Lifestyle Overland and EFRT on the Trails of Nm P. 2 //EFRT S5 Ep 17

This is going to be a good challenge. There's a real steep shelf and then a couple of big rocks right after. Welcome to another episode of the Epic Family Road Trip. Last week on the Epic Family Road Trip we headed into the Guadalupe region of Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico to meet up with our friends Kevin, Sarah, and Caroline of Lifestyle Overland. We set up camp for the night and anticipated the epic trails they would be leading us on the next day here in their old stomping grounds. Good morning, it is Saturday, March 14th. We are in the middle of Jefferson Forest in New Mexico. It's been raining a bit in the last couple of days, although right now we have bright blue skies. And last night it didn't rain at all. There was no wind. I had one of the best sleeps in my life. That's why I look groggy. But this is the road we came in on. Check this out. A little muddy. And then we nestled our camp just under the trees over there. And then our friends Kevin, Sarah, and Caroline from Lifestyle Overland came in after dark and set up camp. And so we're going to make coffee this morning, maybe get a little fire going, and then we're going to hit the trail and get a little fire going. Most of our wood is wet, but stuff doesn't do that. Yeah, so yesterday was just an amazing trail. If you ever get the chance, you want a high clearance 4x4. Often we're on trails where you can probably get in there with the van or something. Not that one, but as you can see by the the jeeps. What made this unique, it went from high up, like right on top of cliffs on the rocks, and then crawling down rock stairs and up rock stairs, and then you'd hit mud patches. And it's just sticky, slippery, red mud that we haven't had a lot of experience on. So that was fun. And Kevin was telling us when it dries up, it's like, it's a completely different scenario. It's just like driving on red powder, but yesterday, and I guess a bit of today, it's a whole different story. But yeah, the boys, the kids, all got to drive and had so much fun. And we have another full day ahead of us, and maybe a couple of days, so we're enjoying New Mexico. Wow, look at that. It's one of our new ones. Yeah, those are beautiful. Where are we going to put it? Over here. So then Caroline and Caroline. And we'll always, when we look at it, we'll think of you. Got it? Oh, that's perfect. Where did you guys go? Up the hill? To the fence. Oh, to the fence and back. Yeah, it was just flat. There's normally a ladder that could come all the way up to that point. Certain times of year, you'd be underwater, so it was a dry lake bed. But once we got out there, there was hot springs. Make it look nice later? Yeah, so whenever we rock this way on a big rock, it was hitting that little piece of rubber, so Pete pulled out his knife and chopped it off. And let's see, that should do it. We might have to go a bit further. So we made it to the top of the, well, this is called the Fire Lookout because there's a big fire tower here. And man, the view is incredible. This behind us is Dark Canyon, where we just drove by. And what we're going to do is just hike around here a little bit, and then head back down that trail. And we passed a right-hand turn, which he calls the Rough Road, and that's where we're going next. So it's a really neat four-wheeling ahead, but check out this view. Time to sit. Sit. And then say paw. Paw. Good boy. Good boy, Lando. Stay. Stay. Okay. Especially now that we have the new Jeep, and I need four of these things. Or sorry, eight of these things. After admiring the breathtaking view at the Dark Canyon Lookout, we aired down our tires before hitting the next leg of the trail. This one needs to go for a while. No, I got it. How's this trail for driving? Oh, it's been absolutely awesome. The first day was probably my favorite trails I've ever driven on so far. There's a lot more difficult stuff than I'm used to, but it was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. The views are absolutely amazing here. Our camp last night was really nice as well. Slept really good. Now we're just heading somewhere else. There's supposedly a pretty hard trail up ahead that we're gonna be heading to, so that's gonna be pretty fun. So what's it like, first of all, driving Worsley with all the brand new gear on it, and lift, and tires, and everything? And secondly, up here in Lincoln Forest? Well, Worsley has definitely changed, as you can see from the past videos, but I had a chance to drive Worsley before it got all rigged out in Big Bend, and there is a huge difference. I absolutely love it. It's a lot of fun. So on the first day on these trails, we weren't aired down. We didn't think we needed to, and then we weren't really in a position to change it, since the trail was pretty gnarly yesterday. But we did get a chance to air down today, and it has made a world of difference. It's crazy. You're not rocking back and forth like mad, and it's a lot less jarring for your head and back. This is gonna be a good challenge. There's a real steep shelf, and then a couple of big rocks right after, so just pick your best route. But the way she went, she ended up spinning a lot, so you might be able to go a bit to the right of that. I don't know. No, because there's another rock on the on the back. I don't think you're gonna be spinning on one regardless. The rest just goes slow. All right, so despite all the grip that we got from the Maxtrax, wasn't enough for that spot. So we've run a winch around this tree. We're gonna see if we can pull it up. Back up just a wee bit, maybe. Really slowly. Now you just gotta give her, just kind of bump it, and keep going. When you get up don't stop. Pete and I are having a date time, walking behind. That's a fun date. The kids are driving, learning how to drive on these heavy rocks, taking their time, getting really good at it, and one of the funnest things to do is walk behind. Well done. That's Caroline driving. She just picked her way carefully through all these rocks, and did a great job. So that was an epic trail, that's for sure. We're now just at the top of, kind of the top of the mountain here, and we've all stopped to make a quick lunch, and we're going to carry on this afternoon. Charging up the batteries. As you can see, the solar panels are out, taking advantage of this hot sun up here on the mountain. It's a fancy little trail meal there, sis. Daniel's plain and simple. After a delicious lunch, we continued on to find our last camp spot of the trip. One of the great things about this trail is there are some breathtaking viewpoints and vistas along the way. Stay tuned for our next episode as we head into the canyon to find camp for the night, before having to cut our plans short as the global pandemic causes us to have to race back home to Canada. In the meantime, we'll see you down the road!