mmccurdy
Adventurer
Four states, four thousand miles....
I just realized I never posted this over here, and thought some ExPo folks may be interested. We decided to link Easter Jeep Safari in Moab with the Overland Expo in Amado. The two events were two weeks apart, and the route in between just happened to traverse some of the best terrain the lower 48 has to offer, so we put the trip together.
Moab threw us a bit of a chilly welcome that had me questioning the wisdom of a two-week expedition/camping trip in early April:
Before we departed we had some last-minute "details" to work out, such as where the hell we were going to be spending the next 14 nights, and how we were going to get there:
On the way out of town, a park ranger JK blew by us on the freeway. We had a laugh about it on the 2m radios, little did we know he would be pulling us over 10 miles down the road. Turns out BLM ranger Don was just an avid Jeeper and had seen us in some YouTube videos from another forum. He decided to show us some cool spots nearby, and he wound up hanging with us until we made camp that night. Kind of unique to have an official ranger escort through some of the fantastic landscape of the San Rafael Swell.
The wind picked up that night, so with Ranger Don's help we found a nice little spot with some good shelter:
Our next destination was the Dollhouse within the Maze District, Canyonlands National Park. The only way in (by land anyway) is over 50 miles of dirt and rocks. It's not a terribly technical trail, but the isolation is palpable -- the thought of a mechanical failure or medical emergency looms a little bit larger with every passing mile.
I just realized I never posted this over here, and thought some ExPo folks may be interested. We decided to link Easter Jeep Safari in Moab with the Overland Expo in Amado. The two events were two weeks apart, and the route in between just happened to traverse some of the best terrain the lower 48 has to offer, so we put the trip together.
Moab threw us a bit of a chilly welcome that had me questioning the wisdom of a two-week expedition/camping trip in early April:
Before we departed we had some last-minute "details" to work out, such as where the hell we were going to be spending the next 14 nights, and how we were going to get there:
On the way out of town, a park ranger JK blew by us on the freeway. We had a laugh about it on the 2m radios, little did we know he would be pulling us over 10 miles down the road. Turns out BLM ranger Don was just an avid Jeeper and had seen us in some YouTube videos from another forum. He decided to show us some cool spots nearby, and he wound up hanging with us until we made camp that night. Kind of unique to have an official ranger escort through some of the fantastic landscape of the San Rafael Swell.
The wind picked up that night, so with Ranger Don's help we found a nice little spot with some good shelter:
Our next destination was the Dollhouse within the Maze District, Canyonlands National Park. The only way in (by land anyway) is over 50 miles of dirt and rocks. It's not a terribly technical trail, but the isolation is palpable -- the thought of a mechanical failure or medical emergency looms a little bit larger with every passing mile.