US East Running the Trans America Trail (TAT) from WV to the OR coast

[armyRN]

I guess we'll just play it by ear once we meet up in Colorado Neal. I'd like to avoid crowds and lines if at all possible.

 

[armyRN]

Back to Trasharoos. I put mine on my Jeep yesterday after giving it a good cleaning. It definitely has some miles and weather on it - might be time for a new one after this TAT trip. When I got mine years ago, I think black was the only color. Now there are multiple options. We'll see.



What do I keep in mine? Bathroom stuff. My little folding bathroom seat, TP, etc. I have a small shovel on the side of my Jeep's roof rack. The little orange hand trowel is for if I'm going hiking.



I received my Trasharoo clutter box thingie in the mail the other day, so I finally opened it up to see what it is like. It's nice. It'll do the job. I'm sure I'll end up almost filling it up with stuff for the trip, which is good to be able to be organized. Definitely lots of pockets and storage compartments. Check out how I filled-it when you see me in June.

 

[Commish1999]

Woo hoo! I'd be honored!

It would not require the OHV permit, but it would usually require a National Park Pass. That's $25 per vehicle if you're not already holding an annual pass or similar. If you might visit other National Parks on this trip, the annual pass ($80) might be a worthy investment.

Due to congestion we'd like to avoid the weekends and especially July 4th weekend, if possible. (@armyRN Your previous ETA was July 3/4)

I'll be figuring out the best route. For example, if it is a weekend, I'd suggest we go in the back door (Medano Pass) and out the front entrance to avoid the toll booth line. They have a warning that during the peak times of June that there could be a 1-3 mile wait.

I wouldn't count on being able to get us all in the campground, but during the week it might be possible. There are formal dispersed camp sites on the Medano Rd (first come first served), but that would be challenging to accommodate all of us. The big area I've mentioned at the northeast end is ideal, but you don't want to go that far unless you're done with the Park. Camping on the end near the main entrance is problematic, but not impossible.

Our estimated length of stay in the park and ultimately the time of day arrival will help me plan our best route.

If you're a US Veteran, the National Park Pass is free. Just have proof of service when applying. This can also be done at any NP.

Free Entrance to National Parks for Veterans and Gold Star Families (U.S. National Park Service)

 

[DEADBEEF]

I just went back and looked at your map. That's the pavement route in. You'd have way more fun on Medano Pass 4wd road and it has big camping area right at the beginning.

EDIT: OR, go in via your pavement route and exit through Medano Pass to get back to the TAT. The big dispersed camping area I mentioned earlier is at the northeast end of the road and outside the Park.

Medano Pass Primitive Road - Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

I picked the pavement route so I would not disturb our TAT following. Thought we could jump over and come back to re-join the TAT where we left off. Since I am not a “qualified or have any knowledge“ about CO and this area I would have to defer to the CO experts. I can always add this NP on my bucket list for a future trip. If logistics are too hard or if there are crowds or no interest we can punt. I thought I would do my part and make a suggestion.

What ever makes the most sense for the group is all good.

 

[DEADBEEF]

If you're a US Veteran, the National Park Pass is free. Just have proof of service when applying. This can also be done at any NP.

Free Entrance to National Parks for Veterans and Gold Star Families (U.S. National Park Service)

Also the NP Pass has a lifetime pass option for “seniors” >=60/62 for $80 bucks; they will apply the credit for what you have paid on an annual pass too.

 

[Zaroch]

I am planning on making a trailer out of a 96 suburban will that be to big you think?

For this trip? Yes - too big.

Why is it too big? Are some of the turns too sharp or what?

 

[armyRN]

Why is it too big? Are some of the turns too sharp or what?

You asked me what do I think of using a Suburban as a basis for a trailer, and I replied I thought it would be too big for this trip.

I like trailers... I'm bringing a little trailer. I've also seen the problems having too big a trailer will bring. And we're not talking hugely big.

From the videos I've seen of the TAT over on the eastern side of the country, and knowing what the trails can be like in the PNW, I've seen the difficulties that a too big of a trailer can have on a trail. Even just slightly too big of a trailer.

