593mi in the Black Hills (warning... pic heavy)

Rich · **Posted:** Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:49 pm

Recently got back from the annual Midwest Overland Society summer trip.

Day 1.

Zipped out of the cities at 0600 heading west. Stopped in Sioux Falls for wife's work meeting, then slabbed it out to Klendathu and off to Sheep Mountain Table.

and camped on the end of the table again.

It was quite green in the Bad Lands this year.

We had a storm roll in on top of us ~2hr after we flipped the tent up. Major thunder and lightning, wound up hiding in our trucks... the tallest things within miles. There were 3 air-ground strikes about 100yrds in front of us, and couldn't see the trucks around during the rain. Estemated totals per the NWS was 6-8" in 3hrs of storm. Friend ended up having his tent collapse due to the excessive water load on its roof. It was a hell of a ride, and not the last time we saw weather on the trip.....

Rich · **Posted:** Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:51 pm

Day 2.

Original plan was to hit up Indian Creek trail in the Bad Lands, but with all the rain nobody was brave enough to fight through the slime that comes from water there. We popped camp, and headed for the black hills. Rather than mucking about on graded gravel roads, we just hit pavement all the way there.

Made a stop in hot-springs to top off fuel, and meet up with the friend that left early due to a crushed tent, so he could continue the trip with us.

Jumped out of town and hit the trails on our way into Pringle, SD.

Due to my wife's amazing ability to navigate the back-country, we made tracks up some very over-grown trails that I had to triple check to make sure they were legal.

Found a beautiful clearing and broke camp for the night, where Michael cooked up some chicken fajitas for the group. All while we hung what we could in the remaining sun to dry out from the previous nights storms.

My wife went for a hike to the summit of the nearby hills, while I slithered under the Liberty to install the mid skid plate (Trans/tcase).

Rich · **Posted:** Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:57 pm

Day 3.

Woke up just after dawn, and let my wife sleep in. So I climbed up one of the hills close to camp and mucked about.

Even made one of those hippie rock stack thingies...

Found the trail and rolled out for a day of beautiful country. The trail lead through a small but fantastic box canyon.

The convoy got stopped up by the first of a number of downed trees. But, fret not, DJ brought his magic camp axe.

Emerged from the canyon and zipped up a gravel road, and caught some sights on the road.

Made another hippie stack.

We worked our way round and about, and found camp sight number 3 for the week.

Clouds stirred up that night, and ended up having another thunderstorm beating the hell out of Custer, SD and some of the areas just to the east to us. We saw some pea-sized hale, wind, rain and lightning. It wasn't as bad as the first night, but we hunkered down in the trucks till the storm broke at about 2am. Once we saw starts, Jen and I hopped out, deployed the tent and got some decent sleep.

Rich · **Posted:** Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:22 pm

Lost doesn't seem to like me.

Pics/info of the trip are available here - http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/t ... -Trip-2013

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 12:24 am

Great photos and story !
Thanks for sharing :wink:

JdubKJ03 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 5:00 am

Looks like a great trip!!! How you liking your ASFIR? Beat on mine a little bit so far and loving them.

Topan · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 6:55 am

Very nice trails you went through. Thanks for the pics and story.
I am really thinking of getting one of these light trailer for long trips, North Cape next year.

Rich · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:15 am

I like the skids enough, but need to modify the trans/tcase plate to accomodate the Napa Gold 1515 filter. Going to fabricate an inspection plate like the one under the front diff. Will allow me to access the filter without making a mess of things during an oil change.

The trailer isn't light. It's about 800lb dry, and in the neighborhood of 1400lbs fully loaded for the trip. She tows quite well, but I notice she's back there on hills, even with the Diesel. I do love the extra space and capicity though, lets me bring home purdy rocks from our travels.

Mostly the gear in the trailer is never used (sans chainsaw and large 7-day cooler), but we are pairing down the load plan for these trips, and buying an Engel fridge to replace the need for so much ice on the trail. I am trying to get ahold of Boiler and/or Deussne about a roof rack for the tent.

More pics and such at the ExPo thread, LOST was killing me last night, so you'll have to link in.

kskj · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:25 am

Looks like a fun area to explore! Thanks for posting.

Pippobug · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:42 am

Great Photos Rich, thank you for sharing, can we have more photos?!
Fil.

Rich · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 12:35 pm

All pics are here
http://freecandyvan.com/corprin/MOS/SoDak_13

arengant · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2013 2:34 pm

Have you regeared yet? That should help in those hills!

Fertana13 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:23 am

It looks like a lot of fun....wish we have mountains here in south florida but this is flat as :furious:

Rich · **Posted:** Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:35 am

Not going to regear, the only real issue was the climbs on the open road. We stopped in Wall, SD on the way home and tossed the winch into the trailer. From that point on, not one blip of heat issues. The needle didn't budge even on the longest 70mph grades. The fridge has been ordered, and I will be fabricating the roof rack asap, so we can dump the trailer. If we do need to drag it, as with our projected CO and Hudson Bay trip, we can just keep the winch in the trailer till needed.

No hills in FL, but there are in GA, AL, and states beyond. Check out the southern forums on www.Expeditionportal.com. Just remember these folks are not rock crawlers or mud boggers while on the long hauls... nothing worse than crapping a t-case 1200mi from home... alone.

Fertana13 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:35 pm

Rich wrote:

No hills in FL, but there are in GA, AL, and states beyond. Check out the southern forums on http://www.Expeditionportal.com. Just remember these folks are not rock crawlers or mud boggers while on the long hauls... nothing worse than crapping a t-case 1200mi from home... alone.

Yes I know and I'm not a rock crawler either way I just want to be in the mountain with some friends having a darn good time :JEEPIN:

593mi in the Black Hills (warning... pic heavy)

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