Introduction/Back Story

We are going to take a break from what I am learning about nitro engines. I have a new body for the Traxxas Slash, and I need to take some time to give that some love not to mention some of the new bits sitting on the workbench to get it driveable again. I think the Slash is looking slightly depressed, but don’t worry ole’ boy we will get you running soon enough!

Now, what are we talking about this week? This is a long overdue report about the Whitetail Reservoir Vintage Run. I would not put myself in the camp of a hard-core wheeler, and I hate the term overlander. Overlander is code for saying, “I like sleeping in my car, and shooting some video of it!” So, I am somewhere in between those two camps. The back story on my Runner is that I bought my runner during COVID to get my family outside. I seized it as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. My daughter was turning 16 and we needed a vehicle for her to help Uber little people around town during the week. The plan was to get something for me and then let her learn to drive on our Ridgeline. The 4Runner is one of my dream vehicles to own, and so I seized the day to find one. Hey, I never said I aimed high. My brother had a Jeep. I did the Jeep thing in it and wanted to try the JDM side of things and get deep in the mountains for hiking, biking, and just exploring.

I scored my 4Runner off Facebook Marketplace. She’s a beaut Clark…. 2012 (red-headed stepchild of the 5th gen 4Runners…. not that there is anything wrong with being a red headed stepchild….channeling Seinfeld) 4 Runner Trail Edition with KDSS. I love the truck. If you hate it well go replace the front end on your Jeep and check back here in a few hours. Boom! BURRRRRN. Did I get a good troll on you? If you are offended just watch the video below where I roast a few things about Toyota. No one and nothing is perfect in this world. Just drive the one you love.

Anyway, back on point. I just got my Runner and was running errands in our Ridgeline. My wife texted me and said that someone was selling a ramp for BMX/Mountain bikes. Well, I got on it and bought the ramp. The guy I bought the ramp from had a 4th Gen Runner that was really built. I had to be nosey and ask him about his rig. It turns out that our kids were in some of the same programs and we hung out aut at different events. He told me about the 406 Cruisers in Montana and I was like, “Yeah, sure I’ll join! It’s been over a decade since I’ve tried wheelin’! What could go wrong?” Actually, nothing has to date other than being pulled up a hill by a Jeep in December. Yeah, that hurt the pride and now you Jeep people can feel self-righteous and vindicated okay? I joined the club and have enjoyed getting out to different places with the 406 Cruisers.

Vintage Run Plan

Every year we have a club picnic just to get together. We do a raffle, swap lies…. you know like the small rock garden becomes the insurmountable cliff face that only BigFoot can climb when chasing goats. However, I engaged my locker, and let my rig start walking up the cliff face. The rocks surrounded me and I could only slide out the window and rock climb to the top. Thankfully, I was able to carry the winch line in my mouth, and then I slid down the winch line like Batman. At this point, the rig is hanging only the winch line. I manage to climb in through the sunroof and slide into the seat. The howling wind was brutal, the birds of prey were gathering for a feast, and I saw the huge cave desperately trying to swallow me up. The winch engaged, the truck teetered over the hungry mouth of the cave, and I made it to the top of the cliff unscathed. I had no idea that Bigfoot and Smokey the Bear hung out on the top of that mountain each night, but it was cool to have some buds to hang with before finding my way home the next morning. You have the strangest experiences in the woods while wheeling. However, Bigfoot really needs to lighten up!

(Photo curtesy of my crazy mind and Chat GPT… not a real image from that evening… or was it? Are you hearing the twilight zone music playing too?)

If you believe any of that story then I have a plot of land to sell you on Mars for only 1 Million Dollars…. I mean 1 billion dollars! Yeah, the stories might be slightly exaggerated, but it is still entertaining. So, back to the picnic. My friend Matt said to me, “Hey, we are doing the vintage cruiser run in October. We are going to climb pretty high (I think the reservoir is around 9K feet in elevation, but you might want to fact-check that) and we might need some fuel-injected rigs to tow us up or down to make sure we make it. Our rigs are only like 50 or more years old, so what could go wrong? You want to join us?”

I was like, “Yeah! That sounds awesome!” I had that weekend off and so the plan came together. I love it when a plan comes together. Great, now I have to build an A-Team van for wheeling. How cool would that be? Regarding the vintage trail run…. I was thinking was tugging people out of the woods, potentially camping in the mountains, and playing with trucks. I didn’t see a downside to this proposal.

I knew that I was a guest on this trip so I wanted to make sure that I was respectful of everyone. I had some leftover cheap vinyl so I “modified” my 4Runner er… my vintage FJ40.

The Executed Plan

We meet up at O’ Too Early on October 19th to head out. It was pretty awesome seeing the older rigs lined up. We putted our caravan down the road, and latecomers caught up to us along the way. It was like yota kept producing baby yotas. I would always ask if we were heading in the right direction and all they said over the radio was, “This is the way.” So, we kept driving and eventually, we arrived at Pipestone, MT. We found a spot to pull off the road and air down the tires. It is a good thing that we were closing in at 0900 hours because when you hear everyone airing down it’s like a bunch of semis stopping at light and releasing air brakes…. again….again….again…. wow that was a lot of air to release….again…. people.. Anyhoo… we stood around waiting for everyone to meet up at this place, slam down some coffee…. find the private spot to drain some coffee…. and then we rolled out after making sure all the campers were wide awake.

