Moab Day 2 – Let’s Go Wheelin’!
Actually – before we get all the way to day 2 – I want to revisit the end of day 1. I had forgotten that we took a little side trip to the north of the Dewey Bridge to an abandoned cave home. You see – there are folks who have made homes out of a hole in the ground – some successfully – others not so much. This one received the NSM rating. Opposite a lovely green pasture with horses – you look up about 25 feet above the road – and you see what could have been Fred and Wilma sitting out front with Dino and Pebbles crawling around the living room. Yes – a bonafide cave dwelling, complete with a semi-circular hewn-in-rock stairs leading up to an even high level – what was probably a masterful boudoir with an even better view of the pasture. Well – except for that pile of rock in the living room about the size of a Ferrari parked under the big spall in the roof. Regardless of all of the anchors in the ceiling – the creator of this house may have been a dreamer – but apparently – no geologist. It is probably the caving-in ceiling that halted the home’s eventual completion and habitation. Still – it is an interesting side trip to see how the Neanderthal half might live.
Okay – Tuesday! The rain has gone, the sun is out, the day looks promising. Mary and I relieve her Jeep of its doors, (it was already sans top, our having decided to leave that at home in favor of an Islander shade top) and John and Gina did the same with their Rubee, plus going topless and doorless. We even put in the back seat, since the girls, Emily and Kaylee, had expressed an interest in travelling with us. And why not – we haven’t yet had a true chance to totally ruin their lives – so it’s a good time to get that agenda going!
The destination? Ah – this time we eschew scenic for tractive – and plan to do some real wheeling on the trail to Poison Spider Mesa. The 4WD trail guide lists this as difficult – which really is all a matter of degree and experience. What Auto-M and I and John and Gina found interesting, I believe at times Curt and Wendy may have found mildly to seriously horrifying. Although they did a very good job concealing their angst. And the girls? What trail stalwarts! At no time did they give the slightest indication of misgivings. They just sat in the back enjoying the sun, enjoying the ride, and being truly fine trail companions.
The first times I was on Poison Spider was a decade ago – when the club run was Poison Spider, Golden Spike and Gold Bar Rim – all in one day! Now – that was a wheeling orgy of the first water! It is where I learned the “Moab Bump,” a maneuver to be mastered if you want to pop up over many of the undercut ledges to be found in abundance in this neck of the woods. The bump goes something like this. You can generally drive your front tires up over most ledges, except for the tallest and most undercut. But then – the rear tires won’t climb if you just try to crawl them. I learned this lesson in Moosenstein – who I figured could easily climb most things with the 36” tires with which he is shod. Nope – the ledges are like wheel chocks to the rear tires, and you will rub and bounce, but not make any advance whether with a sure and steady foot, or a lot of throttle. Throttle is generally good for breaking stuff – and again – something to consider avoiding at the front end of a vacation. Nope – the bounce goes like this. You get your front tires over the ledge, – and then – just before the back tires reach the ledge you give the throttle a bit of a goose to bounce your rear tires up to take the weight off them. Thus unimpeded – the front tires will drag you up just enough, that when the back tires hit the ground – they will grab and also push you along. Mastering the Moab Bump is a very handy tool t have in the bag.
Especially on Poison Spider Mesa – because there is a lot of that sort of nonsense waiting for the unwary traveler.
Mary and I got to do something we’ve haven’t done much of before – which was to be trail leader. But I could tell that my time on the trail have made for a radical difference in my driving style. My first time around in Moab, I can remember Gary Yates or Mike Robinson pointing me to the most difficult portion of any trail obstacle, causing much distress in my innards and my brain, and creating copious amounts of suction to the seat between my butt cheeks. Well guys – you must have taught me something – because more often than not – I looked for the most difficult (and doable, given the equipment) part of any bump, ledge or step to see what Auto-M’s wheels could do. And I have to say – she performed admirably. Time had dulled my memory of what Poison Spider was all about – but right out of the parking lot – we got down to business with big ledges and rubber coated rock just waiting to be climbed.
The very first ledge – I probably bit off a little more than I could chew – being nose up in the air with the rear tires stuck in a crack. I was hoping Curt and Wendy weren’t too horrified to see this crazy man with their children in the back trying to climb a near vertical wheelbase-long step. I answered the call of discretion, backing off and taking a different angle so we didn’t have to climb all 4 tires at once. Each taking its turn, we scooted right up.
John and Gina too. This was John’s first turn at Moab not having his CJ-5 with all of its bad habits annoying the guests at the trail table. Their Rubee took on every ledge like a mountain goat on downers – just slowly but surely walking up every ledge. No axle wrap, no bounce, no surprises – and best of all – no broken parts! All that engineering and traction control – it was quite the exhibition of control and mastery.
