As somewhat of an environmentalist, I had never contemplated doing this, but when the opportunity came along (courtesy of my friend Alvaro), I though why not give it a try and see what it is all about. Now, after spending a week in Southern Utah, I have modified my feelings towards off-roading somewhat and I don’t see it in quite the same light as I did before. A four wheel drive vehicle enabled me to see places that I wouldn’t normally get the chance to explore since it can took me beyond the range of any normal bicycle or hiking trip, and, yes, it can be done responsibly (more or less). But of course the big factor in all this was that it was really a lot of fun – serious fun.
There were 9 vehicles on our trip (a mix of Toyota Land Cruisers and Land Rover Discoverys), originating from as far afield as Chicago, Albuquerque and Northern California. Of the nine vehicles I was the only ‘passenger’ – so there were 10 people in 9 vehicles – not the most economical way or efficient way to travel. However, I soon realized why that was - while sitting in the passenger seat is certainly enjoyable, actually driving the vehicle on the trail takes it to a whole different level.
We set off by driving some 1000 odd miles from Sacramento to Grand Junction Colorado – a nice 2 day drive across the “loneliest road in the US” (Highway 50 through Nevada) and, in a remarkable piece of timing, people from Chicago, California, Albuquerque and all arrived within 30 minutes of each other in Grand Junction.
The next day we set off to do Kokopelli’s Trail – a 140 mile trail from Loma, Colorado to Moab, Utah. It is actually a multi-use trail with four wheelers, mountain bikers and hikers sharing parts of the same trail. The start of the trail was quite congested with mountain bikers and the occasional trail runner, but as we got further along all but the hardiest of bikers fell away.
Kokopelli’s trail was a nice mixture of different trail conditions from spells on country roads, to stretches of dirt washboard, to relatively technical sections. It gave me a nice introduction to the sport/pastime. Thanks to Alvaro, I did get to try my hand behind the wheel of his Land Cruiser and had a great time negotiating the various obstacles. Actually, for the most part it seemed like the real skill was in ‘spotting’ someone through the more difficult areas – that is, from outside the vehicle, guiding the driver where to place the wheels. As a driver in those sections, I simply put my faith in the ‘spotter’ and obeyed his instructions and drove slowly….. very slowly.
All went well and we had no real incidents. Just the breakage of a drive shaft on one of the Land Cruisers half way up a hill. It didn’t seem to faze anyone, in fact they relished the challenge and the resourceful group had it replaced in a little over 30 mins.
Towards the end of Kokopelli’s Trail we entered the area around Moab, famous for its slick rock terrain. Here the trail followed a course over the bare rock and there was no well defined trail, except for the rubber tire marks on the rock (sorry about that). The Moab area seems to be the mountain bike/4-wheel capital of the world and it is covered with hundreds of trails. We took a fun little excursion on a trail called Fins and Things up and down some amazingly steep hills. I would not have imagined a vehicle could handle such steep inclines without tipping over. Check out these videos on U Tube of this trail to get a feel for the experience (1) (2).
After resupplying in Moab we took off again on another trail – an old Mormon Trail called the Hole in the Rock Trail. This trail ran from just outside Blanding, Utah to the Colorado River and was quite challenging in places. To think that it was crossed initially by a group of Mormon settlers in the latter part of the 19th Century with wagons and cattle and horses, albeit taking 6 months to our 2 days. They were certainly tougher in those days.
Here are some photos from the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment