AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

From everything I've seen, these guys are definitely the last people I'd expect to get a trail shut down. Also interested to see what this is based on. Maybe @m3bassman, but he wasn't even there.

 

This has got to be one of my favorite build/travel threads. Tons of great info and inspiration for trips I'd like to make myself. Thanks for sharing.

 

Probably referring to where they parked at burnt knob.

Not a big deal I think having been there parking is very limited and its worse to block the trail than pull off to let other up to the end.

 

Yeah jeez Dan, quit tearing up the meadows with your lead foot and general lack of consideration.


Lol.

 

Troll much? Sorry dude, we never went off trail. As pretty much everyone else said, we're the last to do that.

Thanks guys.

Even at Burnt Knob we were on the trail, there were pullouts everywhere we parked.

Awesome, glad you're enjoying

 

The Re-Tour Day 6: Into the Abyss
August 29, 2018.

As I'd crawled into bed a little after 1:15am, I knew this was going to be a night without much sleep. Not because of rain or snow or cold - quite the opposite actually. Because for the first time this trip we were camped in a location that would allow us to see not only the sunrise, but the glow on the horizon before sunrise.

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That of course meant being up before 6:00am, a tall order even for me, the early riser.

You can imagine my surprise then, when I climbed down my ladder and looked around camp and saw none other than Mike @Digiratus gazing out over the horizon. Out of my mouth came "'Morning Mike." but in my head I wondered, "Who are you and what have you done with Mike?"

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We both enjoyed the light for a few minutes - such a special time of day - and then climbed back up our ladders to get some more shut-eye, the late night definitely taking it's toll on the "old guys" on the trip!

It was a more reasonable 8:00am when I awoke the second time - cozy and warm, the morning sun now hitting my tent and more enjoyably, my feet - through the screen of my open tent door; the sun just starting to chase away the crisp, cool, morning air. It was the perfect morning to explore!

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As I headed out of camp towards the edge of clearing, I hoped for a cliff. But before I'd find that, I found so much more. In the distance, the switchbacks we'd negotiated the day before - cutting through the scorched hillside.

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Behind me (and behind our camp) an amazing vein of white rock, protruding out of the mountain for miles in each direction. Out of place for sure, it's contrast with the surrounding landscape was spectacular; it would have been a great formation to explore for sure!

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And then, I reached the edge. The Gooseberry Hollow road we'd traveled in on below, I gazed out over the steep walls of the canyon. Now this would have been the perfect spot to setup camp! Alas, doing so would have meant a drive out over undisturbed terrain - not something we were willing to do.

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Eventually I tore myself away and headed back to camp via a faint ATV track and fence-line I found in my exploration. The air was warming and I expected a least Dan @drr to be up when I returned, but a bit to my surprise, camp was still. Maybe the old guys aren't the only ones who need their sleep!

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I set about making breakfast as quietly as possible so as to not disturb the rest of the group. But of course quietly is relative - the scraping of a spatula on a cast iron griddle, the crackling of spicy sausage cooking on the grill - these things are loud when you're in the middle of nowhere; by the time I was sitting down to eat, I think everyone was up.

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Whether it was my ruckus or the fact that it was 9:30am, no one complained one bit as they stood in the sun, warming themselves and enjoying the glorious beauty all around. Like the weather, we were all in good spirits and ready for a day of adventure!

After quick breakfasts and packing up camp, we headed out - back to the main road and then east and up. Up, up, up the side of East Pryor Mountain - a road nearly unrecognizable from the year before (a trend, I tell you). Somehow I ended up leading the pack for this portion of the trip - an enjoyable, dust-free experience - one of the only times I could have my windows down on the trail! Of course, it did mean that stopping for photos was out of the question - everyone behind being generally harder on their skinny pedal than I.

So, I pressed on and it wasn't long before we arrived at an interim destination - the Big Ice Cave (yep, that's it's official name). The day already warming up, it was quite a different experience walking into the chilly 32ºF cave; last year it'd been warmer inside than out!

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The cave itself is a dark, cavernous space, but a brilliant rainbow of luminescent color paints the limestone walls in spectacular hues of tuquoise, yellow, and green. The cave itself was formed as slightly acidic rain water dissolved the 350 million year old Madison Limestone that makes up much of the Pryor Mountains, the water then collecting on the floor of the cave, eventually freezing to form the ice stalagmites and stalactites for which the cave is named.

