machine1
Explorer
This is a report from the North America Off Road Subaru (Texas-Oklahoma section) Summer Soft Road Meet 2014 at Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport, Texas.
What is a Soft-Road meet? First let’s define what a soft-roader is. Soft roaders are mainly unibody vehicles with an all-wheel drive system and extra ground clearance. They have the capability to drive through forest roads, dirt trails, and some water crossings. Subaru and Jeep are known to build popular soft roaders. We had a little bit of everything show up to our meet. The meet was catered to beginners to off road, a couple of vehicles were barely broken in before coming out the wheel with us.
Who was invited to the Soft Road Meet? We started with inviting members from Subaruforester.org and our North America Off Road Subaru group on Facebook. I also extended the invite to the Jeep Cherokee forum, XV Crosstrek forum, and a couple of people from Expedition Portal.
Our venue for the meet was Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport, Texas. This park has trails for everyone from the beginner to rock crawlers. I’ve been to the park six times previously and have mapped out a route for the day. Our route was catered to the beginner off-roader starting with simple hill climbs, shallow water crossings, and ending with rocky terrain with some downhill sections.
The Group
Machine1 (Subaruforester.org, Expediton Portal) – host
DSC_1053 by jasplund91, on Flickr
GeoJosh (Subaruforester.org) – host
DSC_1060 by jasplund91, on Flickr
Tugg (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_0062 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Ron Jon (North America Off Road Subaru - Facebook)
DSC_0101 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
William Wolfen (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_0400 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Dallasmike (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_1063 by jasplund91, on Flickr
Kevin M (NAORS)
DSC_1055 by jasplund91, on Flickr
Derelicte (NAORS)
DSC_1056 by jasplund91, on Flickr
JD and Ashley (Jeep Cherokee Forum)
DSC_0071 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Ann and Tim (Jeep Cherokee Forum)
DSC_1057 by jasplund91, on Flickr
John P (friend of Kevin)
DSC_0377 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Ryan D (NAORS)
DSC_0094 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Ryan’s friend (Tacoma)
10542065_355315074620016_1748838521565352210_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Rick (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0031 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Texploration (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0020 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Pedal (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0315 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Victor (Friend of Texploration)
DSC_0108 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Fernando D (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0478 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Passengers: Shansen, Ymani, Sean J, Jacob D.
Friday evening
In preparation for the Meet the next day, I decided to remove my rear mud flaps and rear sway bar links. I was going to leave the front sway bar in this time to see how it would perform on the trails. The mud flaps had to go because they kept dragging everything on the trail. One of them was also ripped off from just reversing, the flap was caught between a rock and my tire.
5:50 AM Saturday
I woke up early morning at 5:50 to pack my cooler, camera equipment, tools, and maps. I didn’t plan on leaving my house until 7:30 AM but I couldn’t sleep any longer with the meet coming up in a couple of hours. I received a text from my coworker at around 7 asking me if I needed anything from Wally mart. I figured this would be a good time to get ice for the cooler. He was going to be riding with me to the meet and ride along with someone else since I had my son riding passenger in my vehicle for the trails.
7:30
We (Son, coworker, and I) left my house to the first meeting spot, a Shell gas station. I filled up, the place was 45 minutes away. I usually get around 10 mpg from an entire day of trails. It’s better to have a full tank than have to worry about gas out there. After getting gas, I waited along the curb near a couple of payphones at Shell station. That morning there was an autocross event about to commence at the Speedway nearby. Saw a Miata on a tow bar being towed behind a truck getting off the highway. While I was pumping gas, in the stall next to me was a Porsche 914 sitting on a trailer. It was highly modified, widebody conversion, Flat-6 from a 911, pretty nice car.
