Friday - Day 3
Tom and I are up early so he can drive me into town on his 4th trip down Kane Springs road so far to get the part and drop it off to the shop. For his reward I “treated” us both to a hot breakfast at Denny’s while 4x4 outpost worked on the cruiser. Denny’s...yeah, I know. Still it was better than oatmeal in a cold windy camp.
We planned to all meet in town at 1030, and like clockwork I get a call from wade at 1030 and then right after from the shop. Its done. A complete flush of the contaminated brake fluid and new [reman] master cylinder. We head up Kane Springs rd a final time, nervous but hopeful, I test the brakes as we drive up and they feel normal. This is the way it was last time as well, but at least I had 4 days between new MS and failure so I figured I had time on my side.
Up past the now missing Ranger (which we saw in a ledges campsite the night before so, um, good job getting it out?) and finally to Hurrah pass, a roughly maintained pass up and over the point of the mountain to the other side where we would spend most our time.
We followed the rocky, slow but interesting trail of Chicken Corners as one by one the SxS’s, Jeeps, ATV’s and other trucks were thinning out. Coming up to one Tacoma who decided a particularly easy hill was their turn around point. I gave her a hard time about being a chicken on Chicken Corners and we moved along.
There was still some weather as we stopped at the base of Lockhart canyon for lunch but it wasn’t so bad and it looked to be clearing with the forecast we got in town calling for a 0% chance of rain, nice clear skies and warming temps from here on out.
Lunch accomplished, brakes still feeling fine we start up the trail, not exactly knowing what to expect.
Its here I give you the caveat that most of this section will, unfortunately, be description only since the card I used to record all our ascents up the canyon and the rest of the day became corrupted and failed before I could back it up in the evening. It’s still recoverable but at $225 for the service it may be a bridge too far...especially for my wife...stay tuned. More pictures/Video MAY be forthcoming
Getting up the trail wasn’t too difficult at first, some slickrock, some drops a couple of walking sections, nothing we couldn’t handle and my concerns about Brady in his 4 cylinder, manual trans wrangler were fading away as he had shown great competence, despite never having been wheeling with it in the Moab area. I was very impressed.
He would need 100% of that skill as well as we got deeper into the canyon. There is a well made film we all referenced for this trip in 2 parts and the first part is called “access is tricky” and it was in all our minds as we approached the challenges we saw in that video.
The tricky part consisted of 3 main challenges:
- A step ledge climb that requires a hard left to get into and a hard right immediately after your front wheels are up, making wheelbase, flex and traction major assets here.
- Right after you set yourself up to get up over a ledge on the right that has a large shelf right and a big rock center you have to carefully straddle to avoid getting hung up on, all the while keeping up momentum as it starts to climb in loose rock.
- Right after you crest #2 you have to keep moving and point your wheels at 2 GIANT boulders inset into the trail at perfect width and spacing to act like wheel chocks, which a loose collection of stacked rocks leading up to their crest. This would be a breakover and traction challenge.
This video gives you a pretty good idea of what the first mile is all about, with the above described challenges happening ~5:30 into the video
Land Cruiser
I was in the lead so I took my first stab at it. The first trial was cleared without use of lockers and, well, without too much trouble. Good spotters, and the combo of decent wheelbase, great turning circle and amazing flex. I honestly though this would be the big trial based on the video so I was feeling relieved.
For challenge 2 I found myself in a spot where I was in a diagonal spin up in such a way that I was just spitting rocks, not a flex issue, just where my wheels where hitting. I put on the rear locker to no avail, then the front and up and over I went with a moderate bang on my lower control arm mount.
Challenge 3 was scary since it was very steep at the top of those boulders and you can’t even see spotters, but it was otherwise drama free with my front and rear still locked and my just right wheelbase.
Frontier
Behind me was Tom; His frontier had a longer wheelbase, the worst breakover of the group the probably the worst flex, no lockers, and a traction control that worked but not as good as, say ATRAC.
It took some stacking and a few attempts to get up the first challenge, then a LOT of stacking and even manually tipping his truck to stuck under tires to get up the 2nd. By the last double rock challenge it took several tries, lots of stocking and lots of scraping, but he made it with at least one very well used sump guard to thank.
Tacoma
Wade’s Tacoma, aside from my triple locked 80 on 33 inch tires, was most well equipped for this challenge: 32 inch tires, a rear locker plus ATRAC and the better angles compared to the Toms truck.* As a result, Wade made short word of the 1st challenge, and with the experience gained by Tom and I the 2nd as well. The 3rd still required some work and some scraping...Lockhart canyon was not in the mood to show anyone mercy today.
*Interestingly, the Tacoma IS better suited to this kind of work on account of decisions made to raise the height of the cab, which is also why people complain about sitting on the truck, not in it.
Wrangler
With the smallest tires, smallest engine, absolutely no traction aids, a manual trans and a slickrock novice behind the wheel this was always the wild card. Would he make it? What if he couldn’t? Fortunately his crazy short wheelbase, amazing angles and skill shown through and he did...but... not without a LOT of trouble.
Getting up the first challenge was hardest for Brady on account of the short wheelbase that had heretofore been a major asset. The excellent flex of the coil springs just couldn’t compensate for the vast distances there were being called on to be span by the chassis. More wheelbase needed. To complicate matters, with a manual it was kind of all or nothing approach so the measured, slow and methodical approach to spotting had to be thrown out the window in favor of pointing at a line and getting out of the way. After several attempts he clawed his way up and over.
