My JEEP GPS routed me thru Trail Rating 10!

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Jeepney

Rank IV

Pathfinder I

1,212
MN
So on my way back with my 2 kids, from an epic trail ride up here in MN north woods with the local overland group, i asked my GPS to route me to Go Home instead of stopping by Duluth. So it did it's thing, recalculating... and found me a new route. Great! I missed the turn as it was pretty obscure, i turned around and it sent me to a trail called Whiteface Truck Trail.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2708972,-92.2141852,3a,75y,186.18h,83.24t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDUum1vuIVAl8ggzjTwu5tg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Well it is a nice road, lots of rocks but i can carry a good pace, giving the suspension some workout, just making sure nothing is tall enough to take out the diff. Also the thunderstorm early in the morning filled all the dips and had some pretty cool bumper-high water bombing... I was like cool, the GPS finally found me a route that isn't your typical boring route.

Well about 7miles to it, this nice road turned into a thick jungle. I confirmed with the GPS that i am still on track, by then my phones have no signal and i did not download this section of the map in my Gaia either so i had no way to tell if the road has just been re-routed. I figured, it's a seldom-used road so probably it just tickens up here so i went ahead and navigated thru. Well it led to a washout with thick mud, about 40ft long, pretty fresh no one was here. The main track was out, it's got a 3ft drop, and directly on its right is a new track (bypass?!). It looks better but i need to cut a bunch of small trees so i can squeeze thru it. That i did, and slowly went thru it steering the jeep for the least damage. At one point the roof was leaning against a tree so i had to cut it, thankfully it's dead so less green impact. Got past it although i managed to unclip the fender in the process. But hey i am back on the road and I should be back to pavement in about a mile (i think) according to the GPS! Totally pumped! Anyways i went ahead and then about a hundred yards later, it turned out it ends up leading to a stream with a steep vertical dropoff and climb no less than 25ft (initially, there's more to climb if you actually manage to get past it). I got off the jeep and scanned the area. I only did one steep climb ever, this was on an established OHV trail, with great traction. This one i am looking out is loose dirt, and you can see rut build out from previous folks who have tried. Plus there's barely room to fit the jeep once you get to the bottom. This is something off a hardcore jeep wheeling videos with vertical winching. There is no way this is a road in the GPS. A fresh breath of oxygen and i got to thinking straight so i backed up and got the jeep turned around. So now --- how do i get past the washout again. It now goes uphill so i'd have to fight for traction. The main track has the 3ft drop so i will likely high-center if i try to go that route. It certainly is the straighter path to freedom and the route that i took earlier is tight squeeze plus i had to get the jeep steered thru it. I decided to take the same route i took earlier. Got the lockers engaged to make sure i don't dig myself in. Got the jeep steered back up the ledge. I was able to line up the jeep so i can straight bomb out of it and a couple of reverse/forward, i got some momentum and did a banzai and the Jeep locked in, and followed the track i had earlier throwing mud everywhere, narrowly bouncing off the trees left and right (at that point i didn't care). I can't believe I got back on solid road. I was so pumped, and my brain running crazy all i was thinking is i need to get out of here. Back to 4-HI and i did a Baja style on the way out. I re-routed back to Duluth to get my adrenalin down and get my mind out of it. And i stayed on pavement this time.

I made it back home, and did some research on where i ended up in. It turns out Google Maps doesn't have the road at all. I ended up between the two trail where the stream crosses.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2197303,-92.2899392,15z

For sure Google would not have given me this direction but the Jeep GPS certainly thinks it is doable.