The M~U~D Trip Report: 1000 Miles of Utah Dirt

Just got back to internet, and did five nights out there with the wife. Your posts inspired us to get out an try some new stuff. All I gotta saw is RG Hill is balls, Came up onion creek one night, parked and biked to the base. I looked at amanda and said "no way" Drove up to the TOTW Safari Rte and biked back done to the top of the Hill. Holy crap, that is one rough track. Stayed out at the Dolores Overlook and attempted TOTW, but with no winch and 1 vehicle, I didn't want to press my luck. We did get through Cottonwood Canyon and that was a little hairy. Just wanted to say thanks for posting such a cool re-telling of the story as it inspired us to get out there as well.

 

HEY! AWESOME!

So cool to read this! Glad you had a blast and got out there! RG Hill is no joke haha we wouldn't have done it had we know wth we were in for haha

Biking i bet was cool!

Thank for posting, very cool to hear it was that inspiring. Hope to see ya on the trail!

 

We camped in that little turn out before the washed out creek in RG Hill Rte

 

Is your typewriter broken? Your Trip reports are perfect for procrastinating and day dreaming... I need my fix!

 

gaaaahhh i know!!!! been slacking. will see how this evening plays out!

 

So I have to thank you for another awesome trip report. You have me even more stoked to hit the Kokopelli on the way out to RT. Quick question on the bypass that you and Mike both took body damage on in Rose Garden. I know you didn't have a t-case skid, but did Mike? Could he have taken the ledge if he wanted to?

 

no i don't. Well..maybe. I think he would have gotten high centered on it. the problem was because most people go up it, the top of the ledge had a big dug out part right on top of it. So it makes the crest of the ledge very high. Even when i look a videos and photos of it just a few years ago..its much more tore up now. And won't get any better either.

A taco on 35s i think would have been fine..maybe.

It's hard to tell until you do it though. I know Brett made it down it the normal way i think, not sure when that was though.

I know id like to try going up it in Frankenstein. But it will never happen without dual lockers and belly skids no matter what.

I know you and a few others are planning on rolling in to RT via the Koko and i think all but one are on 35s right? Im still not sure id recommend it as i don't know everyone's ability as a driver. It's rated a 7-9..You don't wanna tackle something that highly rated without a good group of drivers and even better spotters. Not gonna say don't do it. But not sure i would..Also if you have a 2nd gen with you..they won't fit in the "bypass" we took. We barely fit as it was. Frankenstein wouldn't have either.

Be up to your group really. But no tacoma should try that ledge without a belly skid for sure.

 

Yeah our entire group will be on 35's and full skids except one, maybe 2. I've seen the one that isn't navigate some tight spaces so I think he should be good on the bypass. I know Rose Garden was discussed in our group and we all agreed we are going to hit it, especially since we will be going down. I'll be interested to see how it goes since it will be essentially a year later from when you guys hit it, and I'm sure torn up even more. You'll be out at RT right?

 

well the Easter Jeep Jamboree always has 1-2 groups of up to 50 jeeps each hit it every year...so yeah haha it'll be even worse haha

Should be interesting though! I know there was a spot on the ledge where the water ran down. Its on the passenger side. I think as long as you put your passenger tire there, things will be okay.

I doubt it. I'll be moving to Cali in Sept-ish i think. So probably won't be able to afford it. Would love to though. Over due to go back to that meet.

 

Ah gotcha, well that move should make doing the Rubicon a bit easier, that's on your list right? Good luck on the move! Would love to get out and meet you one day and see your rigs in person!

 

oh yessssss RUBI BABY!!

For sure man! Always like putting faces to names on this site! Some day..

 

That bypass didn't even exist when I did it. Looks like a SxS route that will keep getting wider and rougher as more people use it. Unfortunately what a lot of the trails look like out there now.

I see no reason a fully armored taco can't make it down the hill. Could get stuck on a few bigger ledges, but you have gravity helping.

