Blackdawg
Dr. Frankenstein
It really had not been that long since we had been to Utah. Actually it had barely been 5 months. But Devin and I were still thinking about how amazing our last trip was. (If you missed it, check it out here)
So there I was on the couch at home after working almost 110 hours in two weeks to do a show at the concert hall I was running at the time. Tired of working. Tired of winter. Tired of the cold. It being March Spring was RIGHT around the corner. But in Northern Wyoming, it wasn't done snowing until the fat lady sang..in June. Usually...sometimes July.
Devin was fixing dinner when I suddenly realize, it was spring break next week. The college I worked at only gave us the next Thursday and Friday off. Being on Salaray pay with a chill boss, I had asked to take the whole week off having worked so much the last two weeks and not having any big show to prep for. She had said yes.
I had a week off to do….Nothing...my god did it sound good..
But….
Camping….yeah...camping sounded much better. Warm camping though….like..in...UTAH!!
HOLY ****!
“Babe, lets go to Utah next week! We can leave this Friday!”
“What? Are you crazy?!” Devin replied.
Too late, the idea had dawned on her as well and I could see the light of excitement start to twinkle in her eye.
“Yes….YES!!” she said.
Lucky for us she had no job...yet. Funny enough she got called on Thursday to say she had been hired at the local Library. No biggy though, just told them she could start on Monday...in a week
Excited I jumped online and asked if any of my Tacoma buddies wanted to join. Miraculously, Ben (@m3bassman) said,
“Well...its only like 8.5 hours away, **** it, I'll do a weekend in Utah!”
And so it began.
The Impromptu Trip to Utah.
IMPROMPTU-AH!
I scrambled to figure out what trails to run. Ben wanted to do Top of The World..which I wasn't as keen on since I had just run it in October. But hey, it was wheeling in Utah last minute and I wasn't gonna complain. Ben would get there well before me and said he would find a campsite on Onion Creek road for us before we got there. Done deal.
For the rest of the trip, Devin and I decided to go back to The Maze. But this time do some hiking, particularly go check out Horse Shoe Canyon which was home to The Grand Canvas petroglyph site. Loe and Behold! I got online and there were campsite permits available in The Maze! At spots we hadn't been! I made reservations for Hi Spur, Panorama Point and Millards Point. All good because we hadn't been there in The Maze yet!
Friday came and we drove back to my home town to pick up all the camp gear. Saturday morning we set off south!
Our first stop was at Thermopolis, Wy. Only 2 hours into our journey but I figured we were passing through and had many times before but I wanted to show Devin the World's Largest hot spring.
It's kinda big..
ImpromptU-Ah.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Also my Limited Finish SCS RAY10s had come in finally that spring. They were pretty and way too clean for a truck I own haha
ImpromptU-Ah-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Went nice with the Green though.
With a long drive ahead we buckled down and ate up the miles. It was Spring...ish..in the valley's we were traveling through, but very much still the winter in the mountains.
ImpromptU-Ah-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Then around 9pm at night, something amazing happened.
We had stopped in Rifle to get gas. Nothing out of the ordinary really until I pulled back onto the Interstate. I was deep in conversation about...something with Devin when I noticed a truck start to ride by *** a bit. I noticed it was a toyota and didn't think about it. Then the truck pulled up beside me. It was a 3rd gen 4runner, looked very nicely outfitted really with bumpers and the like. I kinda waved and he pulled in front of me. I flashed my lights as if to say “cool rig!” in my mind. He was obviously headed to Moab as well having an out of state plate…...couldn't quite tell what state it was but it had a vanity plate that said.
Unner
Unner...hmmmm...that rings a bit of a bell.
I followed him for a bit but he was going slower then i liked to go so I pulled around beside him and had Devin try via hand signals to say get on channel 22 on the radio. But we heard nothing and I just kept going.
The 4runner though stuck with me, the whole time right behind me.
“Man, I wonder if I know that guy. Something about his license plate rigs a bell” I said aloud.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I DO KNOW THAT GUY!
“QUICK! Where is my phone! Go to Tacomaworld and my inbox. Look through there!” I told Devin.
She confirmed my theory.
January 30th, 2017. Private Message from a person with the screen name Unner asking about moab. His name was Gavyn and he had messaged me asking about trails his built runner could do. He had very little offroad experience with crawling as he was based in GEORGA! He had told me he was going to be doing his trip in March. I had helped him out with suggestions and tips. And forgotten about it.
And here he was riding my *** on the interstate!!!!
I became so excited!! What the freaking chances!! Seriously! How cool was this!! I decided to pull off the interstate at the next pull off to see if he would follow. I started my blinker early and he followed!!
I stopped on the off ramp. Jumped out of the truck and he did the same.
“Are you that guy that messaged me on TW?!” I exclaimed in excitment.
“Yeah man, that's me!” Gavyn replied.
HOLY ****! He had reconized me in Rifle. They had been at the Dominos accross the street and saw my truck at the pump. “Nice truck!” he had said to his buddy. Then the wheels set off a flag and he knew it was me and had scrambled to catch up to me. He had also removed his CB so couldn't talk and just figured he'd follow as long as he could.
On TOP of that. The pull out we were at was the ramp to Loma, Colorado. The EXACT place my last Utah adventure has started! We pulled in to Loma to top off the gas tanks. I was on a total high of how amazing this trip was already panning out to be.
ImpromptU-Ah-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
“What are you're plans tonight?” I asked.
“We were just going to find some BLM to camp on.” Gavyn replied.
“Pfff, dude just come with me. My buddy has a spot already and you can wheel with us tomorrow! We are running TOTW!”
“That sounds great! That was the hardest thing I was planning on running anways so be great to have some company”
HELL YEAH! Turning into a toyota meet now!
We set off into the dark to find Ben and had a pretty uneventful drive to Onion Creek road.
When we got there I decided to air down knowing we had quite a few dirt miles to get to Ben plus TOTW was right there so might as well. By now it was close to 12:30am. Gavyn had been driving for 15 hours and I was on around 13. We were tired. So when Ben called me on the Ham radio my reply was a bit funny.
“Yeah we are just airing down, should be there soon. I also found a guy on the highway so he is coming too!”
This...confused Ben and seemed a bit odd. Found a guy on the highway?? Huh..
Anyways, we continued to find Ben all the way at Hide Out canyon and told him the crazy story of our new found southern friends. But we were tired and hit the hay ready for a fun day of Utah wheeling.
We woke up...in UTAH! It was still kind of hard to believe we were actually there. AND that we had stumbled onto Gavyn on the dark interstate.
We hit the dirt enthusiastically high on life with perfect weather.
IMG_0026 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Onion creek road is just a smooth road, not really a trail per say. But it was nice to see it in the daylight this time, the canyons you drive through are great.
ImpromptU-Ah-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
IMG_0029 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
IMG_0032 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr
But the REAL reason to drive this road, other than to bypass Rose Garden hill on the Kokopelli route, is the water crossings!
ImpromptU-Ah-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
ImpromptU-Ah-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr