We're blogging a little early today...only because we're high on that special adrenaline rush you get when you know you're doing something ridiculously stupid and yet you continue to do it because there's no turning back.
Today's trail was Black Bear Pass. It's pretty widely regarded as the most difficult trail in the Ouray area based on the steep downhill grade and sharp, dangerous switchbacks that you must follow down the mountain. The trail is so difficult that it is only open in the downhill direction-there's absolutely no room to pass. Anywhere. As you'll see in the video, there is a rock face on one side, and a cliff on the other. For two miles. Straight down hill.
We filmed today with the "Snorkel View" to get a good combo of scenery and road features. Bear in mind that as we descend, we're in low first gear, and are pumping the brake as well. Its extremely hard to slow the momentum, torque, and weight of the car with the regular brake. The e-brake was used on multiple occasions. Although the video is somewhat removed from the feel of the car bouncing down rocks on the hill, let me tell you...we were both extremely anxious to get past this point of the trail. Period. It was hard, with no room for error.
Enjoy these pictures and the video of us taking on Black Bear Pass.
If the embedded version below doesn't work, click here!
Old adage has it that "what goes around comes around." Today, we learned that "what goes around the mountain doesn't necessarily come around the mountain and therefore requires one to take the difficult downhill route back."
It's been a long (albeit extremely fun) day. We hit the trail at about 8:45 and got in at 6...I'll let you do the math. No stops. No food. No shelter from the sun. Large rocks and steep uphill climbs. A large bear across a stream threatened to tear our heads off (okay, maybe not, but we still saw a bear). Somebody call Morgan Freeman and have him narrate the trip today-it would be a blockbuster. Maybe.
I'll spare you the grisly details of our trails today but Mineral Creek was the first and last trail we took, basically getting us halfway up (and down) the mountain from Ouray. Mineral Creek was a hard trail. Mineral Creek was probably of the same or greater difficulty than any of the trails we've ridden. There were long, narrow shelf roads with steep drop-offs. There were huge boulders to climb. It was wet. Traction wasn't as good as it could have been. It was a grueling two hours up the mountain (and even more coming down). However, when we reached Engineer Pass, the trip became much more scenic. We took some pictures on the top of Engineer Pass, drove through the small town of Lake City and eventually reached Cinnamon Pass, which we climbed and descended back onto the Mineral Creek trail. It was a great day and a great drive.
Two issues we've encountered: dust, and the self-titled "Car Commander" singing "The Wreck of the Old '97" as we've gone up and down mountains. I'll let you decide who you think "Car Commander" is (hint: he isn't writing this blog...).
The dust permeates everything. There is dust in my mouth. There is dust in my hair. There is dust in my nose. My arms are covered in dust. There is not a single thing that there isn't dust in. The back of the Jeep looks more like the Dust Bowl than a cargo space. You think I'm kidding, right? I'm not. We can't turn on the air conditioning in the car because it creates a dust storm. Its that bad.
Secondly, I know you've probably never driven down steep, rocky mountain switchbacks with someone singing "Wreck of the Old '97" in your ear the whole time. Let me tell you, it isn't exactly what you want to be thinking about as you descend a steep cliff. I'll paraphrase the song in these few words: a train gets driven off a cliff. When you've been driving all day, concentrating on not driving off of cliffs, and your Car Commander decides he wants to sing the song ANOTHER time, you lose your patience quickly...but then you drive the car closer to the edge of the cliff because you know that frightens the Car Commander back into submission for a few short minutes of wonderful silence.
We're hitting the Alpine Loop today, a series of three trails that will bring us across the mountains and back to Ouray. We'll climb Mineral Creek to start, which is the most difficult leg of the journey. Engineer Pass is next, which will bring us around the back of the mountains we ascend on Mineral Creek, and Cinnamon Pass will help bring us on home. We've got our cameras and the GoPro ready, so check back later for pictures and some insight into the Saloonin' lifestyle we've so readily adopted. Believe me, if we don't set foot in at least two saloons today, we're doing something wrong.
Today's trail ride was on Imogene Pass, one of the moderately difficult trails in the Ouray area. Heavy rain in the past two days convinced both of us that trying difficult trails was worth waiting for, so we settled on Imogene, the second-highest mountain pass in Colorado, at over 13,000 feet. It gave us a great ride and we had a lot of fun. In lieu of a detailed description (which I'll post later), enjoy some pictures from today!
