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Last weekend B and I did a little shock tuning, changed the oil and filter, installed a different TPMS, and replaced a tie rod on the 99. Also test assembled the low range for the 6MT. So far so good but still a ways to go. That will really make my 99 a lot more usable.

A, B, and Z met at my house and we headed west a few weeks ago with my 99 Outback and B's Forester. Drove past grasslands in South Dakota but didn't check them out, should on another trip. Tried some short side roads/trails near Badlands NP. Z wanted to camp along this ridge with 100 other RVs. We didn't go in Badlands as it's fairly expensive so we went to the black hills in SW South Dakota. Z found a campground on the ultimate campground app and used the google directions which sent us down a rough, rocky, narrow trail. Sections of it were high exposure along a narrow ledge. As we got closer to the campground the trail became steep downhill. We considered turning around but we were getting close to a major (gravel) road. The trail was quite rough, rocky, and washed out and it was dark. We got to a large tree blocking the trail and decided to camp there for the night. We cooked food, setup camp, and joked (?) about how we'd have all week to get out one way or another. The next morning we took a closer look at the large fallen tree. We probably could have cut more branches off of it and gotten underneath with some digging. There were a couple more fallen trees we would have had to deal with but they weren't as bad. We walked up the hill and decided that would be the way to try to get out. We sent B first figuring he could pull me up the more difficult obstacles. We had to stack some rocks for him in a couple spots. I then drove the Outback up the whole way nonstop, poking a small hole in a sidewall in the process. I plugged it but it kept leaking slowly so we just swapped it out later. We drove around the black hills. Then we headed to the Bighorn mountains in WY. Spent a couple days camping and driving around there – awesome scenery, decent trails with some small jumps, not a lot of dead ends. This was a good few days of trail riding with varied scenery from wooded mountains to Utah like deserts. Drove through western WY almost to Yellowstone and then north into Montana. This part of Montana basically had a bunch of dead end roads heading south off 90 into the mountains north of Yellowstone. We took one of them and camped at a small campground along a river. We headed farther south the next morning. Stopped at natural bridge falls which was awesome, would be good to see in the spring. From there the road turns to gravel and gets gradually rougher/rockier and passes a bunch of ranches. Eventually it turns into a consistently rocky road with some climbs. Saw some old mining cabins. At Independence Z walked ahead while we were stacking rocks and saw a no motorized vehicles sign so we turned around. Would be interesting sometime to take the trail to Independence/Blue Lake. This was the roughest ~5-10 miles of trail we've probably ever driven. On the way back out one of B's castle nuts fell off a ball joint, the threads on the stud were wiped out. We swapped it out and continued. Drove back up to 90 and decided to head back east. Considered heading farther west into Montana and Idaho but would have had 2-3 days of solid highway driving at the end if we'd done that. We headed back down towards the Bighorns. We stayed at a campground along a little stream with no one else in it. The next morning we drove to the ice cave which is ~32F year round despite recent weather in the 90s. There are apparently ice stalagmites and stalactites at times but none of any significant size when we were there. The parking lot has a picnic area with great views. We trail rode through this northern part of the Bighorns and eventually got to the Pryor mountain area which had one of the best views of the trip. Then we drove through a BLM wild horse area and saw at least a half dozen groups of them. At one point we stopped to tighten some suspension bolts and make sandwiches and at least two groups of wild horses walked by within 30' of us. We eventually got to a sign which said “4x4 high clearance short wheelbase vehicles only” pointing in the direction of the trail we'd just come out. Drove some more trails in Wyoming and went to Black Mountain. Views from the top were awesome despite the smoke. Drove back down and found a campsite along a gravel road to stay the night. In the morning a mother and fawn mule deer walked through our site and some medium sized black and white birds were almost eating out of B's hand. At this point we only had about 1.5 days to get back to my house so Z and A could get home at a reasonable hour so we mostly drove on the highway but we did cut through the Black Hills again. We went to Mount Roosevelt which is an easy walk with a lookout tower you can walk to the top of with a decent view. On the way there we'd seen some side trails. One of them went to Deadwood on my GPS so we decided to see if that would go through. It did but the last half mile or so was quite steep downhill with loose rocks. From there we drove home on the highway, stopped to camp at a big campground in MN which was fortunately pretty quiet. Overall a good trip, the heat and smoke put a bit of a damper on things but we had no major mechanical problems, good scenery, saw some wildlife, and drove a lot of trails. For some reason we didn't have the problems with low speed climbing in the 99 we were having in southern IL. I think it must have just been getting heat soaked there with the constant stopping and idling. Also had to use the start button quite often on the last trip, I'm guessing the ignition switch or the wiring to it is failing.

Auto to manual swap mostly, but we don't know if the security system is working yet so jump 2+6 then find out later. The automatic uses the inhibitor switch Park + Neutral positions to short pins 11+12 on that connector and the OE manual clutch pedal controls a relay in its place. So both can interrupt power to the starter solenoid. You could pick up an inhibitor switch and plug it in and put it in park and it would work (until the contacts go bad from never being moved). Electrolysis causes contacts to insulate from each other if they are not moved to wipe off the oxide on the contacts. I wanted pins 2+6 jumped to make sure the engine would crank and it did. Now that it runs, the relay can be put back in place of the jumper and see if the security module works and lets it crank. If it does, great, but if it doesn't well, that is a whole different ball park.