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Our curiosity satisfied for the moment, we headed back out of the cave to relax and enjoy the late summer warmth before heading back to the trucks via the same short stroll we'd taken on the way down. Always on the lookout, Monte @Blackdawg pointed out some seashell fossils on the side of the trail - another nice benefit of limestone-based geological formations.

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After a short bit of driving, we reached a fork in the road - and it was at this point that we had a choice to make: we could either continue on the same way we'd gone last year (past Penn's cabin, and through hills often grazed by wild horses) or we could take a new route - one that even Monte had never been on. This wasn't an easy decision for us, so we popped out of the trucks to discuss.

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And, as often happens with us we all ended up in each other's shots, and shenanigans and laughing ensued.

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Ultimately, votes from Mike and I were to continue the way we'd gone last year - Mike wanting to see wild horses, and I wanting to check out Penn's cabin again. This turned out to be a great decision since, not one hill crest later - just as we left the National Forest - we came upon our first herd of horses.

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The horses somewhat distant, we made our way towards them, clicking photos as we went. The horses, wary of our presence keep a close eye on us - continuing to graze, but also moving further away the closer we got. And then, as we retreated to the trucks, I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. Zane @Speedytech7 saw it too - a fox, hunting some small rodent one hill over.

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We watched him for a while - his stalking, pausing, and then vertical jumps up to punch his nose into some hole hilarious and cute at the same time; totally oblivious to our presence, given our downwind position. Then, it was back to our trucks for the short trek to Penn's cabin...

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...which we'd get to eventually, but not before getting sidetracked by a second herd of horses, again, just over the next crest. Closer this time, and a larger herd, we all did our best to capture them - though really it's hard to capture these majestic animals well.

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But time was ticking on, and we knew we had a lot to do before we'd arrive at camp - in a whole different set of mountains - that evening, so we pushed forward to Penn's cabin to sign the guest book, and for a bit of exploration and talk of what to do about lunch.

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Penn's cabin near the top of our route through over East Pryor Mountain, Monte knew of a good spot "just down the road a bit." Having skipped lunch the day before, Dan and I were both keen to stop and eat, so we decided that would be our plan. Of course - perhaps predictably given Monte's on-timelines - it turned out to be another 50 minutes before we'd reach our lunch spot.

Though, if I'm honest, it was worth it and we all enjoyed ourselves - the views great, and the sandwiches and chips tasty as we lounged in our chairs between the trucks.

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Our stomachs satisfied for the moment, we continued down the mountain - only a single planned overlook between us and the bottom, our road spitting us out near the confluence of the Bighorn and Devil's Canyons which we could already see in the distance.

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And it was at this overlook that tragedy struck once again. Tragedy is perhaps a bit strong a word to use in this case, but what unfolded was definitely a bummer. Always keen for the "great shot," several of us - Monte included - had hopped from outcropping to outcropping to creep right up on the edge of the cliff. And there's few better places to use a wide angle lens than overlooking a canyon. As Monte moved to grab his out of his pocket, it popped out and fell to the ground.

And bounced.

Down. Where it bounced again. And again. And was lost down into the abyss - the sound of it cascading down the cliff all that remained.

On my own precipice, all I could do was capture the reaction. First, disbelief and hope. Then, frustration. And finally, acceptance and more photo taking.

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It was after-all, a spectacular view.

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The scene captured and spirits a bit down, we ate some cookies and continued down the trail. We'd stop a few more times to capture the scenery as it unfolded before us, but for the most part we enjoyed the ride through the was - Mike taking advantage of the fact he was following Igor (instead of Frank) to push Monte a bit on speeds.

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And as we exited the wash, we entered a whole new landscape. "Welcome to Utah!" said Monte over the CB. And it was like we'd found ourselves in that beautifully red land, the edge of the Pryor Mountains area, a sign conveniently telling us everything we'd just seen.

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Keen at this point to get to Devil's Canyon Overlook that we'd seen from a distance as we'd descended, Dan took a look at his map and suggested that perhaps there was a dirt trail that would shortcut our planned, paved route by nearly 75%. So we headed up a wash, hoping for the best.

