3,500 miles from the Upper Peninsula to Overland Expo

[Lost Canadian]

Yeah, we will definately be heading back.... unless my work schedule interferes...

Are you driving down or flying?

I'm going to try and take 3 to 4 weeks off and explore some of the west/southwest around that time so more than likely I'll drive. If all pans out it'd be cool to hook up with a few ExPo folks along the way.

[elripster]

I'm totally enjoying the read. I wish I had more time off around that time of the year, would love to make this trip.

Frank

[trailsurfer]

Nice! Yeah, you guys have some footage coming up for sure. It was funny basically running into you guys 4 different times. Where did you guys head after Valley of the Gods? We thought for sure we'd run into you at least one more time up near Moab.

We headed over to Capitol Reef National Park and then camped off of the Burr Trail Road outside Boulder, Utah. Where did you guys head off to?

[upcruiser]

We headed over to Capitol Reef National Park and then camped off of the Burr Trail Road outside Boulder, Utah. Where did you guys head off to?

Ah, nice. We hit the Mulie Point overlook then tried to go the backway into Beef Basin but hit too much snow. Ended up going to Needles and doing Elephant Hill before heading up to Moab.

[upcruiser]

Sorry for the delay, I have been travelling the past couple of days and finally have had some time to continue this thread.

Now... where did I leave off? Oh yeah, Overland Expo. Well, honestly, the three days of the event were kind of a blurrr due to complete sensory and social overload. I have been looking at people's photos from the event and am blown away by how many cool things I missed.

I think the reason I missed out on seeing so much gear and display was simply because of the people. I think I socialized more in those three days than the past 12 months! ha ha It was wonderful and I could have used another couple of days to meet a few more people that I was hoping to talk to.

I was honored to work the Overland Journal booth each afternoon of the event. I got to meet and hang out with Scott, Jeremy, Brian, Stephanie, Andrew, Bobby, Nathan, and crew. As has been shown numerous times in the photos from the event, the OJ tent was incredible. It was probably the most comfortable digs on the grounds. What a great crew and thanks to Jeremy's patience I was soon ringing up OJ subscriptions and peddling the goods.

After spending too much time with Dave, Jordan, and Kent from AEV I was practically ready to sell a vital organ to get my hands on a Brute. Jordan's is for sale too which made for all the more temptation. We spent a couple of great evenings going out for dinner, shooting the breeze and having way too much of a good time. I fear we might have been a bit loud a couple of evenings in our sector of the campground.

Some of the other folks we had a great time hanging out with were Doug and Walt who everyone seems to know. Pat Bonnish from Every Miles a Memory, Holt Webb from Vanishing America, Scott Brown from Jeep, Dave and Yosh (though it was brief), Flying Will! (though it was even briefer), Linda (suntinez), Scott (the guy with the cool 4wd Chinook camper), Andre (DieselCruiserhead) and his crew, the Sagen Media crew, and a bunch of others that would take me all day to remember.

Well, I think everything that could be photographed there was so here is a quick video of our take of some of the sights of the event.

http://vimeo.com/11155992

If you are thinking about making it to Overland Expo next year, don't think, go. Whether for the gear, the education, or the people, you will have a blast!

[upcruiser]

We rolled out of the Expo and pointed it towards Utah. Over the course of the Expo we met some folks who wanted to tag along and we had a small convoy. We had Walt with his Jeep JK, Scott with his sweet 4x4 Chinook, and Thomas with a well built Taco.


We made camp in Valley of the Gods


Nice view of Monument Valley on the horizon from Valley of the Gods


The Sporsmobile crew from Expo camped across the way from us.






We rolled out the following morning and climbed Moki Dugway and took in some views before heading to Mulie Point (thanks for the tip KC!)


Tom taking in the view of the Goosenecks from Mulie Point



Our plan was to cross into Canyonlands by way of the Dark Canyon Primitive area. After climbing up to Bears Ear's we were thwarted by deep snow that was 3-4 feet deep. The route was hopeless and we back tracked to take the more traditional pavement route into Needles.


Newspaper Rock.


We made camp that night down Lockhart Basin rd next to the waterfall. We played around on the rocks a bit before sunset. Tom snapped more shots and showed Walt some tricks with taking waterfall shots.

[upcruiser]

Thomas is enroute to Panama on this trip via Baja. Cool stuff, he was battling some shakedown issues with his Taco.


The next morning we crossed into Needles and did Elephant Hill. It was a fun challenge after most of the tamer driving we had done on this trip. The trail doesn't waste any time and gets you right into the action right out of the parking lot.






The squeeze


Walt working the squeeze


Driving through an otherwordly landscape.

After completing the loop we buzzed up to Moab via highway for the last part of the trip. Here is the video from Amado to Needles.. some cool footage thanks to VIO's POV camera and other handiwork used by Tom.

http://vimeo.com/11223785

[taco2go]

Great pictures,Krisitian and Tom - you guys really made a TRIP

I would love to drive down for next year's ExPo, if anyone knows of a pediatric conference in Arizona around that time, please let me know.

I'm just happy I get a weekend off...
Jealous big time.

[computeruser]

I would love to drive down for next year's ExPo, if anyone knows of a pediatric conference in Arizona around that time, please let me know.

That's the spirit!

On a related note, I recently tried to get my legal aid program to pay for me to attend a training in Antigua, but they didn't bite.

[mountainsoul]

Nice trip. I hope to do something similar for next years ExPo.