Hey OB friends, I just wanted to start an official thread about my upcoming trip on the Trans America Trail (route from east coast to west coast all off-road) so that it is easier to coordinate with other OB members in case they want to join in. The goal here is to create an official overland route, document it with pictures, video, GPX files, weather and terrain reports and more. In my research, I found it difficult to plan this properly due to the lack of information regarding a 4x4 vehicle on the trail, since it was originally designed for dual sport motorcycles.
We plan to post daily (or as close to daily as possible) vlog-style videos on our YouTube channel, which will contain information regarding the section we tackled that day in the description of the video. We are also planning on free camping only, which may take us a bit off of the trail each night, but we felt it was important to mark these locations for those who would prefer to avoid camping fees. Details all the way down to what gas stations offer a propane refill or exchange, how much gas is at each stop, and which places allow you to fill your water storage will be included for every checkpoint.
This trip has been my main focus for the past few months, as I've been building up my Jeep more quickly than I had hoped ($$$) to make sure that a single vehicle can complete the trip safely without the support of another vehicle in the event of a snag. I am hoping that you all would have some input as far as what kind of data we should collect, since we plan to make all of this information readily available here and through our website. I basically want to make it as easy as possible to pick the route up at any point along the trail, and help overlanders know exactly what they're up against to be as prepared as possible. If this isn't your style, you don't have to pay any mind. But, if going prepared or satiating your curiosity about this particular trail is something you're interested in, please follow along. Of course, we'd love to hear from you!
In the next post, I'll be adding our schedule from April 29th to May 16th, where we'll be arriving in Flagstaff for Overland Expo West May 18th through the 20th. From there, we'll be backtracking to Moab and then continuing on the actual trail through Utah, Nevada, and ending on the coast of Oregon. If time allows, I'll either head down the Pacific Coast Highway, or wrap around the other direction to head through Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota on my way back to Illinois. The second half of the trip is still loosely scheduled at this point, but as it gets built I will be posting additional checkpoint dates to the post below this one.
So that you can find our channel, here is a link to our latest "VLOG" discussing what I think of the 4" X-Series Lift from Rough Country and Falken's 35" mud terrain tires as we tested them both for the first time at Badlands Off-Road Park in Indiana:
We plan to post daily (or as close to daily as possible) vlog-style videos on our YouTube channel, which will contain information regarding the section we tackled that day in the description of the video. We are also planning on free camping only, which may take us a bit off of the trail each night, but we felt it was important to mark these locations for those who would prefer to avoid camping fees. Details all the way down to what gas stations offer a propane refill or exchange, how much gas is at each stop, and which places allow you to fill your water storage will be included for every checkpoint.
This trip has been my main focus for the past few months, as I've been building up my Jeep more quickly than I had hoped ($$$) to make sure that a single vehicle can complete the trip safely without the support of another vehicle in the event of a snag. I am hoping that you all would have some input as far as what kind of data we should collect, since we plan to make all of this information readily available here and through our website. I basically want to make it as easy as possible to pick the route up at any point along the trail, and help overlanders know exactly what they're up against to be as prepared as possible. If this isn't your style, you don't have to pay any mind. But, if going prepared or satiating your curiosity about this particular trail is something you're interested in, please follow along. Of course, we'd love to hear from you!
In the next post, I'll be adding our schedule from April 29th to May 16th, where we'll be arriving in Flagstaff for Overland Expo West May 18th through the 20th. From there, we'll be backtracking to Moab and then continuing on the actual trail through Utah, Nevada, and ending on the coast of Oregon. If time allows, I'll either head down the Pacific Coast Highway, or wrap around the other direction to head through Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota on my way back to Illinois. The second half of the trip is still loosely scheduled at this point, but as it gets built I will be posting additional checkpoint dates to the post below this one.
So that you can find our channel, here is a link to our latest "VLOG" discussing what I think of the 4" X-Series Lift from Rough Country and Falken's 35" mud terrain tires as we tested them both for the first time at Badlands Off-Road Park in Indiana:
