millertime496
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- james
- Joined
- May 14, 2024
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 68
- Reaction score
- 65
- Location
- northh of seattle
- Vehicle(s)
- 2024 ranger raptor
- Occupation
- technical advisor
- Thread starter
- #1
Evening fellow owners or wanters. I spent the last two weeks, beating the ever living crap out of this truck. I will do my best to put the photos in order, but some are hard to tell where I was. If the truck is clean, it most likely wasn't Colorado.
I took two weeks off work, and started the adventure with my amazing wife. I got a really bad cold, and realized we couldn't boon dock and power or cooler, fixing that problem soon. So we didn't camp much.
We stated out leaving the house north of seattle, went over the cascades and into the Wallawa mountains. And wow what an absolute gem. Wife isn't real adventures, and we were still learning the trucks limitations, spoiler there freaking aren't any.
Spent the first night in wallwa state park in our rtt, next morning I was absolutely worthless helping the wife brake camp due to the cold. I have ms and im sort if immune compromised, not like deadly but colds kick my butt, and being well above sea level didn't help. So we decided to stay at the wallowa lake lodge cabins and made a quick out and back imnaha, the edge of hells canyon. Wifes the boss and she didn't like the road, so we turned back short of hells canony but ran the road south of imnaha and looped back to wallowa lake.
Next plan was crater of the moons, but were already behind, wife had a plan to catch in slc.
So we bypassed it.
Had to insert this, as it becomes important later, I had a tow strap but no soft shackle, so I googled an off road shop and randomly stopped at atlas offroad in twin falls. Super small shop, not really set up for resell, more of a fab shop. But they had small soft shackles for you know rangers and stuff id be wheel with, and big ass soft shackle for like a freaking duramax. If I remember right there was like 100$ difference, but the dude was like listen man, you wont regret having too big of a shackle. So i bought the big like 46k one.
Then we ended up at bear river hot springs in preston idaho. If you have kids, not a bad place to stay, could have camped and just paid to soak, but next time. So wife wanted to watch a movie, and I wanted to go play with my truck, so I found onedia narrows trail on onx and, what a gem. Def didn't do anything raptor worthy but a very pretty drive, and you can camp, not sure if dispersed it ok, but there are dnr/nfs camp grounds. And a freaking hotsprings hippy commun. Got out of there before being converted.
Stayed the next night in SLC. She took a shuttle to the airport and I hauled but to Colorado to go fishing with m dad, and relatives. We stay at freemans guest ranch in creed co. For the week.
My family goes there every year, I've made it about 4 times, but never in anything worthy of attempting every trail on onx, and let me tell you I found THE ranger raptor road, I've driven by this dudes drive way like 50 times and never knew what was hiding up 504.1d off 149 just outside creed. THIS IS A BUTTER SMOOTH TWO TRACK. Mob it in baja mode and just fly, all 4 tires off the ground butter smooth landings. FULL DISCLOSURE, it was being graded while I was there so hopefully it stays smooth. At the top, take rat creek the beaver pond. Nice spots to camp all over, I was looking at the meadow/pond and failed to notice the footish high drop into the creek, I was barley moving so wasn't a hard impact, did scrape a few things, but the truck didnt care at all.
Fern creek, amazing views, there is a spur that is pretty rocky, DO NOT GO FULL BAJA, its not flowy, bashed some stuff, but hit some water so hard it went over the cab and over the entire rtt. Ford, wipers should be automatic in baja mode, just saying. When i got home, the wife was like, why is there drip marks on the back of tent, lol.
Your going to have to trust me for the time being on this next part as im still waiting on the video.
I'm not big into fishing for well fresh water fish, not huge into salt water, but salt water fish feed families, fresh water at least in high lakes in colorado feed you and maybe a friend. But my dad loves it so I make myself fish on a bank every year at lest once with him. There were like 12 dudes in my group, and 3 of them from texas brought a pontoon boat. This is pertinent to the story, so bare with me.
Were at the rio grand resivour at about 9500 feet, and the road to the lake is also the road to stony pass, a trail that my 2015 f150 wasn't well equipped for, so I was looking forward to conquering it in the raptor.
Ok so, got my truck and my dad, and my strap and big arse soft shackle, and were on the bank 50-100 yards from the boat launch. The boat launch was a wreck, super rutted and steep.
So im fishing, not catching which is fine, im there to be in the mountains with my dad.
I start hearing some hollering from the ramp, and these guys were DEEP. Like back doors of the duramax under water deep. I dont know wtf happened to make them go that deep but what ever. So they get the boat off and duramax is stuck. My uncle had his tundra but with a kayak trailer, and I herd him yell ill pull you out with a ratchet strap. I immediately yell from where I was for every one to stop, im on my way.
They say a bad day of fishing beats a good day at work. But when own this truck, some else's bad day of fishing, makes for a freaking excited raptor.
So I pull up, wrap one end around my tow loop, dad runs the strap out, and with out me even explaining, he read the tag, just to verify I wasn't full of s on the weight rating.
I put her in 4 low, slack out and start pulling, spun for a few seconds and she popped right out. A 9k lb duramax, in a lake, at 9500 feet.
Duramax owner was stoked, I was floored, no lockers, no tow mode, didn't need a running start, just pulled her out.
So all this takes a bit longer than my dad and i had planned, so we had back to camp to eat, and regroup. The stony pass trail, depending on how we decide to end it could take many hours.
But on my way into the rio grand res, I saw a trail to a lake at like 11500 feet, lost lake number 2. So while eating, using our crap 3g signal, we see that the actual lake is private, but we cant find if its open to the public or not. So we head up there. A RAPTOR RANGER IS THE WIDEST THING THAT WILL FIT.
Takes us a couple hours to arrive at the locked gate, but we had fun. It was pretty technical, rocky, rutted, and surprisngy for the elevation and area very treed.
So next day, im planning on carson city to cinnamon pass to stony creek pass. But i exploded my sidewall like a half mile into the trail and f that spare tire system. I kept stopping to put air in it, camp was maybe a half mile from the trail.
Swapped it out and called it a trip, not messing around with out a spare.
Made it to Lehi UT about 7 friday. On my way through moab, caugth some terd no overlanders left lane camping and quickly reminde them to kee p right.
That night I couldn't sleep so hit the road at like 3 am. Got pissed off at all the left lane campers so decided to find a park to. hang my hammock.
Saw in Baker city or a sign for anthony lakes, well its WAY out of town but what a gem. Pitched my hammock at 7500 feet above sea level. Looks like tons of trails, so I will be back. Then hualed arse home, and got like 9mpg.
Photos were the wrong format. Ill fix it tomorrow,
I took two weeks off work, and started the adventure with my amazing wife. I got a really bad cold, and realized we couldn't boon dock and power or cooler, fixing that problem soon. So we didn't camp much.
We stated out leaving the house north of seattle, went over the cascades and into the Wallawa mountains. And wow what an absolute gem. Wife isn't real adventures, and we were still learning the trucks limitations, spoiler there freaking aren't any.
Spent the first night in wallwa state park in our rtt, next morning I was absolutely worthless helping the wife brake camp due to the cold. I have ms and im sort if immune compromised, not like deadly but colds kick my butt, and being well above sea level didn't help. So we decided to stay at the wallowa lake lodge cabins and made a quick out and back imnaha, the edge of hells canyon. Wifes the boss and she didn't like the road, so we turned back short of hells canony but ran the road south of imnaha and looped back to wallowa lake.
Next plan was crater of the moons, but were already behind, wife had a plan to catch in slc.
So we bypassed it.
Had to insert this, as it becomes important later, I had a tow strap but no soft shackle, so I googled an off road shop and randomly stopped at atlas offroad in twin falls. Super small shop, not really set up for resell, more of a fab shop. But they had small soft shackles for you know rangers and stuff id be wheel with, and big ass soft shackle for like a freaking duramax. If I remember right there was like 100$ difference, but the dude was like listen man, you wont regret having too big of a shackle. So i bought the big like 46k one.
Then we ended up at bear river hot springs in preston idaho. If you have kids, not a bad place to stay, could have camped and just paid to soak, but next time. So wife wanted to watch a movie, and I wanted to go play with my truck, so I found onedia narrows trail on onx and, what a gem. Def didn't do anything raptor worthy but a very pretty drive, and you can camp, not sure if dispersed it ok, but there are dnr/nfs camp grounds. And a freaking hotsprings hippy commun. Got out of there before being converted.
Stayed the next night in SLC. She took a shuttle to the airport and I hauled but to Colorado to go fishing with m dad, and relatives. We stay at freemans guest ranch in creed co. For the week.
My family goes there every year, I've made it about 4 times, but never in anything worthy of attempting every trail on onx, and let me tell you I found THE ranger raptor road, I've driven by this dudes drive way like 50 times and never knew what was hiding up 504.1d off 149 just outside creed. THIS IS A BUTTER SMOOTH TWO TRACK. Mob it in baja mode and just fly, all 4 tires off the ground butter smooth landings. FULL DISCLOSURE, it was being graded while I was there so hopefully it stays smooth. At the top, take rat creek the beaver pond. Nice spots to camp all over, I was looking at the meadow/pond and failed to notice the footish high drop into the creek, I was barley moving so wasn't a hard impact, did scrape a few things, but the truck didnt care at all.
Fern creek, amazing views, there is a spur that is pretty rocky, DO NOT GO FULL BAJA, its not flowy, bashed some stuff, but hit some water so hard it went over the cab and over the entire rtt. Ford, wipers should be automatic in baja mode, just saying. When i got home, the wife was like, why is there drip marks on the back of tent, lol.
Your going to have to trust me for the time being on this next part as im still waiting on the video.
I'm not big into fishing for well fresh water fish, not huge into salt water, but salt water fish feed families, fresh water at least in high lakes in colorado feed you and maybe a friend. But my dad loves it so I make myself fish on a bank every year at lest once with him. There were like 12 dudes in my group, and 3 of them from texas brought a pontoon boat. This is pertinent to the story, so bare with me.
Were at the rio grand resivour at about 9500 feet, and the road to the lake is also the road to stony pass, a trail that my 2015 f150 wasn't well equipped for, so I was looking forward to conquering it in the raptor.
Ok so, got my truck and my dad, and my strap and big arse soft shackle, and were on the bank 50-100 yards from the boat launch. The boat launch was a wreck, super rutted and steep.
So im fishing, not catching which is fine, im there to be in the mountains with my dad.
I start hearing some hollering from the ramp, and these guys were DEEP. Like back doors of the duramax under water deep. I dont know wtf happened to make them go that deep but what ever. So they get the boat off and duramax is stuck. My uncle had his tundra but with a kayak trailer, and I herd him yell ill pull you out with a ratchet strap. I immediately yell from where I was for every one to stop, im on my way.
They say a bad day of fishing beats a good day at work. But when own this truck, some else's bad day of fishing, makes for a freaking excited raptor.
So I pull up, wrap one end around my tow loop, dad runs the strap out, and with out me even explaining, he read the tag, just to verify I wasn't full of s on the weight rating.
I put her in 4 low, slack out and start pulling, spun for a few seconds and she popped right out. A 9k lb duramax, in a lake, at 9500 feet.
Duramax owner was stoked, I was floored, no lockers, no tow mode, didn't need a running start, just pulled her out.
So all this takes a bit longer than my dad and i had planned, so we had back to camp to eat, and regroup. The stony pass trail, depending on how we decide to end it could take many hours.
But on my way into the rio grand res, I saw a trail to a lake at like 11500 feet, lost lake number 2. So while eating, using our crap 3g signal, we see that the actual lake is private, but we cant find if its open to the public or not. So we head up there. A RAPTOR RANGER IS THE WIDEST THING THAT WILL FIT.
Takes us a couple hours to arrive at the locked gate, but we had fun. It was pretty technical, rocky, rutted, and surprisngy for the elevation and area very treed.
So next day, im planning on carson city to cinnamon pass to stony creek pass. But i exploded my sidewall like a half mile into the trail and f that spare tire system. I kept stopping to put air in it, camp was maybe a half mile from the trail.
Swapped it out and called it a trip, not messing around with out a spare.
Made it to Lehi UT about 7 friday. On my way through moab, caugth some terd no overlanders left lane camping and quickly reminde them to kee p right.
That night I couldn't sleep so hit the road at like 3 am. Got pissed off at all the left lane campers so decided to find a park to. hang my hammock.
Saw in Baker city or a sign for anthony lakes, well its WAY out of town but what a gem. Pitched my hammock at 7500 feet above sea level. Looks like tons of trails, so I will be back. Then hualed arse home, and got like 9mpg.
Photos were the wrong format. Ill fix it tomorrow,
Sponsored
. Maybe 4-5k feet.
