The Excuse: A 4400 Mile, 12 State Adventure

ljrunner05

ljrunner05

Adventurer
Luckily we weren't too far from our camp for the night. At 9500 feet or so we stopped at the McMillan Spring Campground. The pit toilets were well stocked and clean, and the place was completely empty. We found the most level spot we could and called it a day. I was able to text my father from our Garmin InReach and he told us the rain would be ending that evening. Sure enough, right after we got camp setup and we were settled in the rain began to ease. We sat in the tepui and enjoyed a couple good books. Not a bad way to end the evening!

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We fell asleep early but we awoke to a pack of Coyotes hunting nearby. For the next hour we heard them both up the mountain and below us calling back and forth. Around 2am when Sarah decided to make a quick dash to the restroom I heard her pause outside and call back to me. She was seeing 20+ pairs of eyes staring back at her. Luckily they were just Elk, but it can be a little a nerving after listening to the Coyotes for the last hour.

The next morning was a beautiful clear day, but we had some unexpected challenges soon after we left camp...

Part 1: RoadTrippin'
Part 2: Utah Bound
Part 3: Sand Dune Fun
Part 4: A Closed Road

Stay Tuned for more
 
ljrunner05

ljrunner05

Adventurer
The Excuse: A 4400 Mile, 12 State Adventure

Part 7: The Snow Incident..

After the elk incident I was able to fall back asleep. Once again the wife hopped up before I was out of bed only to call my name again. When I asked what was wrong I heard no response. Just "You need to see this". I quickly tossed my clothes and jacket on to go see what was wrong. Once I walked out of the annex I saw Sarah up on top of the hill overlooking the camp. I climbed up to join her and was greeted with this...

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With the snow above us and the clouds below us it was a gorgeous way to start the day!

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While packing up the we saw multiple side by sides and an old CJ5 pass through the campground. Most appeared to be coming down the mountain so we assumed the trail must be ok ahead of us.

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ljrunner05

ljrunner05

Adventurer
It wasn't long before we broke into the snow. Of course we had to stop and take pictures!

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The trail seemed clear enough and the tracks were fresh so we continued on. According to the top we would cross the pass around 11k feet.

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The next part I don't have any pictures of. Less than 2 miles from where this pictures was taken the elevation started climbing rapidly while the snow got deeper. We rounded a sharp bend in around a foot of snow only for the tracks to suddenly end. We started breaking trail as the snow approached 1.5 feet. While going around the next sharp bend we started sliding sideways instead of climbing. With a sheer drop on our left and steep cliffs on the right we started looking at the maps. We found a detour that would keep us under 10k feet which was just about the snow line. It cut a section of our planned route out, and we'd have backtrack to the nearest town for fuel, but it was the safer option. Sarah did her best to guide me backwards down the narrow trail trying to stay in the tracks we had made. Once we made it to a wider spot I turned around and we followed recent tracks down a beautiful trail with less snow. As we drove Sarah put waypoints on the map so we'd know where turn at each trail intersection.

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Once hitting the blacktop again and grabbing some fuel we had some decisions to make. We were 80 miles as the crow flies from the Utah / Colorado boarder. We could continue the trails for another day and be in Colorado on Thursday, or cut the trip a little short to make it home by weekend. We looked at the topo maps and found most of the trails we had left crossed over 10k feet again. With the snow incidents still fresh in our mind we decided to follow hwy 268 into Blanding Utah, then cut north for Moab. The drive through the canyons was not disappointing!

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A Sprinter Van pulling some type of mico-van?

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ljrunner05

ljrunner05

Adventurer
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By the time we cut north in North we were only 20 miles from the Colorado boarder. I'd call that a pretty successful Utah traverse!

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As the sun was setting we rolled into Moab Utah. Definitely a bucket list place for me.

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After stopping to ogle a few vehicles and grab a quick bite to eat at Wendy's we continued north to some BLM land not far from I-70. It was pretty crowded but we were able to find a place to setup and quickly crawled into bed.

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It was well after dark when we finally got setup. The next morning we woke up in a super dense cloud. We packed up the tent and decided we pickup breakfast and fuel down the road.

After 39 hours and 757 recorded miles we finally ended the GPS tracks at our final campsite. There are a few areas we'd like to go back and explore, and a few tracks we'd like to complete so we'll be back! Tho the Utah Traverse was over, we still had to make it back home! and I've got to say, Interstate 70 through Colorado sure doesn't disappoint!


Part 1: RoadTrippin'
Part 2: Utah Bound
Part 3: Sand Dune Fun
Part 4: A Closed Road

Stay Tuned for more
 
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