For the first couple miles, the road was promising. Lightly traveled, beautiful surroundings - we were all loving it. The further we went, the closer we got to our destination and the rougher the trail got. It was fun going...until Dan - leading at this point - came over the CB to let us know that he was going to explore on foot.

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Turns out the road sort of just ended about a quarter mile before it would have completed our desired cut-off, and became just a wash, instead of a road next to a wash. So, we got ourselves turned around and headed back - no skin off our backs, it'd been a fun little detour!

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Now on the highway, we could cover ground faster despite the longer distance, and made it to Devil's Canyon Overlook in no time, where Monte once again took one for the team, fielding a plethora of questions from a few other folks who happened to be in the area and wondered what their midlife-crisis-expedition-Tacoma would set them back. He loved it.

And we loved the overlook. To float down through that formation has just got to be an amazing experience.

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After savoring it all for a while, we all proceeded to air up our tires - we had a long highway drive in front of us to get to a whole new set of mountains in a whole new state - The Bighorns in Wyoming - and a windy route up to the pass that we were informed locals called "Oh My God" due to the steep incline of the road and the resulting sound made by vehicles as they struggled to crest the top.

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And yeah, that described it pretty well, as the young guns floored it, and then waited for the old guys at the top.

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Done with pavement, we all aired down and discussed what we'd do for camp. We could camp just around the bend at a "meh" site, or continue on for a couple hours to a site that Monte'd stayed at before (and was great). To all our surprise, Mike opted for the far site - a place we'd surely not arrive at before dark. And with that, we were off!

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Along the way to camp, we were naturally in a bit of a rush - the sun quickly falling in the sky, the light changing all around us. As such, we hesitated stopping too much, but the sight of Copeman's Tomb in the distance - a place we'd visit in depth the next day - was more than we could pass up, a gleaming white finger into the valley.

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But from there, it was a race to camp. Tough on someone who likes to capture the changing light in the evening sky!

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When we finally arrived, the last rays of light were on the horizon to the west, just visible over the trees. We got a camp fire going quickly and dinner started all around. Tired from a long day of driving, I don't even recall what we discussed that night, but I'm sure we had a good time doing it - that always seems to be the case on trips like this.

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At some point we called it a night - as I recall it was getting chilly at our 10,000' elevation - and headed to bed, my hope for the next morning that I'd wake to an amazing view and breathtaking sunrise.

I brought the camera into the tent, just in case...

 

Great shots Dan! So many little details that get remembered differently from one person to the next - although I don't recall ever making it into Utah...

 

Thankfully..we didn't have to go there this time

 

Fairly certain this area is what he's thinking of, as I had a half second of wondering myself if you were trailblazing when I saw them.

 

Nope. BLM road. Just not a very well used one. Marked and everything.

 

I assumed as much, but it does look slightly like an unused hillside from that angle. I realize these are lightly traveled by the general public, so easy to be overgrown some (especially considering the wet weather often mentioned). Just noting what the comment may have been about.

 

Yeah I can see that, especially there. Those mountains are not that heavily trafficked other than a couple of the roads there.

 

Sure did look like it though as we came out of the Pryors! hahahaha. Man, as I looked back on those photos, I really liked that road that we took that ended up the wash towards Devil's Overlook. Too bad it didn't go all the way through.

+1

Yah, that's a fun road. Big Pryor Mtn Road to Miller Road as I recall. Definitely lightly traveled. Interesting to see how green everything was - I don't really recall that from the trip. Must have been just late enough in the season...

I think this is the road where we saw that several people had cut the corners during what was probably winter, on their UTVs. We of course, didn't.

 

Alot of people snow wheel there from the local clubs. Thats why you see shit like this:

Pryors-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

They can't really see the road so..that happens.

That's the road that goes up and then down into the trees where last year we had to winch Zane.

 

Ah okay, that road. Haha, most of it looks like a game trail despite being on the map. And the part I was winched from was road soup

 

yeah we didn't do that road this last time. But is definitely one that sees a lot of winter/spring traffic Id guess by all the damn road cuts.

 

The Re-Tour Day 7: Uphill Both Ways to Copman's Tomb
August 30, 2018.

Sometimes we just get lucky - and this morning was apparently one of those times for me. I mean sure, I situated my truck for success the night before, and I'd brought the camera into the tent thinking there might be an opportunity to capture a bit of early orange hue, but I never thought I'd get the display that I did, while still warm under my comforter.

