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multicam

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This sounds like an awesome adventure. I just finished a big trip; TX to FL, then a break, then FL to California. There’s something compelling about getting out there and seeing this great big country. It’s like nothing else.
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NewJLU2019

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On the sixth stop ( 10 days out) I stopped in Westville, Oklahoma to begin the TAT. Now the mostly dirt roads begin. The travel speeds were from 5 to 45 MPH depending upon the road conditions. Lost of annoying washboard surface. I reduced my tire pressures from 45 psi to 25 psi which helped considerably in smoothing out the incessant pounding. The USGS maps I had loaded on Backcountry Nav worked beautifully on the Teyes CC2L+ HU. I managed to find spots to set up my RTT at the end of every day after asking farmers and ranchers I met along the route.

Eventually I reached BLM and USFS lands where it was no problem camping. At one campsite in the San Isobel National Forest I found a beautiful site in a high meadow surrounded by conifers and peaks. That evening I got a dose of altitude physical effects and discovered that I was camping at 11,400 feet. Big thunderstorm with wind and hail most of that night. Not a lot of fun that.

The weather forecast for Colorado was dismal. Calling for the next ten days of rain. I opted to get off the TAT, skip through Colorado and avoid the crowds which I despise, and head over to Utah. Which I did.

Spent two nights at Mesa Verde National Park, but was bored. Big winds all night so sleeping was minimal. Next day got back on the TAT enroute to Moab the dirt way.

The TAT takes you through the Manti - La Sal National Forest and into Moab from the East with some great forest road with lots of marked "Jeep" and "moto" trails. I was having a good drive until I came to a road block by the Forest Service. Active forest fire. The super nice Ranger gave me a reroute into Moab on the "Rim Rock Trail" which took me around the other side of the La Sal mountains and into the Zoo of Moab. Since I was overlanding and not particularly interested in rock crawling, I stopped in Moab to eat and then drove on the the Potash area of the Colorado River canyon to find a campsite away from the madding crowd.

That evening I got the word that Canada was again going to be closed for through travel until at least late July and probably not going to be open at all this year. Even if it were to open in August, that is very late to be taking a road trip up there with winter impending.

Having fulfilled most of my objectives for this trip, and Alaska out of the question, I decided to drive home, and did.

I logged 7800 miles in just over three weeks and enjoyed my 81 year old self immensely.

Equipment thoughts. RTTs are nice, but they limit you in leaving camp to go anywhere without folding up and partially breaking camp. Mine is going on a small trailer next.
The ICECO fridge was awesome. My Genesis Dual Batt system ran it flawlessly. The JL was an absolute pleasure to drive. No wandering nor death wobble and the best cruise control I have ever used for highway driving.

Even though I was pushing that big RTT at speeds around 70 to 75 my Jeep's average mileage for the trip was a little over 18 MPG for the entire trip. When I kept the speeds below 65, 19 to 20 MPG readings were common.

I am 6' ' 2" and 220 pounds, 81 years old, and found the Wrangler Sport seats very comfortable and good seating for 6 to 10 hour driving days.

I had a dash mounted GoPro 9 running off my Aux Switches instead of its internal battery with 256 GB SDC. I ran it only after I got on the TAT, but it was capable of an easy 8 hours of recording. I took very few still pictures. Whenever I stopped to film I used a REMOVU K1 hand held camera. I therefore have hundreds of 4 GB GoPro video files from the trip. It's pretty pointless to post them here since they are my "winter reading" and very boring.

I intend to try for Alaska again next summer, but this time will drive directly to the Western Canadian port of entry. Still a five day drive from my house. Canada is only an hour from my house here, but driving across Canada and then up into Alaska would be horrendous with Canadian Gas prices as they are.
Sounds like you had maybe what I would call Bucket list item. Glad you did well. :like:
 

wibornz

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Nice write up. We have been gearing up for a trip from Michigan to the Mexico boarder then wheel all the western states as we work our way to Dead Horse Alaska. Go time is 5 months 18 days.
 
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MEHillwalker80

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You mentioned that the Military Campsites were different, how so ?
This was the only military campground that I have stayed at so what I experienced my not be typical: I found the occupants to be not as friendly as those you encounter at state, local, and national campgrounds. Most of the people I encountered were actually not on vacation. They left for work in uniform every morning like they were just staying here because they had the camping equipment but were on duty as usual. I'm wondering if they are staying here due to a shortage of regular housing off base. I may try and stay at some other bases on my second Alaska attempt. to see if this was atypical.
 
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MEHillwalker80

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Sounds like you had maybe what I would call Bucket list item. Glad you did well. :like:
Yes, on my bucket list it remains. Do a search for Old Hillwalker, that's me
 

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Amazing trip!! Curious if you considered taking the Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Bellingham, WA to Whittier or Homer, AK since Canada is closed? Or why you might have ruled that out...

I've been to AK twice and am going again in September (flying up) and nothing else compares!!
 

NewJLU2019

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Nice write up. We have been gearing up for a trip from Michigan to the Mexico boarder then wheel all the western states as we work our way to Dead Horse Alaska. Go time is 5 months 18 days.
This is something on my bucket list. We have 2 very spoiled house cats and cannot leave for weeks at a time. Cannot take cats with us. Just not like a dog. Son lives out of state. Daughter just graduated college and already started Surgical Tech job at big hospital here. I will look into her staying here if she can. Your 5 month go time is winter months. That would be time to do trips now days because summer is just too hot across US now days. If you have laid out route and don't mind sending it would give me ideal to start looking at. I can PM you my email if you decide to.
 

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This is something on my bucket list. We have 2 very spoiled house cats and cannot leave for weeks at a time. Cannot take cats with us. Just not like a dog. Son lives out of state. Daughter just graduated college and already started Surgical Tech job at big hospital here. I will look into her staying here if she can. Your 5 month go time is winter months. That would be time to do trips now days because summer is just too hot across US now days. If you have laid out route and don't mind sending it would give me ideal to start looking at. I can PM you my email if you decide to.
So I do not have a direct route per say... What I do is as I see points of interest, I save them to a google doc file. Then I drop a pin on a google map of the location of the point of interest. Then decide if it is worth the drive to go there if we get close.

The loose plan is head from Michigan to South Podre Island in Texas on Jan 1st. Then wheel west from the stop at Big Bend, and basically wheel southern New Mexico, Arizona and Souther California during Jan-Feb. March be in Northern Arizona , Northern New Mexico, southern Nevada and Utah. Plan to do easter Jeep Safari and spend 4 to 6 weeks in the greater Moab area. Then June be in Colorado, July 1st no matter where we are, point the Jeeps north and head to Dead Horse Alaska. We have July through the middle of Sept. slated for going to and being in Alaska. In mid September, head to the west side of Alaska and use ferries to island hop back to the lower 48. Oct spend time in Washington and Oregon and work our way back east to Michigan by the middle of November.

There are three JLURs with small campers doing this trip and 5 of us total. We already Jeep all over the country together. So it should be a great time with little to no drama.
 

2500 hd

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I like to hear about older people out enjoying their jeeps ...
I'm 63 and love mine..
 
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MEHillwalker80

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Amazing trip!! Curious if you considered taking the Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Bellingham, WA to Whittier or Homer, AK since Canada is closed? Or why you might have ruled that out...

I've been to AK twice and am going again in September (flying up) and nothing else compares!!
I have been asked this before. I love to drive and camp and do not enjoy being around even small groups of other humans. I have lived alone in a mountain cabin in Maine since 2003 and have become pretty much a semi-hermit. Google "Old Hillwalker". That's me. So a cruise ship would be the last thing I would want to do.
 
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NewJLU2019

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So I do not have a direct route per say... What I do is as I see points of interest, I save them to a google doc file. Then I drop a pin on a google map of the location of the point of interest. Then decide if it is worth the drive to go there if we get close.

