There's a drained lake (or 2) somewhat near where I live. This particular day, we went to Enid Lake in Yalobusha county, Mississippi. There's a boat launch there with a small parking lot that we use as a meeting point/starting point (designated by the red star on the map below). The route basically hugs the shoreline (designated by the red line), crossing over many small streams and creeks that feed into the larger lake area. Unfortunately Google Maps appears to have taken some of their pictures with the lake full, and others with it empty. Still, you get the idea.
Starting point:
This was my first time taking the 240 truck out to a "serious" off-roading playground. To give you an idea, there were 40 or so lifted/modified 4wd trucks there, all of whom simply trailered in their 4-wheelers/purpose built off-roaders. I only saw 3 actual vehicles the entire time I was out there- myself, my wingman/support vehicle, and 1 guy we pulled out of the mud (who had been stuck there since the day before, and slept in his truck). The area can be a bit deceiving. Some parts have plenty of traction (like driving on a gravel road), and others are like freakin quick sand. If you walk out on them, you can easily sink up to your knees (or more). It all looks the same.
My support vehicle promptly got stuck.
Lifted trailblazer with dedicated tires, 4wd, locking rear diff, body modifications (removed bumper sections, heavy duty skid plates), and a winch... kept in the trunk that can be attached to the front or rear of the vehicle.
Here's some of that nice hard packed dirt a few feet away from where he got stuck:
I picked a slightly better line and powered through it for my first test. Complete with kickass drift.
Farther down the road were bigger, gnarlier crossings. Most of those I never got any pictures or video of, on account of them requiring a lot of attention to actually get through (...that and I got stuck in one and had to get winched out).
Here's a less severe crossing:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCFWchmo ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
I noticed I have a lot of water coming through the passenger headlight to fender area...
As we pressed on, we came to what would be an island (if the lake were full). It of course had some steep walls, and deep ruts. By this point, I was feeling pretty confidant in my little beater Nissan, so I decided to go up it.
Unfortunately, as I was ascending, I was looking at nothing but sky, and ended up putting the passenger wheel into a pretty deep rut (at speed), bending my passenger fender and pushing my bumper back a bit (as well as damaging the already crappy paint).
^That bastard!
The fender pushed back in (mostly), but I'll have to work on it a bit to get it back to 100%.
We had some lunch at the top of the island, shot some guns, then made our way back via a few other routes.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC7zZgkk ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
^I eventually reversed back, straightened out, and kept on truckin'
Yeah, there were people out there in 4 wheelers and dedicated $12,000+ rigs that were laughing at me, and there were other people that just couldn't believe what they were seeing. All in all it was a damn good time though.
Bonus pictures/videos of the trailblazer:
Also suffered some bumper damage...
Videos:
