Trail Recon and Selection

What makes or breaks an off-road trail? What do off-road enthusiasts look for when selecting locations to explore? Where does one even start? These types of questions only scratch the surface of what goes into planning any type of off-road event. We at Twin City combine our own blend of four wheeling experience and military doctrines. Does that mean our trails are the best around? Not at all. It simply means our trails have been carefully selected, driven, marked, and vetted to provide the best experience without compromising the safety of our participants.

THE DOCTRINE

We took a cut out of the old military handbook and tailored it to our needs. Route Reconnaissance is a military operation that focuses on gathering specific information about a specific route and the surrounding terrain in order to access suitability for moving troops and supplies. Obviously, we are not driving our participants into a battle occupied by enemy combatants. But the aspects apply all the same. The first (1) step is finding any given trail (known or unknown) and deciding if it fits our specific criteria. We look into various type of criteria but the most common ones we used to determine suitability are distance, location, and terrain.

Distance is important because it helps up come up with timelines and deadlines. How far is it? If it takes us three hours to get to a location we have to account for trail time, stopping for breaks, and other contingency plans. Not every off roader has a new Jeep Wrangler or Toyota Tacoma able to drive long distances, some of our participants own and wheel older models that are more susceptible to breaking down or require additional stops for fuel.

Location is also important because we need to account for access to services such as gas stations, phone service, and emergency facilities. Sure, we can drive out to a remote canyon in triple degree weather, but what happens if we have a heat casualty or mechanical breakdown? Can we safely get that person or vehicle out? Often times, distant locations require two or three days of availability in order to have a successful event.

Lastly, Terrain. This last piece is often overlooked and underestimated by people. Terrain is key because it determines the overall outcome of the event. Are your participants and their vehicles able to successfully tackle and overcome the terrain? We see it all too often, event organizers that do not properly educate and inform their participants of the challenges they will face. The result ends up being damage to vehicles or worse, injuries to drivers and their passengers. Twin City closely chooses terrain that offers various levels of difficulty for participants. More importantly, a way out (in the form of bypasses) if a participant chooses not to go over such obstacles or terrain.

Canyon Trail, Globe, AZ.

Take into account the width of the canyon. If it’s too narrow, will a full size truck fit through it?

Once a trail is selected, a preliminary terrain analysis (2) is done using various of methods to identify obstacles, vehicle paths, and hazards. Twin City uses topographical maps and satellite images to first find suitable trails and marking them for a recon.

SCOUTING

Once a trail is selected and the terrain analysis is complete, we schedule a day before the event to drive out to the location and classify it. Route classification (3) is really just a fancy word for taking measurements and physically attempting to traverse the obstacles in order to determine the suitability for different types of vehicles and rate it. More importantly, we scout almost all of our trails, whether we’ve done them in the past even if they’re popular trails done by other groups. Why? Well, things happen. Wind shifts sand dunes, flash floods erode canyon walls, simply put…nature takes over. We want to ensure our participants are safe and their vehicles are able to navigate obstacles before they even show up. Scouting is also important because it allows us to map the trail beforehand. How many times have you been at a trail and the organizers get lost? Adding more time to the trail as night fall creeps up on the group. By scouting ahead of time, Twin City team leads know the distance, know the obstacles, and have a fairly solid timeline in place to get everyone in and out in any amount of time.

Tecolote Canyon, Tularosa, NM

The mixture of soft sand, boulders, and springs requires airing down tires that help create a wider print that helps navigate the obstacles.

TYING EVERYTHING TOGETHER

We’ve discussed what an OPLAN is; if you haven’t, feel free to read into it after this one. Locating a trail, surveying it, classifying it, and doing a recon is really just the first step. After that, a plan is drafted and includes weather forecasts and emergency procedures. The day of the event, all elements are brought together and execute by members of the team. The work will often go unnoticed to the participant, but the results speak to the work done before the rubber ever meets the dirt.

Real Time Data Logging

Data collected during the Scouting phase allows us to create a better operations plan that is later shared with our participants.