Jeep route today...

[Sonnie Parker]

My wife and I love to explore forestry trails, and one of our favorite areas is the Blackwater River State Forest in northwest Florida. There are so many roads in that area that I am unsure if we can cover all of them this summer. Last year, we hit about a dozen trails in that area. Two weeks ago, we did a route and found 7 new creek crossings... really cool.

We use Gaia and onX Offroad GPS apps. Here's our route for today. It's 90 miles, but it will take us 5-6 hours. That's not including getting to our starting point about an hour away.

onX Offroad

webmap.onxmaps.com

 

[mechman]

I have downloaded the Gaia program before but have never used it. We've only used Avenza for our offroad adventures. How we settled on that particular app I couldn't tell you because it was 5 or so years ago. But that is the one that we use. We try to do a 3 or 4 day trip every fall once the bugs start to die off.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

We mainly use onX because it tells us if we are on private property and does a little better with the dirt trails for vehicles.

We try to avoid the mud. We only go if it's been dry most of the week; otherwise, it's sloppy and nasty. The creek crossings are fine and fun, as they are all rocky bottoms and not muddy.

Looking out my driver's window and Angie's window...

The first one is one of the longest creek crossings we've been across in Blackwater River State Forest.

 

[mechman]

We love the mud! lol Without it the winches wouldn't get as much work.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I hear ya... for us, we only want to use our winch in emergency situations, which we prefer to avoid. I don't want to have to walk in knee-deep mud and get back in the Jeep. We go ride for the day and then go out and eat somewhere later. There is Bogs and Boulders down here below us where ATVs ride in the mud. We are on the lazy side of riding.

 

[mechman]

Sometimes you gotta get wet!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Yuck... that can't be fun.

 

[mechman]

I had just given my neghbor crap about avoiding puddles and this was the first one he attempted. He got pretty wet!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I'd say so... more than wet. He had to have a shower after that one.