You didn't buy skids and sliders and bumpers just to look cool, did you?

 

It won't get wider...literally can't haha

And I don't have skids or bumpers...not on igor. Thus why i went around. If i was in frank idk if i have even stopped haha almost didnt in igor. I used the sliders plenty on that little section of just that trail haha

 

2017 Easter Jeep Safari rates it at a 7 and they did two organized runs on it this year.

 

The M~U~D Trip Report: 1000 Miles of Utah Dirt

Chapter 5: Miles and miles and miles of Dirt​

We slept very good that night. It was quiet and cool. Plus given the fact we had slept bad the last two nights it wasn't hard for us to sleep good.


M~D~U.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Today we were headed into uncharted waters for us once again. We would continue out Bobby's Hole to Beef Basin and pick up on the Utah Backcountry Discovery Route, UTBDR, to continue south on miles of dirt roads through tons of cool places. Our eventual goal was Valley of the Gods, and hopefully Monument Valley.


Which was a longs ways away. We hit the dirt expecting to hit something rather hard as the map had said Bobby's hole was often closed..


But we blew right through a sort of rocky section. Only indication was this sign.


M~D~U-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Oh well. Was a fun section either way.


The road smoothed out drastically into a sandy slough and we stopped often to take in the sights again.


M~D~U-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_2007 by mike digirat, on Flickr

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Hello old friend! The La Sal mountains still linger far off in the distance still!


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We began to climb ever so slightly and then very steeply up and up into..well more mountains.


M~D~U-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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And suddenly we were in the National Forest! The HUGE Manti-lasal forest. Seriously, the changes you can experience in this state within a few miles..amazing.


M~D~U-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


I would still call this part of the mountains very desert like though. Not full blow trees and rivers. But still very pretty. Gave a cool view to Canyon Lands.


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M~D~U-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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It was at this spot my APRS rig picked up a message from my Dad. Apparently he had flown to AZ and was going to be in the area. But I had little information and tried sending him more messages as cell service was not a thing right now. Sadly it didn't seem like he was getting them. But I had a brief thought that maybe he would be able to join us for a night or too.


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As we left this spot, a small blue ford fiesta came blazing down the road.


“Wow, that has to be a rental” chuckled Mike over the CB.


I slowed down and got on myside of the road and surprisingly, the blue car stopped. A guy leaned out to ask a question and guess who it was!


The guy who had asked us for a ride out of Elephant Hill!


“Hey!!” I said, “Glad to see you got out okay!”


“Oh yeah!” he smiled, “Thanks! Will I be okay to keep going a ways?”


“Yeah you'll be fine!” I said.


And he went off.


Pretty funny. But glad he was okay.


We dropped in elevation and soon were running along were Indian Creek was.


IMG_2028 by mike digirat, on Flickr


People were camped all over and soon we could see parking lots and pull out stuffed with cars on the other side of the creek where the highway was.


Suddenly I remembered that this was where my brother had said he would come. I tried to spot anthing that looked like a 4runner but none were sighted.


After a few more miles, we hit the intersection to get on the highway. But straight across a little north was one pull out.


“Hey I'm just going to pop in here to see if Grant is in there” I infromed Mike over the radio and drove in.


“Is that it? Does he have a sticker like that?” asked Devin.


Well son of a bitch..


M~D~U-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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There he was!


Well, by he I mean Walton, my Brother 4runner. Grant himself was nowhere to be seen. There was a trail that headed off towards the cliffs but who knows where he was.


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Lucky for me, he had left his driver window cracked and I left him a birthday present as his birthday was the next day and a nice note with the date and time.


But we had to move on.


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I stopped once to try and see if one of the dozens of groups of climbers along the highway may contain him, I hadn't seen in in months and really wanted to.


Of course I didn't though.


M~D~U-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


A little sad that it hadn't worked out to meet up with him, we drove on to Newspaper rock. Which is always cool to see and also always busy. Plenty of people were here to see it.


