My Journey

[VanWaLife]

I very much look forward to reading your posts as they pop up, sorry to hear about the strain. Since you mentioned you're not quite clear when / how you strained it, I'd consider the role of the washboard on Hole in the Rock Road as a major contributing factor. You walk a tremendous amount, but I wouldn't rule out driving as likely the most damaging thing you do to your body. If I don't stretch between drives on a road trip, I can expect to have a ruined back by the end of the trip. My problems start in the psoas / adductor attachment area in my groin and spread to my back if I don't stretch them out. Rolling the sore areas with a tennis ball helps, the real silver bullet for me is called "the couch stretch", you can google it, it basically unwinds the damage done by sitting. "Deskbound" and "8 steps to a pain free back" have become my bibles for growing older without pain. Hopefully you've already got a good stretching routine since you're so active, just wanted to chime in with lessons I've learned the hard way.

 

[tgil]

Never know what you might learn in one of Jerry's threads!

I wouldn't rule out driving as likely the most damaging thing you do to your body. If I don't stretch between drives on a road trip, I can expect to have a ruined back by the end of the trip. My problems start in the psoas / adductor attachment area in my groin and spread to my back if I don't stretch them out. Rolling the sore areas with a tennis ball helps, the real silver bullet for me is called "the couch stretch", you can google it, it basically unwinds the damage done by sitting. "Deskbound" and "8 steps to a pain free back" have become my bibles for growing older without pain

I will try to remember this info!

 

[parkkitchings]

Jerry.....haven't been on here for well over a year now. Still out roaming around as much as possible but just don't seem to post up anymore. Good to see you and your companion are still out there. Where are you now? I'm in Wickenburg, Az as we bought a place down here earlier this year. Just got a new rig (to me anyway) and would love to share a campsite if you're down this way anytime soon. Take care......Park

 

[Sierra Valley]

Jerry.....haven't been on here for well over a year now. Still out roaming around as much as possible but just don't seem to post up anymore. Good to see you and your companion are still out there. Where are you now? I'm in Wickenburg, Az as we bought a place down here earlier this year. Just got a new rig (to me anyway) and would love to share a campsite if you're down this way anytime soon. Take care......Park

I sure miss your trip reports!

 

[longhorn1]

I sure miss your trip reports!

+2 on that.

 

[ripper1600]

Great write ups and safe travels.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

PNWY.....?.....I should install an air compressor too.....

VanWaLife.....thanks for the good information. My current plan seems to be working well. Yesterday I was at 13.1 miles walked while still being extremely careful with steep inclines & making sure to stay on solid surfaces.....

tgil.....who would have ever thought you could learn something on this blog.....certainly not me.....

Sierra Valley & JD.....I agree with you guys, and I'm sure that there are multitudes of others on XP that believe the same.....

ripper1600.....thanks for that ! I sincerely appreciate it.....

Park.....I'm currently in southern Nevada and my guess right now (always subject to change) is that I won't be going further south this winter season. I really want to return to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (& Utah) as soon as I am able to get back out to explore. I've also thought about going to Death Valley as another option.....I've never explored there before.....drove right through previously.....

I'm sure I speak for lots of members here.....you should post on XP again. I always enjoyed your short stories, your keen ability to tell a story in your own unique way, and your photography was by far the best we've ever seen here.....

I always find it ironic that currently I'm the most prolific poster / traveler on XP and I'm admittedly not an overlander but a self professed crawler / walker / hiker / climber.....

Thanks for the invite but I'll have to take a raincheck for now.....



The last place that Tanner & I visited before getting back on the road actually had a name.....Twenty Mile Wash Dinosaur Track Site.....the locals that I had mentioned in a previous post suggested that I check this place out.....and once I got here.....I was really, really thankful that I did.....



This was yet another short road trip driving in the Jeep.....we drove south on Hole In The Rock Road, took a turn to the right on an unsigned dirt road and drove west a few miles along BLM Road 230 to Left Hand Collet Canyon.....this particular road continues on through the 50 mile long Straight Cliffs should you choose to go further.....it is the only pass through the entire stretch of the Straight Cliffs.....



The Twenty Mile Wash Dinosaur Track Site turned out to be special for me and I wasn't sure why I felt that way when I first arrived.....maybe it was special because it was the last place visted along Hole In The Rock Road, maybe it was the fine weather on that particular day, or maybe it was simply my frame of mind.....but I guess the reality is that maybe it really doesn't matter why I found this place to be special.....





I've never had any interests in dinosaurs.....and I do mean never when I say that. I've never visited a dinosaur oriented place in my past travels.....yet this place absolutely fascinated me.....