Waiting by the curb at the gas station, the first person I spot is Kevin in his Forester XT. He missed the first turn-in so I called him up. “Hola”, those were the first words I heard from Kevin. He said he saw me and was going to make a u-turn. He pulled into the Shell station and went to top off his tank. Soon after, Shansen showed up in his lowered Forester, and we had one more person left to wait for. After a few minutes of conversation I realized that it was past 8 AM and we had to get moving.
At 8:04 we got on the road heading towards the OHV park. As soon as we pulled onto the highway I noticed a white Tacoma hovering around our line of cars. I soon realize that it was John, he caught us just in time. It was a 45 minute drive from the Shell station to the OHV park. Mostly an uneventful drive other than a couple of people that didn’t know what a passing lane is for. The signs are everywhere, “Left Lane For Passing Only”. Some people are just clueless.
We arrived at our second meeting spot which was a road before a secondary entrance to the park. No one was there so I decided to go ahead and drive into the park. We let Shansen hang out in the back because the road into the park was rutted out from rain and his lowered Forester didn’t like it at all. We lost sight of him pretty quickly. Why was he in a lowered CUV at an off-road park? He was going to be riding along with Josh and taking pictures.
At the gate I had a little chat with the attendants. A nice couple, they remembered me from last time and asked us to tag our pictures to their page on Facebook. I did tag them previously, I just thought they were ignoring everything I posted.
Getting into the gate, there are already a few guys parked behind a tree waiting. Rick in his Tacoma and William Wolfen are already there. Wolfen tells me that the trails are flooded and we were going to have to bypass the first part of the trail that I had planned out. Well, this isn’t good news. The day before there was a thunderstorm that sat around the city and dumped plenty of water into the park. Great.
10313013_355325341285656_7350526891986599279_n by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
We hung around waiting for everyone to show up. People were slowly trickling in between 9 and 9:30. I went around meeting everyone and checking out their vehicles. I love all things off-road, I was like a kid at a car show. The Trailhawks were there, four late model Tacomas, a bunch of Subarus. One guy brought his rally-prepped Sti, but it was too low to trail ride so he rode along with Rick in his Tacoma.
What is a Soft-Road meet? First let’s define what a soft-roader is. Soft roaders are mainly unibody vehicles with an all-wheel drive system and extra ground clearance. They have the capability to drive through forest roads, dirt trails, and some water crossings. Subaru and Jeep are known to build popular soft roaders. We had a little bit of everything show up to our meet. The meet was catered to beginners to off road, a couple of vehicles were barely broken in before coming out the wheel with us.
Who was invited to the Soft Road Meet? We started with inviting members from Subaruforester.org and our North America Off Road Subaru group on Facebook. I also extended the invite to the Jeep Cherokee forum, XV Crosstrek forum, and a couple of people from Expedition Portal.
Our venue for the meet was Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport, Texas. This park has trails for everyone from the beginner to rock crawlers. I’ve been to the park six times previously and have mapped out a route for the day. Our route was catered to the beginner off-roader starting with simple hill climbs, shallow water crossings, and ending with rocky terrain with some downhill sections.
The Group
Machine1 (Subaruforester.org, Expediton Portal) – host
DSC_1053 by jasplund91, on Flickr
GeoJosh (Subaruforester.org) – host
DSC_1060 by jasplund91, on Flickr
Tugg (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_0062 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Ron Jon (North America Off Road Subaru - Facebook)
DSC_0101 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
William Wolfen (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_0400 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Dallasmike (Subaruforester.org)
DSC_1063 by jasplund91, on Flickr
Kevin M (NAORS)
DSC_1055 by jasplund91, on Flickr
Derelicte (NAORS)
DSC_1056 by jasplund91, on Flickr
JD and Ashley (Jeep Cherokee Forum)
DSC_0071 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Ann and Tim (Jeep Cherokee Forum)
DSC_1057 by jasplund91, on Flickr
John P (friend of Kevin)
DSC_0377 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Ryan D (NAORS)
DSC_0094 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Ryan’s friend (Tacoma)
10542065_355315074620016_1748838521565352210_o by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Rick (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0031 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Texploration (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0020 by Puzzles Photography, on Flickr
Pedal (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0315 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Victor (Friend of Texploration)
DSC_0108 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Fernando D (Expedition Portal)
DSC_0478 by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
Passengers: Shansen, Ymani, Sean J, Jacob D.
