I Do: A Trip Report

[Lurch]

Since my Fall Fling trip encompassed a little more than just Moab I decided to write up a trip report. I had a 16 day adventure taking me into the wilderness of southern Utah, Moab and to the bottom of the Grand Canyon before finally ending up in Tucson, AZ where I got married to my longtime girlfriend.

Google map of my route: http://goo.gl/maps/Evuk4

Day 1: Departure
I left Long Beach Sunday morning, October 6th after about a month straight of working on my XJ almost every day to get ready for this trip. None of the work I was doing on it was major, but there was a ton of little things that I wanted to get done that I had been putting off for literally years while I lived in an apartment. I finished up everything about 6pm the night before, so with zero shake down time (isn’t that how it always works?) I hit the road.

I drove from LA to Kanab, UT passing through Las Vegas and entered the land of cheap gas. Coincidentally entering the freeway after a pit stop in Mesquite, NV I pulled right ahead of RocknXJ who was flat towing his XJ. I hit Kanab in the late afternoon and met a buddy from college who was joining me for this part of the trip. We headed out to the campground in the Vermillion Cliffs/Grand Staircase National Monument where we would begin our journey the next morning, federal government shutdown be damned.

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White House Trailhead

Day 2: Tired Feet
We left my XJ at the White House trailhead and drove my buddies JK over to the Wire Pass trailhead. Here we began our 10 hour, 21 mile trek through Buckskin Gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world, and through Paria Canyon back to my truck at the other end. I’ll let the pictures do the talking here, but in one sentence, this place is awesome.

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One of the first water crossings, definitely not the last

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It’s as good as it sounds

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Deepest water crossing of the day

 

[Lurch]

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Swimming rattlesnakes, great something new to keep me awake at night

We got back to my Jeep exhausted but totally thrilled at having bagged this.

Day 3: Surf’s Up
We were pretty sore and hungry from the day before so we headed into Kanab for food and near-beer. I had a hearty cowboy’s breakfast trying to catch up on all the calories that I had burned the day before. Kanab is cool little town and serves as a gateway to several national parks, in addition to being the self-proclaimed ‘Little Hollywood’. Not quite the Hollywood I’m used to, I didn’t see a single transvestite.

From here we found some marked 4x4 trails in the Coyote Buttes area and wheeled around taking in the views. At one point we came across a French-Canadian couple in a rental crossover-SUV that they had buried pretty deep in the sand. I attached a strap and had them free in one yank, but they were so grateful after waiting around for two hours in the sun that the wife slipped $60 into my buddy’s pocket.

We parked the Jeeps and loaded up on water attempting to hike to the famous ‘Wave’ sandstone formation, but didn’t have good directions so we found something that looked similar and called it good.

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(only child, I’m used to posing in front of things by myself)

Afterwards we headed to a formation called White Rock that this South African couple we met on the Buckskin Gulch hike had tipped us off to. Some of the 4x4 trails had deep sand and momentum was needed to get through them, but we made it just as the sun was setting.

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This should be in a Jeep ad

Day 4: Moab
At this point my buddy Ryan peeled off and headed back to Phoenix to go back to work (sucker), so I aired up my tires and hit the road to Moab, taking the scenic 89 highway through the middle of the state. This was a great drive although the center part of the state looks a little like the central valley in CA. Rolled into Moab around 5pm and got my tent set up as rain clouds rolled in over the Slickrock Campground. I was pretty disappointed with my spot, I was far away from any other members and only had a crappy little tent site, but live and learn.

I met a few of the MWC guys and LessLimited shoved a homebrew into my hand within five minutes of sitting down at the camp table. I also laughed my ass off at the NAC guy’s stories about their troubled trip out west, mom jeans, Kastein, driving a rental Razr and how at NACfest they pass time by hiding pizza in the undercarriage of other people’s Jeeps.

Day 5: Wet Spider
Thunder and lightning all night, but my tent managed to stay dry inside. I had thoughts of bagging my plans to hit Poison Spider Mesa, but realized how dumb of an idea that was and coaxed myself out of my sleeping bag in the morning. Had a blast on this run which was led by XJEEPER and it was a great introduction to Moab wheeling.

