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.