I've done it! I graduated college!

Just finished my senior year at the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering. Talk about a hell of a ride. This past year with our race car project has been so much more difficult than I ever could've imagined. Unfortunately, we had big issues at the 11th hour and didn't end up running our car at competition because our motor wouldn't run. Anyway, here's a couple pictures of the car we made. We're real proud of it.





So, I've since moved back in with my parents for these next couple months before I start work which means I have time to tinker. This coming Friday I am leaving on an 8 day overlanding style trip through New Hampshire and Maine so I've been busting *** to get the Jeep prepared to take on the trip.

My Jeep has been sitting in my parent's back yard since like October. I drove it around the neighborhood once a couple months ago. It needs some TLC to prepare for a ~1000 mile trip. My first priority is to get an inspection sticker. Some of the first things I did were replace my torn wipers and fix my windshield washer sprayer (cowl trim is broken, I zip tied the sprayer in place) as well as reinstall my sway bar, which required me to extract a broken bolt.

I then took it down to my go-to shop for the good-ole college try at getting a sticker. The owner (who I'm friendly with) asked if it was good to go and I told him honestly there's some rust holes that I'm unsure of. He came outside, took a look at it, and said "Ehhhhhhh I don't know man. You better patch that up a bit." So I went home and started cutting out all the rust I could find.




















Rockers inboard of the pinch seam on both sides, outboard on passenger side, all 4 doors, and both lower quarter panels. None of this is news to me, just finally time to do something about it. Now, all of these locations I have plans for doing heavier modification to rather than just fixing. For example, I want to cut my rockers out past the pinch seam and replace with 2x6 that will sit high enough to require trimming the bottom of the doors. I also want to do a cut and fold on the rear quarters. However, this trip is in a week and I need a sticker now, so instead of starting more aggressive fabrication projects I instead fiberglassed over all the holes.




















Now, I'm not trying to show off my body work here because this may be the most hack-job repair I've ever done, but this was my first time working with fiberglass and I think these will pass inspection. I did paint all of them but don't have pictures.

While under there I couldn't help but think about why everything is so rusty. The picture below answered that for me (rocker full of dirt). Furthermore, it was the first time I've ever considered selling the Jeep because its already over the rust hump. I don't think I'm going to sell it anytime soon, but I've decided this won't be the forever project. I might save some of my heavier fabrication for the next XJ I decide to defile.





After I finished the body work I moved onto other maintenance and things that need to be addressed for inspection. I started by doing the differential fluids, and I almost made a bonehead move doing it. While doing the first one, I was scraping the gasket maker off of my OEM diff cover getting ready to reinstall it when it dawned on me that I have two brand new Solid diff covers sitting in a box in the basement! I couldn't believe I almost put my OEM covers back on. So, new diff fluid and diff covers!

From there, I inspected my transfer case, transmission, and power steering fluids, as well as the oil and coolant. All looked pretty good. I was going to flush the coolant but it looked very clean and really didn't need it. Same with the t-case and transmission. Good red fluid, not burnt, and full. Oil isn't spectacular but I'm going to skip an oil change because its not that bad.

Moving on, I installed an electric fan, which I have not had for like two years. I have pulled 3 out of junk yards and all of them other than one have broken housings and all of the bearings are junk. The one I installed is not broken but didn't spin wonderfully. I installed it and unplugged the coolant temperature sensor to engage the e-fan. It engaged and spun for a split second but got bound up. I shut it off and tried to spin the hand only to find it was very bound and took a lot of force to get it to move. I repeated this several times until finally I got the fan to spin nicely. Maybe it was just corroded on the inside? I don't know, it works now. Check.

While checking my front brake pads, I discovered my passenger ball joints were smoked. So, I got to work replacing those. Again, I'm not super happy about spending money replacing these when I have plans for the WJ swap but I really want that sticker to make this trip. I put Moog joints in it. Would've preferred Spicers but that's what the parts store had. The lower Moog castle nut is a 33 mm! I spent like an hour and a half going to different stores looking for one and finally found one. Why in the world would they make that a 33 mm?! Oh, also dumped a ton of that new diff fluid all over the ground when I pulled the shaft out because I forgot that happens..







The driver's ball joints got done a year or two ago so its time for the passenger side to catch up. This was the first time I've ever done ball joints and they actually went pretty well. Knocked em out in a few hours.

