Utah in the fall 2015 - 9 days, 475 off-road miles, and 14 hours of digging! (PICS!)

[the wasp]

That was amazing to follow you.it's a truly epic adventure .The word "adventure"take its full dimension : Alone,with a trailer and without winch.
you and Kristal really impressed me with your determination and your willingness to go beyond its limits.
you should be proud and happy to have achieved this challenge.
what pleasure of sharing the same passion with an awesome teammate.
Thanks for the great story telling , and the dream from France with these fantastic pictures.
Catherine

 

[Explorer 1]

A Van a Man and his shovel.............It a beautiful thing.......and of course his woman, makes it all the more of a beautiful story!

Thanks for letting us follow your adventure.

Fred
Explorer 1

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Still on of my favorite trip reports I keep coming back to look at it!

 

[RIDGE]

That was amazing to follow you.it's a truly epic adventure .The word "adventure"take its full dimension : Alone,with a trailer and without winch.
you and Kristal really impressed me with your determination and your willingness to go beyond its limits.
you should be proud and happy to have achieved this challenge.
what pleasure of sharing the same passion with an awesome teammate.
Thanks for the great story telling , and the dream from France with these fantastic pictures.
Catherine

I find myself constantly comparing our trips with this first one! I am very proud of what we did and it always puts a smile on my face!

A Van a Man and his shovel.............It a beautiful thing.......and of course his woman, makes it all the more of a beautiful story!

Thanks for letting us follow your adventure.

Fred
Explorer 1

HI Fred! I really enjoyed reading your last trip report near the Gorge as well! It's on our to do list.

Still on of my favorite trip reports I keep coming back to look at it!

Thanks man! I have a feeling we'll be sharing a trip report soon!

 

[FjFairlady]

I was gripped to my chair till midnight reading your story. So many levels of awesome. A sweet van. A copilot with a matching pair of stones. Unstoppable.

 

[iceaxe1967]

X2

:bowdown:

Simply. **********. Awesome.

 

[minimon]

Nice work on the rabbit! The trip looks pretty awesome too

 

[RIDGE]

I was gripped to my chair till midnight reading your story. So many levels of awesome. A sweet van. A copilot with a matching pair of stones. Unstoppable.

X2

Nice work on the rabbit! The trip looks pretty awesome too

Thanks again! I can't wait for spring!!!

 

[fltplan]

I split the read up into a couple nights. Great story! These adventures are life changing in many ways. Cheers...

 

[suninguyen156]

Gotcha, fwiw a few different groups battled through in May, it will be very cool

 

[Hongron]

Awesome article, thanks for posting :wings:

 

[RichJacot]

X2

x3 on the "Simply. **********. Awesome."

 

[Mundo4x4Casa]

Ridge,
Truly one of the most gripping off road travelogs I've read in years. I like your indominable trait of forward motion. Just sit there a while a figure out how to accomplish your goals. In my 50 years of hard core four wheel driving, I'm remembering a race across the southwest desert called POR, "Press On Regardless". Somehow, it's you. I also remember some of the very best trips ever were ones where we were living so close to the edge, under equipped, clueless about what lies ahead and ready to make it work, regardless. That's attitude. At least you didn't wind up like this on Backjack: Mark's rig:

or this: These are two different CJ-8's built two weeks apart in 1982; built up, and then trashed on hard core trails. This is my rig on JackHammer:

The other good thing about using a long WB rig in the southwest is that it's mostly sandstone. This did obviously ease the hurt on your rocker panels, which appear to have minimal damage. While I've been pulling jeep trailers off road for decades, I know that, like you, a pintle is probably the best connection for extreme range of motion. But, those G.I. surplus trailers are VERY heavy. I'm surprised you did as we'll as you did with all that unpowered axle weight. My tiny old WWII, M-100 jeep trailer weighed around 600 pounds and was a boat anchor on and off road. I can't imagine how heavy the deuce and a half variant is. The only thing i can come up with is your great off road technique and those great big wheels and tires with little rolling resistance, over rocks and undulating surfaces. Here is one of the five jeep trailers I've owned: A 1955 Bradley; weight 300 pounds with pintle: This at the beginning of the Mojave Road.

Again, Kudos for a great trip and pictorial.
jefe

 

[RIDGE]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Unfortunately Photobucket dropped a bombshell and are requiring $400 annually (per account holder) to link pictures...this is after years of promising free hosting.

I'm not really sure what to do or where to host pictures from. I'm really bummed. 😣😣😣

 

[wngrog]

I use SmugMug. Family owned.

See my new thread pegleg