And then – Curt and Wendy in the rental Rubi. Now – the rental company had listed a few trails they didn’t want their Jeeps on – and fortunately – this was not one of them. I think as the day went on – with Curt and Wendy alternating driving duties at the wheel, they started to get the hang of the joys of low range, low gear, lockers, grabbing traction with constant pressure exerted on the rock, making hard things look easy, regardless of how much or little they were losing their minds. They didn’t show it.
So – crawling up the first little bit – an ongoing combination of ledge, switchback. Climb another ledge, then another switchback. On and on, up and up. And then – the V-notch. The first time (a decade ago) I drove the notch – I was really heading in the direction of the bypass off to the left. Gary TJ and Mike Robinson would have none of that – instead directing, and spotting me through kinda like what looks like one of the pits you drive over at a Grease Monkey when you are getting your oil changed. Except – instead of walls straight up and down, its walls at a greater than 45 degree angle on either side – and not in a straight line. There actually really wasn’t much to it – except the mental challenge. But until your rig proves to you that it won’t drop you into the middle of the crack if you drive it right – here is a bit of figurative head scratching and very actual butt-seat grabbing going on. At least the first time.
Mary and I slowly crawled her rig up through it – no problem. I was about to get out to see what Curt and Wendy were up to, thinking they’d want a spot. Heck no – they were already halfway through following my line! Good on them! I can’t quite remember if John and Gina went around or came on up – but if they hadn’t taken this challenge, they certainly took on many others throughout the day.
Once you get up on the top of the mesa – there is a lot of slickrock, some straight ups and straight downs, plenty of trails to follow on the rock following either the white dots painted on the rock, or the 2 streaks of tire rubber denoting the trail. With all of the rain recently, there wasn’t much of that.
Besides the actual trail – one scenic treat is the walk to Little Arch. Not only is the arch have an incredible view – if you haven’t done Moab Rim yet – you get to look at the first horrific third of it from the parking lot to where it finally leaves all of the off camber ledges threatening to toss you with impunity into the Colorado River hundreds of feet below. I meditated on the view of that trail, reliving fond memories of my first and second trips on that trail. “Yep – crapped myself there. Uh-huh – and there again. Had a heart attack there. Internally cried for my mommy there. Externally cried for my mommy there. Thought about dying there.”
Ahhh – the memories…….
We got back on the route and continued on, climbing ledges, taking on the steep inclines and declines of the slickrock, and eventually headed back down all the steep ledges and drop-offs we tackled on the way up. Once in the parking lot, Curt remarked, “I like driving up those better than driving down them.” Yeah – gravity is a bitch. But he and Wendy took it all in stride, looking like old hands – not newer wheelers in a lightly modified rental Jeep. Once back at the house, computers came out, Go Pros and ipads and phones downloaded, and it was another wonderful day of wheeling.
Day 3 – Chicken Corners
Another gray day greeted us as we awoke. I was starting to get the rhythm of our days. Most mornings, Curt was up first, and everyone eventually got stirring by 8 AM or so. The part I was REALLY getting used to was that Curt would generally hit the button on the coffee pot, then go foraging for victuals. One morning it was donuts from City Market, one day a bag of breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds, one day some insane cinnamon buns from one of the bakeries in town. Curt – I hope I am not taking too much advantage of your generous nature – but HECK YEAH! – I could get used to this. Thank you from the bottom of my stomach – at least since I haven’t managed to leave any of it on the trail yet.
Chicken Corners was a moderate trail, meaning – there was not much hard wheeling on it. But – what it lacked in technical wheeling, it made up for in scenic incredibleness. Having taken the doors off the Jeep, (and had left the top at home, only having an island topper for cover) we figured we might just continue to be wheelers, and hope the gray didn’t mean rain. We bundled up, and headed out behind the McDonalds to Kane Creek road, heading up over Hurrah Pass, then to the south side of the Colorado River. We passed the entry to Pritchett Canyon, which also brought memories of a fun trail done 10 years previous. While we weren’t intending to go for broke just yet – I think Pritchett was also on the rental Rubi’s no-go list. We heard from the local constabulary that one problem with rental cars (Jeeps or not) in Moab – it that people tend to think they can go anywhere, and oft times get stuck out in the boonies. Curt and Wendy were interested in wheeling – NOT wallowing – and so we kept on our way to Chicken Corners.
The road climbed out of town, going from pavement to gravel rather quickly, and with the rain the night before was pretty muddy. It slowly went from a road, passing a number of camping areas along creeks, to finally breaking up more into rock and gravel, finally starting to climb some open ledges and switchbacks up to Hurrah Pass. After the pass, we slowly wound down through areas of shelf road 1 lane wide with drop-offs on alternate sides – depending on whether you had turned right or left lowering off the last switchback. Once we came down from the pass a bit, there were more areas opening up with the open scrub pine and rock of the north Canyonlands.
We were surprised by a rather nice looking sign out in the middle of nowhere – now probably almost 2 hours out of town, advertising the “Adventure Base Camp.” We couldn’t see anything from the road, but the sign, even though fallen down on the ground, looked relatively new and somewhat expensive. There was a dirt road off to the right with some fresh tire marks in it. We figured we’d check it out on the way back. My thought was that it was some business of some sort gone bust in the last year.
