The last time I was on the trail was for the east half of the Oklahoma Adventure Trail and while it was a lot of fun, that was back in April and I am hungry for more. Luckily, two trips managed to materialize and now I am a happy human.
I’ll be the first to say it: I didn’t expect to like off-road/ overlanding when we first decided to try it. In retrospect, I have no idea why I thought that. I love the outdoors, I love cars, I dislike being around people, and I’m not big on extended physical activity. It might very well be the best hobby for me!
Trip 1: The K-Trail
We did a portion of the Kiamichi Trail (K-Trail for short) during OAT East and it was a lot of fun. Challenging, but not overly so, off-roading mixed with good scenery and a well defined trail. The biggest downfall is we had a lot of it to cover in a short amount of time as it was only part of a longer trip.
For this trip we’re planning on just doing the K-Trail. All of it. From Clayton, Oklahoma, to Mena, Arkansas. We’re going to break it up into two days, with less than 50 miles covered each day, leaving plenty of time for sightseeing and generally dicking around. The hope is to not be beholden to the schedule and just do whatever we want.
This one is scheduled for Labor Day weekend, so my only real concern is the possibility of seeing others on the trail.
Also as we have two trips in planning, I am sort of mulling over buying an offroad beater for this one. I don’t think I will, but the temptation is there...
Cast of characters: Brady in the Suzuki Sikekick, George in the Jeep Renegade, and Me (most likely) in the Land Rover Discovery.
Trip 2: Big Bend
Our resident Texan, Taylor, has been trying to get us to try out Texas with the tag line “It isn’t all bad!” Finally we’ve relented and decided to make a go at Big Bend in Texas. It is a 12 hour highway drive to get there, but I have been assured it is worth it.
This one is in the early planning stages, but the basic idea is we head out there and just trail bash and hike until we’re tired of doing so. Then we wake up, repeat until we head home. I’ve been told it is very similar to the Arizona Strip, so I am pretty excited about that.
Open to suggestions on what is worth visiting out there.
This one is going to be between the Christmas and New Years holidays and should be good fun.
Cast of characters: Taylor in the Nissan XTerra, George in the Jeep Renegade, and Me in the Land Rover Discovery.