Main Line Overland
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We got up early and hit the trail again. Knowing that we were headed to a big wash-out about 30 miles up the trail past Potato Bottom. We knew that many groups before us were forced to turn back and retreat the 70+ miles of trail they had already covered, but we wanted to determine for ourselves if it was really impassable.
We came upon Potato Bottom where we found two long stretches of deep mud ruts they we were able to get through. We then proceeded up the steep cut in cliff face and down Hardscrabble.
We descended and past the next campsite. Right about when we came to the Upheaval Canyon trail, the bespoke wash-out presented itself. I looked as though a river had cut itself into the landscape overnight, wiping out a huge portion of the trail. Where the trail used to be was about a 8 foot wall of dirt and sand. There were some motorcycle tracks we traced that found their own path. We decided to take another route around the sand and potential problem areas. We drove directly up the wash, which was a little slick but had packed down after 24 hours of no rain. The wash meandered for about 200 yards, then we turn back onto the trail which was very messy, basically gunning it to get up a sloped slick section.
Where the road used to be:
We were elated we had made it through where others had failed, mostly because we didn't want to retrace our path out, and we now had plenty of gas to continue on without tapping into our auxiliary supply. A little further down the road we found our next campsite, Labyrinth where we will camp along the Colorado River tonight before completing the trail tomorrow.
We came upon Potato Bottom where we found two long stretches of deep mud ruts they we were able to get through. We then proceeded up the steep cut in cliff face and down Hardscrabble.
We descended and past the next campsite. Right about when we came to the Upheaval Canyon trail, the bespoke wash-out presented itself. I looked as though a river had cut itself into the landscape overnight, wiping out a huge portion of the trail. Where the trail used to be was about a 8 foot wall of dirt and sand. There were some motorcycle tracks we traced that found their own path. We decided to take another route around the sand and potential problem areas. We drove directly up the wash, which was a little slick but had packed down after 24 hours of no rain. The wash meandered for about 200 yards, then we turn back onto the trail which was very messy, basically gunning it to get up a sloped slick section.
Where the road used to be:
We were elated we had made it through where others had failed, mostly because we didn't want to retrace our path out, and we now had plenty of gas to continue on without tapping into our auxiliary supply. A little further down the road we found our next campsite, Labyrinth where we will camp along the Colorado River tonight before completing the trail tomorrow.
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