Coming out of a deep wash, on the north and south now, we were seeing the higher spires of rock pillars – and one more thing – rain coming down in sheets headed our way. While everyone else was pretty well buttoned up – Mary and I frantically grubbed through the Jeep to see what we had that could be put to use for rain gear. I did have a rain coat, which was very handy. I was sure we’d had a trash bag we’d thrown in from Shore Patrol that Mary could employ for a poncho. About the time the ice pellets and cow-peeing-on a -flat-rock deluge hit us – we’d also located – 2 small umbrellas, and a plastic bag suitable for a small trash can. Mary used it to keep her knee dry. We did open up the umbrellas outside of the Jeep like a couple of forlorn jungle blooms on either side to keep the wind driven rain from pushing in sideways. But that was about 10 minutes of miserable and cold wind driven rain finding its way into the Jeep with us. And then – as soon as it hit, it then tailed off. We had just rounded a cliff to the right, dropping off into the Colorado. We stopped to take in the view, and as we did, numerous waterfalls began and built as the rain water now flash flooded off the plateau, finding in natural way down towards the river. In a scene reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – dark brownish-red rivulets of water became full fledged waterfalls, foaming down into the rocks. About a half mile away towards the river, we saw the head end of a flash flood foaming its way down to the Colorado. When it got to the river, the swollen brown river was further stained with the red runoff coming from the spires above us. It was like nothing I have even personally experienced before in my life.
As the rain had stopped, and the waterfalls now again reducing to trickles – we kept on towards the end of the trail, with the sun now coming out. Finally – I think we got to the reason for the name of the trail. At one straight up abutment of rock – the rail was one Jeep wide, with a sheer face of rock on the left, and absolutely nothing on the right except for a very long drop to the river below. Again – it was more of a mental challenge than a driving one – since the road was at least level – both front to back and side to side – but I think it would be a bad place to decide that texting was more important than paying attention to your driving.
Once around that corner, we got to the end of the trail in another mile – a long, sweeping beautiful expanse of view above the river worthy of any coyote/road runner cartoon. We stayed and took in the view for some time.
On the way back – the sun was now out strong and warm, and we got to the turn to go south to Lockhart Basin. The trail looked interesting, and with the weather having turned nice, we figured a little exploring was in order. It took a few minutes to figure out how to enter the canyon, as there were tire marks all over. But finally – they all seemed to head for the wash, which was still running with a little water. Not only had today’s earlier flooding washed through the canyon, but the rain form the week earlier had also left its mark. I saw what appeared to be an easy stream crossing at a crack between two masses of rock. I couldn’t’ quite tell what was under the water, as it all still had the look of chocolate milk. Proceeding slowly, I expect just to approach the middle of the stream, then drive up the other side. Instead, every angle seemed to find a deeper place than the one before. First attempt about put the nose of the Jeep under water. The 2nd on a different angle saw the front left tire disappear under water. A third angle not only dropped the front tires underwater, but brought the Jeep up short pushing its bumper into solid rock. Apparently, the flooding had pushed all of the loose gravel and sand out of the bed, leaving a deep hot tub that wasn’t going to give up a path easily to get up the canyon. As the afternoon was going long, we decided to instead head back the way we came, we could at least check out the “Adventure Base Camp.”
Well – what a difference 3 hours makes. When we passed back by the turn into the camp – the road had disappeared. No – not like the “Ghost Ranch of the Canyonlands” disappeared. I mean – washed out. The drop from the road, which crossed along a big rock shelf, to the bottom of the wash – was now close to 5 feet. That little gullywasher we’d experienced earlier, showed that it had blown floodwaters through this little canyon up to 3 to 4 feet deep in areas. So – curious – we got out and started hoofing it to see what the adventure ranch was all about. First thing we saw, was evidence of a disc golf course – tees, “holes”, even small fake “greens” that had washed away. Then – topping a small ridge – we saw about ¼ mile away a very nice looking ranch house with a nice gravel drive, a solar panel array for power, and a couple of nice pickups, and an old (70’s) Ford station wagon in the drive! There was someone out walking around the house – so I figured we didn’t need to bug them. They probably knew they had some grading to do. (Subsequently after his return from vacation, Curt found their website and sent them an e-mail, and they returned him some shots they had of the flood. Amazing! That must be a bit of commitment to live out there.)
The rest of the trip was pleasant and uneventful. Some of the campsites we passed on the way back out also showed signs of having had flooding in the camps, and all of our Jeeps had a nice coat of Moab mud on them by the time we got back to the ranch. Yep – you guessed it – more mass downloading of pictures occupied part of our evening, plus dinner out at one of the restaurants in town. Another day well spent in Moab.
Next episode – our band increases by 4 as Anthony and Tiffany, and Bruce and Debbie show up…….