M~D~U-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


None of the people looked like they were having as much fun in Utah as we were though..and we got many a jealous glance as we sat in the shadows of our rigs eating lunch in the parking lot before continuing on down the highway.


We went for a ways on 211 before turning south on back into National Forset on road 136 which was still paved. The elevation started to rise massively now.


“hmm maybe we should air up?” I asked Mike.


“Nah, can't be far” he said while snapping photos at a pull out.


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It then dawned on us that we had actually not aired up once yet this entire trip. It had been 6 days and we hadn't filled up the tires.


Bad.


Ass.


Mike was right though. As soon as we crested the main mountain top, or so we thought, and could see Monticello far far down below. Our turn off to dirt was there.


But so was cell service. I took the opportunity to call my Dad and get the full scoop. I guess he was getting the cars from my Grandpa's place and he and his sister were driving them north back to Wy. They were going to go through Moab and wanted to try and meet up.


Of course, we weren't going to be in that area. But knew we would be close to Blanding that night. Said we would stay in touch and hit the dirt.


This time, the mountains were...well “full blow mountains” haha Trees were abundant. Once again, ecosystem shock!


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We kept climbing more and more and passed a few hunters who gave us the stink eye as we passed.


Then we crossed the pass at an impressive 10,300 feet in elevation.


View wasn't bad either.


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Those lines you see in the hill are not natural. They were cut into the mountain in the 1930s by the CCC to help prevent erosion. Pretty cool their hard work is still working.


M~D~U-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Once again, I admitted to Mike that 2 weeks earlier would have merited some amazing fall colors.


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Next time!


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There were quite a few other roads over here that we were dying to go explore. Didn't have the time for side exploring though.


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We came to an overlook, I love being so high up that you can just see for miles and miles like this. Very calming I think.


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Still with a long ways to go though we picked up the speed through the winding road, hit 60mph a few times on some nice straights. Then we turned off and the trees disappeared allowing for a great view for miles of road.


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Again, what a change in the span of a few miles. We were back to the classic red dirt of Utah. But there is still much more water here then the desert we had come out of this morning as mad apparent by the vast amounts of shrubs and smaller trees.


M~D~U-30.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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We had drive MILES so far. I mean a LOT of dirt road. Dispite it being all fairly smooth road, we weren't complaining. It was a nice change of pace and this road seemed to only be taking us to more marvelous places.


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M~D~U-33.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Not long after that spot the road ducked into a more wooded area. Suddenly, something ran across the road. Then another thing.


“What was that?” asked Devin.


“I don't know, maybe a fox?” I said.


Nope. Better!


M~D~U-34.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Bobcat cubs!


There had been two of the little guys, but I only manage to snap this photo of the one. Barely at that. I was in such shock to see one in person in the wild, I damn near forgot to grab the camera before it disappeared into the foliage.


“What?! Bobcats!” Mike said over the radio.


“Yeah! I have never seen wild ones!” I said.


Sadly, Mike never got to see them as they were gone when he finally pulled up.


Very cool to see though!


We continued down the road, now miles from the mountains we had crossed over


M~D~U-35.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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You can juuusssttt see to road cut into the side of the mountain that we had drive through. Once again, looking back at where we had come.


M~D~U-37.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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By now the sun was setting and camp spots were getting hard to find.


Luckily Mike found a nice cliff spot right before we hit the highway.


M~D~U-40.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Amazingly I had cell service and got in touch with my Dad. It didn't look like we would be able to meet up. We did see that Blanding was close down the highway the opposite way we had to go in the morning. But we decided that we had a very long ways to go tomorrow and we needed to top off Gas and water.


With the fire ring right on the edge of the cliff, we cooked dinner and watched the sun go down. We had driven over 100miles of dirt alone today.


“It was a good day” said Mike relaxing with a beer in hand.


