2020 ROF RimRocker Colorado/Moab Moto + Jeeps Misadventure 2.0

BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
(Note: I'll link this over on the ROF thread but, since this is about moto adventure travel I thought I'd share it here first.)

I'm a little behind getting this trip report out due too so many projects going but, I"ll work on it over the next several days.

From May 31 to June 7, 2020 I was lucky enough to join the ROF group exploring western Colorado, via the RimRocker trail into Moab. It was made even more exciting because the group allowed an adventure bike to participate with a group of Jeeps, Ford and Toyota! As usual the group was made up of well seasoned and experienced adventurers from around the country.

The days leading upto the meet I spent at home in Nederland, Co. prepping my bike and camp gear. While I've done a number of long distance moto/camping trips its always an exciting and daunting task to prep for living off your bike for 8 days in varying environments and weather conditions. As usual, my plan was to cook and eat all my meals on the trail so this time I created a new moto camp kitchen/bar. I also added two, 2L MSR Dromedary water bags in a custom lime green bag to give me plenty of water for cooking and cleaning.


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Sunday, May 31, 2020 - Day 1: The first day was a travel day from my house to the ROF trail leaders house outside Delta, Colorado. He was kind enough to offer everyone a place to meet and camp overnight prior to leaving on June 1st.
As usual on these types of trips I map a route that keeps me on two lanes, backroads and dirt tracks so, while I could have hopped on I-70 to Delta, I choose to ride south then west for a total of 350 miles via Georgetown, Buena Vista, Gunnison, etc.....

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Gotta go work on the shop, to be cont......
 

BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
Day 1 cont.:
Once arriving at the Team Leaders house I met the other adventurers. All of the ROF members are highly experienced and well traveled. Each had their personal setups that they had customized over years and thousands of miles traveled. A few adult beverages later and the T/L was kind enough to let eveyone either bunk in his house or camp in his yard. I also put my KLR in his garage for the night. The next morning we gathered our gear, packed up the campers and headed west to Delta for coffee, fuel and some breakfast and then to Montrose to start the RR trail.



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Once on the RR we headed west on mostly two lane, then gravel and then two track. I had just recently added a headset to my HAM radio HT and really enjoyed being able to talk and listen to the trail chatter versus just being in my own head the entire time.

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TBC....
 
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BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
Still heading west on RR on day one. Incredible views west. The group did a short fuel run down into Naurita and grabbed lunch in the Nucla city park before continuing west. Some incredible mining history in this area that Ace shared with the group.

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Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
Good to hear from you. We all wondered if you got home safe and sound. You made a wise choice leaving when you did. Lots of sand encountered. Also some rocky sections on the Koko you would not have liked. Looking forward to the rest of your report.


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BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
Man, I wonder whatever happened to him after this?
I think he is just busy. He and his wife own Adventure Tool Company which takes up a lot of their time. I’ll PM him.

Ace


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
He posted in another thread yesterday, he's around.

My apologizes for not finishing this thread....that's not right. I have been a little sidetracked by our ATC Shop build but, I should have finished posting this. I'll get on it. Thanks!

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Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
Good to know your above ground. Also I was enjoying your report and wanted to see “the rest of the story”.

You know a guy could get a heart attack lifting that KLR.


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BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
Is that trail leading back into the woods for the bikes?

LOL......... not officially. Since my lovely wife approved the ATC Shop build, I've reclaimed one of the old mining roads on our property that goes back into the forest and will be building her a art studio building. That'll be the walking path back to it (not to say the stray moto may find its way back there and down to the bottom of the property and back up!)

Here's the clearing of the mining trail....

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BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
We spent most of the afternoon slowly moving along several shelf trails, slot canyons and dusty two tracks. As the day was coming to close I shot ahead to try and locate a camp area for the group and ended up going up a sandy two track and introduced my bike to a slow and sandy lay down....I simply lost footing when turning around and didn't give it enough throttled and dumped it. It was hot, dry and I was a little dehydrated so it was nice to get some help from the Jeep Response Team to get the bike back up. It flooded and was a little tough to get started but once it did we moved out and eventually found a nice treed campsite. While there was another incident I'll let team member share that. After a nice trail shower, dinner and cigar and wine by the campfire with the team it was a great first night sleep.

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BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
Next morning we pack up, grab breakfast and start to head-out towards the Utah state line. Shortly after being on the trail one of the trailers suffered a leak in it's air suspension. We eventually stopped at the Buckeye Campground and with a team effort, plus one McGyver team member that seemed to have everything in his rig for the repair, a first class trail repair was done and we were off again. After several hours on the trail we stopped at a lovely wide spot that looked over Utah for lunch. The trail repair was starting to suffer and required another quick stop and field repair (As everyone that has traveled with a group of buddies, a frustrating trail repair always goes better with solid supervision, expertise and none involvement direction from those buddies.....).
From there the group temporary split to get the limping trailer into Moab for a more solid repair and the rest of us finished the RR into Moab and met up.
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BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
After refueling, repairing the trailer and watering up in Moab we headed up a dusty shelf trail to take the Gemini Bridges site and then headed west to the Rustlers Campground. Setup camp, cleaned up, ate some dinner and settled in with a nice cigar and bourbon.....another great nights sleep!

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BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
While I've spent decades doing moto trips both solo and with other riders this was my first moto/jeep trip. I enjoyed it immensely and truly enjoyed making new friends. But, I also knew my limits. The TL had a route heading north out of Moab and through some very sandy tracks......Not a fan of sand.....plus, it was going to hot and dry which also isn't a good thing in full riding gear with a 500lb bike. So, I decided to head south back into Colorado and try to take advantage of some cooler weather (little did I know how cold....) I said my goodbyes and thanks and headed east across Shaffer Road back into Moab where I grabbed lunch some groceries and headed east.

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