Official Camping Trip Report Thread

[Bomar]

Dave it seems right now the great weather is during the week!

Awesome report. Glad to see what I thought tons to do over here.

Thanks can’t wait to get back out and enjoy it.

 

[slacker24-7]

Bomar your a hour from there, you should be wearing that out , hopefully you and the family can do just that.

 

[Bodean]

Love it, Dave. Man, the next couple of years can't pass fast enough...

I heard that! I can't wait!!

 

[slacker24-7]

I’m not a writer and suck compared to Cam and Nolen, but wanted to share my 11 day, 3200 mile trip westward I just got back from, it’s gonna be slow coming as I have a million pictures to go through and need to try to sort out all the days as they all seem to roll together. I only ask that ya don’t ask specifics on where these places are since some are provided by others and it wouldn’t be right for me to give thier places up. The trip was originally to be 15 days but more on that later. There has to be a start and ours was from my buddy Pat Bowen who has been going out West a couple times a year for a lot of years , on solo motorcycle trips on his BMW GS then in his AEV JK. My trips were mainly to the moab area of Utah and Ouray/ silverton area of Colorado. Pat has tried to get me to go wander Utah aimlessly for years but something in life always got in the way. I really liked the idea of ditching the normal popular areas I’d been going to in favor of exploring some desolate remote areas. It seems the older I get the less I want to be around a bunch of people. I’m in training to be a old codger and have almost arrived. Finally after retiring the stars aligned and it looked like I could go. Our friend Todd and his son Nick were also in. So the planning began with countless calls and group texts as we all know the pre trip planning is half the fun. Our original leave date was Wed May 16, and we were to meet a couple guys at the overland expo west in flagstaff on Friday, then leave there Sat to head to Utah. Well I kinda changed that and suggested we leave Tuesday and mess around a little instead of just haulin to flagstaff. So Pat and Todd agreed to Tuesday. Well ok so why just hang around Monday waiting on Tuesday ? I announced I was leaving another day earlier and would meet them at Palo Dura canyon south of Amarillo. It was to much for them to bear and it only took a few days till they agreed to leave on Monday, things were coming together

 

[wngrog]

Leaving a day early is funny.

3 days early is hilarious.

 

[slacker24-7]

As most of ya know the drive across Oklahoma, West Texas and parts of New Mexico really suck, so the stop off at Palo Dura canyon south of Amarillo was a very welcome break and cut Monday’s drive to a easy 500 mile day from my home in Arkansas. If you aren’t familiar with Palo Dura canyon state park, it’s a really unique place that I’ve driven by a bunch of times never knowing of it and it’s well worth checking out.

 

[slacker24-7]

Day two was to head towards flagstaff but stop somewhere along the way, we were to meet up with Tom who is a friend of Pats from previous trips. Tom is a awesome guy from Sante Fe Nm, who knows the West well, he drives a 4 runner and pulls a turtle back trailer. Things were coming together. Tom suggested we stay at Blue water state park in NM off the freeway a little , this is a cool lake in a place you would never think a lake should be..

 

[slacker24-7]

Talking about Toms turtle back trailer, I guess I should mention that in addition to his trailer, Pat has a military trailer he has converted into a neat camper trailer with a ARB RT tent ,slide out fridge, onboard power, it’s a really cool tough setup. Todd has a similar trailer but is staying in a oz ground tent, I’m the odd ball as usual , and had 2 tents, a smaller 2 man and a larger 4 person with a cot, As well as the capability of sleeping in a hammock or the back of the cruiser. I actually did all of the above, but mainly used my smaller tent and one of my best ever pieces of camping gear, that being my 3” paco pad I sleep on. I figured with my recent knee replacement I might need the larger tent and cot, but did fine without it. We were to meet up with a couple more folks at the expo that would go with us, also friends of Pats. One is Jim McCoy a fireman from Pine Co. Jim is another awesome guy with some of the best backcountry ethics I’ve ever seen, Jim drives a 2500 dodge on 37’s , winch and with a camper shell, Jim knows Utah and Az like the back of his hand and being a fireman can get multiple days off by trading shifts. He has solo explored so much of this area it’s amazing and has gone to great effort to locate Scott Brady’s geocache in what is called the loneliest place in N. America . Which we were to camp within a few miles of one night. To say Jim is a awesome guy does not do him justice. The other guys we were to meet at the expo were 2 buddies of Pats as well, from Canada, Vince and his friend who I failed to remember his name but he spoke mainly French and spoke way to fast for me to even come close to understanding. They were driving a rented 4wd ford sportsmobile which is a e-350 factory converted to a camper with atlas tcase and dynatrack axles.. very nice ! They flew in to flagstaff to pick it up rather than drive Vince’s raptor from Canada. I saw quickly I was running in very good company and was really out classed.

