We laid the final tracks on the Oregon Trail
way ahead of Schedule. Our wives weren’t
due to fly into Missouri for another 8 days
so we had two options; hang out and relax,
or live life in true pioneer fashion and go
out with a bang! It was 9:00 pm on August
11th. We Fueled up our trucks and head-
ed south towards Northern Arkansas. Ex-
citement once again flooded our minds as
we regained the spark that had been miss-
ing the past couple weeks. This is what
adventure was truly about, and despite
how childish our attitudes had become we
shed the skin of frustration and decided
to go above and beyond what we set out
to do. The seven hour drive provided little
sleep and the humid weather made it hard
to relax. This was our last chance to come
together as a team and make this adven-
ture count. The Ozark National Forest
was a force to be reckoned with . Similar to
our native state of Oregon, this beautiful
chunk of land was an off-road paradise.
We were surrounded by countless techni-
cal trails around every corner, and multi-
ple different river crossings with amazing
waterfalls and swimming holes. Our frus-
trations disappeared as we dove head first
into this amazing oasis. We barely even
noticed the fact that we were in the middle
of an unrelenting storm, but at this point
it didn’t matter one way or the other. Like
a child on Christmas morning we were ec-
static! Exploring the heights and depths
of this amazing rain forest we conquered
as much as we possibly could in our final
week abroad. We were finally free. Free
from worry, free from expectation, and
free from every stipulation and selfish
expectation of how we envisioned this to
pan out. The minutes turned to hours, the
hours turned to days, and before we knew
it our time was up.
We started realizing that this journey was
misguided in and of itself. Not that what
we were doing as a whole was wrong, but
on the individual level of fulfilling our own
personal goals. We all had our own agen-
das and ideas about this trip, which hin-
dered us from living each moment to the
fullest. Had this been a battle, we would
have lost, but lucky for us the war has just
begun. Time, perseverance, and the abili-
ty to adapt for the sake of the man next to
you is what we now know to be the most
important key to the success of any exten-
sive journey.
What started as a simple idea to docu-
ment a once in a lifetime overland expe-
dition became a staple in the timeline of
5 regular guys. We came, we conquered,
and we will continue to expose the past on
our Country’s historic trails until the day
we join those who paved the way before
us.
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OutlawXpeditions.com
Instagram - @ox_overland