Kiamichi Trail (K-Trail) Adventure: The good, the bad, and the ????

[LaOutbackTrail]

The Kiamichi Trail in South East Oklahoma has recently sparked my interest. An unmaintained mountain trail with several challenging sections and some great views, for this part of the country.

Logistically, we planned this in a couple of days and didnt have much more than the K-Trail in the plan. Meet in Clayton, Oklahoma on Saturday morning at 10:00 (yeh right) and head east to Mena. That meant, an early morning start for my wife, daughter, and kiddo. Attoirere met us in Clayton as planned, Mr. Leary and The Mrs. managed to get a late start, but managed to meet up with us at lunch time.

In the mean time, Joseph (attoire) and I checked out a little trail near Clayton lake state park.

Then we explore Hurd Creek Trail:

Joseph has a lockrite locker in the rear, I would have a hard time pulling through this spot with an open differential.

And then we wait for Mr. Leary and The Mrs.

 

[RU55ELL]

Looks like a fun time so far.....

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

After a couple failed attempts to find the original start of K-Trail- which was the K-trail as well as Hurd Creek Trail--- a branch to K-trail.
The correct access to K-Trail is Clayton Creek Trail, off of Nine Pines road (2 miles south of Clayton).

Then for lunch. Ravioli was served straight out of the can, heated on the stove.

The view was good.

And everyone enjoyed a bit of play time on the ice.

The first real, challenging up hill climb.

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Not to mention, the Powderpuff squad in the Leary-mobile

Mike kicked some ICE. This piece shot forward about 15 feet after busting through the ice...

And a whole drove of hogs ran across the trail. 4-6 large boars and then probably 20-30 small piglets. Them swines flu across the trail!

As you've noticed, we've encountered many frozen mud holes... Much of which, the ice was 2"or thicker. And as the evening progressed and temps dropped, the ice got even thicker, closer to 4-5"!

Here is an example of a mudhole. As you can see, I was able to break through the ice..... or could I?

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

A little bit of clunking around...

This bus. We. Have. No. Clue. How it got to where its at.

And down the hill, we find a good view.

 

[Mamontof]

Looks like you have allot of fun in this trip !:wings:

With a good buddy's any ice mud hole road a Joy !:victory:

Thanks for a photos

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

More of the bad ice...

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Mike comes over the radio: "Scott, your truck seems to be tracking weird"

At this point i did notice my truck feeling squirrelly in some ruts. We pull over in a clearing and find this:

Looks good, right? Lets look at the other side....

Rut-rowh....

Now lets break this quickly break this down... The 1inch lift block that a previous owner had placed on the truck decided to go crunch on the trail.... and since the U bolts were now loose, allowed for a bit of shift in the axle position.
You can see here that the U bolts are out of wack.

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

So, in this predicament, we couldn't just remove the block.

If you notice, the u-bolt's thread is shot. And, the ubolts are way to long. we couldnt tighten them down any farther....

Our only option at this point was to turn the block around and tighten everything down as tight as possible.

Mike threatened to use the BFH on my cold ones....

Sorry, those pics were out of order, oh well...

 

[Street Wolf]

Sooo... where is this again?

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Now for the ....

It was at this location that we encountered a our first traffic on the trail. A 1999 or newer Chevrolet Silverado, red in color with a few redneck-esque stickers on the back window, passed us. They drove by, stopped about 50ft away and then backed up to ask if we needed help. We kindly dismissed them, 15-20 minutes later they came back by. Didnt stop, didnt offer help, just drove on by. No big deal.

In half an hour after they pass we button the truck up, right at dark and carry on. 1/2 mile down the trail we come to a small dip in the ridge. Mike comes back over the radio, "there is a fire in the middle of the trail". Confused and unable to see, I ask is it just to the side or what?

No. This fire was in the MIDDLE of the road. Mr. Leary says it best in our discussion on this event: HERE.

When they first drove past, they neglected to stop or even check, and considering that Scott's truck was in pieces, that alone is rather suspect in my mind. When they came back through I got the feeling like vultures were circling around us.

The fire was started at a place in the trail where trees narrowed on both sides and there would be no way to go around the fire without cutting a swath. Large logs were positioned around the center of the fire, and had been poorly set with gasoline (burned off without lighting them completely). It was clear that they were trying to keep us there. We did not examine the trail we had already covered, but I would not be surprised if they created a similar roadblock on the other side of us. If they wanted to set a forest fire, there were much better places to do so.

If we had been a little longer fixing the truck, the fire would have made the trail impasseable, and may have lit the adjacent trees on fire as well. When they saw my lights, they took off... then stopped, put the truck in reverse, then forward again, then slowed down. Then I fired one round to let them know we were serious, and they left for good... in a hurry.

I would place their motive somewhere between ignorant and destructive arson to a predatory entrapment. I can't help but wonder what kind of trouble we would have had if we had stayed on the mountain overnight.

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Sooo... where is this again?

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...d=101636131994481156514.00047cdbf3e245a4fca7c


This is about 4-5hrs from the DFW

 

[KSJeep]

Nice, didn't realize you could find trails like that in OK.

 

[RU55ELL]

How familiar are y'all with the Clayton trail? I have a buddy that went last year and said that most of the trail requires lockers in both ends and 35s. I'm thinking maybe he is talking about the Clayton trail on the other side of Indian Hwy?

 

[Aggie]

Ah ya'll found bus line! Does that old Bus still say something lewd in the back about getting some "lip service"?