This makes the third year for “Chilly Willy”, so now it’s officially a tradition! This trip brought some new kit, more trail time than ever before, a solid breakdown on the trail, and a new record for low temperatures. CW24 was one heck of an adventure and I loved almost every moment! I’m settled in on the Gazelle tent, a cot with a synthetic comforter for bedding, and a zero degree sleeping bag. I’m down to the same setup for every adventure, but I change out the sleeping bag depending on the temp.

The biggest goal this year was to get the most trail time possible. In years past we’ve visited sections of Arkansas that we were familiar with. We mostly focused on the Ozarks and I used Gaia and OnXOffroad to find new places to explore. That worked out well previously, but this year we decided to break into some new territory and explore the Ouachitas in Oklahoma.

Friday would be focused on the K Trail and Saturday would be an adventure day. That didn’t exactly work out as planned, but that’s because we wanted to explore more of the offshoots of the K Trail. Sometimes that’s just the way some of these adventures play out. You can plan a lot and then just sort of fly by the seat of your pants. I never really know and over the years it’s become my favorite part of getting out there. You might find something awesome or you might just have a great day out in the wilderness.

For the base camp this year I pulled the ol’ phone-a-friend and hit up Chris 2.0 for some camp sites. We settled on one site that looked like a nice open spot, not too far from a main forest service trail road, and plenty of space. The site was way more than we needed, but the extra space worked out just fine. Marked it in OnXOffroad for future use with a larger group. I have to say the fire-pit setup and the 10×10 awning were the perfect combo for a comfy place to hang out and cook dinner. I’ll admit that it’s a lot of gear to carry, but it works for these colder trips especially if/when there is the chance of rain coming into play.

Before our visit, someone destroyed the fire pit area and appeared to have tried to burn a bunch of pine. Cleared out some cans and debris so we could pull the rocks back out, rebuilt the fire pit, and cleaned up the area a little bit. I’m not going to get on a high horse, but I’m kinda going to get on a high horse: LEAVE NO FREAKIN’ TRACE PEOPLE! The amazing resources we have can’t sustain the abuse that is becoming commonplace. We must take care of the spaces that we share so that generations of people can enjoy them. There is just no excuse for trashing campsites. So I took my frustration with the place out on moving the stones scattered around back into a somewhat circular shape. It was a bit more of an oval and this would come in handy later.

The first night was a little on the cold side of life. Not gonna lie, it was pretty nice to have a Lil’ Buddy space heater to warm up the gazelle at night and in the morning. We got some coffee in us, had a hu-mongo breakfast burrito (IYKYK), and set out to fill up the rigs before hitting the trail. A crisp, clear day that was great for being outdoors and allowed for the windows to be cracked for some fresh air. I had a great time just cruising around and then I heard a loud metal clank sound.

Now, in an almost 20-year-old vehicle, you are going to hear all kinds of noises. Most of them, over time, you just learn to accept. For example, the LJ was creaking and moaning before the trip and I knew I needed to grease all the control arms. Did I? Of course not! Why would I do a sensible thing like that? I want to be loud and annoying when out in scenic nature with my friends. I need to really piss ’em off! The smart thing would have been to stop and take a looky-loo around the Jeep to make sure nothing was wrong, so I just kept driving.

There was a section of small rocks, that looked like it was created to keep the road from washing out, and that part told me that I lost a bolt to something I needed. So, I got on the radio and let the other two know that I needed to stop and check the Jeep over. Now, troubleshooting on the trail can be a mixed bag. For me, it’s usually a glaring obvious issue that clearly indicates I have no business being out in a Jeep since I can’t make time to do basic maintenance on my rig.

And so I once again stared right into the “well, I guess I should have checked that…” as I saw my front, driver-side upper control arm hanging down. Turns out that “interesting noise” I heard back up the trail was one of the two bolts keeping it attached giving up on its life and becoming part of nature again. So I start walking back up the trail to look for it and the nut that I’ll need to fix it. 20 minutes later and I’m still looking… slowly accepting that it’s bounced somewhere.

Feeling like a moron I return to the jeep to start looking through the toolbox for my bolt options. They are as bad as my regular maintenance routine. But hey, I’ve got buddies and they are super smart and probably have what I need… Nope. Good peeps, but we got nothing. After a well-deserved lambasting, it’s discovered that the steering stabilizer bolt will fit for the upper control arm and we all know that no one really needs stable steering on a trail. So pulled the shock off the steering linkage, reconnected the upper control arm, checked all the other control arm bolts, and got back to driving the trail. One plus side of off-road adventures in sub-20 degree weather is that there are fewer people to block from going down a dirt road trail, in a lifted Jeep, on 35s.

And the adventure continues on. There isn’t really anything technical to write about, but the beautiful day and the neat places found are what my memories of the K Trail are. Getting to interact with land that other people also find to be special is awesome. Speaking of finding cool things, this was a pretty neat thing to come across. Somewhere there are people who love this place and obviously love James M. Britton Jr. I cracked a cold one for a fella I’ve never met, but felt a kindred spirit with him and the ones who love him.

Like I said, things happen when you are out on adventures and you sort of have to roll with it. I’m pretty happy to have people who will roll with me even thought I seem to break stuff all the freakin’ time. Pretty sure I get talked about when I step away from the camp fire, but I’m ok with that. It’s all stuff I created inadvertently anyway. You just deal with the challenges as they come, make the best of it that you can, and later enjoy the laughter of the memories. Does it bother me that I end up being the one who screws up a lot of the adventures that I put together? Nope… Not at all… Well sort of, because I think that I should make some attempt to be better prepared. Who knows? Maybe prepared me wouldn’t be as much fun!

Time to start planning the next adventure!