Today was the day we (and many of you, maybe) had been eagerly anticipating for days! We finally got off the road, and we couldn’t have had more fun wheeling through Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. As I drove and dad spotted for me, we took a few excellent (at least by our standard) GoPro videos, both of the stunning scenery and of the extreme 4x4 situation we found ourselves in at the end of our journey. We’re excited to share in the experience with you...this is what the blog was created for!
The video I’m posting is six minutes long, and is the Jeep handling a steep 20-25% grade with large, jutting slate slickrock to navigate through and climb over. Before you watch, consider a few things that will help make the video as real to you as the experience was to us. First, we have the GoPro mounted onto the driver’s mirror in an effort to capture the big picture and scenery around us. That means that much of the rock on the right side is obscured, so, as you watch, equate a high-right, low-left orientation of the camera to us traversing rock on the right side of the Jeep. If you have to turn your head to make the camera angle straight, you can get a sense of the great side tilt we got as we ascended, and if you notice the camera isn't straight often, you're getting the feel of things. We were never straight. Ever.
Secondly, remember that the GoPro’s lens alters depth perception and that the true size of the rocks we climbed isn’t reflected until the GoPro is practically on top of them. Take your eyes off the climbing and look at the rocks ahead of us and right below the camera to get the most true feel for what the Jeep handled.
The fact that we were even in such an extreme off-road situation was a bit of a surprise to us. We had just finished the scenic (albeit moderately difficult in a few spots) ride down the “Eye of the Whale” trail, bringing us to an area where few other vehicles (or people, for that matter) ever travel. For the first half of the trail, we were the first tracks of the day, and while we aired down our tires to ascend a particularly steep hill made more difficult by deep, sometimes impassible sand, a chartered expedition tour passed on through. Besides that single car, we didn’t see another vehicle until we had finished all of the off road features and had gotten back on the graded dirt path heading towards the main paved road. Regardless, as we finished the “Eye of the Whale” and turned back toward the gravel road, we never realized that the 1.8 mile trek to the gravel road would be the most treacherous (and risky) part of our trip. The terrain was extremely rugged. The six minute video we took was about all we could handle while worrying about camera shots and the trajectory of the GoPro, as all of our attention quickly turned to choosing lines and avoiding too much Jeep damage. There were three ascents similar to the one we just shared with you; frankly, the difficulty increased to a point where serious damage became a real possibility. Slickrock protruded from the trail in ways that made scraping the underside of the Jeep impossible to avoid. However, we picked a few good lines and came out of the trail with only a few scrapes to the rock guards and skid plates underneath the truck. Most importantly, we had a wild ride and a lot of fun.
To a serious rock crawler, this trail would have been of moderate difficulty. For our largely stock Jeep, it was an extreme test....a test we couldn’t have been happier to pass.
After finishing the trail, we aired up the tires and made our way through the mountains and valleys of Southern Utah and Colorado, heading towards Ouray, Colorado, the Jeep Capitol of the World. On the road, we encountered heavy rains and a snowplow pushing mud off of the road, which was a first for us. Also, the temperature dropped dramatically between our two waypoints, beginning at 95 degrees in Moab and ending at a cool 57 degrees here in Ouray.
We're extremely excited to hit the trail again tomorrow.
After a trip down the Alpine Coaster and a four hour trek through central Utah, Dad and I have arrived at Red Cliffs Lodge, 15 miles out of Moab, on the banks of the Colorado river.
If you've never driven through Utah, my words alone won't be able to describe the drastic changes in scenery that occur throughout the state. When we left Park City, it was 71, with a slight drizzle. Pine trees covered the mountains. The landscape was mountainous, lush, and green. As we transitioned through the central part of Utah, mountains turned into jagged plateaus, devoid of vegetation save for the sagebrush that dotted the otherwise desert-like scenery. The rocks and plateaus adopted a yellowish and sandy tint, only speckled with small areas of green. We ascended mountains as we took back roads towards Moab, reaching an ultimate height of 9200 feet while following the narrow switchbacks through the mountains and across valleys.
After crossing I-70 and coming within forty miles of Moab, the yellowish plateaus of the central region developed the deep red hue so commonly associated with Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. You could almost mistake this area for Mars as a result of the color, size, and number of rocks that make up the Moab area. The rocks are red, and have been weathered away to form steep cliffs that almost totally encompass the road. Large boulders tower above the single-lane highway, threatening to leave their perches high above the traffic into Moab. It is truly amazing that these mountains and cliffs have withstood the effects of time and nature and have been molded into the picturesque landscape they are today. On multiple occasions, we both remarked that there was an opportunity to take a stunning picture around every bend in the road. Oh, and it was 95 degrees out by the end of the drive today.
Dad and I also took a trip into Arches National Park to see some of the trails available for our use tomorrow. With any luck, I'll have our first true off-road video posted for tomorrow night.
We spent today browsing properties again, amidst more GoPro failure. This time, however, it wasn't my fault, but I'll spare you the details regarding both the house hunting and the GoProing. Hopefully, we'll have some more interactive content for your viewing pleasure as we begin our journey off the beaten trail, but until then, I hope my "pictures of the day" have been sufficient.
I know some of you might be as interested regarding the analytics and view statistics of our Blog. Dad and I would both like to thank everyone for traveling along with us through the internet...it is nice to know friends and family are reading. You've read entries almost 700 times over the past four days, and it's awesome to see that (hopefully) some of you are enjoying what I (and, indirectly, Dad) have to say, and more importantly what we've done. It's been fun for us to seek out Blog-worthy experiences...but we've both found that the best moments are usually ones that come about with little or no thought at all. Regardless, we both would like to thank you for viewing from counties far and wide (that's specifically a shout-out to the South Korean reader we've picked up along the way) and from everywhere else. You've made blogging fun!
Okay, enough of that. More trip info, stat!
Tomorrow morning we leave for Red Cliffs Lodge in Moab, UT. Its a four hour drive, practically a walk in the park for us. Dad doesn't know it, but he'll be driving the whole day. Hopefully, I'll be able to see some cool things to blog about. More realistically, I've written about four paragraphs about states that we're filled with nothing, so if our drive south through Utah has anything worth seriously writing about, expect a long one tomorrow. If not, everyone likes hearing about sandy deserts and cool rocks, right?
Since we've been working so hard on the property hunting here in Park City, dad and I had to wash down a long day's work with a meal at Montage's restaurant, Apex. Apex is appropriately named, as the highest restaurant on the Deer Valley property, located past the Empire Pass lodge (which used to be the only eatery in the high mountain when we first started coming to Deer Valley) and built neatly into the side of the mountain. The Montage has a great view and a wonderful location, but after our three hour leisure dinner at the St. Regis the night before, the pace of our meal at Apex just wasn't right. Things came too fast, and we didn't have the time we would have liked to enjoy the scenery and the vistas. Regardless, the food was good, and we enjoyed sitting out in the mountain air, watching the shadows lengthen Upper Deer Valley.
We've had a lot of fun in Park City, but it's time to get Jeepin'...we both can't wait!
Breakfast for today was at the Main Street Deli once again. Their bagel, egg, and ham sandwiches are delicious, and we couldn't resist stopping in for one more.
We're heading out to visit a few of the properties we saw yesterday for a second take. Afterwards, we'll give the GoPro another shot on the Alpine Slide, and hopefully I'll do a better job this time than I did last time.
Other than that, we're both extremely excited to get on the road to Moab tomorrow. We've both really enjoyed Park City, but without the confined space offered by a multi-hour car ride, I'm running out of blog material fast. We're only about four hours from Moab and all of the off-roading opportunities it offers, and we can't wait to get there!
In other news, I've picked up a new nickname. Instead of "stoop" (which had gotten a bit overused because of all of the "stupid" things I do) we've transitioned into a combination of both stooge and GoPro, creating the more useful "StoogePro" moniker I'm known by today. Thanks again, Dad!
Today was a day full of touring properties in and around the Deer Valley area. We spent quite a bit of time doing that, and, in an effort to get the most bang for our buck, Dad and I decided to use the tried-and-true skills we've picked up by watching Property Wars to evaluate the many properties we saw today. We did a thorough external investigation. We red flagged loose screws, creaky floors, and bad carpeting. We assessed remodeling costs. We argued about how to remodel, what to remodel, where to remodel, and just about every aspect of a remodel you could potentially argue about.
Today also marked dad's first major disappointment of the trip. I made a "terrible and unforgivable" mistake, and didn't GoPro our trip down the Alpine Slide correctly. Actually, I didn't GoPro it at all. Dad was grumpy for a good while about it. He looked out the window of the hotel room for a long time, hands tightly clasped, obviously contemplating the true depth and magnitude of my failure. I tried to cheer him up with some lemon cucumber water from the lobby, which put his derision at bay for a few seconds, until he stopped enjoying the water and started thinking about my GoPro failure again. Luckily for me, we met the realtor right after our little incident, so I was spared a full days worth of angry glances.