Challenge 2 got even more sticky when using the “going for it” technique, he slipped off the good rocks on the left and felt right, his rear shock mount hung up on the large middle rock. We had no luck stacking rocks to help him move forward and going backwards would have put him in a hard spot to start from. A little backroll, lots of rock stacking and some painful lessons learned about why you never push a truck from behind on a rocky hill* and he was past challenge 2.
*I’m damned lucky it only hit my shin and that it was only a moderately sized rock...later a much larger rock was thrown with enough force and height to kill you...DON’T STAND BEHIND A TRUCK GOING UP A ROCKY HILL!
Challenge 3 was equally tough, especially since Wade had stopped on the piled rock ramp at the base of the large boulders and when accelerating to move off he effectively cleared the ramp. We were getting our workout today and so far we had only moved 3 of 4 trucks 100 feet in an hour. With great effort, and skillful driving Brady made it up and we were back to simple spotting challenges...no more rock stacking.
Just before (or after, i forget) all this was this really neat little v ditch and some ATV guys on their way back down the trail. They had gotten to a gate several miles in and called it a day.
We met at the top here to celebrate our hard earned victory and soak in the view a little.
From here on out there wouldn’t be any “Major” or named challenges, or at least not that we knew about.
Well, there was one more named challenge on the trail, the so called “ugly hill” but it was just a moderately steep loose climb with a small ledge at the top that challenged no one but me...who got distracted filming and got into a cross axle situation that I corrected by backing up and trying again without being stupid. Film you likely wont even get to see. Such is life.
By 230 we made it to the saddle that led into the basin...we were finally FINALLY here in Lockhart basin.
The sun was shining, the hard parts were behind us the trucks were all working and the future looked bright.
With scant by adequate cell service we called to check in, took some pictures and carried on.
The trail was, surprisingly rough from here on out. Never more than a 5 mph average with the occasional step, wash or canyon that required spotting.
Here I am sniffing my AC vents because for some reason whenever I went down a very steep drop I got a distinct smell of coolant. Still haven’t figured that one out.
Riley guiding Brady down the ridge.
For the next few hours, we slowly made progress, I would guess at just below walking pace as we carved in and out of each little nook in the bluff, following its jagged, interesting curves.
It was somewhere around the 3rd cove (bottom of the picture) we noticed the clouds that had been getting lighter and thinner all morning, had suddenly started multiplying and darkening, as a stiff breeze from the south started up.
It was around 5 and we were getting tired and hungry and on the hunt for a campsite. Sadly the terrain didn’t leave us many options and anything it did was in a wash or drainage. Not the place you want to spend a night under threat of rain, and rain it did.
As it started we pulled off and found a spot none of us liked but could tolerate and as we sat there, with a light rain washing over we decided to keep going and see if we could find something better.
As much as I like to give Clay and his XO group crap for their “huddles of seriousness” its important to remember that important decisions need to be group decisions and so we took a quick informal vote. The vote was to move on with me being the lone descenting voice. I wasn’t strongly opposed to it, I was just ready to be done for the day. That being said I was fine doing the groups thing.
The rain had let up a little and we made more slow, tedious progress towards the next and final ridge in the series.
Fortunately here we did find a better campsite that, had it not been foul weather, would have be an AMAZING place to see Canyonlands. As it was, it was still pretty amazing, only now it was blowing hard, raining hard, cold and deeply unpleasant.
The ground, much to my dismay, was quickly turning into deadly Utah clay, the kind that is slick like oil but pulls up half the earth when you step on it or drive over it. It sticks to all and doesn’t let go and it makes travel difficult if not impossible. A trail full of Utah clay is about the worst possible conditions that a track can have. Heart. Sunk.
I’ll admit to being a worrier...which is really part of the reason I do these trips, so I can do in the face of worry and doubt, but I do feel bad for my travel companions as I can be a bit of a downer. I was stressed, seriously stressed. So to take my mind off things I donned my warm and waterproof coats and went a walking. I walked about half a mile down the trail and much to my delight I found that the tail was still passible with only pockets of Utah clay but predominantly sand and rock. The penny dropped again as I climbed a formation to get a clear view of the lower valley and look up canyon to the direction of the weather: Not only was it dumping at the creek headwaters, but there was a strong ribbon of water headed our way and no end of darkness behind it.
My stress completely overwhelmed my inner urge to take pictures of the AMAZING views that were happening around us - thick fog around island in the sky, puddles, dramatic lighting - I was focused on hating where I was and the options it presented. Hopefully I will be getting pictures from Brady and Riley soon so you can see what they saw and I will update as I get them.
We put the awning out as the wind had started to die down, and cooked up some street tacos huddles underneath all 2 meters of cover. Wade was probably most let down as he was hoping to get some nice EXPO shots of his fancy trail cookery; not tonight Wade.
The group was quiet and reflective at dinner. I was hungry but I ate light. I tried to free my mind by helping out around the camp and we even got a fire going a little later when the rain let up with the dry wood that was in my truck (WagonLyfe). It was a morale booster for sure, and it warmed us in more than one way.
Look I know I’m probably overselling the drama a bit, just trying to let you in my head. I knew we had plenty of food and water, and the time to wait it out if we needed but my “what if” brain was not letting my “you’re actually fine” brain do any talking. It can be suck a dick.
It was feeling like a very long day but at least it wasn’t raining anymore, the roads were in decent shape and we were safe.
Unisom, a movie and it was off to bed around 945. I drifted off around 40 minutes into the movie apprehensive, but hopeful about tomorrow.
End of Part 2
Part 1 here
Part 3 hopefully coming before this weekend. Sorry for the lack of pictures, and thank Tom for most of these.