Off Road Trips

14Th ORT – 2/23/13 Badlands Off-Road

I’ve been playing offroad for several years now, but never had the opportunity to make the trek out to the Badlands in Attica IN. One of my friends finally laid it out there that we needed to make a trip out there this year. So with the wife making a cabin reservation, the trip was on!

Friday Travel:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

The wife and I took off early from work on Friday to take the scenic route to Turkey Run State Park where our cabin for the evening was located. As we escaped IL, there was still a decent amount of snow on the ground:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

The snow started to thin out as we hit the two lane north of Terre Haute:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Eventually we turned onto gravel roads:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

And hit up a covered bridge:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

More gravel roads:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

And another bridge:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

More Gravel Roads:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

And another bridge (noticing a pattern yet?):
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

We eventually quit wandering around, and made it to our next stop, and where we were staying for the night, Turkey Run State Park:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Since there was plenty of daylight left, we hiked out to the suspension bridge, and tried to make it back to the ‘bowl’:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Going back into the trail:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

We got to prefect our “Thin Ice Crossing” technique. This mostly entailed running across the creek as fast as possible while the ice gave way under foot (the stream was only about 3” deep):
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

With daylight rapidly waning, we went back to the lodge for dinner:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

And then made our way to the cabin to wait for our friends to arrive:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

The next day, the wife set out to grab some early morning photos before we made the trip out to Attica:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Once the troops were rallied, we set off North on the back raods:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Hey, another covered bridge!
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Then some more back roads:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

To the last covered bridge of the trip:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Back on the pavement:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

We reached our destination:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Airing down while we wait for the last member of the party to show up:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

We traveled about 15 miles in the park (don’t ask me where all we went, as I was just playing follow the leader). I do dig this park, lots of ‘casual’ trail riding areas, with some open play areas. There are also some sections of the park that are similar to the property my club has access too (mining tailings piles). The old 4.0 will still happily rev to 5 grand when asked too! Not too shabby for a motor with 238k miles on it.

My favorite part of the park was the quarry play area. This seemed to be the consensus with the rest of our group as well. It’s hard to find big open areas in the Midwest where you can just go climb anything you see.

While there was snow/ice on the ground when we got to the park, there was still a surprising amount of traction to be found. Things got very sloppy as the temperature warmed up later in the day, but it wasn’t too bad to get around in.

Travel for the day:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Photos from the day (no I’m not even going to try to put things in order):
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

 

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Nope, no way this truck is fitting through those tubes!
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

Group shot:
Sara L.: 14th Off-Road Trip Badlands 2-23-13 &emdash;

No carnage to report from the group. I did pull my hubs apart when I got home to find that water has once again gotten into things (I miss unit bearings). All the vehicles (truck included) made the trip without any hiccups.

Compiled video from my camera and the wife’s (mostly from the quarry area):

A few go pro vids from the guy with the white XJ:

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