The loose plan is head from Michigan to South Podre Island in Texas on Jan 1st. Then wheel west from the stop at Big Bend, and basically wheel southern New Mexico, Arizona and Souther California during Jan-Feb. March be in Northern Arizona , Northern New Mexico, southern Nevada and Utah. Plan to do easter Jeep Safari and spend 4 to 6 weeks in the greater Moab area. Then June be in Colorado, July 1st no matter where we are, point the Jeeps north and head to Dead Horse Alaska. We have July through the middle of Sept. slated for going to and being in Alaska. In mid September, head to the west side of Alaska and use ferries to island hop back to the lower 48. Oct spend time in Washington and Oregon and work our way back east to Michigan by the middle of November.

There are three JLURs with small campers doing this trip and 5 of us total. We already Jeep all over the country together. So it should be a great time with little to no drama.
WOW, sounds like a great trip. Only long term issue would be my pets. My cat Henri is a rescue that I managed to gain his trust after 2 long winter months 9 years ago. He lived in the woods behind where I worked. He is one of a kind and since I retired Jan 1st and been home I cannot go outside to even check mail. He starts to scream until I come back in. Drives the wife nuts. lol Her cat is strange and not very loving. I will have to plan short trips for over long trips for now. Your type trip will have to wait. Padre Island area is nice. I have been there and to Big Bend which is very nice. For Texas that's our mountains. lol. There are some back country camp areas that are remote. I will start doing the Google map like you have.
 

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I have been asked this before. I love to drive and camp and do not enjoy being around even small groups of other humans. I have lived alone in a mountain cabin in Maine since 2003 and have become pretty much a semi-hermit. Google "Old Hillwalker". That's me
I would love to move to a mountain cabin with snow and cold weather most of the time. I cannot do it because my wife has health issues that make cold weather hard on her. I have always been cold weather lover. I have since retired early and over time grown fond of not being around too many people. lol I will have to google Old Hillwalker soon. Take Care!!!
 

NewJLU2019

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I have been asked this before. I love to drive and camp and do not enjoy being around even small groups of other humans. I have lived alone in a mountain cabin in Maine since 2003 and have become pretty much a semi-hermit. Google "Old Hillwalker". That's me
Are these you?


Old Hillwalker - YouTube
Jeep Wrangler JL Maine to Alaska in a JL - NOT  7860 miles anyway (PT1) 1626101689183
https://m.youtube.com › user › samohtw1 › videos




Old Hillwalker · Honda on Tracks round 2 Feb 12 2012 · Colonel Holman Mtn Loop from my house Feb 18, 2012 · Tracked ATV Snow Ride Loop Feb 10 2021.
Uploads from Old Hillwalker - YouTube
Jeep Wrangler JL Maine to Alaska in a JL - NOT  7860 miles anyway (PT1) 1626101689224
https://www.youtube.com › playlist




Uploads from Old Hillwalker · Honda on Tracks round 2 Feb 12 2012 · Colonel Holman Mtn Loop from my house Feb 18, 2012 · Tracked ATV Snow Ride Loop Feb ...
 
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NewJLU2019

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I have been asked this before. I love to drive and camp and do not enjoy being around even small groups of other humans. I have lived alone in a mountain cabin in Maine since 2003 and have become pretty much a semi-hermit. Google "Old Hillwalker". That's me
One more question. I met an older gentleman at the Dealership here in DFW who I am friends with them. I was there picking up my Rubicon I had ordered early this year. My friend had known him for sometime doing work on his Jeep. That day he had installed his Hi-lo jack to his hood. This man had told stories of Jeeping across the country and even the world. He was about 80 years old and had 2 door Jeep. This wouldn't of been you would it? lol Never know these days.
 

wolf

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I have been asked this before. I love to drive and camp and do not enjoy being around even small groups of other humans. I have lived alone in a mountain cabin in Maine since 2003 and have become pretty much a semi-hermit. Google "Old Hillwalker". That's me
I’m with you. A lot of people out there are not pleasant to be around. However there are a few good people. Hold up one hand and drop a few fingers. That’s how many so called friends will be at your funeral. 😎
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