I really love fall mornings in Montana. My joke is that summer in Montana is the best two weeks of the year. However, our fall weather is great. Nice and crisp in the morning and at night. Then the daytime hits a sweet spot.. The mountains are always therapeutic for me.

It is nice to admire the sights, but we have to get going. We need to get to the top, and it is time to head out. Ron’s rig is ready to lead us out to the reservoir. His 40 series has a Ford 302, and it is built. It really is unstoppable and just goes over anything and if it does not make it over it will go through it. Mando won’t even stand in front of it. Yeah, it’s that tough! The owner is one of the coolest people I have ever met and he has probably forgotten more than most people will ever learn about Yotas and wheeling in general. So, if someone is ready to lead us to the top it may as well be him.

We get to the trailhead and start heading up. The trail as a whole is not overly technical. There are certainly places you want to stay awake, but overall it is a nice trail to take a family if your significant other is not a fan of lifting wheels. It is wise to bring a chainsaw because there are a lot of downed trees and widow makers on the trail so be alert. Some of the trees we notched with a saw and then tugged them with a winch to control where they fell.

You can see the tree stump in front of the 40 (Toyota firewall back). If you do the trail make sure you keep your eyes peeled because there are a lot of stumps and logs. They are not huge obstacles, but they are great candidates to slash your sidewall. So, keep the head on a swivel and your eyes on the prize.

There is one will that is a bit of a fun challenge. There is a good chance you might hear some bad noises coming from the underside of your rig as you make your way to the top.

The line that we took was to get the passenger wheel on the rock, turn the passenger into the side of the hill, and then get the drive side on the flat rock. The line worked and got us safely up the hill. Until…. Darren’s 17-year-old daughter showed us another line. We used her line going down the hill. You will hear some of the nice Mater memories being created in the skid plates and sliders if you watch the video below.

There is a 17 year old driving this first gen Runner up the hill like a champ. She even stopped to gloat for a picture. It was fun to see the variety of rigs out there on the trail.

We continued to travel on and we found mud. I mean deep mud. Like if you did not remember your mud boots you were having a bad day. The mud definitely made me want to keep my foot on the skinny pedal because I didn’t want to step out to winch. The challenge was to get out of the ruts, and hold the gas, but not too much otherwise you break through the solid ground only to REALLY get stuck in MUUUUUUuuuuD.

After you make it through this mud pit you go through some trees and then you end up on a marsh. It does not look too bad until you investigate further. I wanted to skip the janky bridge and drive over the little brook. That is when Matt and Aaron got a stick that was about six feet long and pushed it into the ground. The stick literally disappeared with little effort. They said, “If you fall through this have fun getting out!” The mud is a greedy kind that sucks in a tire and refuses to give it back to you. I guess this makes up for the trail not being technical. You certainly don’t want to spin wheels and break through the solid ground so we take the slow but steady wins the race mindset.

The janky bridge had to be crossed because there were no other options. Matt and I got our trucks positioned so that we could work together to pull Aaron out if he cracked the bridge with his Lexus. We figured his rig was probably the heaviest so if he could make it then the rest of us could make it. We also figured that two rigs winching would be able to tug him out. We did have some kinetic ropes handy (yup, I get clams if you buy it) just in case. Watch the video below to see the rigs making their way over the bridge. We didn’t get the first one on camera because we were outside listening to make sure nothing bad was happening while Aaron putted across.

We made it across the bridge. After this bridge, you go through some narrow woods. It is not technical, but there were so many trees that were positioned as widow makers that we had to keep our wits about us and slowly work our way through the fallen debris. This is where I was. very thankful to have a chainsaw in the back of my rig. You really want to bring a saw with you. Eventually, we made it to the reservoir and we enjoyed the views while some celebrated!

We chilled for a bit. We made sure everyone who wanted to be on the beach made it, and then we made our way home. It is a lot easier to go down the trail after cutting the trees than stopping every five minutes to cut. Oh, my obligatory Amazon Affiliate pitch… I get mocked all the time for this little chainsaw, but I was impressed with how many trees it sawed through to keep us moving forward. Just remember to bring batteries…. people laughed on one outing till we realized we were going to be doing a lot of hand sawing. So, It is nice to keep it in the back of the truck but check the battery situation before heading out. Just be warned that when you see the chainsaw in person you might think that it is too small to be worthwhile. It is not something I would use to cut firewood all day, but to get some wood for a campfire or to get through a messy forest it is nice to use.

Conclusion

The trip was a blast. We did have some mechanicals that slowed our day a bit. It is not a surprise considering we went out with rigs that were old enough to collect social security. Unfortunately, we did not figure out a way to get them to receive the extra social security check. When we figure it out I will report back to you. On the bright side, everyone got home under their own power. I would recommend doing this trail. No, it is not super technical. However, it was great to see the reservoir. This trip is 100% a Paullie’s Pick!

Thanks for reading! Enjoy the gallery and the video below. Until we meet again may the Lord’s blessing and peace be upon you.