To reward ourselves for a long day in the field, we had to treat ourselves to dinner at J&G Grill at the St. Regis hotel. Our dinner was wonderful, as we hoped it would be. I had a steak for dinner, pork belly for an appetizer, and a molten chocolate cake for dessert. It was delicious. I also got to enjoy part of dad's five course tasting menu, which was excellent as well. He had risotto, halibut, a short rib, and baked Alaska to name a few of the many things he tried. We also got to tour the St. Regis Wine Vault, which dad really enjoyed after his wine pairings for the evening. When it was all said and done, we had a three hour meal, which we haven't been able to do in a long while. It was easy to do as we looked upon the mountains and sat out in the comfortable, dry air.
This morning, we drove into town and had a good breakfast at the Main Street Deli here in Park City. The plan for today is to go out and view a couple of properties with the realtor and get an idea of what's up for sale in and around the area. We don't have anything extremely fun planned, but we're both itching to try out the GoPro in an action situation, so a trip to the zip line or alpine slide isn't out of the question.
As you can expect, anticipation for the actual off-road segment of the trip is growing as we get closer and closer to our drive to Moab, our first off-road stop.
However, there is one issue that I simply need to address.
Many of you know my dad. You've worked with him. You live with him. You're related to him. Some of you don't know my dad (in some ways, consider yourself lucky). Regardless, if there's one thing you need to know about him, and if there is one way I think he would like to define himself, it would be summed up in one word: tactical.
I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard the word tactical in the last three days. If I hear it again, I might go crazy. I'll attempt to compile a short list of tactical things my dad has purchased, things that, because of their (tactical) nature, will undoubtedly make our trip that much more....tactical. I'm still not convinced.
We have a tactical suitcase. A tactical electronics bag. A tactical storage bag for the Jeep. Dad proudly displays his tactical iPhone case, tactical keychain, and tactical sunglasses. We've browsed three tactical websites on the computer just so we can feel a bit more tactical. He's wearing his tactical shoes, with, (you guessed it) his tactical socks. Unfortunately, its a tactical mismatch.
When he found out I hadn't brought the tactical belt he purchased for me along for the trip, he wouldn't speak to me for an hour, which usually wouldn't have been a problem, until you consider that we were crossing Nebraska. Have I mentioned that there isn't a lot going on in Nebraska? Every so often, I'll get reminded that I didn't have my tactical belt, so I couldn't rappel down anything, even if I wanted to. You guessed it...I don't want to rappel down anything. I don't even know how to rappel.
Maybe one of these tactical things will help us once we get to Moab. Until then, I'll continue to remind him that he invested his money into a regular suitcase with two more zippers and three more elastic straps and was led to believe it was somehow more "tactical." Like I said, I'm still not convinced.
Regardless, we're still having a wonderful time. We both agree that A&E or Discovery Channel could have made good money off of a reality show following our trip. At the least, I hope some of you are getting a sense of how ________ (insert adjective here) I am to be spending the next two weeks with my dad. If you asked me right now, I'd say I'm lucky.
We've had a few hours to get acquainted with the Marriott Mountainside, which is located right at the base of the Payday lift of Park City Mountain Resort. Its a nice location, with a great view of the mountains.
The room is nice. Not so nice, however, is the disappointing feeling of dread and angst one experiences seconds after realizing that Key Lime Cove has been offering free trips to the Marriott Mountainside for the week. Its as if every family with children under the age of ten in the universe is staying at the Marriott Mountainside today. There might be more young children here than there have been cows along the road, which should serve as an extremely telling comparison (as long as you've been keeping up with the blog).
After realizing that the Marriott was Kiddyland reincarnate, Dad and I decided to do the only thing we've done for the past two days: we drove. You'll notice we added another 50 miles to the driving log. We headed up to mid-mountain Deer Valley, and found a newly constructed road called Guardsmen's Pass that travels between two of the taller mountains at Deer Valley. It was an extremely enjoyable drive and view, and we continue to have fun in the Jeep, especially now that we can put the top back and catch some of the cool mountain breezes.
We also ate a nice dinner in Jeremy Ranch, about five miles north of Park City. You really can't go wrong with locally sourced chicken and pork ribs...we're definitely two for two in terms of delicious dinners out West.
After driving through almost all of Wyoming, a quick trip through northern Utah has brought us to Park City, Utah, where we will be staying for the next three days.
I drove the whole trip, so "to keep me awake," I was annoyed out of my mind by the passenger. I was told that McDonald's new white cheddar cheese tasted bad by someone who had never had a bite of it. I was referred to as "stoop" (apparently a shortened, more concise form of stupid) for most of the trip. Some of my questions were answered with loud snaps of stinky Extra bubblegum. As Jethro Tull graced the speakers, I became a human drum set, with my face serving as a target for every crash of cymbals and my shoulders taking part in every beat of the snare drum. After today's performance, I'm fairly sure my dad could've had a career in drums.
