UCE3 - Utah Cruiser Expedition 3

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Ok, I can post this report now. I posted it a couple months back but pulled it almost immediately because a friend Dave Connors was writing an article about it and it was going to be published in Toyota Trails Magazine and many of the photos were being used. Well it came out in the new issue this week so now I can share some of my photos and a bit about my experience on this trip.

 

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UTAH CRUISER EXPEDITION
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Let's start with a little background. Utah is just plain cool and a dreamworld for anyone who's into backcountry travel whether it's on foot, bike, cycle, truck, skis, you name it, Utah's got it. I'm fortunate enough to live here and have been off-roading in Utah and other western states extensively since 1996. Over the past 18 years I've become friends with some great guys with similar interests. We've created a local chapter of the Toyota Land Cruiser Association back in 1999 and have been wheeling with that club since, and occasionally we get a smaller group together for a "special" trip. There have been trips to the Rubicon, or the San Juan mountains in Colorado, and countless trips around Utah.
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The Utah Cruiser Expedition began as an informal trip by a couple of the guys when they wanted to see if they could traverse the state of Utah from west to east entirely on dirt roads without ever touching pavement. They were almost successful, with just a few miles of pavement that was just unavoidable. Then they wanted to do something that felt a little more "official" and invite a few more to participate. About a year later, a similar trip was done traveling north to south across the state. That was the first UCE. It has become an invitation only adventure because trips like these over hundreds of miles offroad in a relatively short time can be exhausting and difficult for individuals, let alone a large group. At most we've had about 8 trucks on one of these trips.
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Back in 2010 I was finally able to attend even though I'd been invited on previous trips. UCE2 in 2010 needed to be different from the west to east traversal and the north to south traversal. UCE2 started at the 4 corners area where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico meet. The route was over 1000 miles offroad diagonally across the state to the NW corner near City of Rocks in Southern Idaho.
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Having crossed the state in 3 different directions, UCE3 would be a route starting at the lowest elevation in Utah at Beaver Dam Wash in the SW corner of the state at an elevation around 2000' above sea level and travel to the highest point accessible by vehicle at an elevation of 11,500' above sea level.
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Each of these trips has been the brain child of Dave Connors. So now's a good time to give a little more info on the people involved.
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Vehicle #1 - Dave Connors, Will Carroll , UZJ100 Toyota Land Cruiser

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Dave Connors has been offroading since he could drive with a FJ60 wagon. He's had a bunch of Land Cruisers and is a devout Toyota loyalist. He's owned FJ60's, FJ40's, a Tacoma, an FZJ80, and now a UZJ100 series Land Cruiser. He has driven to Alaska multiple times and is constantly exploring the deserts and mountains of the western US. Back in 2007 he began planning his biggest adventure. Expedition Americas http://www.expeditionamericas.com/ where he travelled from Salt Lake City, Utah to Banff, Canada and then south through the US and Central America to the southern tip of South America at Ushuaia, Argentina. He did this mostly solo in a 1997 FZJ80 Land Cruiser. Dave is also a driver/co-driver for Canguro Racing a small grassroots desert race team racing a Class 5 offroad race car. They've raced in the Mint 400 part of the Best in the Desert Series, Vegas to Reno and last November raced in the peninsula run of the Baja 1000 and took 3rd place in the sportsman class. http://canguroracing.com/
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Will Carroll is a Toyota Wizard. He's been an offroader for many years and has wheeled in just about every model Land Cruiser and Toyota pickup. He is a certified Toyota Master Technician and is a corporate regional trainer for Toyota Techinicians in the the western states. He is hands down one of the most knowledgable and skilled Toyota mechanics in the country. He most recently has been offroading in an FZJ80 Land Cruiser until a few years ago and now drives a UZJ100 Land Cruiser. He is also a driver/co-driver for Canguro Racing.

