K-Trail 3-13-2011

shaneb

New member
Well got to take my Trooper on her maiden voyage last weekend. Nothing big, but new to me. Excited for the future. As I understand it, the route we took is legal. If not, I had no intention of otherwise.
Hope you enjoy.
K-Trail Report and Pictures: Started at Clayton Trail - End Ouachita National Forest Three Sticks Monument, 39 Miles - 7ish hours driving.

I will not post all pictures in here, you are more than welcome to go to my photobucket for more! http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/shaneb0422/K-Trail/

First time packin' the Troopster for anything was much better than car camping with the Prelude! We had no idea how long we would stay out so we packed for whatever:
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Recovery Gear, Shotgun and Cheez-Its easy to get to:
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Apparently in Clayton, OK there is no overflow shutoff on the Gas Nozzles, good thing I didn't walk in the store like I was about to do:
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Finally got there:
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First Technical part!
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So much better than North Texas views:
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Some Flex for the Zoo:
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We thought we would make it before dark to the Tower for camping, doesn't look promising, but Beautiful:
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Uh oh, it's dark:
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After 2 hours of night driving, we made it to our intended camp site at K-Trail Fire tower. Ate, sat up camp, then came the thunder and lightening, along with it hard rain, fog and low temps. Looks like were sleepin' in the trooper. Re-pack time.
We woke up to this weather!
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I might be stealing the Zombie attacked trooper idea from another member on here:
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Looks like we have two more hours of driving in this:
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But we made it!
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On the way back down to DFW we found this little place - so naturally we had to go exploring:
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Turned out to be a long trail of forestry and CO roads...nice scenic drive:
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Clearly back in DFW blah - but check out the Texas Sky - can't beat it. Nice little stop at Bass Pro on the way and were home:
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Also, the trail was less than trimmed back in places, we brought gear to do maintenance on it, but it just became too much, would have been there days, so I got some pin striping. Well, a lot. So out came the buffer when I got home.

It was a blast, plan to go back soon, if anyone in the south-central wants to, come on!


Shane
 

Mr. Leary

Glamping Excursionaire
The route you took is still legal, at least for the time being. Glad you had a good time. Part of Central Overland's Trans-Ouachita route goes down the same trail. Its neat when the clouds are low. Sometimes when this happens, you can head from 3 sticks over to the Talimena scenic drive and get above the clouds... makes for one heck of a view.

The trail needs some serious maintenance. We did quite a bit last spring, but I'll bet you could hardly tell now. Maybe we can get a group together to go up there and trim back the thick spots...

Thanks for sharing.
 

taz223

ExplorationOutfitters.com
Good trip report man, glad y'all had a good time. Did that trip last summer and heading back next weekend to run it along with some stuff in Arkansas. Definitely a bumpy ride though.

Leary, if you put together a trail maintenance day or trip lemme know,
I'm definitely down to help.
 

shaneb

New member
Yeah I basically used your reports as a great resource. Much appreciated.
I would absolutely be down for a trip doing maintenance. Hopefully soon the trooper will be more outfitted.
 

Mr. Leary

Glamping Excursionaire
Yeah I basically used your reports as a great resource. Much appreciated.
I would absolutely be down for a trip doing maintenance. Hopefully soon the trooper will be more outfitted.

Troopers don't need much more then a good set of tires.

I will be going up there a couple weekends for scouting trips in the area to the south of there. I'll see if I can put something together for a maintainence trip if I can ever get a free weekend! :snorkel:
 

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