nomad661
Active member
So we had some time between Christmas and New Years and what better way to end a year then 5 days in Utah.
Christmas day we set off from Boise, ID in gloomy conditions. A quick stop in Burley, ID to visit some of Morgans family members and we were on our way to camp near Diamond Fork Hot Springs for the night. Conditions around Burley turned to wet snow and the drive got a little slower and more treacherous after that. The pass and canyon between Snowville and Ogden were particularly bad. I was down to 30 MPH on 84 at times. Not deep or whiteout conditions, just super super slick. Saw a couple of cars spun off the road but everyone was fine, there was cell service, and I didn't think I'd be able to get enough traction to pull them out of the ditches. I also, right or wrong, don't have a ton of sympathy for the guy who blasted past me at 60 or so, when most of the traffic was going a reasonable speed for the conditions. Few miles later, guess where he was?
We made it to the Diamond Hot Springs area sometime around 9pm. My brief research had led me to believe we could simply camp at the trailhead. Turns out that is not true and we came to realize the trailhead I had read about wasn't accessible by car. They had gated off part of the road approximately a mile from it. There was another parking area at the gate but, somewhat surprisngly, there was quite a bit of vehicle traffic coming and going, so we opted to explore a group site a bit further back the road. Turns out those were shut down as well and after a day of driving chose to not keep searching in the dark and set up the RTT on the pavement next to the gate. A quick tailgate dinner and it was into the tent to try to stay warm. I'd brought a generator and small electric heater but had forgotten the extension cord. It being Christmas day, I couldn't find one anywhere. Turns out even the well stocked truck stops don't carry them. Learn something new everyday I suppose.
We woke on the 26th to a bit of snow, made breakfast, and got ready to go hot springing! This is when we realized we were a bit farther from the start of the ~2.5 mile trail I'd read about. Oh well, more hiking is fine by me. I did make the (thankfully not critical error) of not packing snacks and headlamps. It turned out to not be an issue but we likely would have spent even longer at the springs had we had those items.
The trail part of the hike in proved a bit treacherous. There was a nice ice layer under the very light snow and we hadn't packed any traction aids so it was slower going then I'd hoped. The trail in was pretty mellow. I'd read it gained something around 600 ft of elevation. Not bad at all over 2ish miles. We passed a fair amount of traffic on trail.
Once we made the springs they were quite busy, and it's why I don't mind at all mentioning them by name. They are far from a secret. There are multiple pools of varying temps. We ended up choosing one with some fun looking people who were also drinking beer, it being Utah and all. We had chosen right and enjoyed some good company and good conversation during our time soaking. While crowded, it's def worth a visit. The hike, water, and surrounding area are all worth it. It was also the day after Christmas so that may have added to the traffic.
Having gotten a somewhat late start in the morning, the hike/soak taking longer then planned, we didn't make it to Moab until around 9pm. That put a damper on my plans to relocate an awesome BLM dispersed camping area I had been introduced to by a friend (he was kind enough to send the coordinates for this trip) so I decided to cheat and we checked into a hotel for the night.
Day 3 was something of a slow start as well. I cook pretty well when I camp and as such, Morgan and I both agreed that the hotel breakfast (while a full, hot spread) was pretty disappointing. From there it was coffee and a bit of shopping for a few items before heading off to check out Bull Canyon. I can fully endorse the Moab Rock Shop as a place worth checking out, if you're into that sort of thing. It's probably worth a visit even if you aren't.
I wanted to start with something easy as I had a got awful clunk coming from my exhaust. Turns out I'd cracked the weld into the muffler and broken a few mounting bracket bolts. Bull Canyon is supposed to be an out and back trail. It was definitely that for us except I'm not sure we made it as far as some do. With some route finding difficulty a few miles in I chose to turn around when we encountered a decent rock garden. I wasn't worried about the rocks but a decent walk up where trail was supposed to be and I couldn't find much evidence of recent travel and after the rocks there was absolutely no where to turn around for as far as I walked. The garden was rough enough that I was certainly not comfortable having to back through it, although I'm sure it can be done. So I decided to turn around where we could.
