shortspecialbus posted:

From Smithville Dam, there are 2 decent routes to Island Lake, depending what you're doing.

With something that isn't huge, you can go through the west path of the rightmost "peninsula" just south of the garage. That path isn't too bad at all, and when you get to the end of it, it's two turns to get to Island Lake. There's one or two somewhat narrow odd rock sections but they aren't too bad to go through if you go slow and a Tayga with a normal-size trailer (or anything about that size) can get through them fine. Anything with a semi trailer can do it but it's often gonna take winch fiddling to get through. Still doable though. It clears up and is a fine route with a bit of mud but plenty of trees to winch from if needed after the aforementioned rocks bends. Getting across the river just before those I haven't found to be too much of a problem, but if you get stuck, it's close enough to the garage that it's easy to get a helper truck to pull you over it.

The second route is to take the main road south across the dam and turn east after the dam to take the road that goes across the big swamp. Larger vehicles handle this better than the other route, but if you don't have great mud ability you may need something that does to help pull across the aforementioned swamp, or just be good with the winch. It's not all that bad unless you're early in the game and still only have lousy tire options.

The eastern path that goes down the road past the gas station and looks like the best route is a trap because the terrain turns absolutely nasty shortly and nigh-impassible in a couple of spots, or at least really easy to tip on, and there's no great way across the river there. I would leave that path alone except when you need it specifically for a mission.

You could also go through Drummond Island, but there's a gross mess of a swamp right near the tunnel to Island Lake that is easy to accidentally tip in I've found and it's not my recommended route. On that note, though, Drummond Island is a bit easier of a "My First No-Garage Location" because of the easiness of taking the highway from Smithville Dam right into Drummond Island. Just takes a bit of time since it's winding but is not difficult anywhere.