The De-Tour Trip Report - as told by turbodb (September 2017)

Welcome to The De-Tour Trip report. This trip took place nearly a year ago now, and we've shared many of the photos already - but now it's time for the story that goes with those photos!

The presentation of this story is going to be a bit different. I was far from the only truck on the trip - @Blackdawg was there as well; the organizer in fact. As usual, he took his own notes, and together we decided it would be fun to post them simultaneously. That way we won’t influence each other's memory and take on the story.

Each of Monte's chapters will be linked from mine (and vice-versa) so you can read a different perspective of The De-Tour. I highly recommend checking them both out.

The De-Tour

Read the whole story from @Blackdawg's (the veteran) point of view.
[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13]

Read the story from @turbodb's (the rookie) perspective.
[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13a] [Chapter 13b]​

Now, on to the story!

The De-Tour (Sep 2017)
September 17 - October 1, 2017

As @mrs.turbodb and I returned from the OBDR, we were already wondering what our next adventure would be. And, at least I assumed that it would be next year.

Boy, was I wrong.

You see, 10 days before we'd left for Oregon, an unassuming post had been made on TacomaWorld. The Tour was going to be a two-week long trip through Montana and Wyoming, with a group of guys who seemed to have a similar approach to exploring and taking in the sights as we do.

But we weren't even considering it - we'd just taken a week of work, and there was lots going on. So, we'd have to wait until next year to join and adventure such as that. In fact, I even said as much to Ben at one point:

But then in early September, the work situation "worked itself out," so to speak and I hoped there was still a chance I could get in on the trip.

The welcome couldn't have been warmer, and I knew that it was going to be a blast. There was a bit to do to get ready - I needed a CB radio for instance, and I had my concerns (mostly well-founded ground clearance concerns) - but it was clear to me that we'd have a blast.

Little did I know that this was going to be a trip like no other. Monte (@Blackdawg) had done an amazing job planning it - perhaps "the most well-planned trip ever," he later said, with two full weeks of amazing trails, views, and points of interest. Pre-run GPS tracks for the whole thing.



But the thing I appreciated the most were the "rules."

Those are basically the rules we should all live life by, so I was jazzed. And that jazz was only slightly tempered by the "important notes":

"OK, I get it," I thought, I'll bring some pants.

Luckily, I brought more than just pants…because snow and cold was exactly what we got. And rain. And mud. And oh yeah, lightning and thunder. But now we're getting ahead of ourselves.

But only just barely.

The De-Tour: Day 1 - We are now a caravan of four
September 17, 2017

The morning was an early one. I'd spent the last couple days wrapping up things as work and getting ready to go. By 10pm Saturday, my checklist was complete:

• CB radio installed
  
• Warm clothes and extra sleeping bag (just in case) packed
  
• Two weeks of breakfast, lunch, and dinner gathered (and pre-cooked in the case of dinner)
  
• Truck fueled, loaded, and waiting in the garage for an early morning start

My target go-time was 4am, and with an actual on-the-road time of 4:30, I wasn't doing too bad. I pressed the skinny pedal as I got onto I-90 heading east and monitored aprs.fi for the rest of the crew that had left the night before. By 7:00, I was crossing the Columbia River, happy to see that Mike (@Digiratus) was still beaconing from the Spokane area.

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As I neared Spokane, my gas gauge neared empty. I knew it was time to pull over and refuel, and to fill up my auxiliary fuel containers as well - there were a few points in the trip where we'd be away from gas stations for a prolonged period, and I didn't want to be that guy bumming gas.

As I completed my fill-up and got back on the road, it was about 9:30, and I noticed that Mike, Zane (@Speedytech7), and Dan (@drr, with his dad) were back on the road; they were ~20 minutes ahead of me. I pushed that skinny pedal just a bit further, which combined with the weight I was carrying for a two-week trip wasn't going to be pretty for my MPGs.

