MadXJ Mid Winter Run, February 23-24, 2001
Land Between the Lakes, Turkey Bay OHV Area
(Page 1 of 3)
I met up with some friends from the MadXJ e-mail list down at the Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area. More specifically, we went to the Turkey Bay OHV area. All of my previous 4 wheelin' trips were to The Badlands in Attica, IN, so it was nice to see some new trails.
Scott K., brought his XJ along with his dad, Bill, and his son, Hunter. I drove down from Chicago through Indiana and picked up my friend Matt along the way. Matt and I met Scott K. and family on Friday the 23rd. Nicholaus, Roger and Judy, and Roy and his brother came down on Saturday the 24th. Nicholaus has a ZJ, Roger and Judy have a TJ, and Roy drives and XJ. We all had a really good time, and the weather was awesome. It was in the 60's on Saturday. That is pretty nice when you have been suffering through a Chicago winter for 4 months!
Since we did not know the area very well, we used a GPS to mark all the major points on the map that the Forest Service has for the Turkey Bay OHV area and then explored many of the trails that were not marked on the map. Using the GPS made the trip extremely enjoyable. Half the fun was exploring the new and unknown trails, and the GPS plus the Turkey Bay map made getting around very easy. A special thanks goes out to Let's Go Jeepin' for letting us borrow a GPS for the weekend :-)
The Morning of Friday, February 23, 2001
Here is Scott K.'s XJ. It is really built up and a very capable vehicle. Scott trailers it to and from the trails with a big Ford pick up truck.
Here is my XJ on the first day of trail riding. Note how Matt and I have modified my Yakima bicycle carrier to carry a full size shovel. A full size shovel is nice to have and lot easier to use than a small folding shovel.
While cruising around the main trails and marking major intersections on the GPS, we came across this big mud hole. Matt has a big yellow Ford F-350 that he likes to take through mud holes, so we had to investigate. It was not as deep as we had thought, but I am sure that will change once a few full size trucks go blasting through with huge tires!
After the mud hole, we explored a little more and came across a hill with 5 or 6 steep climbs. It looked like a lot of fun, but it was very soft so it was very hard to get good traction. We gave it our best shot, but only were able to make it up a couple of the climbs.
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