From there I decided to take a trail named Little Canyon which was listed on the map as difficult but wasn't actually in the book as a trail. It's supposed to connect part of Bull Canyon to Gold Bar Rim (about a mile from Gemini Bridges Trail) and was listed as an alternative exit to Bull Canyon. As I'd concluded the exhaust, while extremely annoying and clunky, wasn't going to fall off I decided it was time to make things more exciting. Another fail. After trying all possible/reasonable existing routes we had to turn around and back up several times but never found Little Canyon.
I later figured out why. I was using the 2nd edition guidebook which I'd purchased in 2014. Looking at my newer 3rd edition, Little Canyon is now listed as Little Canyon Bike Trail on the map. Which would explain why we failed. Oops. No worries though, Morgan took a little bit of wheel time in the drivers seat and started to get a feel for The Pig.
So it was back the way we came and off to find the previously mentioned BLM camp spot. After a bit of finding the proper route we succeeded and set up camp overlooking a pretty canyon and Morgan wasted no time getting the fire roaring in a nice, existing fire ring. The sun was already setting, temps dropping, and a bit of snow falling.
Here's where I failed again. I'd brought along my 2000W Honda generator and a small 750/1500W space heater to hang in the RTT. Problem was, even on the 750W setting the generator kept tripping itself. After some fiddling and some cursing I accepted defeat. I should have tested that combo before bringing it but had no reason to assume it wouldn't work, nor do I have any idea why. I need to look into that for future winter overnights.
That left us with no heat, again. So we accepted our fate (temps dropped to about 10-15 degrees this night) and Morgan set about making up the bed with everything we had. I tend to sleep hot and was okay with a couple layers and my side of the 30 degree double bag I have for the tent. She didn't fare as well, even with many added blankets, and eventually ended up in sleeping bag inception mode. She was inside a 30 degree bag, inside the double 30 degree bag, and piled with a down blanket, a space blanket, and a couple other blankets. Hopefully, perhaps, at least not shivering.
Thanks for reading. Days 4-6, pics, and video to follow.
-Evan
Christmas day we set off from Boise, ID in gloomy conditions. A quick stop in Burley, ID to visit some of Morgans family members and we were on our way to camp near Diamond Fork Hot Springs for the night. Conditions around Burley turned to wet snow and the drive got a little slower and more treacherous after that. The pass and canyon between Snowville and Ogden were particularly bad. I was down to 30 MPH on 84 at times. Not deep or whiteout conditions, just super super slick. Saw a couple of cars spun off the road but everyone was fine, there was cell service, and I didn't think I'd be able to get enough traction to pull them out of the ditches. I also, right or wrong, don't have a ton of sympathy for the guy who blasted past me at 60 or so, when most of the traffic was going a reasonable speed for the conditions. Few miles later, guess where he was?
We made it to the Diamond Hot Springs area sometime around 9pm. My brief research had led me to believe we could simply camp at the trailhead. Turns out that is not true and we came to realize the trailhead I had read about wasn't accessible by car. They had gated off part of the road approximately a mile from it. There was another parking area at the gate but, somewhat surprisngly, there was quite a bit of vehicle traffic coming and going, so we opted to explore a group site a bit further back the road. Turns out those were shut down as well and after a day of driving chose to not keep searching in the dark and set up the RTT on the pavement next to the gate. A quick tailgate dinner and it was into the tent to try to stay warm. I'd brought a generator and small electric heater but had forgotten the extension cord. It being Christmas day, I couldn't find one anywhere. Turns out even the well stocked truck stops don't carry them. Learn something new everyday I suppose.
We woke on the 26th to a bit of snow, made breakfast, and got ready to go hot springing! This is when we realized we were a bit farther from the start of the ~2.5 mile trail I'd read about. Oh well, more hiking is fine by me. I did make the (thankfully not critical error) of not packing snacks and headlamps. It turned out to not be an issue but we likely would have spent even longer at the springs had we had those items.