Trees are often too close together, boulders on one side of a trail with a steep drop-off, and a wall (for lack of a better term) on the other side of the trail, and often no room to turn around. And hairpin turns are difficult with a trailer. Some of the trails (much of them) are one-lane trails with minimal room to maneuver on either side if a vehicle is coming the other way.

And if they're too big, they're probably heavy, which makes then difficult to manhandle when needed to get around an obstacle.

That's why in one of the initial posts when talking about trailers I specify trailer sizes as like a WWII military trailer size, or a very small teardrop-like trailer (not wider or taller than the tow vehicle). And I was hesitant to even mention small teardrops as a possibility back then, because someone's definition of "small" might be my idea of "large".

Here's an example of a "small" teardrop trailer - the Pika (the one I'd like to get someday... when I've got an extra $20,000 sitting around):

Link: The Pika Teardrop Trailer | Small Camping Trailers, Camping Trailers (timberleaftrailers.com)



And as part of the "Tread Lightly" philosophy, I have no intention of anyone cutting down trees to make a path for a vehicle and trailer (I will cut branches though, or trees that have fallen blocking the way). And moving boulders is fair game.

Link: Home - Tread Lightly

Now running the Alaska Highway from one end to the other, and the Dempster and/or Dalton Highway... a fifth-wheel trailer wouldn't be too big.

Neal - any hairpin turns on the CO portion we'll be running?

 

[Zaroch]

Why is it too big? Are some of the turns too sharp or what?

You asked me what do I think of using a Suburban as a basis for a trailer, and I replied I thought it would be too big for this trip.

I like trailers... I'm bringing a little trailer. I've also seen the problems having too big a trailer will bring. And we're not talking hugely big.

From the videos I've seen of the TAT over on the eastern side of the country, and knowing what the trails can be like in the PNW, I've seen the difficulties that a too big of a trailer can have on a trail. Even just slightly too big of a trailer.

Trees are often too close together, boulders on one side of a trail with a steep drop-off, and a wall (for lack of a better term) on the other side of the trail, and often no room to turn around. And hairpin turns are difficult with a trailer. Some of the trails (much of them) are one-lane trails with minimal room to maneuver on either side if a vehicle is coming the other way.

And if they're too big, they're probably heavy, which makes then difficult to manhandle when needed to get around an obstacle.

That's why in one of the initial posts when talking about trailers I specify trailer sizes as like a WWII military trailer size, or a very small teardrop-like trailer (not wider or taller than the tow vehicle). And I was hesitant to even mention small teardrops as a possibility back then, because someone's definition of "small" might be my idea of "large".

Here's an example of a "small" teardrop trailer - the Pika (the one I'd like to get someday... when I've got an extra $20,000 sitting around):

Link: The Pika Teardrop Trailer | Small Camping Trailers, Camping Trailers (timberleaftrailers.com)

View attachment 199990

And as part of the "Tread Lightly" philosophy, I have no intention of anyone cutting down trees to make a path for a vehicle and trailer (I will cut branches though, or trees that have fallen blocking the way). And moving boulders is fair game.

Link: Home - Tread Lightly

Now running the Alaska Highway from one end to the other, and the Dempster and/or Dalton Highway... a fifth-wheel trailer wouldn't be too big.

Neal - any hairpin turns on the CO portion we'll be running?

Ok thank you that is the kinda info I was looking for. I wanted others opinions and whatnot. I didn't think that the suburbtrailer would be so cumbersome and whatnot. Thank you for your advice and thoughts. I'm still going to make it for some other trips but I will be putting it on the back burner for now and get/make something smaller. Again thank you

 

[Neal A. Tew]

Neal - any hairpin turns on the CO portion we'll be running?

Yes, there are some tight switchbacks on the sections I'm familiar with and probably more on the CO sections I haven't run.

I agree with the concerns expressed above. We're going to be on the trails in peak Colorado tourist season. While you might be okay in a tight squeeze when you have the trail to yourself, many times that's where you will encounter traffic. It often requires a bit of work getting by each other and will be especially so with the size of this group. It is not unusual for you to have to back up several feet to find a spot to pull off. Sometimes that spot is the edge of a cliff.

Often these 4WD roads are access to hiking trail heads and you'll encounter parked vehicles along the road. I drive an 02 Avalanche which is the same chassis as the Suburban of that year. On one trip in the last year or so, we came into a switchback and found vehicles parked on both sides of the trail. I had to pull in both mirrors to make the squeeze. I remember joking that another coat of paint and I'd be rubbing. LOL If I couldn't have made it we would have been screwed. The trail was so tight before and after this section that turning around would have been extremely difficult. A trailer would have been impossible.

Unless the truck has significant lift, I think a trailer of any length is going to give problems with a poor break over angle whereas the tongue might scrub on short ups-and-downs. I also suspect it would be long and wide enough that it wouldn't follow the same track causing it to encounter trail side rocks and drop offs.

I really don't want to rain on your parade, @Zaroch. I hope you can still find a way to make it.

 

[Zaroch]

Neal - any hairpin turns on the CO portion we'll be running?

Yes, there are some tight switchbacks on the sections I'm familiar with and probably more on the CO sections I haven't run.

I agree with the concerns expressed above. We're going to be on the trails in peak Colorado tourist season. While you might be okay in a tight squeeze when you have the trail to yourself, many times that's where you will encounter traffic. It often requires a bit of work getting by each other and will be especially so with the size of this group. It is not unusual for you to have to back up several feet to find a spot to pull off. Sometimes that spot is the edge of a cliff.

Often these 4WD roads are access to hiking trail heads and you'll encounter parked vehicles along the road. I drive an 02 Avalanche which is the same chassis as the Suburban of that year. On one trip in the last year or so, we came into a switchback and found vehicles parked on both sides of the trail. I had to pull in both mirrors to make the squeeze. I remember joking that another coat of paint and I'd be rubbing. LOL If I couldn't have made it we would have been screwed. The trail was so tight before and after this section that turning around would have been extremely difficult. A trailer would have been impossible.

Unless the truck has significant lift, I think a trailer of any length is going to give problems with a poor break over angle whereas the tongue might scrub on short ups-and-downs. I also suspect it would be long and wide enough that it wouldn't follow the same track causing it to encounter trail side rocks and drop offs.

I really don't want to rain on your parade, @Zaroch. I hope you can still find a way to make it.

No it's fine I get it and thank you for the insight. I will probably make a small trailer still and make the big one later for other trips but also make it so that I will only need the truck.

 

[armyRN]

Yeah; I didn't even mention break over angles. On my last group run doing the WABDR, we had someone with a slightly too big and too long-of a trailer. On one of the short ups-and-downs his tongue was dragging, and it ripped the wiring off the trailer where it connected to the frame (so no more lights or electric brakes). He was having a rough go of it. To get around one particular spot we were having to take a high-lift jack, jack up the back of the trailer and move the rear over a bit (and repeat as necessary) so he could make the turn. It was too heavy for us to lift and move over.

I am a huge trailer proponent. I love my little trailer. There's no way I could do the overlanding stuff I do with my Jeep TJ without my little trailer. It is based off a 4' trailer frame I ordered from Harbor Freight. It has been heavily modified over the years, but still has a 40x50" tub frame size. Here's a link if you're interested in building a little HF-type 4' trailer for overlanding. It has become a very long thread, but if you read through it, you will be an expert at building your own.

Link: Mini Harbor Freight (type) Trailer Ultimate Build-Up Thread - JeepForum.com

Here's how it started out (and its first trip - a trip around the Olympic Peninsula). Stock axle and factory 12" tires/rims:



Here it is later with a slightly wider axle and 205/75/15" tires:



Here's the trailer pictured below up in Canada (in Atlin? Something like that). With these 205/75/15" tires, I still had a few more inches of clearance under the trailer's axle than I did under the pumpkin of the Dana 44 rear axle. My buddy and I drug that thing all over Alaska and Canada with zero issues. Other than we learned the factory slipper springs suck - they offer no flex.



Another trailer trip - this time running the Dempster Highway in northern Canada. This trip we used my buddy's Jeep ZJ we outfitted for the trip. This trailer has seen some action! Here we're on one of the two ferry crossings on the Dempster. This shows the first tongue extension, cooler tray up front, springs swapped out (got rid of the slipper springs for some longer springs with a shackle in the rear), 235/75/15" tires, and a rack on the trailer's lid (which is now on my TJ's roof).



And here it is now (fast forward) with the tongue extended one more time, springs swapped out for heavier springs, stronger axle with electric brakes, still running 235/75/15" tires, the custom aluminum diamond-plate box attached, and all sorts of stuff attached to the outside of the trailer.



I show the picture of the Willys above, because the track width of the trailer is the same as the Willys (which I want to take on a little overlanding trip someday with the trailer - both Jeeps are wired for an electric brake controller). The TJ's track width is wider than the trailer, for which there have been plenty of times I've been grateful. There have been times the trail is tight, and you're having to turn tight right past a tree, and I'm watching out my side-view mirror to make sure the trailer is going to clear the tree (or boulder in one case I'm thinking of). One reason why I'm glad my tires stick out a little bit past the fenders on the trailer - I'd rather the tires bounce off the tree than the fender take the hit.

There's not much storage space in the back of a Jeep TJ - even with the rear seat removed. It is amazing how much stuff you can put inside a little 4' trailer frame based trailer.

 

[armyRN]

Some folks have this fantasy that they're going to find an old WWII military trailer in a barn for a couple hundred dollars that with minor work will be ready for overlanding. That's the extreme exception. What really happens is they find an old trailer that's been outside for decades and is half-way rusted apart (rust is hidden under years of paint and bondo, and when they pull the tub they see the full extent of the frame rust). They spend a ton of time and effort and money to get it repaired and roadworthy. And of course the axle needs to be totally rebuilt (if it's even able to be salvaged) or replaced (is it wide enough to clear the tub with your aftermarket rims and tires? probably not. does it match your vehicle's bolt pattern? only if yours is 5 on 5.5"). The original suspension will be shot, so that needs to be replaced (and every single bushing). And you want electric brakes? That'll be more expense. Wiring's toast too - that needs replacing.

Here's a better idea (and you'll be better off and less stressed in the long-run). Start with new stuff, and go from there.

Link: Complete Trailer Assembly Kit Fits 41-45 MB, GPW (kaiserwillys.com)

Or this one (I still don't know the difference between these two):

Link: Trailer Assembly (with chassis) Fits 41-45 MB, GPW (kaiserwillys.com)

Get the springs you want; get the size axle you want with the proper bolt pattern. Wire it how you want. Build it how you want to suit your needs and tow vehicle. And take it on an adventure!

This trailer's tub from kaiserwillys is essentially 40" x 72". Mine (pictured in previous post) is 40" x 50".

 

[Neal A. Tew]

Speaking of, here's my 1966 Military Cable Splicing trailer.

I like it a lot, but it hasn't been out of the garage in a couple years. I've downsized my camping gear quite a bit.

 

[Mrprez]

Those HF mini trailers are cool. I used one to make a trailer to pull behind our Honda Goldwing. The frame and axle was narrower by 16” and used a Sear cargo carrier. In this picture, we were leaving our house in Mobile, Al for Utah.

 

[bcmedicxj]

We may be doing a lot of camping on the trail. Everything I'm reading and hearing in the offroad community in my area is that campground space is going to be very limited this summer. I think everyone has Covid cabin fever and going to the mountains.

 

[armyRN]

We may be doing a lot of camping on the trail. Everything I'm reading and hearing in the offroad community in my area is that campground space is going to be very limited this summer. I think everyone has Covid cabin fever and going to the mountains.

We'll just have to make it work. It'll be part of the adventure.

 

[Deleted member 75301]

Hey y'all! I recently did a rear seat delete and installed a DIY platform for storage. The idea was to spend as little money as possible to make this TAT trip (I'll be solo mostly but our paths will cross in the first few weeks) so I was holding off on buying a truck cap.

Went on a dirt road, back country shakedown trip for the last 3 days and here's a few things I learned:

1. When living out of a vehicle, space is a LUXURY. As much as my DIY rear seat platform performed flawless, I felt too cramped with everything inside the vehicle (a basic level of security to give me some warm and fuzzies). A truck cap will be ordered tomorrow and I will install it Wednesday.

2. For me, and I love tent camping, setting up and breaking down a ground tent on the daily was fine but I could see how it would become somewhat obnoxious doing that day after day, week after week. Since I'm now getting a truck cap I think I'll build a platform in the truck bed (or not) and sleep most of the time in the pickup box. This way I can avoid the tent nonsense and leave my mattress inflated for those long, tiring days.

3. GAIA GPS (as used on an iPhone with Carplay) had some small bugs. Sometimes the maps would not appear on Carplay though the route lines would. When this happens just go to map layers on your phone and use the slider to reduce the map to 0% visibility and then slide back to 100% visibility, that fixed the issue every time.

Sometimes the route line would not display on Carplay. To fix was a combination of quitting the app and restarting the app or rebooting the phone. Neither worked each time but I was always able to get it fixed with those two methods, sometimes doing both actions repeatedly.

Without turn by turn voice navigation missing a turn or road was frequent for me lol! The Guide Me feature was mostly useless to me except in rare instances. Without using Guide Me I just traced the track displayed on Carplay by driving along the colored line.

I recommend downloading maps along your route before departing so you have enough actionable data when offline in the bush. You can only save 5 map layers offline. My favorite maps so far are Public Land, Private Land, Gaia Topo, Native America & Alaska Native Lands, and a handy hack to get Google Maps Satellite imagery. This combination provided what I needed to know where I was and where it was legal to do dispersed camping (assuming you know how to read these layers for that purpose).

Also, when using Carplay you have to leave your iPhone screen unlocked with the Gaia app active/visible otherwise the phone compass/gyro will get confused when the phone screen is locked and the Carplay track display will be moving in all the wrong directions.

When the phone is offline (no data connection) and you try to navigate with Guide Me to a point down range, the app will not be able to display or create a route to said waypoint. It simply draws a straight line instead of mapping suggested roads to drive towards the waypoint.

4. The Garmin InReach Mini, when used with tracking, has a great feature you can enable - Extended [mode]. Helps conserve device battery and still transmits your location automatically at your preset interval.

Being in the back woods you might not have enough sky coverage at times to send or receive data. You'll get an alert icon on the device, an upward arrow and exclamation point, which means send/receive has failed. Simply page down to the Location screen, wait for GPS to acquire your position, then page back to the Mail Check screen. This will trigger send/receive and upload all your previously unsent tracking points/messages and it worked to resolve this problem each time I did it in the order explained.

In Extended mode the screen will be off and sometimes the left/right side buttons will not respond to touch. If this happens, just briefly press the power button to wake the device.

5. Turning back when deep forest was disheartening. The first time was when trail conditions were worsening (solo, wasn't in the mood for recovery attempt because of long driving day). Second time was when I ended up on an ATV trail. A few hundred feet up and I knew something didn't seem right so I squeezed out and saw the "No highway vehicle" sign broken and laying on the ground and had to drive out of forest for second reroute. That day made me second guess this whole trip!

6. Not that we do these trips for speed but I averaged about 25 to 30 MPH. Things just take longer. Traveling for 12 hours went by fast but my body didn't care for it. Going forward I will need a short break every 2 to 3 hours to stretch and chill (or do s short hike if the area has a trail). This also meant that I was exhausted at the end of each day especially from banging down unimproved roads.

8. Thanks for reading this far. I've got nothing else to say haha! Hope this was helpful.

FYI... I'm neither blonde, nor a pixie, and since you know I'm driving a truck with the aforementioned cap on the bed then you'll know me when our paths cross in the next few weeks. -BP

 

[armyRN]

Hey y'all! I recently did a rear seat delete and installed a DIY platform for storage. The idea was to spend as little money as possible to make this TAT trip (I'll be solo mostly but our paths will cross in the first few weeks) so I was holding off on buying a truck cap.

Went on a dirt road, back country shakedown trip for the last 3 days and here's a few things I learned:

1. When living out of a vehicle, space is a LUXURY. As much as my DIY rear seat platform performed flawless, I felt too cramped with everything inside the vehicle (a basic level of security to give me some warm and fuzzies). A truck cap will be ordered tomorrow and I will install it Wednesday. RSI Smartcap EVOa :-)

2. For me, and I love tent camping, setting up and breaking down a ground tent on the daily was fine but I could see how it would become somewhat obnoxious doing that day after day, week after week. Since I'm now getting a truck cap I think I'll build a platform in the truck bed (or not) and sleep most of the time in the pickup box. This way I can avoid the tent nonsense and leave my mattress inflated for those long, tiring days.

3. GAIA GPS (as used on an iPhone with Carplay) had some small bugs. Sometimes the maps would not appear on Carplay though the route lines would. When this happens just go to map layers on your phone and use the slider to reduce the map to 0% visibility and then slide back to 100% visibility, that fixed the issue every time.

Sometimes the route line would not display. To fix was a combination of quitting the app and restarting the app or rebooting the phone. Neither worked each time but I was always able to get it fixed with those two methods, sometimes doing both actions repeatedly.

Without turn by turn voice navigation missing a turn or road was frequent for me lol! The Guide Me feature was mostly useless to me except in rare instances. Without using Guide Me I just traced the track displayed on Carplay by driving along the colored line.

I recommend downloading maps along your route before departing so you have enough actionable data when offline in the bush. You can only save 5 map layers offline. My favorite maps so far are Public Land, Private Land, Gaia Topo, Native America & Alaska Native Lands, and a handy hack to get Google Maps Satellite imagery. This combination provided what I needed to know where I was and where it was legal to do dispersed camping (assuming you know how to read these layers for that purpose).

When the phone is offline (no data connection) and you try to navigate with Guide Me to a point down range, the app will not be able to display or create a route to said waypoint. It simply draws a straight line instead of mapping suggested roads to drive towards the waypoint.

Also, when using Carplay you have to leave your iPhone screen unlocked and active otherwise the phone compass/gyro will get confused when the phone screen is locked and the Carplay track display will be moving in all the wrong directions.

4. The Garmin InReach Mini, when used with tracking, has a great feature you can enable - Extended [mode]. Helps conserve device battery and still transmits your location automatically at your preset interval.

Being in the back woods you might not have enough sky coverage at times to send or receive data. You'll get an alert icon on the device, an upward arrow and exclamation point, which means send/receive has failed. Simply page down to the Location screen, wait for GPS to acquire your position, then page back to the Mail Check screen. This will trigger send/receive and upload all your previously unsent tracking points and it worked to resolve this problem each time I did it in the order explained.

In Extended mode the screen will be off and sometimes the left/right side buttons will not respond to touch. If this happens, just briefly press the power button to wake the device.

5. Turning back when deep forest was disheartening. The first time was when trail conditions were worsening (solo, wasn't in the mood for recovery because of long driving day). Second time was when I ended up on an ATV trail. A few hundred feet up and I knew something didn't seem right so I squeezed out and saw the "No highway vehicle" sign broken and laying on the ground. That day made me second guess this whole trip!

6. Not that we do these trips for speed but I averaged about 25 to 30 MPH. Things just take longer. Traveling for 12 hours went by fast but my body didn't care for it. Going forward I will need a short break every 2 to 3 hours to stretch and chill (or do s short hike if the area has a trail). This also meant that I was exhausted at the end of each day especially from banging down unimproved roads.

8. Thanks for reading this far. I've got nothing else to say haha! Hope this was helpful.

FYI... I'm neither blonde, nor a pixie, and since you know I'm driving a truck with the aforementioned cap on the bed then you'll know me when our paths cross in the next few weeks. -BP

Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m definitely not the GAIA expert; I’ll be continuing to learn more about its intricacies as we go along.

 

[DEADBEEF]

So our storage system is in. We came across a plan for a sleeping platform (shout out to gxbasecamp.com) using 8020.net extruded aluminum. I love this stuff; light weight strong and actually fun, no power tools required. We used the plan as a basis and extended it into a 3 tier storage shelves with the second being dual sliding trays. It attaches to the GX470 using the 3rd row seat brackets, thus it is able to be removed easily. Now it’s time to pack the stuff in...what an exercise in organization.