It started as it so often does - just a hint of brightness along the horizon and deep purple highlights on the clouds in the sky. This is the moment, I thought to myself as I snapped a few shots.

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But then, as I lay there, camera put away, just enjoying the colors and thinking about how easy it was going to be to fall back asleep for a couple more hours since I was still cozy - BAM! The earth turned a bit, and the sky lit up like a candle. These are the types of sunrises I treasure - the pinks and purples got deeper, and then the orange came out to play.

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The camera obviously reappeared, and the raised platform of the tent made for an amazing tripod to capture the moment with a slow shutter. ...and then, it was back to sleep. Well, to be honest, it took a while to fall back asleep at that point, so excited I was to have seen such a spectacular display.

When I finally opened my eyes again, it was like a repeat of the previous morning - the sun now over the ridge, light and warmth spilling into my tent and warming my feet through the covers. Such a pleasant way to start the day. I dressed and climbed down the ladder to explore - having parked on the edge this time, it didn't take long to find the spot I wanted to hang out, looking out over the valley below and to the ridges in the distance.

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I even saw this little guy doing the same thing as me - soaking in the sun and the views. Smart little marmot.

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Knowing that I'd slept in later than usual, I headed back to camp and ate a quick breakfast of Cheerios and blueberries. It was the first cereal of the trip, and the first Cheerios (likely) since The De-Tour, and man - it was great! I couldn't wait for the next morning when I'd get to enjoy another bowl.

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Everyone else was waking up by this point and ready to get moving - our first destination something a bit different than normal. We'd seen Copman's Tomb on our drive in the evening before, and today our plan was to head that direction and then hike out to the tip for an amazing view. Of course, it's hard for us to get out of camp before 10:00am, and it was 10:15am when we checked our radios and made our way along our ridge, towards the ridge that was Copman's Tomb.

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In less than 30 minutes we'd arrived, and we lined up the trucks at the trailhead "just so" before heading off - Monte @Blackdawg promising Mike @Digiratus that there were only two slightly uphill sections in the 1.5 mile hike and that the rest was basically flat or slightly downhill.

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As we headed out on foot, we got the full scoop on the ominous name of our destination. An early pioneer, Wolfgang R. Copman didn't discover the ridge or canyon, but loved it when he found it, spending much time on and around it, reveling in it's grandeur - so much so that he wished to be buried there when he died. Apparently quite vocal about his wish, he told everyone who would listen and soon the outcropping started being called Copman's Tomb by locals. The name stuck and was later officially named Copmans Tomb by the U.S. Geological Survey. Ironically, when Copman died in 1907 his wish to have his ashes spread on the mountain top was never realized - according to his great great grand daughter, the family simply never got around to it. And, when his wife Betty died, his family buried his ashes next to her in the Greybull, WY Cemetery.

When we arrived, it was clear why Copman had fallen in love with this place. We did as well as we explored the high walls and peered down at the sections that had clearly fallen away thousands of years ago. A long way down - 10 seconds or so for a horizontally thrown rock - we were sure to hang on to our wide angle lenses, that's for sure.

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Eventually we pulled ourselves away, knowing that we had a bit of a hike to get back to the truck. Turn's out the mile-and-a-half that Monte had promised was one way, and I'm sure if you asked Mike he's let you know that it was uphill both ways. At any rate, the uphill portion was definitely concentrated on the way back; the mid-day sun and thin air at 8,875-foot elevation not helping the situation either.

Mike kept at it, and along the way we ran into a group of riders, out exploring the area. They of course commented on the trucks we'd parked at the trailhead, a bit of longing in their eyes. In the end, the round-trip hike was a 3.1 mile jaunt, with 500 feet of elevation gain.

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Once back t the trucks, we re-hydrated and got underway towards our next stop - another place we'd passed on the way to camp the night before - Granite Pass. Of course, there was plenty of ribbing on this section of the trail - Mike giving Monte a hard time for the marathon he'd just completed, and Monte defending himself with mixed success.

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It was all in good fun, and before long we were out again looking around - well, most of us anyway, Mike was staying put this time.

