Shinning Rock Wilderness NC

What a great trip one of my favorite places to hike. !! the fill report with more pictures coming soon.....

Cloud land Canyon - Ga.

Well in the 20 years I have lived and explored Ga. I had never been to Cloud Land Canyon and just had to go one day. .. So the day came. I packed up the family and filled up the gas tank and headed out on a 2 1/5 hour drive.

PART 2 Cumberland Island Adventure

The Details: We put in a Crooked River State Park on a cloudy Sat morning , temperatures were in the high 60's headed towards the mid 70's. You have to love the Jan temps in south Ga. wow. I need to back up a little before I get to the trip.... So we had camped at Crooked River State Park on Friday night and we were impressed with the camp and facilities. Great place to start and it was right at the boat ramp. We rented our boats from Up the Creek outfitters in St Mary's. They were great !! ask for Natiely she was awesome and really has some great knowledge about the area conditions. So I rolled up to the boat ramp at 7:30 and they were already there with the boats all lined up with the gear waiting to hit the water. We had several kinds of boats all where in great condition and I was pretty excited. O YEA. We had a total of 6 people in our group 5 boats total, with one tandem. After getting all the wavers signed and checked it was time to load up the boats with gear. I wish I have some pictures because most would laugh at all the stuff we were able to get into these boats. We also started to get eaten by gnats. Thats right bitting gnats... I have some words for those gnats, for some reason they like our boats as much as we did. These little things would swam up and around your face legs , ears, you name it. At this point we were quickly stuffing gear in so we could get on the water and escape the gnats. The weird thing is the hole trip they only were crazy around our boats when they were on land. Go figure....

Once we hit the water we paddled along the shore following the wonderful maps that the Up the creek outfitters had for us. I also was charting our trip on a GPS quest. The route we took was pretty easy going out the crooked river with the tide. We made really good time. head towards Sea Camp. Now I know a lot of people will say why did you head there and my answer is thats just where I picked. The real reason why most kayak dont head there is because there is no bat take out once you get there. and the paddle is a pretty long way. We were on the water for 3 hours easy and we had almost perfect conditions. Look at the sea wall in the upper picture, we had to lift our unloaded boat up that wall. That goodness they has carts to hall gear. I am glad we pick Sea camp for our first stop. I think it gave us the ability to see how wonderful it was. I think I would recommend to anyone to try the camp out. Its not total back country camping by it is nicely laid out. Here we are at SEA CAMP .... MORE TO COME >>>>>

Cumberland Island Kayak Adventure PART 1

What a place !! Cumberland Island is such a place to see... But you had better plan a head. Our trip started 6 months in advance to book a holiday weekend. We picked to go in January which is a tricky time to head out on the water and paddle. You never know what your going to run into with mother nature. The only advance planning I really did was to get the camping permits on Cumberland, the rest I did as a last minute dash. I reserved 6 spots at a place called Sea Camp for two nights. Our plan was to kayak out to the island and enjoy some exploring and some additional paddling once we were there. I had read another Blog about the trip so I figured the info provided sounded like it would be a 2-3 hours paddle out to the island. So the night before the trip I started the real scramble to secure the last minute items. Like a place to camp Friday night, and the boat rentals and how we were going to get down there and back. O man I would not suggest waiting to make these arrangements. So the over all plan was to put in at Crooked River State Park and Paddle out to Cumber Island Sea Camp and spend two nights. Then paddle back. Simple enough. MORE TO COME>>>>

Some more shots...

What a great trip and many thanks to the fellas at Upstate Cruisers for putting this on... I want to go back soon....

More Land Cruiser Dreaming...

After airing down to 25 psi , we begin the journey up the rocky trail. It wasn’t long before we came to area where most people turn back. It was a badly roughed section where 4x4 was required equipment. Good thing we all came prepared .. I shifted in to 4 wheel low which locks the center diff. and the light on the dash signaled that everything was working great. Thank goodness because I was watching the stock 60 bang its way up the first real test. I was surprised at how it pulled and snaked its way long. Then I thought of course it’s a Land Cruiser. Well when it came to my turn to head up the section, when your headed up and over something it is important to have someone else give you directions over the radio. I could not see over the front of my truck to see where I needed to place my front wheels so someone was there to point left - right – straight , and up and over I went. There is nothing like trying to watch a Land Cruiser in front of you and then in your rear view mirror trying to watch one behind you. I may cool things to watch. After making it through the trail winds it way ever higher in to the mountains so time narrowing enough to scrub brush along side the truck. This is that good old pin stripping that everyone talks about getting. I did bang my trailer hitch a couple of times but I guess that is what it is there for. The scenery is amazing ! The leaves are tumbling down the trees and covering the trail ever so slightly. vivid reds and yellows and a touch of brown. Dot the land scape. I am truly in Land Cruiser heaven.

Land Cruiser Dreaming

It started early Friday morning around 5:00am, I had the truck packed and ready to go. I just needed my coffee and I would begin the 3 hour trip to the North Carolina Mountains where I would be joining 6 other land cruisers for the early group. This is one of the only east coast trips that I know of that is an expedition style trip where you wheel for three straight days and camp each night. I was taking my 1996 lx 450 which had some basic modifications but was virtually a stock truck with the running boards removed. I was confident that I would be ok and was reassured my some who had been planning the trip that I would be fine. They did say that the risk for body damage was small with the risk of pin striping which is a way of saying scratches from brush was high. So I arrive on a beautiful Friday morning at 10:00 at the meeting place and being to full up the tank for the weekend. Soon two other cruisers pulled up. They were the new FJ Cruisers , both silver and shinning in the North Carolina morning sun. Man those are too nice to dirty up I thought. But after doing a double take, one of them was more build than mine and sporting some tough tires and full skid plates. Cool. Soon we were making are way over to a near park for more room as the other cruisers started showing up. There was a loaded 60 with a 4 inch lift , then a stock 62 and a beautiful slightly modified fj 40. Then a couple of 80s zoomed in both 2ich lifts and slightly modified. We were all there and talked trucks. I pulled my spare from the underneath of my truck and stuffed it inside the back where it would be out of the way. I was ready ! We all cranked up the trucks and begin to roll up in to the mountains. The drive in was wonderful winding along side a creek , I some how could see us crossing it and getting off the payment. Then we came to that spot where it was time to air down the tires .....

More on the Adventure later ....