The trail part of the hike in proved a bit treacherous. There was a nice ice layer under the very light snow and we hadn't packed any traction aids so it was slower going then I'd hoped. The trail in was pretty mellow. I'd read it gained something around 600 ft of elevation. Not bad at all over 2ish miles. We passed a fair amount of traffic on trail.
Once we made the springs they were quite busy, and it's why I don't mind at all mentioning them by name. They are far from a secret. There are multiple pools of varying temps. We ended up choosing one with some fun looking people who were also drinking beer, it being Utah and all. We had chosen right and enjoyed some good company and good conversation during our time soaking. While crowded, it's def worth a visit. The hike, water, and surrounding area are all worth it. It was also the day after Christmas so that may have added to the traffic.
Having gotten a somewhat late start in the morning, the hike/soak taking longer then planned, we didn't make it to Moab until around 9pm. That put a damper on my plans to relocate an awesome BLM dispersed camping area I had been introduced to by a friend (he was kind enough to send the coordinates for this trip) so I decided to cheat and we checked into a hotel for the night.
Day 3 was something of a slow start as well. I cook pretty well when I camp and as such, Morgan and I both agreed that the hotel breakfast (while a full, hot spread) was pretty disappointing. From there it was coffee and a bit of shopping for a few items before heading off to check out Bull Canyon. I can fully endorse the Moab Rock Shop as a place worth checking out, if you're into that sort of thing. It's probably worth a visit even if you aren't.
I wanted to start with something easy as I had a got awful clunk coming from my exhaust. Turns out I'd cracked the weld into the muffler and broken a few mounting bracket bolts. Bull Canyon is supposed to be an out and back trail. It was definitely that for us except I'm not sure we made it as far as some do. With some route finding difficulty a few miles in I chose to turn around when we encountered a decent rock garden. I wasn't worried about the rocks but a decent walk up where trail was supposed to be and I couldn't find much evidence of recent travel and after the rocks there was absolutely no where to turn around for as far as I walked. The garden was rough enough that I was certainly not comfortable having to back through it, although I'm sure it can be done. So I decided to turn around where we could.
From there I decided to take a trail named Little Canyon which was listed on the map as difficult but wasn't actually in the book as a trail. It's supposed to connect part of Bull Canyon to Gold Bar Rim (about a mile from Gemini Bridges Trail) and was listed as an alternative exit to Bull Canyon. As I'd concluded the exhaust, while extremely annoying and clunky, wasn't going to fall off I decided it was time to make things more exciting. Another fail. After trying all possible/reasonable existing routes we had to turn around and back up several times but never found Little Canyon.
I later figured out why. I was using the 2nd edition guidebook which I'd purchased in 2014. Looking at my newer 3rd edition, Little Canyon is now listed as Little Canyon Bike Trail on the map. Which would explain why we failed. Oops. No worries though, Morgan took a little bit of wheel time in the drivers seat and started to get a feel for The Pig.
So it was back the way we came and off to find the previously mentioned BLM camp spot. After a bit of finding the proper route we succeeded and set up camp overlooking a pretty canyon and Morgan wasted no time getting the fire roaring in a nice, existing fire ring. The sun was already setting, temps dropping, and a bit of snow falling.
Here's where I failed again. I'd brought along my 2000W Honda generator and a small 750/1500W space heater to hang in the RTT. Problem was, even on the 750W setting the generator kept tripping itself. After some fiddling and some cursing I accepted defeat. I should have tested that combo before bringing it but had no reason to assume it wouldn't work, nor do I have any idea why. I need to look into that for future winter overnights.
That left us with no heat, again. So we accepted our fate (temps dropped to about 10-15 degrees this night) and Morgan set about making up the bed with everything we had. I tend to sleep hot and was okay with a couple layers and my side of the 30 degree double bag I have for the tent. She didn't fare as well, even with many added blankets, and eventually ended up in sleeping bag inception mode. She was inside a 30 degree bag, inside the double 30 degree bag, and piled with a down blanket, a space blanket, and a couple other blankets. Hopefully, perhaps, at least not shivering.
Thanks for reading. Days 4-6, pics, and video to follow.
-Evan
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