Let me give a plug for the Heartland Xterra Owner's Club, they seem to have frequent trips in our neck of the woods. Check out their Xcursions index; several of the trips have reveiws, pics, and maps. I couldn't get any of the Cassville maps to open though...can somebody else try?
Here are a couple of their reviews:

Another review, featuring HXOC January 11-13, 2002

And another from HXOC, January 23-25, 2004

Oh, also, if you have a GPS and know how to use their info, they have links to the GPS tracks from the trips. Link from the Xcursions pages.

 

I see lots of references to trips in the Eureka Springs area, but can't find where they're going.

 

http://extreme4wheelin.com/main.htm

That's a really active club in the area... I've been wanting to join but can never get out of work in time to make it to a meeting. I looked through their trips and haven't found anything new. Two parks in the area are all closed that weekend (SMORR and D-day). One says they're open by appointment (Outlaw Adventure Park), but I don't know if we have enough rigs, and all their stuff looked too gnarly for you open/open people.

All the other choices are quite a haul from Monett (Clayton, Salina, Disney, Poteau, Hot Springs, Dunes, Byrd's, Gruber, FlatNasty).

http://www.ksrockspark.com/
This may be an option... 100 mile trek.

 

Yeah, there are several members (including their webmaster and photographer) here where I work.

 

http://www.moenviron.org/word/PPORV.doc

Anyone have a printer that can print that on some toilet paper? It may come in handy.

 

These appear to be the trailheads that the first HXOC trip took...
I'm looking for a map program which will let me import the GPS waypoints, but haven't found one yet...

 

Just to let you know for food/drink reasons, it looks like i am bringing a passenger along with me, unless there are objections. he is also new to the 4wd scene. we will chip in some cash for your troubles

 

Gave a call to the Ranger Station at Cassville, the gentleman there was friendly and gave some good info:

*All vehicles must have a licence plate
*All vehicles must stay on the numbered roads (not on ATV trails which are probably illegal, or in creek beds) except to park, i.e., tow rigs or camping.
*Camping is allowed anywhere in the forest (be nice and tread lightly), don't burn the forest down, pack in / pack out, etc.
*Maps are available at the Ranger Station or Sportsman's Corner
*There is some private land, usually fenced, but also marked on the maps: stay out or risk lead fever

*The ranger's station is in town, on Hwy 248, about 1 mile off of Hwy 112. Open Mon-Fri, 8-4:30
*Sportsman's Corner, at "Hilltop," is south of town on Hwy 112, where Hwy 76 and 86 split off to the east
*One popular loop road/trail with some challenging stuff (rock ledges) is road 1045. Go south on Hwy 112, 4-5 miles past Roaring River State Park to a road called Sugar Camp Scenic Drive; take it 2-3 miles (West, I think) to Road 1045. There should be about an acre of open land near the entrance of 1045 in which a tow rig can be parked...

 

Good info John... looks like everything is coming together nicely. I'm kind of bummed about not being able to burn the forest down though

So we gotta drive up and down highways... guess that means I gotta put my bling LED taillights back on.

Cory... run down to the ranger station and get maps next week since they aren't open on weekends. And let me know if Sportsman's Corner has a good gun selection... I'll bring some money

Cool, so there's at least one trailhead I can drop my rig off at. I'd like to keep the street miles down on the unbalanced 36" IROK's I'm running at 7 psi. I figure anywhere within 10 miles of the wheeling spot is good enough, so maybe we can find a populated campground or something to unload at. I only want to unload once... no dragging it on a trailer from trailhead to trailhead. Hopefully if they have a good enough trail system we'll never have to touch pavement.

 

From the GPS data I downloaded from the HXOC trip, it looks like there are interconnecting trails. However, it also looked like they went right up one creekbed... We'll definately be able to tell more, by the maps though.

The ranger seemed to think there would be other trailer drop-off areas, but they may be harder to find. Methinks we could stop off at the Sportsman's Corner and (if they're friendly) they could point us to the best centralized location.

Cory, I'm planning to take off all Friday the 22nd, so if you don't get to the ranger's station before then, I'll swing by there. I figured I can do some scouting around on the way up - I'll probably come up from the south rather than taking the turnpike.

 

I found 1045 on Google Earth... it looks like a deadend from there though. Someone should start a Google Earth for wheelers. That'd be sweet.

John, do you have a GPS? Mine's still packed somwhere... and it's about 15 years old.

 

http://www.ozarksjeepthing.org/forum...pic.php?t=3894

We gotta find that. Don't know why the guy in the Jeep is making it look so hard... pretty sure I could walk that. Let's find it so I can prove myself wrong.

 

Me too, looked like a dead end to me, but I've known maps to be really really wrong. Especially those which claim to have everything.

GPS? No, it's in the future...far off future... gotta pay off stuff I've already bought like school, whatever's on the credit card, etc... LOL...

 

Mary Cole trail, huh?

1861 - On September 4, The Memphis Daily Appeal of Tennessee reported:
Feminine Nuisances.-Officer Sullivan arrested Moll Rose, Mary Daniels, Jo. Moore, and Mary Cole, who were yesterday fined by Recorder Moore on the charge of being a nuisance to their neighborhood in various ways, but especially by occasionally appearing in the street in a single garment, and that one not a gown.

 

http://www.rockcrawlers4x4.com/board...d.php?tid=2414

From the couple locals I've gotten reports from, looks like the best wheeling is east of the statepark.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'm not sure the ranger's Road 1045 was the right road # - most of the forest is east of the state park.

 

I'll be sure and start this trip with a full tank of gas.

If any of you are feeling the need for upgrades I'll bring a used 4cyl Toyota lunchbox locker up... $150 installed in Cory's driveway. Fluids (80-90, silicon, brake fluid, and beer) and oil dry not included.

Heck, if you need ANYTHING, give us a shout. Between Cory and I we got a lot of spare Yota parts. And with 3 engineers there (do we still count Cory as an engineer???) we should be able to install it Friday night. Just one rule... no calculators/computers allowed.

More than likely we'll be doing stuff to my rig on Friday... I'm a notorious procrastinator.

Cory, are you going to have your welder by then?

 

Sounds like fun! Man, I could use the locker but not right now and I have a V6...

 

Anyone interested in the run at Superlift Oct. 14th? I'll probably go there instead of Disney as I haven't been to Superlift yet.

I'm also planning on going to Rocktoberfest at Byrd's Oct. 27th.

Three trips in 6 weeks... what can I say, I need my wheeling fix.


Cory, what was wrong with your truck? I wrenched on mine today...

Come home from work. Jump in truck, go wheeling. Tighten driver side cab mount. Go wheeling. Tighten passenger side cab mount. Go wheeling. Stare at mess of electrical wiring that used to do something.... I think. I'll probably have to wheel a little bit more tomorrow before fixing the wiring I'm too wore out to go do the bar though.... that wheeling stuff is tough work.

 

Good work guys! Great info john. Keith, Bring a friend, no probs. John, If you can come up friday morning, I have all day friday off and we can run out there and check it out. What do ya think?