{"id":3894,"date":"2015-02-15T23:10:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T07:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/overlandbound.com\/?p=3894"},"modified":"2022-06-24T00:25:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T00:25:57","slug":"overlanding-ozarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/overlanding-ozarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Overlanding the Ozarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I caught up with a fellow overlander, Taylor, \u00a0who recently went overlanding\u00a0through the Ozarks! After seeing the video I wanted to learn more, and Taylor was happy to share! This is a bit more about his trip. Be sure to check out the video at the end. Very well done!<\/p>\n

OB: How long were you planning before making the trip?
\nThe trip didn’t take too long to plan.\u00a0 We hashed out all of the details over breakfast one Saturday morning a couple months before the trip.\u00a0 The route was given to us by Jayston of\u00a0overlandguild.org<\/a>, \u00a0so that was already taken care of for us.\u00a0 At breakfast we set a date and assigned who was to bring what gear, so we could share gear and reduce our overall payload as a group by eliminating unnecessary duplicates of gear like stoves, dutch ovens, lanterns, camp tables, etc.\u00a0 What did take some time was preparing our rigs for the trip.\u00a0 We were warned beforehand of the possibility of some relatively deep water crossings and treacherous terrain, so we took the time and energy to modify our vehicles accordingly to reduce chances of a mishap on the trail.\u00a0 We also made sure all routine maintenance was taken care of before hand, like changing and checking fluid levels, checking for loose nuts and bolts, greasing everything up, and just making sure all systems were go, in general.
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OB: What do you feel was the most dangerous part of the trip?
\nThis was a pretty mild track, to be honest, but we did come across some moderately difficult obstacles.\u00a0 Towards the beginning of the trip we came across the deep water\/mud hole that Mason plunges into in the video.\u00a0 That was a bad choice on the entire group, we should have checked how deep it was beforehand, but of course, we had seen photos of other rigs that were of comparable size make it through with little issue, so testosterone was clouding our brains and we all encouraged Mason to “go for it”.\u00a0 This resulted in Mason’s truck floating, sinking to the bottom, filling up with water, then being winched out.\u00a0 Because of the time it spent in the hole, the transmission took on some water (breather wasn’t up high enough for a hole this deep), so it had to be flushed on the side of the trail after Adam and Jeff went back to town (an hour away) to retrieve a couple gallons of fluid to do the job.\u00a0 Other than that, all of the water crossings were lower than normal and there wasn’t much mud, as we ran the trail during a dry spell.\u00a0 We did come across one long, relatively steep, and rocky hill-climb.\u00a0 It wasn’t too technical, just long and slow going, but was a load of fun.
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OB: How many days were you out on the trail?
\nWe left home Friday morning and returned Sunday afternoon, so we spent 3 days and 2 nights away from home.\u00a0 The Ozark National Forest is around 3 hours from our home town of Tulsa, OK.\u00a0 We covered around 80 miles of the 140 miles of trail we had planned to cover.\u00a0 We didn’t cover as much ground as we had hoped to because it took the better part of 4 hours on Friday afternoon to get Mason’s truck back to normal after taking the plunge.\u00a0 Next time we’ll check water depths to avoid any more catastrophes, so we’ll be able to cover more ground.\u00a0 Lesson learned the hard way.
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OB: What item did you really wish you had, but didn’t bring?
\nWe were pretty well prepared and definitely didn’t go without.\u00a0 We had warm bedding, hot showers (solar shower inside a pop up shower enclosure), and more than enough food.\u00a0 Only thing that comes to mind that I wish I had taken care of before leaving home was I forgot to charge my Fenix flashlight, which died by the end of Friday night, so I had to use the flashlight app on my phone to get around in the dark Saturday evening, which was incredibly lame.
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OB: What rig did the best on the journey?
\nBest rig goes to Mason’s beast of a 3rd gen 4runner.\u00a0 It had 8 inches of water in the cabin and the transmission got filled with water too, yet it kept on going with no issues after we took care of the transmission flush.\u00a0 After taking a beating it finished the trail and got him home with no problems.\u00a0 Got to love the dependability and durability of a Toyota!
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OB: What else should we hear about your adventure?
\nThe most interesting thing for me about this trip was the sheer beauty of the country we were in.\u00a0 I’ve lived 3 hours away from the Ozark National Forest my entire life and never realized it was filled with so much beautiful country.\u00a0 Clean and clear creeks and rivers.\u00a0 Lots of elevation change.\u00a0 Beautiful fall foliage.\u00a0 Waterfalls around every turn.\u00a0 Caves and rock features everywhere.\u00a0 This trip opened my eyes to the giant and amazing play ground that I have in my “back yard” and I can’t wait to go back again.\u00a0 The Ozark National Forest is now our go-to spot of exploration, overlanding, and weekend adventures.
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