 

[slacker24-7]

Ok, so the next day we will get close to flagstaff and the expo where we can get there in just a few hours yet try to camp as back country as we can. Tom showed us a way cool road that runs along the Mogollon Rim in N Az. This is a really cool drive with outstanding overlooks . we found a great old elk camp on BLM land that was in the pines and off the road quite a way.. it was a excellent find.

 

[wngrog]

Dave. Great write up. Mud dies on the weekend but this will make for some good holiday reading. Keep it coming

 

[slacker24-7]

So day 4 ? I’ve lost count.. was the biggest disappointment and lesson learned I’ve had in a while. That was the overland expo west. I mainly went because it was a meeting place for our group, and I’ve never been there so didn’t know what to expect other than the YouTube videos I watched pretrip to prepare myself. I wasn’t liking what I saw and wasn’t prepared for what it turned out to be. The wait at the gate was long, even though we got there about right as far as the gate opening was timed. But waiting in line isn’t one of my favorite things.. but was made better by our bs on the cb which we later found out was being listened to by others in line. Several of the bs discussions we had about smuggling Todd’s son in by putting him in thier 150 degree enclosed trailer, to the mandatory inspection we were sure existed to be sure we all had our max tracks And shovels displayed properly. I was screwed since I didn’t have max tracks or a shovel, and would surely be kicked out of the expo. But to our surprise there was no such inspection station, and Nick could safely ride in the 4 runner rather than the trailer..

this bottom pic caught my attention due to my grand daughter is named after Brighton ski resort in Utah and the bottom sticker was cool as it said to TRY not to be a dick rather than not to be one.. turned out these guys Were pretty cool , from Ohio and were monitoring our cb chatter in line and rolling laughing... we were to run into them at the expo as well as later on the trail.

 

[slacker24-7]

Dang this is gonna be long..... I need to get more pics lined up.

 

[slacker24-7]

As I said earlier the expo was a cluster in my opinion, thousands of people crammed into a Woodstock camping situation, isn’t my idea of fun and i was afraid I’d have my #EAF sticker and rights taken away. The expo it’s self was ok, it’s probably hundreds of vendors selling stuff which I really didn’t need and crazy big rigs I can’t imagine being able to be used.. I didn’t take many pics and one day was plenty. We were to bail early Saturday morning which we were all ready to do.

 

[slacker24-7]

So we bailed a little after daylight, ate a big breakfast at cracker barrell in flagstaff and hit the road. Next up was a trip to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, via the petrified forest.. I’ve been to the south rim which I didn’t like due to the crowds but the N rim is a whole other world. I’ve been to the petrified forest but Todd’s son hasn’t been to the GC or there so we were off to see the touristy places which actually turned out pretty cool. On the way we crossed the Navajo bridge over the Colorado River which is a really cool structure then we dropped down to the river and visited with some of the river guides packing rafts for a 14 day trip . These rafts were more barges than rafts. They were huge and Held 15 people plus the guides and all the gear for the trip. It was pretty cool talking to them..

 

[slacker24-7]

We went by a cool spot of Indian rock art that Tom and Pat knew about.. it was a shame to see some of it defaced but I guess that’s sadly today’s world

 

[slacker24-7]

Petrified forest is a neat area and we all know about the Grand Canyon. I highly suggest skipping the south rim and hitting the n rim instead. Like I said earlier, it’s night and day different.

 

[slacker24-7]

Ok I gotta take a break and do some neglected chores around here.... I’ll get back in a bit

 

[slacker24-7]

After the Grand Canyon we were going to take a road Tom had recommended north from Jacob lake to hwy 89 just south of the Utah border, but Nolen told me about a much better 2 track that paralleled house rock road. I talked Tom and the others into trying it. Jim had not yet joined us but had told us it was a road he’s been wanting to run, but hasn’t yet. The track started out easy enough but started to get a little confusing after a few hours. We decieded to find a camp hopefully with a view and figure out the route in the morning. I was the only one without a trailer so was elected to scout out side roads looking for that special camp. We found a great place on a hilltop with a view to Utah red rock and a great 360 degree vista.. the next morning, Tom really wanted to go to house rock road so we cut across to it, we all wished we had stayed on Nolen’s road as house rock was a washboard road from hell.. I marked our camp waypoint and noted to continue north from there next trip.

 

[slacker24-7]

From here we were headed to Lake Powell where we would meet up with Jim and Vince , this is a cool road to a awesome overlook . We were all playing Ivan Stewart on the wide smooth road, I guess we got a little carried away as Pat hit a hole and broke 3 of his 4 Yakima towers holding his roof top tent on his trailer. This required a red neck repair of wooden blocks, wheel chocks and NRS straps to get it to camp. Note the shirt Pat is wearing... a old Rainey GSMTR original

 

[slacker24-7]

Well ok now we’re kinda screwed.. the fix won’t begin to make it through the next few days. Luckily a call reveled that Jim and Vince haven’t left flagstaff yet and they would make quick run to REI to get new towers. It looked like we might be there a while as it would be the next day before they got to us.. yea it really sucked spending a rest day here waiting on parts.