While I was tearing into the corner I noticed my brake pads were worn very unevenly. The knuckles had some pretty deep gouges worn into them, so, I whipped the welder out and filled the groves.







Nice! Check that off. Got some new brake pads to accompany.

Final thing I ended up doing today was pulling out my chomoly shafts that I've been hiding in my parents basement for like 4 years. I ran around for awhile today looking for 1-3/16" external snap rings to do the full circle clip mod before I install them. Couldn't find any locally so I ordered some and should have those in soon. Also have new wheel bearings to go along with everything.

Will I get this thing back together and road-worthy in time for our trip? Stay tuned to find out!

 

Good work. Welding in patch panels takes a tremendous amount of time and practice and skill. Fiberglass is a more appropriate repair for a Jeep.

Good work on the ball joints and brake stuff as well. It's a Chrysler, so you gotta keep up on maintenance. Lol.

I remember tearing down my front hubs a few years ago to replace the u-joints. I had the worst time getting the hubs off of the axle shafts - until I read a tip on cherokeeforum.com to wedge a socket or something in between the hub and axle tube, then turn the steering wheel such that it would squeeze the hub off of the axle. Worked like a charm. Is that what you did too??

At least you don't have to worry about the front axle u-joints. I'll never attempt that job ever again.

 

Ah, yes. The socket extension trick. Works great when the hub is rusted into the knuckle/axle. I didn't have to do that for either of mine but I've done it in the past on another Jeep.

About those new shafts... I'm not installing them right now. Turns out 1-3/16" snap rings are a bit of a weird size and nobody has available locally or for expedited shipping. So, because I cannot do the full circle clip mod right now I'm gunna hold off putting the chromoly shafts in. The u-joints in my stock shafts look decent so I'm just gunna run em for now.

I've done u-joints a handful of times now and only remember having a bear of a time once. Was wailing on the thing with a sledge on a concrete floor. It came out in pieces. I always have better luck knocking the caps out with a sledge rather than pressing them out. The shock really works well.



Anyway, today was one of those days that felt like nothing went right. Started off installing my wheel bearings and axles, which went fine. Got into doing brake pads and hit a little snag. After doing one side, I wanted to seat the pads, calipers, and rotors so I stepped on the brake pedal. However, I overlooked that I already removed the caliper on the opposite side so the pedal went to the floor and I pushed the piston out of the second caliper. Got brake fluid everywhere. When installing the pads on that caliper I had a hard time getting the piston back into the bore properly. Fought with it for awhile before finally getting it to go straight. Also thought I ruined the seal. I was about 30 seconds away from going to buy two new calipers but decided to try installing everything anyway. After assembling all components I inspected for a leak at the piston and didn't see one. Hopefully it stays like that.

I also had a real scare today. At one point I went to start the Jeep to find that it would not. Rapid clicks. The volt gauge on the dash was reading 9 V and throwing check gauges. Yesterday when I was welding my knuckles I forgot to disconnect the battery before running the first bead. After having this issue today I thought I fried my PCM by welding across the battery even though I had a good ground near where I was welding. I posted a thread in OEM tech asking for help and someone suggested I jump the starter. Doing so did not result in the engine cranking, but for some reason my voltage issue resolved and I was able to start and drive the Jeep no problem. I have no idea what happened or why and how it got fixed but I'm not asking too many questions.

So, as long as that caliper doesn't leak, I think she's ready for an inspection! Gunna go down tomorrow to try to get the sticker. Other than that, next things are to reinstall the interior and also have a CB radio setup to install. After that just going to organize my tools, parts, fluids, and gear for the trip. I'm excited!

 

Yeah I tried to press them out with a ball joint press rental tool. I wrenched on it with all my might and my biggest tools and it nearly ripped my bench vise out of the bench. It was actually pretty dangerous. I torqued it so hard yet it was so seized that it bent the ears of the axles shafts were the u-joints pass through. With the ears bent (I didn't know it at the time, it wasn't easy to see by eye) the new u-joint' c-clips couldn't clip into their groves on the caps. I gently bashed them with a sledge hammer for a little while until it looked better and I tried fitting the u-joint again. One c-clip went in this time, but not the other. So used my stick welder to weld the u-joint cap to the axle shaft ear. Not ideal at all, but I was in a hurry because I was leaving to go offroading in New Mexico and Colorado in just a few days. Thankfully the axle shaft held up and my problems where with an overheating engine, not axles.