Friday evening
In preparation for the Meet the next day, I decided to remove my rear mud flaps and rear sway bar links. I was going to leave the front sway bar in this time to see how it would perform on the trails. The mud flaps had to go because they kept dragging everything on the trail. One of them was also ripped off from just reversing, the flap was caught between a rock and my tire.
5:50 AM Saturday
I woke up early morning at 5:50 to pack my cooler, camera equipment, tools, and maps. I didn’t plan on leaving my house until 7:30 AM but I couldn’t sleep any longer with the meet coming up in a couple of hours. I received a text from my coworker at around 7 asking me if I needed anything from Wally mart. I figured this would be a good time to get ice for the cooler. He was going to be riding with me to the meet and ride along with someone else since I had my son riding passenger in my vehicle for the trails.
7:30
We (Son, coworker, and I) left my house to the first meeting spot, a Shell gas station. I filled up, the place was 45 minutes away. I usually get around 10 mpg from an entire day of trails. It’s better to have a full tank than have to worry about gas out there. After getting gas, I waited along the curb near a couple of payphones at Shell station. That morning there was an autocross event about to commence at the Speedway nearby. Saw a Miata on a tow bar being towed behind a truck getting off the highway. While I was pumping gas, in the stall next to me was a Porsche 914 sitting on a trailer. It was highly modified, widebody conversion, Flat-6 from a 911, pretty nice car.
Waiting by the curb at the gas station, the first person I spot is Kevin in his Forester XT. He missed the first turn-in so I called him up. “Hola”, those were the first words I heard from Kevin. He said he saw me and was going to make a u-turn. He pulled into the Shell station and went to top off his tank. Soon after, Shansen showed up in his lowered Forester, and we had one more person left to wait for. After a few minutes of conversation I realized that it was past 8 AM and we had to get moving.
At 8:04 we got on the road heading towards the OHV park. As soon as we pulled onto the highway I noticed a white Tacoma hovering around our line of cars. I soon realize that it was John, he caught us just in time. It was a 45 minute drive from the Shell station to the OHV park. Mostly an uneventful drive other than a couple of people that didn’t know what a passing lane is for. The signs are everywhere, “Left Lane For Passing Only”. Some people are just clueless.
We arrived at our second meeting spot which was a road before a secondary entrance to the park. No one was there so I decided to go ahead and drive into the park. We let Shansen hang out in the back because the road into the park was rutted out from rain and his lowered Forester didn’t like it at all. We lost sight of him pretty quickly. Why was he in a lowered CUV at an off-road park? He was going to be riding along with Josh and taking pictures.
At the gate I had a little chat with the attendants. A nice couple, they remembered me from last time and asked us to tag our pictures to their page on Facebook. I did tag them previously, I just thought they were ignoring everything I posted.
Getting into the gate, there are already a few guys parked behind a tree waiting. Rick in his Tacoma and William Wolfen are already there. Wolfen tells me that the trails are flooded and we were going to have to bypass the first part of the trail that I had planned out. Well, this isn’t good news. The day before there was a thunderstorm that sat around the city and dumped plenty of water into the park. Great.
10313013_355325341285656_7350526891986599279_n by machinecrewchief, on Flickr
We hung around waiting for everyone to show up. People were slowly trickling in between 9 and 9:30. I went around meeting everyone and checking out their vehicles. I love all things off-road, I was like a kid at a car show. The Trailhawks were there, four late model Tacomas, a bunch of Subarus. One guy brought his rally-prepped Sti, but it was too low to trail ride so he rode along with Rick in his Tacoma.