What can I say about Moab? It is known by many as the off road capital of the world. For myself, it’s a place that embodies two things I love: Mountain Biking and Overlanding (aka fancy car camping). Our trip plans called for just about a week of backcountry travel, dispersed camping and exploring some of the well known trails in the area. There were six trucks, seven humans and one dog that would be part of this trip. With such a large group it took a significant amount of planning and coordination but we got it done. The result? An adventure that none of us will ever forget.
Getting There
All the rigs on the trip were from the San Francisco Bay Area so this meant we would need to drive about 16 hours to reach Moab. I decided to break the drive out over two days. With the first stop being a 4x4 trail right outside of Las Vegas. The trail ended up being rather scenic and after hunting for a while we found a spot to setup camp for our first night.
After a relatively good nights rest we woke up early and headed out promptly to continue the long drive to Moab. Here’s a shot of us leaving the trail with Las Vegas in the background.
The White Rim Trail (Canyonlands)
After about 8 hours of driving we arrived in Moab in the late afternoon. A quick fuel stop was needed to fill our tanks and Rotopax. After that was done we promptly headed to Canyonlands National Park to start our trip on the White Rim Trail. The entire route would encompass 110+ miles of off road travel spread across two days. We kicked things off with a descent down to the valley floor right around sunset:
I made the mistake of assuming we had plenty of daylight left so we decided to do a short hike before we found our campsite. The hiking trail led us to this amazing view of the Colorado River:
Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of daylight we had left and we ended up having to drive 15 or so miles in the dark. This would become a recurring theme on this trip
In Canyonlands dispersed camping is not allowed. So we had reserved a dedicated primitive camping spot for us to settle down in. The site was actually quite nice offering up some flat space with a pit toilet. This was also the first night I got to test out my new camp kitchen setup:
The Setup Comprises Of:
•CBI Rear Bumper with fold out camp tables
•3rd row delete w/a custom plate made by [MENTION=107460]Magnetic4R[/MENTION]
•Custom rear LED lighting with dimmer controls
•Dometic 65L fridge running off of dedicated rear power outlets wired to my second battery
The setup worked fantastically and really made it easy to cook meals and I didn’t have any sort of issues. Not bad considering it was completely new and untested!
The next morning we woke up and continued on the trail.
It was right after this shot where I received my only damage for the entire trip (Outside of bashed skids and slider rash). White Rim is considered a moderate trail in many guide books but I would say it’s 95% easy with a few steep and exposed spots. In fact I did the whole thing in 2WD!
There are some parts of the trail that allow you to carry a decent amount of speed. I wasn’t paying attention on one of these portions and I went into a whoop with a little too much momentum. The result of this was me launching the truck and coming down hard on the front passenger side. It was so much force that I bottomed out and my body mounts flexed just enough to push my frame mounted front coilover reservoir bracket into my windshield fluid reservoir piercing it. The leaking washer fluid almost gave me a heart attack but I was relieved to discover it was only that!
We continued on the trail which offered endless amounts of stunning views. If not disciplined we would have been there all day long taking pictures. However, we had a campsite to find so after wrapping things up for the day we promptly headed to BLM land in search of a campsite.
One thing to mention is that the first two days were done with only half the group. The other three trucks arrived a day later. Fortunately, I was able to guide them to our campsite using my Garmin Inreach Satellite Device. Since we were in the backcountry we didn’t have cell phone service so the only way I could lead them to us was with text messages via satellite. As soon as they got in range we were able to raise them on HAM Radio for the final couple of miles to camp.
Drone shot of our campsite
Hells Revenge
Waking up the next morning we decided to hit a trail I was really excited about called Hells Revenge. For those of you who have never been to Moab before it offers a unique type of slickrock which serves up a tremendous amount of traction. You can go up and down grades you would never have ever imagined. Here is a video of me climbing up one of the first hills on the trail. The bike rack JUST cleared...phew
Unfortunately, I started to get overconfident and tried an optional line which put me in a very tippy situation when my tires ran out of traction. Luckily [MENTION=81106]Cytronus[/MENTION] was there for the rescue and after a simple winch pull I was back on all four wheels.
Photo Credit: Mike Goedde
The rest of the trail proved to be a lot of fun with rolling hills and views on top of views!
Photo Credit: Mike Goedde
It also tested our approach and departure angles quite a bit:
Photo Credit: Mike Goedde
We were warned earlier in the trail not to head down the final few miles to pavement because of how difficult it was. Supposedly, a few Jeeps had rolled recently attempting it. We decided to give it a shot anyway.
Unfortunately, we ran out of daylight (again) and had to finish the last few tricky sections in the dark. We all made it back to pavement safe and sound and headed to our campsite for the night.
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