Quill
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But to a Yooper, they love winter and lots of snow.:elkgrin:
North American Ramblings of a Perpetual Transient
- Thread starter upcruiser
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But to a Yooper, they love winter and lots of snow.:elkgrin:
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
One of the realities of living on the road without some sort of RV setup is that you are always a bit at the mercy of the weather. I feel at times that my setup works ok for most stuff but in the extreme conditions ie snow, high winds, dust storms, etc you have to ebb and flow a bit with what you can do. Today was a prime example, we drove out of the sand storm and hit Moab 5 minutes before it hit town. Our plans of taking a nice shower in the shower enclosure and cooking up a nice camp meal weren't realistic so.... Poison Spyder has token showers which are my go-to when conditions aren't cooperating. After cleaning up we grabbed some grub in town.... town that was absolutely bustling with Easter Jeep Safari folks. We had a nice meal at the Peace Tree Cafe since everything else was busy and we had a hunch it would be quiet there and not the typical Jeeper kinda place to eat. One nice thing I will say about EJS week in Moab is that it runs everyone else out of town, especially the majority of mountain bikers and silent sport enthusiasts. This means the bike only trails are much quieter than normal for that time of year.
Aftetr eating we worked our way up to my go-to camping spot on the BLM land above Porcupine Rim. Nice sunset over slick rock during a quick play session on Baby Lion's Back.
Luckily for us the winds had died completely by the time we got to camp. After a restful night's sleep we awoke to another great looking day. View from the casa.....
Today was going to be the jumping off point for us. The plan was to meet up with a man who needs no introduction, a legend amongst legends, and a fellar I'd been trying to cross paths with for years but never had it work out. A wandering soul himself and an amabassador to those who love to explore and wander with the comforts of home... K.C. O'Connor.
KC and Mia had been trying to coordinate a joint excursion with us for a couple of days of their trip as it passed through Moab. Some other guy named Scott Brady, was supposed to meet up that morning as well on a trek through the Canyonlands on his way back south to AZ. Well, after a catostrophic zipper failure on my RTT that inspired some new words not quite found in the Oxford dictionary, we managed to get the thing back buttoned up good enough to roll, though more than an hour behind schedule. KC and Mia, being the absolute most patient folks EVER met up with Scott, Mario, and crew just south of town. Scott and company decided to b line it south, something about a wife waiting, Easter and something or another... :sombrero: haha jeesh.... ha ha. By the time we got into Moab to gas up and fill up on provisions KC had already said hello and farewell to the southbound crew and tracked us down at City Market. The road beckoned and after a few bird brained d'uh moments of forgetting to grab stuff and turning around.... We were off!
The original intention was to head into Needles District and hit Elephant Hill on the way down over to Beef Basin but after some discussion we decided that scenery, a new route none of us had been on, hoping to find a place to camp, with a view over Canyonlands. We were in no rush, just taking in the sights and colors.
Stopping to stretch the legs a bit and gawk.
My amazing co driver who brought great conversation and snacking abilities to the trip...
On a hunch we decided to explore a trail of the main route that seemed to go out onto the top of a point. It was rough, rocky but I had a good feeling about it. When we got to the first view of the edge..... well, pictures tell the story better than words.... looking right down over Needle's District.
We just chilled there for a bit and took in the views.
A bit farther up the trail we came to the end of the point and our camp spot for the night. Its the unplanned, unexpected surprises that make life so rich sometimes. A 180 degree pano of Needles all the way to the La Sals in the late afternoon light.
Aftetr eating we worked our way up to my go-to camping spot on the BLM land above Porcupine Rim. Nice sunset over slick rock during a quick play session on Baby Lion's Back.
Luckily for us the winds had died completely by the time we got to camp. After a restful night's sleep we awoke to another great looking day. View from the casa.....
Today was going to be the jumping off point for us. The plan was to meet up with a man who needs no introduction, a legend amongst legends, and a fellar I'd been trying to cross paths with for years but never had it work out. A wandering soul himself and an amabassador to those who love to explore and wander with the comforts of home... K.C. O'Connor.
KC and Mia had been trying to coordinate a joint excursion with us for a couple of days of their trip as it passed through Moab. Some other guy named Scott Brady, was supposed to meet up that morning as well on a trek through the Canyonlands on his way back south to AZ. Well, after a catostrophic zipper failure on my RTT that inspired some new words not quite found in the Oxford dictionary, we managed to get the thing back buttoned up good enough to roll, though more than an hour behind schedule. KC and Mia, being the absolute most patient folks EVER met up with Scott, Mario, and crew just south of town. Scott and company decided to b line it south, something about a wife waiting, Easter and something or another... :sombrero: haha jeesh.... ha ha. By the time we got into Moab to gas up and fill up on provisions KC had already said hello and farewell to the southbound crew and tracked us down at City Market. The road beckoned and after a few bird brained d'uh moments of forgetting to grab stuff and turning around.... We were off!
The original intention was to head into Needles District and hit Elephant Hill on the way down over to Beef Basin but after some discussion we decided that scenery, a new route none of us had been on, hoping to find a place to camp, with a view over Canyonlands. We were in no rush, just taking in the sights and colors.
Stopping to stretch the legs a bit and gawk.
My amazing co driver who brought great conversation and snacking abilities to the trip...