Your getting ready for a trip, as well? Where to?

 

I'm reminded of the time I did the 4-hole injector upgrade and, in order to make it so I can drive my jeep underwater or something (year right), I used dielectric grease on the connectors for the fuel injectors. Bad idea! I had major problems with them working for while, until I got a can of DioxIT D5 contact cleaner and cleaned the connectors with the stuff and a tooth brush.

Just my experience

 

Hey nice patch jobs, much better than the aluminum tape I would of used in a pinch. Hope the trip goes well and looking forward to updates.

 

We're doing an overlanding style trip through New Hampshire and up into Maine. We have a route that was made by a group called ExploringNH called the TransNH trip that will snake us up the western side of the state through backroads and class VI roads then cross over the mountains and up into the northern part of the state. Gunna stay the third and fourth nights at one of our group member's place in northern NH and get the local's tour of up there before driving Golden Rd in Maine to Moosehead lake where we're camping the fifth and sixth nights.

We're planning on seven nights. Its going to be less wheelin and more just covering ground, running easier trails, and out for some adventure. We are starting the trip from my parent's house so I'm trying to talk my buds into running a harder trail day one.

I did something today that I've wanted to do since I first my bought my Jeep. Such a seemingly small mod but has made the Jeep feel like a different vehicle.

But first, here's another pic from the ball joints/wheel bearing job.



And here's another little thing I did that I've been meaning to do forever: stuffed pool noodles into my fenders to act as fender liners.



So, what did I do that was such a revolution? I cut down my seat bracket to gain headroom! Well, actually I swapped my power seat bracket for a manual bracket that I cut down. I cut about 1.5 inches out of the brackets and it made a world of a difference. I can now sit upright and my head doesn't touch the roof. I'm not longer looking out of the top of the windshield and need to duck to see out of my driver's window. That 1.5 inches feels like it was 6.

This is the power bracket I started with. The power brackets take up much more room than the manual. This mod is really only possible with the manual brackets. I will say, I've never been fond of having a power seat. Typically the only time I want to move my seat is to move it forward to remove it and usually the battery is disconnected. So its go connect the battery, move the seat, which is slow, and then disconnect again. No more of that.



Here's the manual bracket I used. Just bought a seat from someone on Craigslist.



I used this tape to mark my cut lines because it was a good width. I took care to keep the cuts parallel to the floor.



I used the tape to mark the mounts vertically as well. I used a paint marker to trace around the tape but neglected to realize that the paint needed to be ground off for weld prep. I ended up making punch marks in place of the painted lines.



Got em welded back together! I considered putting a plate over the welds for some added strength but decided I'm confident this will hold in the event of a collision.




Ran out of gas just as I was finishing the last bead also

OH! Also, the Jeep took a sticker today! Fully legal!

Finished up by running it through the car wash, vacuuming the interior, cleaning the windows, and emptying everything out of it. Spent the rest of the night organizing my tools, spare parts, supplies, fluids, recovery gear, etc. Tomorrow will be finalizing gear and packing the Jeep.

Another thing, I began to reinstall my CB and new antenna setup yesterday. I realized I don't have a stud mount so I ordered one. Should be here tomorrow. Hopefully can get that installed and tuned so we'll be good to go!

 

Nice!

 

Waiting for the gang to show up then we're off on our journey! Yesterday I got the stud mount for my CB in the mail and was able to get the whole system installed. I used a JCR CB antenna mount with 18' of nice coax, a 4' Firestik, a cheap radio with an external speaker and a PA horn under the hood. The CB is tucked between my driver's seat and the center console and the external speaker is on the dash behind my trans temp gauge. You can see my CB and speaker placement farther back in the thread.

Kinda sucked having to grind the powder coat off the mount to get a good ground. Hit it with some undercoat after to make it blend in.







Got it tuned in with an SWR of 1.25. Nice! This thing should perform very well.Cant wait to use it (and yell obscenities at my friends with the PA). The spring added a bit of trouble with tuning. The antenna was much too long with the threaded adjuster screwed all the way in but was much too short with the adjuster removed completely. I hit the nail on the head by using the adjusted screw without the lock nut. That allowed it to thread in just enough more to be short enough.