“yeah, but I'm ready for some rocks after all that” Devin replied.


Wouldn't quiet get it though tomorrow..

 

The next morning we went into Blanding, topped off the water jugs and gas and did a little light shopping for some food. Then got back on Highway 95 south to get to our turn off. Which was only about 1 mile down from where our dirt road had come out from that morning. Our destination would be Valley of the Gods. A place I was VERY excited for.


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Of course we had to turn off of that road to another one..and despite having GPS tracks..we still missed the turn off. Wasn't the first turn missed and wouldn't be the last!


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This road was soft silty goodness, road 262 Butler wash Rd . Luckily, it wasn't super dusty though. I got excited too thinking that the Valley of the Gods was just past those rolling hills.


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This road paralleled a creek bed and plenty of people were over by it camping. Couldn't blame them, was a pretty area with ample camp sites.


M~D~U-44.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


But it was a short road. And soon we hit hwy 163. But only for about 2 miles before turning off on rd 235. For some reason, I thought this would be the Valley of the Gods now that we could see the back side of the hills.


M~D~U-45.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-46.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


This road was very dusty so we spread out more.


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Still thinking it was VOTG, I pulled over at this sign to see what there was to read about the area.


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M~D~U-48.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Was a cool bit about the Hole in the Rock trail which is were we would try and camp at tonight.


M~D~U-49.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Otherwise, there wasn't much info. Well, not VOTG part anyways. But there was a road that headed off towards the cliffs and there was a list about some old Indian house. This got us excited and we decided to go check it out.


The road was only about ¼ of a mile long though before the brush made it impossible. But it was pretty much lunch time so we parked the trucks and decided to try and hike to the hut.


Didn't want to drive down this thing..haha glad I didn't in the long run.


M~D~U-51.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-50.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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Sadly, the road disappeared and the river was full of water so we couldn't cross it easily. The brush was thick and we decided to just go back and eat lunch.


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With lunch done, I was really excited to get to VOTG which I thought for sure was just up ahead.


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But the further we got down the road, the more disappointed I became.


This was the coolest the rock features got here.


M~D~U-52.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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Slightly confused, we continued on.


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Not that it was a bad view or anything..


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And it hadn't been a bad road..


M~D~U-56.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


My expectations had let me down though. And before I knew it the road was over and we were on hwy 261 south still following the UTBDR route.


“Man, I thought that that would be a bit cooler” I said over the radio.


“I didn't think it was bad.” replied Mike.


Then some signs started popping up on the road..


CAUTION Tight switchbacks ahead. Dirt Road.


And suddenly the speed limit slowed to 25mph.


Hmmm...kinda odd for a highway.


Then..BAM!


M~D~U-61.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


We were on the edge of a huge butte. The road was call Trail of the Ancients. And it decended down into Valley of the Gods...


M~D~U-59.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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OOOOOkkaaaayyy...expectations...met!


The road off the highway to VOTGs was clearly visible from above.


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M~D~U-62.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


I couldn't believe this was still a highway and that it was still unpaved. Very cool. It was amazing to drive down. Didn't even mind the 25mph speed limit one bit.


M~D~U-64.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

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There are only a couple of pull outs here and we stopped at them all. Its funny, because I am sure most people bypass this on accident by taking Hwy 163 straight to Blanding. What a shame. This was unreal.


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Not that we didn't mind there being almost no traffic on there but us for the moment. Let us take our time and get a good preview of what was to come..


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There is a red Tacoma somewhere in here...


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Finally we were at the bottom and headed into the Valley of the Gods. This area is a very well maintained road and we saw cars all over it. We even passed a Chevy Sonic thing. Thankfully, they always let us by.


Even from afar, we couldn't help but stop and go crazy with photos.


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The closer we got though..the more stops we made. Felt like a good ole fashion tourist.


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Yes that is a camper trailer, wasn't the only one out here. Doesn't take much to get to this area.