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RocknXJ on the Wedgie

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Me on some cliff

The rain and mud ruined my chances at winning best in show at the show n’ shine that night, but oh well I still had a good time ogling all of the tricked out XJ’s.

Day 6: Wet Trunk
Woke up to better weather and jumped into the Jeep to run Hell’s Revenge lead by DrMoab. A few SoCal guys were on this run plus I was getting familiar with the slickrock so I ran all of the bonus lines except for the escalator. Mickey’s hot tub was full of water but seemed like a good idea at the time, didn’t do too much damage besides getting the trunk wet, but I sure as hell didn’t make it out of there going forward. Zero traction and a light foot are not your friends here.

 

[Lurch]

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No cool pics of my rig, hoping somebody has to have a shot of me in the hot tub or Hell’s Gate somewhere

Overall this day was a blast and I hitched a ride to the raffle dinner with TORX so I could drink a few $3 beers and ended up bowling a few frames with some guys from the Sierra Chapter.


Day 7: The Elephant
Elephant Hill. The state of Utah had sent the feds money earlier in the week and Canyonlands and several other national parks in the area were open for their first full day of operation since the shutdown. I drove the 70 miles with five other Jeeps and this trail was again led by DrMoab. This trail was the highlight of the Moab portion of the trip for me and this is some of the most scenic country I have ever been in. I had a really good time with everyone and we went on hikes to Chesler Park and the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers which made the experience that much more enjoyable.

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(I loved this valley)

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Confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers

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Day 8: Beer & Football
It was Sunday and most people were packing up and headed home, so I took a rest day and went to Arches national park. Saw a few of the arches and bummed around, but after seeing so much amazing scenery over the past week I guess I was a little desensitized.

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Decided to venture into town and hit the Moab brewery and watch football for a few hours which was nice. I learned that they sell 7% ABV beer for an extra dollar out of a can if you ask and that there are a lot of Broncos fans in Utah. Also power washed my rig a second time trying to get all the red mud off from Poison Spider Mesa. That night about the only guy left in camp was LessLimited so we made a campfire and drank beer and he gave me all of the MWC gossip and gave me a little history lesson on the early years of the club. (Thanks again for all the beers John!)

Day 9: Cold Canyon
Time to head south. By this point I was starting to think more about my wedding which was less than a week away and how badly I would be mauled by my fiancé if my truck broke down on the way. I still had a few more stops though and I cruised through Monument Valley on my way to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. This place is a giant tourist trap on Navajo land, but it’s worth paying the $5 to take a few pics of these monsters.

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[Lurch]

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Final Destination

(Side note, my camera’s memory card had ran out of space at this point because I forgot to clear it before the trip so all the remaining pictures were taken on my Droid HD)

Hit the south rim village that afternoon and got an overpriced campsite in the Mather Campground. For only being opened the day before, the place was packed with foreign tourists riding around on mules.

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It got freakin cold that night

Day10: More Tired Feet
So as my last big adventure for this trip I decided to hike the Bright Angel trail from the south rim down to the Colorado River. This was an 18 mile, 8.5 hour roundtrip hike with 4,300’ of elevation gain on the way back up. The temps were in the mid-70’s and I made it down to the river in about three hours. Took my time heading back up and took lots of pictures of the canyon with a little side trip to Plateau Point.

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I knew it was going to be cold again that night, so I got everything but my tent packed up and ready for an early morning departure to my final destination, Tucson.

Days 11-13: Inlaws
In Tucson doing wedding stuff and having meals with my family, not interesting.

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Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain

Day14: Big Day!
I got married! Not as bad as everyone says it is so far.

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The happy couple

Day16: Back to Cold Harsh Reality
Drove the final leg of the trip with my new wife back to Long Beach. The Jeep was leaking gear oil pretty bad at this point from the rear end and had a new, still unidentified noise, but we made it back safe and sound. Added a bunch of extra luggage and furniture too. It hurt filling up for the first time crossing the border into CA, I filled up or $3.19/gallon in Tucson and it was $4.05/gallon once I got back.