The locals told me that people come here and leave without ever seeing the dinosaur tracks.....and I wondered how that could possibly be. Tanner & I walked all over the rather smooth stone slabs and I too initially did not see a single footprint. But Tanner & I.....we just continued to search and walked along the stone slabs.....and then it was as if the footprints just began to appear before our eyes.....





It was as if they rose from the stone slabs and formed right before our eyes.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

"Over 76 million years ago, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah looked entirely different. Instead of spectacular desert landscapes, Grand Staircase-Escalante was home to a lush, tropical rainforest, where abundant plants supported an ecosystem of prehistoric giants. The area is now known as the ‘Shangri-La of dinosaurs.’ The monument was the last place in the continental U.S. to be mapped and still remains a natural frontier for outdoor enthusiasts and scientists across the country."

(Copied from brycecanyoncountry.com)







"The Twenty Mile Wash Dinosaur Trackway is a great, short hike along the Hole-in-the-Rock Road where you can see faint Sauropod tracks that were made about 77 million years ago, it is one of the largest dinosaur trackways in the world with over 800 individual tracks."

(Copied from brycecanyoncountry.com)







And so it was that Tanner & I spent an afternoon here just daydreaming the day away.....we sat on ledges and stared out across the valley.....we laid down on the smooth rock slab and stared into the sky.....







I knew that our few months of solitude was soon coming to its end yet I wanted to stay here forever.....living in another world had been good to us.....

 

[Ace Brown]

I’ve visited that spot a few times. The first time I found the tracks right off. The second time I searched forever before I found them again. Not easy to see. There is a neat camp spot below those ledges I called an alcove, for lack of the proper term.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[the deputy]

Though l haven't checked in for a while, it's still my first stop. Your travels are surely inspiring and although you say your just an average guy traveling around looking for a hill to climb...you've become much more than that to many of us. You sharing, gives the rest of us average guys that still haven't climbed that first hill...hope.

 

[VanWaLife]

If you do end up in Death Valley you might check out the Trona Pinnacles, outside beautiful sunny Trona, California, as a less-visited dog friendly camping area.

 

[retiredruralmailman]

 

[longhorn1]

Though l haven't checked in for a while, it's still my first stop. Your travels are surely inspiring and although you say your just an average guy traveling around looking for a hill to climb...you've become much more than that to many of us. You sharing, gives the rest of us average guys that still haven't climbed that first hill...hope.

??

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Alan.....I'm curious about BLM Road 230.....did you continue on through the pass ? Can you access the Kaiparowits Plateau? I'd like to camp & hike on the Kaiparowits Plateau in the spring possibly. I just think it would be amazing to go there and bushwack through the cedars & sagebrush and stumble across undiscovered dinosaur bones.....

the deputy.....WOW ! That's a really nice thing to say. Of course I don't post to inspire anyone but if that's a side effect of my posts, the better for it. I enjoy writing with a hot mug of coffee nearby, I enjoy sharing, and I sure do enjoy climbing & exploring stuff with my best friend Tanner.....

VanWaLife.....thanks for the tip.....I'll get on Google soon enough to check it out.....

retiredruralmailman.....I'm assuming that you're agreeing with VanWaLife on Death Valley so thanks for chiming in.....

JD.....?thanks.....



It just seemed fitting that when I awoke on my last morning in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument that I heard the howls & barks of the coyotes along the 50 mile long Straight Cliffs.....I wanted to think that they were saying their goodbyes.....that somehow I fit into their world of solitude.....I sure was sad to move on. But we finally drove north the final few miles on Hole In The Rock Road and connected with State Highway 12.....took a left turn and headed west. We stopped at Bryce Canyon National Park for a quick 25 cent hot shower.....



It sure did suck that the hot showers were closed.....could have been Covid-19 or the time of year....I didn't bother to ask. Other than that one soak in the hot springs in Ouray, Colorado many weeks ago, it's been three and one half months without a good cleaning......we drove on.....

Next stop.....Red Canyon in the Dixie NationalForest.....







Our stop here was nothing more than a quick lunch in the camper and then a long walk on a cold windy day along a snow & ice covered asphalt trail.....







This would be the first day of my get well campaign.....every step taken now is with great care.....a reduced stride length combined with careful foot placement.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

I'm not sure which I noticed first.....it certainly may have been the red rocks covered in snow relecting the intense afternoon sun or it may have been the masses of people that seemed to be everywhere.....





I almost felt like this was the beginning of the end.....I can't imagine a single person that would read this and not understand.....I wished that we could turn around.....







But that really wasn't going to work for us at this moment in time.....



It was time to move on and put the cold weather behind.....





Loneliness is not a part of our lives.....