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Soon after that, we rounded a turn and then the real good stuff was shown.


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It just...wouldn't stop getting better.


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We were loving this. The light was great. The view's were jaw dropping. Things were just..great.


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And just wouldn't no, couldn't stop getting better. I felt like I was stopping too much here. But in retrospect, I don't regret stopping as much as I did at all. I mean. Come on..


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What's not to like?


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Progress still had to be made and Mike took the lead tired of my constant stopping antics


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But I had the GPS, not that you could get lost on this road, but I caught up and got back in front. The sun was starting to get low making the lighting very good. But were to camp was getting on our minds...


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The area had lots of places to camp, but almost all of them were occupied by people. Plus none were very cool sites anyways. But we kept an eye out for something and continued on down the paved road.


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But the end was reached and the highway was next. Not before crossing a terrifying water crossing!!


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Just kidding. Although no sooner had we crossed it when a subaru pulled up and asked us if his car could make.


“If you can make it through that watter puddle, you'll be just fine!” I said smiling at the guy.


He made it of course..


Not liking any of the camping options in the immediate area, we decided to just head for Hole in the Rock confident we could find something here. This meant we had to hit an new mile stone for us..


We had to air up.


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For the first time ALL trip. We inflated our tires back to highway pressure. It had been a week of offroading and hundreds of miles of dirt. It was almost a bit jarring to us to suddenly have to do this usually normal chore we do sometimes twice in a day in other areas.


The guy in the camper took a lot of interest in my CO2 setup and I chatted with him about why I use it and why we air down while Mike finished up his tires before we hit the highway. We had quite a long ways to go. Almost 90 miles to drive before getting to the trail head. We did get to enjoy going back up the Trail of the Ancients. But did not stop for more photos due to time.


It felt odd and very boring to be on a highway after all the driving on dirt we had been doing. It was a very long hour and a half drive.


Finally though we got to the pull off, although, missed it the first time ha. We quickly aired back down and set about looking for camp. Which was surprisingly more tricky then we though.


The first site we found was by a stinky marsh for cows. The smell and bugs drove us quickly away from that.


Before long the sun was setting and we hit the old half track Truck that marks part of the start of the trail Hole in the Rock.


M~D~U-95.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


there was a Y here and we decided to try it instead of going down the mail trial more knowing that it gets pretty tricky and we didn't want to get caught in anything hard in the dark.


We found a slab of slick rock with a fire ring right off the road and quickly settled for it. Setting up camp under a fiery sunset.


M~D~U-96.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-97.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
IMG_2210 by mike digirat, on Flickr


But Mike noticed something about the sunset..


“Hmm..looks pretty stormy over there.”


“I'll tune to the weather station” I said.


I sat in the truck with the HAM radio on the weather channel listening while dinner was made with the volume up loud enough for all to hear.


“Did he just say 80% chance of rain tomorrow?!” shouted Mike from the fire.


“Yep!” I said.


That didn't bode well. Hole in the Rock Trail was no easy trail like what we had been doing. I had picked it demanding we drive something fairly technical on the trip. Though Tail Damage rated it a 5-7, it was known to be more on the 7 side.


That said. I was determined to do it.


“It'll be fine,” I said with a grin, “ Shit'll buff out. It'll be fun!”


If I had a way of describing the look that Mike gave me, I would. But it wasn't confident look.


With that aside, we sat around our nice little fire and looked back on the last two days.


“Damn, we drove a long ass ways man” said Mike.


“I'll say. I don't think I've ever driven so much dirt in two days”.


“Agreed.”

To be continued:

Chapter 6: Too much Dirt, Too little Time​

 

Finally updated!

Sorry it took so long.

only two more chapters to go!

 

Woa. I really love those reports man. Them alone is enough for me to consider giving back my dieselgate TDI and getting a tacoma...

What would make those report better (as I'm not familiar with all those famous trail) is some form of GPS location so I can follow you on google map.

Amazing!