We just chilled there for a bit and took in the views.
A bit farther up the trail we came to the end of the point and our camp spot for the night. Its the unplanned, unexpected surprises that make life so rich sometimes. A 180 degree pano of Needles all the way to the La Sals in the late afternoon light.
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upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
But sometimes the snow just won't leave this Yooper alone! Can't seem to escape it this spring, its kind of following me everywhere! Snow on the ground in Salt Lake City this morning even!
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
Too many great photo opps here......
We all cooked up some grub for dinner, shot the breeze a bit and kicked back around a campfire. There was a stack of wood there as if destiny had our back. One thing I learned though is that if you are sitting around a campfire, don't sit near Mia or KC, the smoke chases them around no matter how hard they try to evade it. Alyssa on the other hand had some force field kicking that prevent even the slightest whisp of smoke from coming near her...interesting...
That night saw some gusty winds mixed with some form of precipitation that would pelt the tent at times. I awoke early, hoping for a cool sunrise bathing the landscape below with light and strong shadows but it was cold, grey and windy. I climbed back into the tent to zzzz some more and heard KC outside, ever the polite fella he is going "uh, not to crimp your plans or anything, or say what we should do, but its snowing out, and I think we might have some issues with the weather today if we don't get a move on." We looked out and it was snowing pretty good. He had a good point, and we started packing things up quick. Nothing like fiddling with a broken RTT cover zipper when it is windy, snowing and wet.... ugh, of course after 20 minutes of feverish struggling, Alyssa, reaches up effortlessly and the thing just zips close.... uh huh, you know what this means?? She is now in charge of zipper duty.
Zipper queen as the snow starts coming down.
Rolling out of camnp following KC.
It was cool seeing the desert transform into forrest as we climbed up in elevation. Huge pines, open meadows with ponds and roads that hadn't been clear of snow for long made for some mixed driving. This shot is from a section that skirts the Dark Canyon Primitive Area as we worked our way south towards Comb Wash.
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
The route proved to be a great mix of desert all the way up to pine and aspen forests with snow still clinging to the hillsides around us. We eventually came out on pavement on highway 95. The plan was to meet up with Roger Moody (Mr Moody by ExPo speak) and crew to say hello. They were camped out on the north end of Comb Wash road and spending some time with family and friends exploring old ruins in the area. If you haven't checked out his thread in the completed trip report section, do so, the images are amazing.
After meeting Roger and fam, he offered to show us a ruin site just down the trail from his camp. The fine silt was insane, the type of dust that I wish I had a prefilter for. When I finally did pop open the airbox to check the filter a week later I shook out some serious dust.
KC in front as we work our way up to the ruins off a short little spur trail.
80 series envy, and to think he was going to sell that thing? haha
View of the ruins
It turned out to be a cool little site, not really marked and one of those spots you have to know is there to find it. Roger showed us a bunch of pottery fragments which we probably wouldn't even have noticed on the trail up.
Roger is a history buff, I mean, that's what he does for a living, but he lives it and loves it outside of work too apparently. It was awesome having him give us a tour of the site and explain some of the different things we were seeing like the carved out scallops in the rock that were used for crushing grains into flour, and details of the site's construction. Good stuff!
Did I mention the silt?? A fine blanket of it on the Rover. We said our good byes to KC and Mia as they were going to try to catch the ferry across Lake Powell and to Roger. Our plan now was to work south down Comb Wash Road and come out at Valley of the Gods to camp for the night. Comb Wash road was fun. A sandy route that follows Comb Ridge, conducive for opening it up a bit and covering some ground. The only other person we saw along the entire route was a woman jogging..out in the middle of nowhere. 5 foot tall piles of tumbleweed filled the low spots of the road in sections. Note from a greenhorn from the northcountry. You imagine tumbleweeds to be poofy and light but take my word, when you ram through pile of them at speed its like hitting a pile of brush, yikes! No harm no foul though, maybe some fresh pinstripes....
An old abandoned structure along Comb Wash
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
Sounds like a great trip, depending on when you go in August it can be pretty hot. Bring plenty of water. One cool thing about this route is that it climbs pretty high, around 9,000 feet by Bear's Ears so you can seek some cooler places to camp if needed by getting up higher.
The heat will be an issue, but the timing isn't too flexible. I've just started to plan out the route, but it will be interesting trying to find the dirt routes as opposed to the highways.
I'll look into Comb Wash Road heading over Bear's Ears. Since we've never been to Canyonlands before, we'll have to explore a little, but hopefully we will find somewhere neat to explore and camp like you found.
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
He is alive and well and out and about, exploring the backcountry as we speak. It was awesome finally getting to meet that guy!
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
So, just for clarification, Comb Wash and Bear's Ears are south of Canyonlands. Basically Comb Wash runs north south and starts on the south side near Valley of the Gods. From the north end of Comb Wash on highway 95 you can access Bear's Ears and work north to connect to Canyonlands. Plenty of great opportunities to explore and camp. We felt lucky finding such a great camping spot overlooking Needles like that.
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
Yeah, ditto! I am back in SLC again right now! Got in last night. We are talking about doing a little camping Saturday, nor sure where yet but possibly Maple Canyon? Alyssa sent you an invite right? Let me know, I was told the brine flies on Antelope Island are pretty brutal right now so we ruled that one out.