Back on Highway 52
The Church that sits right at the entrance to the forest:
The path on the left is the entrance to the forest:
The main access road for this section of the forest was very smooth, even saw a couple of luxury cars coming to and from the mountain houses in the area.
The beginning of the first side trail I took:
Had a few areas there the trail was quite rutted out, got to put the suspension to work a bit
Love how green the forest was:
Some of the trails collect a good bit of mud. Was dryer than usual this time since it hasn't rained in a while, but there was still a bit of mud:
More greenery with a decent steep climb
More deep ruts coming down the trail. The suspension lift definitely helped give room to work with.
A fun little path driving through some rather tall plants and such:
Another rather steep climb (even though pictures don't do it justice) that was a bit muddy:
Another spot that looked like dry mud until the wheel started to sink into it:
Trail started to get a bit narrower:
Creek crossing by some of the campsites:
Came across a logging operation (not active since I was there on a Saturday):
Trail narrowed out yet again:
One of the most fun parts of the ride. This picture does absolutely no justice to it, but this is possibly the steepest climb and decent I've ever put the Envoy on. The fact that it was extremely muddy made it all the more difficult, but the Envoy climbed it and went back down with no issue. Would have hopped out to take a picture, but because of the degree of the slope and the mud, the truck would have slid if I got out.
Went a little farther up the trail and came across the US Army Ranger's Camp Merril. The road runs right along side their obstacle course.
At this point I turned back around to go back out the way I came in. I'll have to take another run and keep going up further, as the forest is huge, and there's quite a bit of cool stuff further up. Noticed this when I turned around and started going back towards the campsites/logging operation:
Apparently they put this sign up for the logging operation, but only on one side, there's no sign from the side I came in at.
And back at the beginning of the trail:
. There is good trout fishing up there by the way