In total I put about 2,000 miles on the XJ and it performed wonderfully. There are a few things that need to be ironed out after all the work I put into it leading up to the trip, but it worked amazing on the slickrock and went (almost) everywhere I pointed it. This trip was a blast and spending a few days off the grid was the perfect lead up to a crazy wedding weekend. I really had a great time meeting and wheeling with members and I can’t wait to go back.

Link to my entire album: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/t...otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

 

[johnnyc]

Great pics, Scott! And congrats on the wedding.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Awesome man, congrats on the wedding and it was nice to meet you!

 

[mako my day]

That's awesome !!!!!

Nice work on the marriage too.

Great writeup

 

[EricsXJ]

That's one hardcore trip. Had I known you were going to get married, we could have taken you to a strip club or something.... in Moab.... with a lot of bearded men.... :eyes: party1:

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

That's one hardcore trip. Had I known you were going to get married, we could have taken you to a strip club or something.... in Moab.... with a lot of bearded men.... :eyes: party1:

amen to that party1:

Congrats

 

[hawkeye 1]

Congrats Scott, awesome job on the trip report.

 

[lesslimited]

Nice write-up and cool pics, Scott! Was nice meeting you, glad you enjoyed the homebrew.

Those were some serious hikes you did, looks like I need to add Buckskin Gulch to the bucket list.

Congrats on the wedding.

 

[XJEEPER]

Scott, congrats on the wedding! It was great to meet you and wheel with you a few days in Moab. Hope to see you and your new bride in Moab again soon, still lots of terrain to explore.

 

[jrowell]

Awesome! Congrats on the marriage! That was one Epic trip leading up to the big day!!!

 

[High2by]

Great write up Scott and it was great to meet ya and get the chance to wheel together. You put together an awesome trip for yourself and even though I'd like to say I'd hike those trails too, probably not for this old fat guy, but hey, I can live it through pictures.

Congratulations on the wedding and maybe we'll meet again someday!!

 

[blondejoncherokee]

Lurch, amazing pics and it was awesome to meet you finally! I love the fact that you did all of this on the way to your wedding. I can imagine how that conversation went something : " Babe, im going to be jeeping for 2 weeks before the wedding, up to the very last day. "

" But you are always either working on that jeep or wheeling it on the weekends and vacations can you please just stay here and hangout with me for that time ?!"

"this isnt up for discussion, I was just letting you know where ill be for those 2 weeks. And its a million times better than going to Vegas "

 

[Fred]

I hiked Pariah Canyon 40 years ago from the Colorado up to the exit. I had my only experience with quicksand there. Cool stuff. I can't seem to just post the picture, but that picture in the slot canyon with the log overhead, that log was there 40 years ago. A sight I'll never forget. I was driving a Datsun 510 station wagon to leave at the exit, and got it stuck in quicksand. Had to get a bulldozer to pull it out.

 

[TORX]

Congrats, Scott.

That sounds like it was an amazing experience. Incredible pictures too.

 

[Lurch]

I hiked Pariah Canyon 40 years ago from the Colorado up to the exit. I had my only experience with quicksand there. Cool stuff. I can't seem to just post the picture, but that picture in the slot canyon with the log overhead, that log was there 40 years ago. A sight I'll never forget. I was driving a Datsun 510 station wagon to leave at the exit, and got it stuck in quicksand. Had to get a bulldozer to pull it out.

That's pretty amazing that its still there. It blows your mind walking through the canyon seeing those logs and realizing that was the high water mark during a flood.

Pictures came out pretty well, my buddy Ryan has a fancy camera and its pretty obvious which ones are his. I wish the format didn't get all screwed up with the code when I posted them on the forum.

Also thanks for the congrats everyone!

 

[DrMoab]

Can't believe that in two days of running trails with you, not once did I casually hear "yeah when this is over I'm getting married."

Congrats anyway. Looks like a great way to start off. In a way you kind of had a pre-honeymoon.

 

[raneil]

Great writeup, Scott -- and some great photos, too. Sounds like an awesome trip.

By the way, I think we saw you hiking around Arches National Park on Sunday. We did the half-day, drive-it-as-quickly-as-you-can tour before leaving town around lunch time.

It was great meeting you. Congrats once again on your wedding!