 

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Vehicle #2 - Kurt Williams, Ryan Davis UZJ100 Toyota Land Cruiser

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Kurt Williams is the owner of Cruiser Outfitters a Utah company known worldwide for supplying OE and aftermarket parts for Land Cruisers and other Toyota 4x4s. They are one of the best dealers of ARB/OME products for Toyotas in the US. Kurt has an extensive fleet of Toyota 4x4s and a wealth of knowledge and experience. He recently has been participating in the E7 round-the-world Expedition with Expeditions 7 and has travelled through Canada, Greenland, Russia on the road of bones, Australia, and Africa with E7. There is a long list of other things I could tell you about Kurt. He is also a driver/co-driver for Canguro Racing.
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Ryan Davis is a master of all things electrical. He owns his own home theater and automation company called Ratio AV. He's an avid Toyota enthusiast and offroader. He primarily spends his time offroad in a highly modified FJ40 Land Cruiser, but has owned several other Toyotas as well. He is an outstanding mechanic with an impressive home shop where lots of us have spent countless hours working on trucks and it's the primary shop location for Canguro Racing. Ryan is our communications expert and handles comms for Canguro as well. He is also a driver/co-driver for Canguro Racing.

 

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Vehicle #3 - Paul May 5th Gen Toyota 4Runner

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Paul May is the owner of Equipt Expedition Outfitters http://www.equipt1.com/ . He is a distributor of high end expedition equipment including Eezi-Awn tents, awnings and roofracks. National Luna fridges and dual battery systems among other high quality gear. He is also a dealer of Adventure Trailers. He has also participated in the E7 Expedition and has been to Africa and Central and South America. He wheels in a FJ40 and has spent the last several years wheeling a UZJ100 Land Cruiser and recently made the change to the new Trail Edition 4Runner. He is part of the Canguro Racing Chase crew. He's also the chuckwagon on the UCE trips and handles all the food.
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Vehicle #4 - Adam Tolman, Bjornn Tolman and Liam Tolman - 1st Gen Toyota Tacoma Doublecab

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Adam Tolman (yeah that's me so I won't bore you with many details). I'm an Art Director for Disney's Interactive division making video games. I've been wheeling Land Cruisers and Toyotas since I could drive. I'm a founding member of Wasatch Cruisers a chapter of the TLCA. I get photography duties on these trips although most of the other guys take pics too. I also help on the Canguro Racing Chase Crew
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Bjornn Tolman is my 12 year old son. He's been wheeling with me since he was 3 months old. He's learning to drive in my Tacoma (offroad only of course).
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Liam Tolman is my 10 year old son who has also been wheeling with me since he was 3 months.

 

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Vehicle #5 - Cody McKendrick, Dan Lockington - 2nd Gen Toyota Tacoma Doublecab SB

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Cody McKendrick owns his own brewing supply company in Salt Lake City. He has participated in past UCE trips as a rio and this was his first year driving his own truck. He has several years of wheeling experience, much of that spent in Jeep Grand Cherokees. He is also part of the Canguro Racing Chase Crew.
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Dan Lockington works for a Utah printing company that does vinyl printing and vehicle wraps. He has wheeled in Toyotas as well and is part of the Canguro Racing Chase Crew.
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Last but not least.....
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Vehicle #6 - J Ralls, Troy Demill - Lexus LX450

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J Ralls is a sales rep for Hewlett Packard specializing in displays (monitors) and color calibration. He has been friends with Dave Connors for years and they have wheeled a lot together. Dave is the one turned Ja onto wheeling and Ja started out with a 1st Gen Tacoma that he promptly destroyed the rocker panels on. He also has the Lexus LX450 that he has on this trip. He is also part of the Canguro Racing Chase Crew.
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Troy Demill is an audiologist in SLC and a member of Wasatch Cruisers. He has had a couple FJ40's but his main wheeling truck is a modified Lexus LX450. He has participated in several UCE trips and has lots of years of experience offroad growing up hunting in central Utah. He is also part of the Canguro Racing Chase Crew.
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You can probably see that this a group of guys with TONS of experience and knowledge which is why I feel totally privileged to be a part of these trips. I told them I feel like the down-syndrome kid that is the charity pick on the baseball team. I'm just glad these guys have the heart to keep inviting me because these UCE trips have become some of my absolute favorite wheeling experiences. Rock crawling can be a blast and day trip trail runs are fun too, but there is something about these longer self-sustained trips over terrain and conditions that we are unfamiliar with that is very fulfilling. The scenery is spectacular, and the unexpected challenges can be nerve wracking but getting through them becomes the most satisfying part.

UCE trips are not intended to be challenging necessarily. Most of the route is on somewhat maintained public roads that are generally pretty high-speed. The object of the trips are more about achieving the end goal with as few miles on pavement as possible. But in doing so we end up travelling backroads that none of us have ever been on so we cannot foresee some of the challenges that may exist. This trip was no exception. At the time the trip started Utah had had several days of statewide heavy rain that caused some major flooding. This is the same storm system that caused the massive flooding in Colorado that killed several people and destroyed homes. There was still heavy rain in the forecast when we started the trip so we know we were possibly in for some real work ahead.

 

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Day 1 - Beaver Dam Wash to Millford.
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The trip began by travelling south from Salt Lake City to St George on Wednesday to spend a night in Ryan's family condo before the real journey began. As I said before there were still heavy rains in the forecast and the 5 hour drive down I-15 to St George brought a few blinding thunderstorms with VERY heavy rain. Spending a night in a dry bed before the fun began was a nice luxury.
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Beaver Dam wash is about 20 min outside of Mesquite, Nevada. We gassed up early Thursday morning and grabbed some McDonalds and hit the road to meet Paul May who would be coming up from Prescott, Arizona to meet us near the start of the route. We located Paul and made our way to the wash. Finally, no more pavement and the beginning of the dirt and mud that would be the source of joy and a little stress for the next 3 days. The dirt road at the start of the route travels under high voltage power lines through a forest of Joshua Trees. An absolutely beautiful stretch of desert.

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Beaver Dam wash is a wide flood plane and we could tell the flow had been severe over the past several days with deadfall and driftwood scattered through the entire wash. The water was relatively low thankfully with the deepest sections only a couple feet deep. We wound our way through the wash to the lowest elevation of the trip, crossing the river dozens of times. It was common for water to splash over the hood and onto the windshields of the trucks as we crossed back and forth through the water. After about 40 min we reached the lowest point and snapped a few photos of the group at the lowest point in Utah to mark the official start of the trip.
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The group at the lowest point in Utah 0 2000; above sea level

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It was a good time for my boys to skip a few rocks while we took pics and made our plans

 

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we drove in the wash for several miles and finally made our way up and out and started to climb. Making our way up into the southern Utah hills in the wet weather was already getting muddy, especially in my Tacoma. My recent mod of adding some Spidertrax wheel spacers was revealing a downside to the mod. While the increased stability on the road and in the rocks had already proved valuable with the spacers it also pushed the tires out past the extents of the fender flares so I was throwing mud all over the truck, all over my RTT and the gear in the bed of the truck. Fortunately the gear in the truck was either in weather proof bins or didnt really matter if it was exposed to the elements.

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This really was a beautiful stretch of road and reminded me why I love the Utah desert so much.

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We continued until we came to a tiny little community out in the middle of nowhere. The people who lived there farmed and raised cattle but it would be a hard existence as they were miles and miles from anything. I'm sure they loved it. You could tell that you would feel totally "off-the-grid" out there. But as we can through the little community we found our first real challenge. The rains had washed out the road and left a gaping ravine about 20' wide and at least 8' deep. We were stopped while we figured out how to cross.

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as we took a look at the washout and saw no obvious way around we hatched a plan to dig away at the banks on either side to create some kind of ramp so we could drop into the ravine and get back out the other side. Obviously it was still going to be a steep drop and steep climb out with saturated, loose dirt on both sides. We had 3 pairs of Maxxtrax in the group and winches and figured we could make it work.
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Then a few in the group found what might be an alternate path that dropped us into a smaller stream bed and exited up a steep loose climb just above where the washout was. After some discussion we decided it was a better option and could likely be done without any of the recovery equipment. So we got after it.
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Ryan and Kurt eye the streambed and discuss the new route around the washout that would take us up the hill behind them to get back on the road.

