favourite big city I have visited so far. It has so much to see and do in such a small area, it is easy to get around and has many amazing view points and parks. In the few short days that we were there we did the following;
-Golden Gate Bridge
-Alcatraz
-Sausalito
-Golden Gate Park
-A lap around the town
-the 2nd crookedest street in the world
-fishermans wharf
-Coit tower
and im sure many more.
But I think the best part was that for the last night we went and sat above the GGB and had some, beers, snacks, and watched the sunset on San Francisco.
With that we made our way back to LA for a quick trip down Hollywood Boulevard before hitting the airport.
A great trip and a great time catching up with some old friends....

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Santa Barbara Pier

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Creative "busking"

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Elephant Seals on Hwy 1

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One of the many views along the coast, once the fog cleared of course.

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Sea lions invading the Jetty

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Segway tour of Golden Gate Park

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Sunset over San Fran

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Gotta do my time

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Standing on the stars!

Ill have some more photos to come in the next week or so. I used my friends 60D for a bit of the time (she went back to Aus :) ), these are just photos from my phone :)
 
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Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
Travelling is something that always has a way of finding things that takes up your time. The last few weeks have been no exception to this in my case even though I have not done anything super exciting.

So to catch you up from where I last posted I came back from San Fran on the very broke side of things but it was definitely worth it. So to make up for this I have been largely working a lot, I have finalised a few articles which are now up on portal.

For those that havent seen them already.

A trip report on a trip to the Mojave Rd
http://expeditionportal.com/a-subaru-forester-vs-the-mojave-road/

And one from a trip to the San Rafeal Swell.

http://expeditionportal.com/highway-to-swell/

Now I dont know how many of you have gotten to these places, but if you are ever down and around this part of the world they are certainly worth a look particularly the Swell. It is a beautiful place to just stop and spend a day or two cut off from the world :)

I have been away on one trip recently, this was simply a nice overnighter to run out and test a few Camper Trailers out on some trails. I figured for this I would do more of a "photo story" for this one, as I really like some of the shots that I took (and im not rushing to write too much more at the moment). But it was a run to Windy Point, a tad north of Kingman and just outside a town called Chloride.

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The fun begins.

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Spectacular views

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Sunset silhouettes

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Sunset over the valley

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fun times

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I wouldnt think that blue was very effective for desert camouflage.

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I dont think I need to say much

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The town collectors

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shame its "cactus"

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Get your kicks on Route 66 :p

Anyway guys. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and feel free to shoot me any questions about what I have been up too :)
 

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