No Known Boundaries
Elevation Specialists
Last year, in the midst of a 3 week, 7 state trip for the ages, a couple of the boys and I decided we'd keep May as our annual summer-kickoff window. A year later, it was time to pick back up where we'd left off. I started here in Idaho, nearly burning my truck down with an electrical fire on the first night.
After that debacle, I moved down to Utah and had this free campground all to myself. After a 10 hour day on the road, I decided against trying to get cute and wheel around in an effort to get to a flat spot I'd earmarked nearby on my map. I was solo, the mud on that off-camber climb immediately packed my tread blocks, and there weren't a lot of great places to anchor the winch if/when all 8300 lbs got stuck. So I took the safe play.
It worked out.
Day 3 I made it to Moab and linked up with Darrel. We set up in one of my favorite spots, and watched the sun set over the La Sals and nearby Arches NP. The wind began its assault that night, however, we parked Darrel's truck in front of the gusts, and even got a fire going as it receded.
After that, Isaac caught up with us and we took a hike to Delicate Arch and soaked up the sun on a calm day. That night, the weather came back with a vengeance: day 5 saw 60 MPH gusts of wind and rainstorms. We spent the day in the trucks wheeling around and looking at cool natural features on Dome Plat. As we ran through the canyon and into town, Darrel's transfer case decided that 227k miles was about all it could take. One man down.
The next day we met the rest of the goons at Blu Pig for lunch, and headed up Entrada Bluffs. Dan in his JDM, RHD 80 series. Alex in his Titan-swapped Xterra. Rick in his top-to-bottom Tacoma/Vagabond build, Matty in his Z71 on 34s, and Will in an 80 of his own. Not a bad crew at all. The next day, I left the giant Excursion in camp, and Isaac left his Raptor-swapped F150 in favor of the more nimble trucks and we spent the day climbing ledges and navigating steep switchbacks throughout the area.
Day 9, we broke camp. I headed NW the way I'd come, Matty headed back to MI, and the rest of the dudes went back to CO.
I finished out the run between Eastern and Central OR, and even managed to get high temps and low wind in the process. Summer might be holding out a li'l longer than we'd anticipated, but just seeing the sun again has been a treat after 6 months of bibs, snow boots, and driving moisture around the fire rings. Should be a pretty mellow, basecamp kind of Memorial Day weekend, but already have some ideas cooking for early June. To be continued.