From there I got myself packed up. This is the first time in a long time I have the full interior back in the Jeep and cleaned out everything so I took the opportunity to pack some permanent things that will live in the Jeep. The items I brought are divided between Jeep stuff, be it recovery gear, spare parts, tools, and camping gear, like a canopy, folding table, etc. I started packing the Jeep gear because if all goes well I shouldn't need any of it. Under the rear seat I have spare parts (u-joints, belt, etc), a high lift, a small bug-out bag, and a power inverter I've never used.



I'm so glad my spare fits standing up with the back seat down. This thing is obnoxious trying to carry. I really want a rear bumper tire carrier. Got it packed in with a jerry can next to it and compressor in front of. Also have a toolbag and another safety/recovery/survival bag tucked in behind the two front seats.



Next layer of junk is tools and fluids. I have pretty much any tool I could ever need (knock on wood) along with fuses, relays, spare wire, connectors, heater hose, vacuum hose, hose clamps, and an assortment of miscellaneous hardware. You can also see my assortment of fluids that I'm bringing. I have every fluid on the rig, from brake fluid to washer fluid. Hopefully don't need any of it. Also ran a ratchet strap through what I could to prevent getting decapitated by anything.



And here's it all packed and ready to go. I even still have my subwoofer buried in there and have room for KanJam. I'm glad I was able to keep it all low for both CG and rear window visibility.



I'll be sure to give a trip report. See ya in a bit!

 

Info on setting up the PA? Where did you put it at?

 

Its just zip tied under the hood. Plugs into the back of my CB with an aux port. Its just a cheap 10 watt horn from rightchannelradios.com.

As much fun as having one is, it is also very useful for communicating with spotters on the trail.

 

Nice, I just got this one:

Seems about the same as the one you got. I also saw what looks like a cherokee in the reviews with two pictures. Looks like they mounted it on the side of the brake booster.

 

Alright, I'm coming at you with a trip report (a month and a half later)! Overall the trip was great. We had some phenomenal times and saw a lot of really cool things/places. Didn't come without a couple mishaps though!

Who:

-Myself in my XJ
-Eric and Sam in an Xterra with a lift, winch, roof rack, tire carrier, etc
-Zach in his ZJ on 32's and a canoe on the roof
-Jessi on his new BMW adventure-touring motorcycle

All five of us just recently graduated college. Four of us (all minus Eric's girlfriend, Sam) were engineering majors at UNH and worked very closely together. Eric and Jessi were both on the race car team with me. Zach is an oddball cause he's an ocean engineering major. Weirdo likes water.

What:

An overlanding style trip snaking through class VI roads and back roads up the western side of NH before crossing over the Kancamangus Highway and continuing north to the Canadian border. From there we headed west to the northern end of Moosehead lake in Maine where we camped for a couple days. The route we followed from Milford to the top of the state was a downloaded pre-planned trip called the transNH expedition (TNHX). The route was created by a member of a local group called ExploringNH.

When:

8 days in early June baby!

Where:

Big rock in space.

Why:

Because we weren't sure if we were going to make it, and that's why its fun.


Day 1:

A gorgeous Friday morning. Jessi had came down to Milford the night prior. Him and I were up and chipper bright and early waiting for the other two rigs to show up. The tunes were loud and the coffee was flowing. Excitement was in the air.

The others finally showed up around 10. We headed downtown to get a good breakfast before hitting the first trail of the trip. I led the way to a local trail which leads to a very unique waterfall. I told the group this trail would be on the more difficult side but its nothing they could not handle. They all trusted me and proceeded with caution, all of them lacking the off-road experience I have.

About 3 minutes into the trail Jessi comes out of a puddle a little throttle heavy and dumps the bike down on its side. He got up laughing because it was a silly fall and he "had to get the first one out." Continuing down the trail, Zach and Eric were a bit spooked by the sight of rocks. Eric made some excuse about how its "not fair because your Jeep just eats it." With some supportive words and making references to a slang term for cats, we had them down the trail in no time.



The falls are cool. What was once a large horse-shoe style fall has long been a stream which has carved a deep crevice in the rock. There's a lot of evidence of where the water once flowed and its cool to be able to theorize about what once was.