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Kurt makes is down the streambed and starts the turn up the bank in his 100 series and up the steep climb out.

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Paul May pilots his 4Runner up out of the wash

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Dave Connors

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Me and the Tacoma taking our turn

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Everyone made it out successfully without much trouble and we were back on our way. We continued to climb and eventually stopped for some lunch in the mountains north of Beaver Dam Wash. It's a good time to compliment Paul May and his preparation of the food for the trip. We kept the lunches fairly basic with sandwiches and wraps, but his dinners were impressive with Fajitas complete with all the expected ingredients, and Grilled Chicken Pesto and Asian Stir Fry. Paul really does an excellent job with the food.

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After a quick lunch we were back on the road to try to make up some time that had been lost by a few wrong turns that morning in the wash and the delay getting through the washout. More climbing up higher into the mountains.

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We were soon out of the Joshua trees and cactus and into sage brush and junipers in the higher elevations. It always amazes me and the variety of landscape that Utah has to offer.

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We passed a small reservior on our way to Enterprise with a really cool old dam.

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I forgot to mention earlier that these trips have assignments for each vehicle to lead part of a day. One truck leads a morning-lunch portion, another leads the afternoon-evening portion. That way everyone gets a chance to use their navigation skills to try not to get the group lost.
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This first day we were still in the portion assigned to the Day1 morning team which happened to be Dave Connors and Will Carroll. We were hours behind schedule already but still making progress. We had a chance to make up lost time now as we came out of the canyon near Enterprise. We would be on graded roads through some small towns and one that parralleled the railroad tracks past Lund, Utah for several miles that should allow us to increase our speeds dramatically and make up some time.
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Dave and Will were in the lead truck and I was second in line about 1/4 mile back as we got to the road the parralleled the railroad we were clipping along now at ~60mph. Then Dave got on the radio and said I'd be crossing a cattle guard and better be at full power when I crossed the cattle guard. I couldn't see him for the dust, but I didn't get any more description from him. I looked down and realized I was in 2WD and dropped into 4H just as I crested the cattle guard at about 40mph. The frontage road dropped a few feet and there was a low section for a mile or so. the heavy rains and basically created a muddy lake of the road and as I crossed the cattle guard I was committed. I plunged into the mud that sent a wave over the truck blinding us as the windshield was covered. I couldn't see and the wipers just smeared the mud so I had no idea where I was going or how long the mud hole was. I floored the truck and pushed hard not wanting to get stuck out in the middle. I caught a glimpse of Dave who had bailed out the side of the road in the sage brush. I drove past him throwing 20' roosters of mud all over the truck. Have I ever told you I HATE MUD!!!
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My progress slowed as the mud got thicker but I sawed the wheel back and forth and kept moving forward and before I new it I had made it out the other side of a mud hole that stretched at least 100 yards long.

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By the time I stopped Dave and Will had already bailed out the side in their UZJ100, and Ja and Troy had done the same in their LX450. Cody and Dan were trying to make it in their Tacoma with Kurt and Ryan close behind as Paul hit the beginning of the mud hole.

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Pretty quickly Cody and Dan had bailed out but Kurt, Ryan and Paul were still trying.

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Paul ended up stuck sideways as Kurt and Ryan called it quits and ditched out the side.

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Paul was able to get unstuck and out the side so everyone tried to regroup in the sage brush while I waited at the front.

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We took a minute to observe the damage....

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Then we were off again.

 

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Once we got out of the mud is was pretty smooth sailing again. We were finally close to Millford, Utah which was where we were supposed to switch to the afternoon trail leader. By the time we pulled into Millford to gas up it was after 7pm. We were a good 5-6 hours behind schedule. We were already tired and not looking forward to hours and hours on the trail to pull into camp after midnight. The plan had been to camp in the mountains near Signal Peak, just south of I-70 very near where the highest point of our route would take us. But there was no way we'd make it that far tonight. So plans were made to camp somewhere close to Millford, have a good meal and a good night's rest and try to make up the time the next day.
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We looked at the map and found a camping area about 15 min away called Rock Corral. It turned out to be an awesome place with huge limestone rocks jutting up out of the landscape all around us. We set up camp and I grabbed some photos so I could show my wife since I'll definitely be bringing her back to Rock Corral to camp sometime in the future.
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We had finally made it to the end of Day 1.

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Day 2 - Millford to Bryce
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Day 2 began with a couple changes to the route. We needed to make up some time so the route was tweaked slightly for our morning section. Turned out that this next portion of the trip was mine to lead. I was slightly handicapped because every other truck in the group with leading duties had a seasoned co-driver/navigator. I had my two boys with me who had been given a crash course in map reading before the trip but in reality I was on my own with the map and I wasn't using a GPS. I was hoping not to lose any time we were trying to gain with the new route by getting the group lost.
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A few in the group wanted to make the short drive back into Millford to get actual fountain drinks with ice to start the day (it's the small luxuries on a trip like this that you sometimes need to make happen). So we headed back into Millford and stopped at the gas station where we had filled up the night before. As we pulled up I noticed a a large puddle forming quickly underneath Ja's LX450. Anyone familiar with 80 Series Land Cruisers/LX450's knows about the PHH, or pesky heater hose. It's a short section of hose in the cooling system where coolant is routed for the heater. It is in a very inconvenient place on the back of the motor and hard to get to. Of course this hose like other hoses can dry and crack over time. It just happened that today was the day the PHH on Ja's truck decided to give up. He was losing coolant and losing it fast. We weren't going anywhere until we got this fixed. So much for making up lost time.
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The group went into repair mode and out came the tools and a hilift. It was about now that we were reminded how awesome it is to have a close friend and member of the group that is a Toyota Master Technician that isn't just a master of Camry's or Corrollas. He's a Cruiser guy and knows this stuff in and out. Ja did not have a spare hose so a quick parts run was made. While a hose was sourced, we got the truck jacked up and the wheel pulled as the quickest way to get to the hose is through the fenderwell. It takes a double jointed arm to get to the hose which of course the Master Tech had. Don't forget that the wheel well is filled with dried mud from the day before. Fun!

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A job that can easily take a few hours was masterfully completed and we were on our way in exactly 40 min. Truly impressive. We headed back up the canyon where we had camped and through the mountain pass of the Mineral Mountains and then north toward Sulfurdale where we would shortcut a few miles of dirt to now make up even more lost time by conceding to drive a short section of I-70.
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We encountered free-range cattle numerous times on the trip and the Mineral Mountains were no exception.

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The drive to Sulfurdale was uneventful and I only missed one turn as the leader. But concentrating on where we were going meant I wasn't able to take any photos. Once we hit the junction with I-70 we stopped briefly to relieve ourselves of the fountain drinks we got that morning and I snapped a quick photo just before we began a short stretch of highway that we begrudgingly agreed was now necessary.

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We exited I-70 near the entrance to the Freemont Indian State Park and backtracked west on the frontage road toward Kimberly. This road would pass underneath I-70 and climb rapidly toward Signal peak and what would be the highest point on our route. Along the way we would pass Kimberly Mine an active mining operation and stop at the Silver King Mine for lunch. Silver King Mine is a retired silver mine that is being restored as a historical site. The old cabins are being restored and there is a trail and markers showing different key parts to the mine and descriptions of its history. It was quite fascinating.
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Stopped at the Silver King Mine for lunch. There are primitive facilities at the site and we chatted with some ATV riders who were also there.

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Inside the cabin

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One of the mine entrances

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Old tracks for the ore cars

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Remnants of one of the Cabins referred to as the "honeymoon" suite where children were born to the couple working the mine.

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After lunch we continued our climb past Signal peak and above the tree line. We were at an elevation above 10,000' at this point. The view was spectacular.

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Not far past Signal Peak we would pass mount Baldy and reach Big John Flats where the road would reach the goal of our trip...the highest driveable point in the state of Utah. We gathered the truck is the point at an elevation of 11,500' and snapped the obligatory photos.
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Kurt and Paul climbing up to the highest point

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My truck at the top

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And Dave Connors 100 Series

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We made it!

