Columbia River Gorge, WA.

[Ghost]

Hi all, Im a new member from Washington State.

Just picked a 2019 Tacoma and decided to step up my off road game and begin Overlanding. Living in the Cascades I'm no stranger to the Back country and figured this would be a great resource for building my Rig and meeting like minded people. Really looking forward to it, and thanks for having me!

 

[Chadlyb]

Hi all, Im a new member from Washington State.

Just picked a 2019 Tacoma and decided to step up my off road game and begin Overlanding. Living in the Cascades I'm no stranger to the Back country and figured this would be a great resource for building my Rig and meeting like minded people. Really looking forward to it, and thanks for having me!

Hello neighbor and welcome to the OB crew. Great choice for your adventure platform. Look forward to seeing your build and your adventures.

 

[Ghost]

Hello neighbor and welcome to the OB crew. Great choice for your adventure platform. Look forward to seeing your build and your adventures.

Thanks! It’s the second taco I’ve owned and we are also on our second 4Runner. We had the Fj Cruiser until we had kids. Suicide doors were brutal with kids car seats

Obviously I’m a little Toyota bias.

I see you are in Bend? Spent a lot of time down there in the early 90’s when I was climbing in Terrebonne. That whole area has really blown up since then. Still an amazing place with lots to do. Thanks again for the greeting.

 

[mjherron]

Welcome to Overland Bound from Missouri!

 

[Ghost]

Welcome to Overland Bound from Missouri!

Thanks

 

[JoelIII]

Welcome from NC!

 

[Ghost]

Welcome from NC!

Thanks, an nice Taco!

 

[JoelIII]

Thanks, an nice Taco!

Yeah its a lot of work keeping it in good condition. Luckily the original owner did pretty good but all the trail driving adds to the scratches, of coarse parking lots add to the dings.

 

[Ghost]

Yeah its a lot of work keeping it in good condition. Luckily the original owner did pretty good but all the trail driving adds to the scratches, of coarse parking lots add to the dings.

What year? I had a silver 03 extended cab for a couple years. As for the scratches and dings My new Tacoma already has gouges in 2 spots before I even hit 10k miles. My wife’s 4Runner is the parking lot door ding magnet. I just noticed some new paint on it yesterday.

 

[Jedi]

Hi all, Im a new member from Washington State.

Just picked a 2019 Tacoma and decided to step up my off road game and begin Overlanding. Living in the Cascades I'm no stranger to the Back country and figured this would be a great resource for building my Rig and meeting like minded people. Really looking forward to it, and thanks for having me!

Welcome to Overland Bound, Ghost! You are in a beautiful place... In fact the Columbia River Gorge is on my list of places I'd like to live in WA. I love cruising around Gifford Pinchot when I get a chance. I travel down to Vancouver periodically for work and always set aside time for the trails.

There are a number of members west of you in the Vancouver/PDX area, hopefully you can hook up with some of them and find some mutual fun and adventure. I highly recommend checking out our NorthWest Region forum [link], where you can get to know your neighbors and talk about things PNW specific. You should also keep an eye on the Rally Point System [link] for events that might be happening in the region.

Next time I am down in the area I want to set up a get together and trail run. Hopefully I'll get to meet you then or some other time in the future. Until then, just hit me up on the forums, @Jedi, if you need anything.

 

[Ghost]

Welcome to Overland Bound, Ghost! You are in a beautiful place... In fact the Columbia River Gorge is on my list of places I'd like to live in WA. I love cruising around Gifford Pinchot when I get a chance. I travel down to Vancouver periodically for work and always set aside time for the trails.

There are a number of members west of you in the Vancouver/PDX area, hopefully you can hook up with some of them and find some mutual fun and adventure. I highly recommend checking out our NorthWest Region forum [link], where you can get to know your neighbors and talk about things PNW specific. You should also keep an eye on the Rally Point System [link] for events that might be happening in the region.

Next time I am down in the area I want to set up a get together and trail run. Hopefully I'll get to meet you then or some other time in the future. Until then, just hit me up on the forums, @Jedi, if you need anything.

True story on how beautiful it is down here. I grew up farther north (Kitsap County) and ended up working down here in the early 90’s. Never went back. Have to say wheeling around the Olympic National Park as a kid spoiled me but the Gorge really an amazing place to call home.

Thanks for the heads up on the regional links and hope to eventually meet up.

Thanks again.

 

[JoelIII]

What year? I had a silver 03 extended cab for a couple years. As for the scratches and dings My new Tacoma already has gouges in 2 spots before I even hit 10k miles. My wife’s 4Runner is the parking lot door ding magnet. I just noticed some new paint on it yesterday.

