Welcome back, trail folks! 😎Our trail leader of this month is JR@day_in_life_of_jr_and_jade, a professional trail guide of OnX Offroad, also Lasfit beloved trail ambassador. He is and believes himself always has been creative, artistic, self-sufficient, and a lone wolf. The reason that he fix and built everything himself as much as he can in the last 16 years is not to rely on, wait, or be let down by someone's quality of work.
This Month, JR hit the Liberty Trail in the south of Leavenworth Washington with his fiancée and 100lb pup🐕, let's follow JR and find out more fun stories along the trail.
● So, JR introduce a bit more about yourself?
Hi, Junior here out exploring and absorbing the fresh air and sights with my fiancée and 100lb pup. While I work in the Biofuel industry and my fiancée is a self-portrait fine art photographer, we need the time to get out as much as possible. Our travels give us a reset while roughing it outdoors and with our location scouting for my lady's nature backgrounds keeps us moving on the trails.
I'd like to say I am a hard worker that likes to play hard, so you will always find me on the move. I like to challenge myself by creating, building, renovating classics, and just testing my limits at times.
Since 2020 I have been able to find more of my calling in the outdoors. Anything outdoors intrigues me landing myself in the Jeep life again giving my fiancée and myself more freedom from the same old ways of work and no play. You will find us on a random trail exploring, testing our limits in the snow, camping on ledges of mountains, hiking, canoeing, and on photo shoots in the wilderness for my lady's business and my sanity. She is an upcoming fine art photographer that you can view her work at Jade-black.com. All as we track new trails for OnX off-road a mapping navigation service for off-road trails.
● What keeps you overlanding and off-roading?
My whole life I have been a car nut from clean classic lowriders, hot rods and car shows to now off-road just about anything. The clean mint classics to the off-road practical, functional, and dirty beasts. I can't say I choose one or the other as I have both clean, low and fast to lift, practical and dirty.
We are outdoorsy and just have to have the nature fix of clean fresh air, running waters, and towering trees around us. Sleeping in our rooftop tent overlooking valleys, ridges and lakes keeps us content and resets our minds from the busy go-go lifestyle of business. Seeking trails out, testing my skills, and just having fun we keep off-roading to find those unique places. While tracking trails and spur trails with our navigation service at OnXoffroad we come across some excellent areas of interest and log them down to save for later and to update the conditions then submit them.
● Tell us about the trail, why that location? What was the coolest moment? Any scary or recovery moments?
Our most current trail ride was in the area of Sisters Oregon after attending the 4-day camp and attending the 1st ever Overland Expo Pacific North West. We lived pretty much out of our RTT for 6 nights. It was warm being July but the trees and shade made it enjoyable. Definitely, we will visit during cooler times and explore more! The trail we took started off as loose dirt gravel and some light water crossing. As we scouted our new trails and possible camp location we ended up climbing up in elevation on a trail defiantly needing a higher clearance 4x4. We definitely had to take some photos but not enough. From there we circled back and ended up using our lighting to guide us through the trail back to a great camp location where we set up for two nights alongside a running creek with towering trees.
The funny thing is that we had found a spot right before in the forest with no creek and were about to set up our rooftop tent but had made a quick decision to get out of there. There is nature we had to move on, a bear or something of sorts was crushing twigs and brush and grunting just outside of our lighted area. That put us in a quick step back to pack up and get moving. My lady was glad we made the choice to move.
● What makes this a difficult or easy trail? Would you recommend this trail to anyone or more experienced folks?
The ruts were pretty deep and had good-sized rocks here and there that would damage a vehicle with low clearance. There are often downed trees on less traveled and maintained roads that require moving them by hand or dragging with your vehicle’s tow points or even breaking out the chain saw or hand saw to cut out a path.
I would definitely recommend where we ended up, it was simple by that time and I see there are easier ways to get there after we left, the experience was great. The clearance and safety gear is always recommended at 44.50374, -121.66477
● What is your favorite or dream trail and why?
Our favorite trail, there are so many. But I can say our most recent trip to the Overland Adventure Rally in plain Washington prior to the Overland Expo led us to take a trail I plotted out weeks before just using our OnXoffroad app. It actually set us up on a trail with countless views that were stunning all around. So many sites overwhelmed us and by luck we landed at this one site overlooking a valley of trees and water for miles. Long side us were rock formations and hiking trails in all directions. The cool breeze in June in this area south of Leavenworth was just perfect I'd have to say.
Here's the detailed Trail Info JR provided to us for anyone who gets interested in this trail as reference:
Name of the trail:
Liberty trail
Location:
South of Leavenworth Washington
Length:
About a 9 mile trail with many joined trails
Best time of year to go:
Late spring, summer, early fall
Key Features:
Trees, cliffs, lookouts, atv trails, hiking trails
Elevation:
3750 ft
Fees:
State pass
Phone Numbers for local help:
911
Grid Coordinates:
47.24335, -120.69685
Tire Pressure Advice:
18 psi if you planning on being out a bit
Rig requirements (Example, must be 4x4 with lift kit, or standard 4x4):
4x4 preferred all wheel drive possible
Other considerations:
Have safety gear, goods, fuel, water, and download maps before heading in this direction. No service, some spots may have a small amount of cell service
● In your opinion, are there any modifications or accessories that everyone has to have?
Have a good navigation plan. We use OnX Off-road Elite. This shows property boundaries and allows you to download maps to use offline at no charge and can use them when offline. A map would be handy. Always have safety gear. An extra power supply. A way to jump your vehicle if needed while out.
● How important is proper lighting strategy for the trail? Do you have any suggestions about lighting set-up for trail riders?
Lighting is always important. Always forward lighting and at least have an addition to your driving headlights have a set of off-road forward facing lights, then there are backlights like flood light pods other than reverse lights that will help with backing up in the dark. Side flood lights are not necessary for some but I say they are a great addition to lighting up the sides when traveling through narrow trails, alongside ledges, and maneuvering tight obstacles.
I'd recommend the Lasfit lighting pods or light bars for the forward extra lighting the trail ahead, and updating the headlight bulbs to led also. If you got a way to mount more lighting then the back and side flood lights are a great addition.
Editor's tips: Here's an article for a more detailed off-road lighting strategy from JR, click here to read more if interested. (Fog vs. Spot vs. Flood vs. Driving Light: Which beam pattern is best for you?)
Thanks again for JR's fun trail sharing! He and his beloved fiancée and their lovely pup are always on the trail, never stop! Can't wait for their next off-road trail!😍😍