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As we pulled up to Granite Pass, we should have been thinking about lunch - it was 1:15pm after-all, but instead, geocaching was on our minds. See, this is a place that one of us (guess who) had been many times over the years, and he was quick to count the seven or so times he'd signed the logbook for the cache.

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But once that was done, lunch was the furthest thing from our minds. Granite Pass was amazing - it reminded me of a uni-color Doll House from The Maze - pillars of granite rising out of the grassy surroundings, the sun catching them and creating patterned shadows on the ground.

We were like kids in a candy store. Again.

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I was the last to straggle back down the hill - everyone else having returned to the trucks a few minutes before. Granite Pass behind us, lunch was once again on our minds. And we'd have it an hour or so later, in a grassy camp site next to a creek. The perfect place for a turkey-avocado sandwich, potato chips, a ripe nectarine and discussion of what was to come - a night at Moraine Creek.

And so it was, with little fanfare that we headed out again - sure that we'd get to camp before dark, and excited to enjoy the landscape that was one of our favorite the year before.

Along the way, we made a quick pit stop at the splash dam - a structure used to move logs downstream to mills in the early 1900s- something of definite interest to Dan @drr, who inspected the structure for soundness. Definitely not up to his current-day standards.

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Over mountains and through valley's, we made our way to Woodchuck Pass - a splendid series of high meadows that stretch across the landscape. The road was rocky here, and we were having a blast splashing through the mud and recalling places where, in the snow last year, we'd scraped skids and thrown snowballs at Frankenstein.

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At one point, Monte, in the lead, called out "oncoming motorcycle," which was a relatively normal thing to hear him say. But then, "and another" rang out. "And five more." Turns out there was a whole swarm of the little buggers, trying to navigate their way down one of the rockier sections. As we waited off to the side of the road so they could pass, the dumbest of them decided the trail was only a suggestion, and took off across the field, cutting the corner. Hive mentality kicked in, and the rest followed.

Jerks.

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There wasn't much we could do at that point though - the damage had been done, and it wasn't like we could teach them the trail manners they'd never learned growing up, so we continued on - stopping often to soak in our surroundings.

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"This is my picture, if you want your own it'll have my butt in it!" -Monte

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Still, before long we reached Moraine Creek - only 4:30pm, it was the earliest we'd get to camp all trip, and we were cool with that - it is truly a beautiful place. Dan got his hammock setup again, and the rest of us took to positioning our trucks and deploying our sleeping arrangements. And, as we'd done already a few times on the trip, I broke out the chainsaw and harvested a downed tree for a nearly endless supply of dry firewood.

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And then, as though the "Tour gods" were looking down us, the weather started to move in. You can imagine that after a day of full sun, this was most surprising indeed, and hearkened back to our last night in this beautiful place - when we arrived to sun and left with 4-inches of snow on the ground.

Monte quickly turned on the ham radio to listen to the weather report, and we discovered that sporadic thunder and lightning were forecast for the area until 11:00pm that evening. So we put away our chairs and donned our jackets, ready for a bit of rain - a few thunderstorms weren't going to put a damper on our enjoyment!

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As it turned out, the cells nearest us passed just to the north and just to the south, sprinkling us with a bit of rain for a few minutes but not more. Within half an hour, it looked as though the worst of it had passed, and the sun was back out - casting a golden glow across the meadow.

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Our chairs came back out, and we gathered around the campfire which was - as usual - the centerpiece for our nightly celebration. Dinners were made and eaten - tacos with fresh guacamole for me, and similarly delicious eats for everyone else.

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In time, the sun made its way below the horizon and the day ended in much the same way it'd started - with a beautiful display of color in the sky. As we marveled after the last remnants of light, campfire talk turned to trucks - suspension in particular - something I'd decided was my next upgrade.

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Eventually of course, we tired once again - the wood we'd cut and split outlasting our eyelids - and retired to our tents. We went to bed content - happy that the storm had passed without incident and looking forward to the plan for the next day - to run the trail that had changed everything the year before: Boulder Basin.

Of course, nothing's ever quite that simple, is it?...

 

Check out AccuTune if you're looking for some suspension, @*TRD* Ryan is a fellow CP grad of the ME variety.

 

Fuck I look like a homeless person y'all picked up on the highway in WY.

 

super late to this party! Subbed!

The trip posts in here are exactly what I want to do. It's hard out here in the NE!