It had rained the night before. That meant the falls were running good but it also meant the trail from the falls was wet. Like, there was about 200 feet of stream running down the middle of the trail, wet. Jessi was not happy about this.

As Jessi readied to ford the stream, the rest of us placed our bets of whether or not he'd make it. I really thought he would! I didn't think it was that bad. Zach said halfway, Eric guessed 30 feet.

Jessi went for it. He was moving much faster than I envisioned he would. Flowing water with a rocky bottom is no place for a BMW. He made it about 30 feet and washed the front end out on a rock, submerging himself in the process. All was fine. No real damage to the bike and no injury to Jessi but he was SOAKED. The forest echoed the voice of a frustrated man. "MITCHHHHH!!!!!," he yelled, needing help to get the bike up and pushed up the stream. I got in (with some buck boots) and we got him pushed out and back on the bike. I also assured him this would be the most difficult trail we did for the entire trip (like I had any idea?). From there we were back on the move.

The remainder of day 1 was still slow going, but was great. We criss-crossed from trail to trail for hours. Nothing was too difficult but there was a good amount of water on the trails. Towards the end of the day we were on a trail which was a bit difficult. We got to a steep rocky section that Jessi just could not get up. His street-oriented rear tire wasn't doing it for him. Again, he laid the bike down and was just completely gassed by this point. He had a hard day one. I completely under estimated how difficult it would be to navigate that bike through these trails. I thought it would be much more like a dirtbike. Boy, was I wrong.

We found a campsite nearby, got some food in us, and reflected on the day. We did not do good on day one. We made it about half as far as we were scheduled to. Jessi was in bed before the sun was down and Eric's front wheel had more play than a child (I guess all that complaining all day wasn't for nothing).

I, for one, had an awesome day one. Cranked tunes and rode windows down all day. I was groovin.

Day Two:

We were off to a good start on day two. Eric needed to replace a tie rod end and NAPA opened at 8 so we wanted to get up early and be there shortly after they opened. We were up by 9 and had finished breakfast and packed up by 10, so I'd say we did good! I was surprised that it was only the morning of day two and we were already fixing a car.

Eric parked in the direct sun (?) and proceeded to whip out the tools and get after it in the NAPA parking lot. The rest of us helped by sitting nearby in the shade. I even had a beer!



We got that wrapped up pretty quick and were on the move by 11. We decided to bypass the remainder of what we should have done day one to catch up to day 2. After we were back on track we saw a mixture of pavement and dirt for the better part of the day. The trails we went through were much easier than what we did on day one. We rode a trail system which was cool because it was very heavily traveled by atv's, dirtbikes, and other Jeeps but it was in fact a class VI and legal OHRV shared trail. Don't see much of that around here.





Stopped for a beer. Even decided to have some lunch too!



As we got farther north the trails got less and less. We pounded pavement for awhile and pushed up to the White Mountains. Zach had been talking about a nice burning transmission smell while we were doing longer stretches of driving through the hills. When we got to the beginning of the Kanc I came on the radio and told him to give his transmission a pep talk before.

We pushed up over the Kancamangus, which is a 34 mile pass through the mountains with about 2000 ft elevation gain. I had my trans dropped down in 1-2 for the steeper sections and was pushing 3500 rpm to keep my 35's turning (still with 3.55 gears).

We stopped at one of the outlooks at the top of the pass. There was a guy sitting on a bench playing an acoustic version of a Grateful Dead song, which made the moment very surreal. This was one of our major landmarks for the trip.

As we were leaving, I found trouble in paradise. There was a large puddle of something under my Jeep. Uh-oh. Couldn't tell what it was at first. It was under the transfer case area but it wasn't transmission fluid. I thought it looked/felt/smelled like gear oil but I didn't think fluid could've got from the diff to the center of the Jeep. Brake fluid maybe, I thought? Great, just the place I need that to go.

Turns out it was gear oil. I had just installed my rear Solid diff cover and filled it with 75w-90 fluid. When I was filling the diff with fluid I just went to the fill hole like I always have with the OEM cover. I could not believe how much fluid I put in it, like a gallon and a half. Turns out I overfilled the crap out of it because when that fluid got hot it foamed/expanded and pushed its way up the breather and into the unibody rail, where it then proceeded to run down towards the middle of the Jeep and drip out there. What a relieve that was, knowing it was just diff fluid. In hindsight, I should've ran 75w-140.

Came down the pass and found a campsite right on the Saco in Conway. We got setup early and the beers started flowing! Day two went much better than day one. Jessi was on top of the world.

Day Three:

Third day in a row of 80 degrees and sunny! Our day three goal was to make it to Jessi’s place in Colebrook, at the north end of the state. We got off to a good start and pounded pavement for a while. We stopped at Mt. Washington and took this great shot of the group.







Pushed awhile longer to Colebrook. Kicked our feet up, cracked some beers, and enjoyed this view from Jessi’s back porch looking over their 100 acres.



Initially we were gunna go wheeling for a bit but we were tired and decided to stay at the house. Later in the evening Jessi’s buddy invited us to a party across town. We went over to check it out and it was such a northern NH experience. Loud crappy rap music, someone hanging out of the window of a truck shooting a roman candle, and the person who invited us went to the hospital to get stitches after crashing a dirtbike 10 minutes after we got there. Good times.

Day Four:

Weather for the day: sun, sun, and more sun! This was a good day because we were planning on going out on a day trip and coming back to Colebrook that night. We got some breakfast in town and headed out exploring. Jessi had swapped the BMW for his dad’s bone stock YJ and was planning on touring us around.

We headed about a mile up the road from his house to a small gravel pit where we played around a bit. Zach was gaining confidence in his wheelin skills and was following me up some steeper/rockier hills. I was proud of him.



With Jessi in the little Jeep that could leading the way, we were able to travel from Colebrook to Pittsburg (about 13 miles) completely on trail! Admittedly, I think we ended up on the snowmobile trails at one point, which we definitely were not supposed to be on. Even so, it was cool. We were able to cover ground relatively quick because the trails were more like rough dirt roads, apart from a stray rock or puddle here and there.
One thing that was inescapable was the dust! The roads were very dry and myself, being the caboose of the convoy, got absolutely smoked out by the dust. There was a thick layer on everything by the end of the day. Oh well! Its part of it. I made the best of it by writing our trip name on my window.



Once in Pittsburg we pushed further North up to the Canadian border and stopped at Third Connecticut Lake to skip a few rocks. From there we turned around to head back to Colebrook. We only made it about 2 miles until we smelled the distinct scent of burning brakes. Yikes! Jessi pulled over with a seized caliper. The tools came out a second time! We were completely out of cell service and only one car drove by in the 45 minutes we were there. Nonetheless, we were able to get it pulled off and back in service with little issue.



Feeling accomplished, we made our way back to Colebrook for some home-smoked ribs and a few too many adult beverages.

 

That looks like an awesome trip! Stay cool out there, sun is killer (literally)!

 

Day Five:

For the first time on the trip, we woke up to wet ground. Forecast showed consistent rain for the whole first half of the day. With six hours of travel ahead of us to reach our camp at Moosehead, Jessi made the decision to stay back and not continue on for the rest of the trip. In other words, he was busting. This was mostly because he was already gassed from days of riding and he would’ve been coming back to Colebrook after the next couple days.

We said our goodbyes and pressed on. Next stop, Seboomook Wilderness Campground at the north end of Moosehead Lake. We set off, passing through Dixville Notch and then snaking northeast up into Maine. We pressed on for hours. It was as if we could watch time travel backwards as we went further up. Eventually we were in logging country. We were talking to truckers on the radio and turning heads as we came through towns.

The road from Greenville, at the southern end of the lake, to Seboomook, at the north end, was a highlight of the trip. There is about a 20 mile stretch of dirt road (which is the main road) that has absolutely nothing on it. No stores, no houses, no camps, nothing other than a few abandoned structures. The rain from the morning had the road looking like a mud bog event. We aired down and pressed on. The wet ground was so slick I was sliding sideways while trying to climb hills and had to rip the Jeep in 4-hi; on their main road! At one point the GPS wanted us to take a cut-through road that was completely overgrown. It didn’t even look like there was a path. Nobody had been through for many years.



Video of the road (can't figure out how to embed):



After a couple hours of seeing nothing but trees (and two moose!) we finally made it to our destination.










The wind was howling but the beers were cold and the tacos were delicious! I’d call that a successful day.