Mind you, this occurred at about eighty miles an hour. So much for safety, dad.
Anyways, Wyoming is pretty much Nebraska, with less cows, more hills, a few mountains, and even fewer exits. We both agree that Wyoming is better than Nebraska. The scenery is different. There are hills, valleys, rock formations, mountains, tunnels, grasslands, and sand flats. There are massive fences along the highway to keep snow drifts off of the highway in the winter. We saw some antelope, which was the first non-domesticated (and living) animal we've seen since leaving home (sorry, roadkill doesn't cut it). Needless to say, it was a nice drive, and an extremely easy one at that.
Now that we are in Park City, we will be done driving until we leave for Moab, Utah, on Saturday. We're still deciding what to do here, but fly fishing or mountain biking seem to be the frontrunners. We also found out that there are musky in Jordanelle Reservior...only five minutes away...we're tempted. I'm not going to upload all of our pictures at once (I've gotta keep the interest somehow, right?) but here's our first GoPro shot from the state of Utah. Enjoy!
So, after 17 hours of driving, we've arrived in Laramie, Wyoming, home of the University of Wyoming. We're both pretty excited to get off the road and to eat a non fast-food meal for the night.
Since leaving our last stop in North Platte, we've done some pretty notable things...if you consider visiting Cabelas' first store and world headquarters to be a notable thing. Other than that, our final three hundred miles were marked by changing scenery and a random rain/hail storm as we passed through Cheyenne.
Tomorrow we will be on our way to Park City, Utah, which should be a six-hour scenic ride through the mountains.
Quick Facts about Today's Trip:
Miles Traveled: 1018.6
Hours Traveled: 17
Highest Elevation Reached: 8640 feet
Pieces of Apple Bourbon Bacon Pie Consumed: 1
Yes, that's my piece of Apple Bourbon Bacon pie. No, you can't have any.
So, we've just passed through North Platte, Nebraska. I'm fairly sure many of you haven't been to Nebraska. Today marked my first trip to Nebraska, and, let me tell you, it very well may be my last.
There is literally nothing in Nebraska. Nothing.
While that might be an exaggeration, the scenery in Nebraska is extremely uniform. It's flat. There is corn or hay growing across 90% of the state. There are cows. The cows all adhere to a high standard for stench, and they're a shameless bunch, so when you pass them, they like to make sure you know they're there. There is endless visibility. If Christopher Columbus would've traveled to Nebraska, he might have been able to convince people that the world was, indeed, flat.
Needless to say, we've been making good time. As we get to the extreme western portion of the state, we've actually started to see a few hills along the way. Anyways, it's been a good drive and (save for a few construction zones) we've been moving pretty quickly.
Some "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" from our journey through Nebraska:
-Thumbs up to Cornhusker pride. We've seen at least four red F-150s covered in Nebraska logos, you've gotta represent your state school, right?
-Thumbs up to the random ponds next to the highway that we assume everyone from at least twenty miles around (that's about ten people to be exact) is fishing at. We don't know why you're fishing there, but good luck to you.
-Thumbs down to a blatant lack of exits with services (and also, a lack of named towns). We're not THAT hungry, but we'd like to eat some time in the next thirty miles, you know?
-Thumbs down to cows. Seriously, take a bath you guys.
We're about halfway through Iowa, in the area of Des Moines. I'm not entirely sure that John Wayne's birthplace is a notable attraction, but if you're ever six hours down I-80 and in need of something to see, it's here for you. Otherwise, besides corn, soybeans, and a random Ralph Lauren Factory Outlet Store in the middle of a farm field, we haven't seen a whole lot.
Some things we've learned:
1) Iowa has a lot more hills than expected, and has actually been a (somewhat) scenic drive.
2) Iowans have conveniently crafted every one of their sewage sanitation pits within about fifty feet of the highway, allowing for convenient access and maintenance but also to provide a really wonderful stench for at least five miles up the road. It also seems as if they've placed them strategically so you can't go more than an hour without smelling one. Definitely not cool, Iowa.
3) No matter how much cream and sugar you put in McDonald's coffee it will still taste bad. Period. And you don't even get a monopoly piece with it. It's almost insulting that they make you drink bad coffee and you don't even get a game piece with it.
So that, in a nutshell, is the first six hours of our drive!
This blog will help record our trip West. Along with text, I hope to post plenty of pictures and videos of our off-roading adventures in Utah and Colorado. Stay tuned for our next update, as we leave early Tuesday morning towards Cheyenne, Wyoming!