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After some photos it was time to head down. Even though we had completed our goal, our trip was far from over. We still had many miles to cover over 2 more days. We loaded up and looked down into Big John Flats for the decent from the top. My leg of leading the journey was complete and Kurt and Ryan took over.

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Kurt ready to lead

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the road down Big John's Flat past Mud Lake

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The goal now was to get to Powell Point and camp for the night but the weather would have a different idea.

 

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We began our descent past Big John's Flat and the rain begain to lightly fall. The lower we got we past a few other campers that were on the mountain for the black powder rifle deer hunt.

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We continued toward the town of Circleville which turned out to be my least favorite road of the trip. It was still a dirt road but filled with matermellon sized rocks everywhere. It was a bumpy stretch to say the least. Too bumpy to go fast and not bumpy enough to really just crawl along. Uncomfortable to say the least.
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The upside was the scenery was still oustanding and soo we were passing a massive cliff and were able to see some Mountain Goats hopping around on the ledges.

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It wasn't too long later that we realized we'd missed a turn to take us down to Circleville and we had come to a dead end. This meant we had to backtrack down the crappy road that had shaken loose anything in the truck that wasn't bolted down. Fortunately the rain had stopped. For now.

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everyone got turned around but we noticed a narrow track that went up the side hill. Cody and I decided we would scout it out and see whether or not it would bypass the deadend and get us into the canyon out to Circleville so we didn't have to drive the bumpy road again.

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As Cody and I in our Tacomas got a little ways into the narrow track we were certain that is was an ATV trail and we were likely the only fullsize vehicles to ever drive it. It was a steep descent toward the canyon but looking at our maps it appeared that it would intersect the main trail in the bottom of the canyon and take us out to Circleville. The rest of the group backtracked while the two Tacomas negotiated the atv trail. The steep descent meant that there were several very tight switchbacks. They were 3-point turns at least and it was easy to get a wheel in the air making the tight turns.

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After some pinstriping from the tight trees we made it to the canyon bottom and were relieved that we had in fact met up with the main trail out of the canyon. We had lost radio contact with the rest of the group, but were able to make contact again as we came out of the canyon. They were waiting for us in Circleville.

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There was no gas station in Circleville and my tank was empty so I used one of the 5 gallon Scepter cans I was carrying and we were off again. to hit the Freemont trail in hopes of making it to Powell Point that night. It was already almost 6pm and we had 3 hours at least to go.
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The Freemont trail was beautiful with several stream crossings. This was the first time I turned on the GoPro and caught some trail footage. The rain had returned but fortunately it was only a drizzle.

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The rain had picked up and the trail was getting very wet again. And by now it was starting to get dark. It was looking unlikely that we were going to make Powell Point tonight to camp.
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After several miles we came to another washout in the road. This one was nearly as bad as ones we had encountered earlier but was still going to require a little work. We broke out the shovels and got to work on knocking down the bank on both sides so that we could drive both in and out of the washout.

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The rain made this crossing more difficult that it would have been in dry weather for sure, but we finally had done enough "road-work" that we felt we were ready to try to get across. Kurt and Ryan were still leading in the Cruiser Outfitters UZJ100 and Kurt dropped the cruiser into the washout.

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As the front tires came up the other side the rear bumper got hung up and the rear axle was suspended leaving the rear tires spinning.
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With a little help Kurt was able to get the rear bumper off the bank but the heavy cruiser was struggling to make the exit out of the washout.

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It required a bit more roadbuilding as the Cruiser slid over to a steep part of the bank

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Then it was time to break out the winch.

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Kurt made it through and Paul followed with a little help

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After a bit more road building my 12 year old decided he would try driving my Tacoma across.

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my 12 and 10 year olds getting after it.

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They slid a bit in the bottom and got some instruction from Dave. Turned on the rear locker and up they went.

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We were rewarded after everyone crossed the washout with a break in the rain and a killer scene in the sky. But the rain wouldn't stay away for long.