She's an 04, just hit 120k at the beginning of this month. Replaced the radiator last month cause it sprung two separate leaks at the top, and had the timing belt/water pump job done at 105k miles, other than that its just routine maintenance and it runs smooth. Yeah my wife's car has been side swiped twice now with decent side paint marks and dents in a parking lot and it has dings all over it.

 

[Ghost]

She's an 04, just hit 120k at the beginning of this month. Replaced the radiator last month cause it sprung two separate leaks at the top, and had the timing belt/water pump job done at 105k miles, other than that its just routine maintenance and it runs smooth. Yeah my wife's car has been side swiped twice now with decent side paint marks and dents in a parking lot and it has dings all over it.

Just getting it broke in! We are on our 5th Toyota and the last two I sold both had over 225K on them with nothing more than belts, brakes, and a water pump replaced. Living where we do we need reliable 4 wheel drive. My job requires I respond no matter the road conditions and I’m 20 miles away. Toyota is an easy choice.

 

[JoelIII]

Just getting it broke in! We are on our 5th Toyota and the last two I sold both had over 225K on them with nothing more than belts, brakes, and a water pump replaced. Living where we do we need reliable 4 wheel drive. My job requires I respond no matter the road conditions and I’m 20 miles away. Toyota is an easy choice.

Yeah I'm not a die hard fan to any brand, owned and drove a lot of cars and trucks over the years but I keep coming back to Toyota trucks.

 

[Ghost]

Yeah I'm not a die hard fan to any brand, owned and drove a lot of cars and trucks over the years but I keep coming back to Toyota trucks.

Agreed. Being that I bought my first truck back in the 80’s I’ve done Chevy, dodge, ford, Nissan, and Toyota. Also doing overhead line construction for years I’ve ran about all those brands into the dirt. If you like off-road the best job ever is getting paid to hook a rope/cable to the back of a rig and plow cross country from pole to pole with no road to follow. Spent almost a year on one job in eastern WA running a single phone line cross county. Climbed a lot of poles that year. After smoking a couple Dodge & Chevy flatbeds found the F350 and an old rust bucket Toyota 4x4 with 285K on it was the only trucks that would hold up to the daily beating.

 

[JoelIII]

Agreed. Being that I bought my first truck back in the 80’s I’ve done Chevy, dodge, ford, Nissan, and Toyota. Also doing overhead line construction for years I’ve ran about all those brands into the dirt. If you like off-road the best job ever is getting paid to hook a rope/cable to the back of a rig and plow cross country from pole to pole with no road to follow. Spent almost a year on one job in eastern WA running a single phone line cross county. Climbed a lot of poles that year. After smoking a couple Dodge & Chevy flatbeds found the F350 and an old rust bucket Toyota 4x4 with 285K on it was the only trucks that would hold up to the daily beating.

That does sound awesome, I have a little experience plowing through deserts in three separate countries where you're just following a gps beacon and no roads exist. Over here on the far east coast, lot of logging trails and flat lands so its easy for me to get around without 4wd. Seeing what people have posted on this forum, I'd love to make it out west eventually and do some wilderness exploring. I had family in Colorado a long time ago and I'd visit in the summer and winter school breaks. My brother in law would take us driving out in the mountains where they lived a few hours north of Denver and it was awesome.

 

[Ghost]

That does sound awesome, I have a little experience plowing through deserts in three separate countries where you're just following a gps beacon and no roads exist. Over here on the far east coast, lot of logging trails and flat lands so its easy for me to get around without 4wd. Seeing what people have posted on this forum, I'd love to make it out west eventually and do some wilderness exploring. I had family in Colorado a long time ago and I'd visit in the summer and winter school breaks. My brother in law would take us driving out in the mountains where they lived a few hours north of Denver and it was awesome.

I went out this morning to check out an old road DNR had cut water bars in to see if I could negotiate it. Still babying the new Tacoma since it’s tires suck and no sliders yet but the old road is 3 minutes from home so I tried. My old lifted 4Runner would make it and only scraped if I was careless. After last winter there was no way the Tacoma was making it without some body damage so I bailed. There are a lot of great trails around here but many are seriously steep if you get in trouble. Local guy rolled his rig last year multiple times and was killed on the spot. It’s funny because living here I want to overland desert, but if you lived in the desert you would want to overland mountains. Here is the view from my couch.
Same area 2 summers ago. Which explained the grey looking tree.

 

[JoelIII]

Wow, that is insane! I agree, you want to explore the areas your not used to and see what you're missing.

 

[Ghost]

Wow, that is insane! I agree, you want to explore the areas your not used to and see what you're missing.

Yeah that hill is about 3500 feet from our driveway and you could feel the heat. It turned day to night and was raining down burnt sticks the size of pencils. Sent the wife and kids upwind the day it blew up. In the end it ran about 30 miles and burned 50k acres. All from a kid with some fireworks.