 

[DEADBEEF]

Hey y'all! I recently did a rear seat delete and installed a DIY platform for storage. The idea was to spend as little money as possible to make this TAT trip (I'll be solo mostly but our paths will cross in the first few weeks) so I was holding off on buying a truck cap.

Went on a dirt road, back country shakedown trip for the last 3 days and here's a few things I learned:

1. When living out of a vehicle, space is a LUXURY. As much as my DIY rear seat platform performed flawless, I felt too cramped with everything inside the vehicle (a basic level of security to give me some warm and fuzzies). A truck cap will be ordered tomorrow and I will install it Wednesday.

2. For me, and I love tent camping, setting up and breaking down a ground tent on the daily was fine but I could see how it would become somewhat obnoxious doing that day after day, week after week. Since I'm now getting a truck cap I think I'll build a platform in the truck bed (or not) and sleep most of the time in the pickup box. This way I can avoid the tent nonsense and leave my mattress inflated for those long, tiring days.

3. GAIA GPS (as used on an iPhone with Carplay) had some small bugs. Sometimes the maps would not appear on Carplay though the route lines would. When this happens just go to map layers on your phone and use the slider to reduce the map to 0% visibility and then slide back to 100% visibility, that fixed the issue every time.

Sometimes the route line would not display on Carplay. To fix was a combination of quitting the app and restarting the app or rebooting the phone. Neither worked each time but I was always able to get it fixed with those two methods, sometimes doing both actions repeatedly.

Without turn by turn voice navigation missing a turn or road was frequent for me lol! The Guide Me feature was mostly useless to me except in rare instances. Without using Guide Me I just traced the track displayed on Carplay by driving along the colored line.

I recommend downloading maps along your route before departing so you have enough actionable data when offline in the bush. You can only save 5 map layers offline. My favorite maps so far are Public Land, Private Land, Gaia Topo, Native America & Alaska Native Lands, and a handy hack to get Google Maps Satellite imagery. This combination provided what I needed to know where I was and where it was legal to do dispersed camping (assuming you know how to read these layers for that purpose).

Also, when using Carplay you have to leave your iPhone screen unlocked and active otherwise the phone compass/gyro will get confused when the phone screen is locked and the Carplay track display will be moving in all the wrong directions.

When the phone is offline (no data connection) and you try to navigate with Guide Me to a point down range, the app will not be able to display or create a route to said waypoint. It simply draws a straight line instead of mapping suggested roads to drive towards the waypoint.

4. The Garmin InReach Mini, when used with tracking, has a great feature you can enable - Extended [mode]. Helps conserve device battery and still transmits your location automatically at your preset interval.

Being in the back woods you might not have enough sky coverage at times to send or receive data. You'll get an alert icon on the device, an upward arrow and exclamation point, which means send/receive has failed. Simply page down to the Location screen, wait for GPS to acquire your position, then page back to the Mail Check screen. This will trigger send/receive and upload all your previously unsent tracking points/messages and it worked to resolve this problem each time I did it in the order explained.

In Extended mode the screen will be off and sometimes the left/right side buttons will not respond to touch. If this happens, just briefly press the power button to wake the device.

5. Turning back when deep forest was disheartening. The first time was when trail conditions were worsening (solo, wasn't in the mood for recovery attempt because of long driving day). Second time was when I ended up on an ATV trail. A few hundred feet up and I knew something didn't seem right so I squeezed out and saw the "No highway vehicle" sign broken and laying on the ground and had to drive out of forest for second reroute. That day made me second guess this whole trip!

6. Not that we do these trips for speed but I averaged about 25 to 30 MPH. Things just take longer. Traveling for 12 hours went by fast but my body didn't care for it. Going forward I will need a short break every 2 to 3 hours to stretch and chill (or do s short hike if the area has a trail). This also meant that I was exhausted at the end of each day especially from banging down unimproved roads.

8. Thanks for reading this far. I've got nothing else to say haha! Hope this was helpful.

FYI... I'm neither blonde, nor a pixie, and since you know I'm driving a truck with the aforementioned cap on the bed then you'll know me when our paths cross in the next few weeks. -BP

Thanks for the info, very thorough. The only thing is...the ”Antarctica” thing is throwing me :).