Day Six:

We were all looking forward to a day to sit around the campsite to fish and hangout, so that’s what we did! Hot as all get-out and not a cloud in the sky made for a good day to be in/around the water. One thing that was very tough to deal with were THE FLIES! Oh my god they were relentless! Could not get away. I probably took years off my life with the amount of bug spray I used. We all were covered in fly bites. Definitely would not return to this area during this time of year. We just drank through it.

We wandered around for a bit. Found this old FJ that looks like it hasn’t moved in years. Last registered in the 90s IIRC.



We fished all day, through the frisbee around, ate well, and took it easy. Towards the end of the day, Eric had it in his mind that he wanted to catch and cook dinner. Unfortunately for him, the fish had stopped biting by that point. He (finally) caught the smallest perch I’ve ever seen and brought it in. His stubbornness and pride had gotten the better of him at this point but damnit we were cooking something from that lake!





Threw him right over the fire with more butter than there was meat. That was my first time eating a freshwater fish. I can’t say I enjoyed it very much. Mostly tasted like butter lol. We made burgers for real dinner and thanked god when the flies finally went away as the sun went down.

Day Seven:

Another travel day brought more rain for us, but not before we had a chance to see some cool sights prior to covering miles.

We packed up camp and were out of there by mid-morning. The campground owners told us they were not going to be around that morning so we were the only four people on the campground, and probably for several more miles around us.


We spent some time exploring off of the main road. In the Maine atlas there are three types of roads in this area. One, labeled as a solid line, are the main roads, shown in the video earlier. The second are labeled as a bold dashed line. These are less traveled roads, listed as unmaintained, but we found to be in generally good shape. Many of these roads are strictly for hunting and fire access. There’s nothing on them.



The third type of roads in the atlas are labeled as light dashed lines. We did not have time to explore any of these (as much as I wanted to) but they seemed to vary from passable to completely overgrown. I intend to come back and do some more miles on the old roads.

Getting back to the south end of Moosehead lake, we made our way up to a very special spot. A B-52 bomber crash site from 1963 in Greenville. The story goes the plane suffered a structural failure when the tail stabilizer broke off mid-flight and the bomber went down seconds later on a brutally cold January night. Out of 9 onboard, 2 survived. Both survivors were able to eject before the crash. One dangled from a tree all night in 20 degrees below temperature. The other is said to be the only person to survive ejecting from a plane without the parachute deploying.

The site was very powerful. Twisted, mangled, unidentifiable pieces of metal were strewn over acres. Pieces grown into trees and melted down into rocks. It really gave a sense scale for just how catastrophic the event was. After the crash, much of the wreckage was actually removed for investigation and security purposes but was returned to its original state years later to create a memorial. Some components, such as the engines, were not returned because they are still classified.







As we were walking out of the trail from the bomber site the rain started to fall, and it did not stop. We traveled south for hours down to Eric’s aunt and uncles at the coast in Rockland. Our original plan was to camp on their property bordering a revolutionary war fort. It was pouring out when we got there. We were very grateful to hear we could sleep in the house. We had a warm meal, took showers, and sat around the table telling stories and talking about Maine. A nice relaxing end to our journey.

Day Eight:

The clouds were rolling out and the sun was rolling in! Not much going on this day. We went down to the revolutionary war fort (just a foundation left) and heard the story about it. Checked the property out before getting lobster rolls for lunch. I thought this truck was appropriate for Maine.



And from there I said my goodbyes and headed back down to New Hampshire. It was nice to hangout on the highway for a bit after being on backroads for the past week. I rolled back into the beach house in Hampton and spent a couple days there with some other friends before coming back to real life.

This trip was awesome. Its inspired me to get back up to the northern Maine area again to further explore what is out there. We’re already talking about planning the next trip. I have a destination that I want to hit next year. These two steam locomotives on Eagle Lake in Maine. They are left from a logging operation from 100 years ago and have become a monument. There are many artifacts of the old railroad left in the woods up there being taken back by nature.



I would have pushed to hit the trains on this trip, because they really weren’t that far from where we were in Seboomook, but I originally thought they were much farther away. Turns out, there’re two Eagle lakes in Maine!?



I thought the trains were at the northern point but turns out they’re at the southern point. For our next trip, I intend to spend hours sitting over the atlas and planning a tentative route from Seboomook to the trains using the most desolate roads we can. I want to get out there. I want to be on the roads nobody has been down in years. I want it to be an adventure.