Mille Lacs Core Trail

Notable flooding as mentioned by the 7/8 post even with the week+ of no rain and heat advisories. The main issue I had was the deep ruts especially in the southeast area of the main trail. I was regularly bottoming out crawling high-centered. Minimal room for straddling the tracks with a lot of growth on the edge and I really wanted to avoid damaging brush/trees. I ended up turning around at the far-southeast corner of the trail because the ruts didn't appear to be getting better along with additional flooding. Vehicle was a 5th Gen 4Runner TRD off-road with stock suspension on stock sized Mickey Thompson Baja Boss.

The heavy rain the night before took its toll on the trail. 90% of the trail was flooded with an average of about a foot of water, but never getting higher than about 18". A couple spots required recovery boards to navigate washouts. Never bogged or got stuck, but even with a Ranger Raptor with a lift and 35's the course was challenging in spots. However, lots of fun and earned a couple of new pinstripes on an overgrown section of the trail.

There was a tree blocking the path on the southwest section. The rest seemed open. Some of the advice says factory suspension vehicles should stay to the side to stay on top of the ridges and out of the ruts. That is simply not possible. The road between the North loop and the south loop has a very nasty hole with rocks and caught me up. I would not drive this without a lift and 35s. This area is fairly marshy and has water in it all the time I think. There was quite a bit flowing through parts of the trails. It is simply not possible stay out of the ruts. My skid plates got a big workout.

I only checked out half of it but I liked it . I didn’t need 4 wheel drive (ground still frozen) I will be coming back this spring and besides the trails they have a playground that you can test your ride