As I reached Coeur d'Alene, I was just minutes behind. I fired up the HAM and called out to Mike, since I knew he'd be monitoring. Little did he know at the time, it was my first HAM contact - I'd done a lot of listening to that point, but no actual communication. He confirmed that they'd stopped for gas, the exit they'd just passed, and that they'd continue along at 65mph while I caught up the final two miles. And soon, we were a caravan of four.

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Four loaded Tacoma's heading down the road looks pretty bad-ass, and as we stopped throughout the day at rest stops, gas stations, and the like, we were constantly approached by various folks to chat about the trucks. Of course, being new to the group, there was also a bit of checking out my truck that went on, and I got my first look at Zane's new ride after he recently rolled his last (and did an amazing job in a short time getting the new one trail-worthy)!

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Around 6:15pm, we pulled into Iron Star Pizza in Big Timber - only 75 minutes after our scheduled dinner meeting time. Luckily for us, and apparently as usual, Monte was running late and wouldn't show up for another hour. We used the time to tune our CBs with Mike's SWR meter, and enjoyed a few appetizers as we got to know each other.

When Monte arrived just after 7:00, we did a quick round of intros and got straight to ordering. We still needed to eat, refuel, and find a camp site for the evening, so we knew it was going to be a late one. Around the table, we ordered only two items: The Supreme and The Iron Star pizzas, at Monte and Devin's recommendation. We were not disappointed.

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Full (and with leftovers in most cases), we headed out to find camp. Monte knew the general direction but without a specific spot in mind, he sent Mike down a side road to quicken the search. In the end, we found a large, flat spot with a fire ring and setup camp, which mostly consisted of deploying RTTs and pulling out Mike's propane fire pit since there was a stage 2 burn ban in Montana (no wood fires, even in established rings).

We chatted until 1am - about each other, past trips, the (anticipated) trip to come, and the plan for the following day. Eventually, two things happened: first, we got sick of the seemingly hundreds of daddy-long-leg spiders that seemed to be dropping on us from the surrounding trees, and second, the propane ran out and we all realized we were going to need some sleep. Tired from our long drives, we all climbed into out tents, eager to see what the following day would bring…starting with what our camp site looked like!

The De-Tour: Day 2 - Off to a Rough Start
September 18, 2017

Close to the gravel road, we were awoken at first light by traffic, including 18-wheelers. And as we climbed out of our tents, we got our first look at the site we'd called camp the night before.

It was glorious. In that "it worked" kind of way.

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We each investigated in our own way, discovering the second site (occupied) next to us, the source of the daddy-long-leg spiders (the fire ring where we'd setup, not the trees), and of course the warnings to be careful. 18-wheelers or not, we were in bear country. (Note that we never saw a bear.)

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After a bit of exploration and breakfast (which ranged from coffee to granola bars to a breakfast sandwich with fruit), it was time to get going, so the tents came down (dry!) and we all piled into our trucks, glad to be on the road and headed to our first planned adventure.

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By 10:30 we reached Natural Bridge & Falls, where we all climbed out of our trucks, and aired down for the first time, in anticipation of the dirt to come. Then, we made the short trek over to Natural Bridge to check it out before continuing.

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And then we were off to Independence Pass, our first trail of the trip. I was excited as well as nervous - not sure if my little (compared to the others) truck was up for the task - though I'd have to wait a little longer to find out, because as we neared the trailhead we were greeted by a friendly road flagger.

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As we all photographed and chatted around the trucks, Monte got the low-down from the flagger. We had about another 30 minutes to wait here, and then an hour further up the road (where they were installing a culvert). And then, we'd have to stay on the trail that night because they were closing the road at 5pm.

Seriously. Closing a Forrest Service road. Can they even do that?

Discussion followed. Should we wait, get in some wheeling, and camp up the road for the night (where there might be snow), or should we look for another trail and not get stuck behind the construction?

Not wanting to throw off the schedule for the entire trip, and thinking we could avoid the snow (!) we decided to turn around and look for another option. Of course, much to our dismay, that meant airing up just 30 minutes after we'd aired down.

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And with that, we headed back into Big Timber for fuel. On our way out of town, Monte came over the CB, "Devin found us a Jeep trail …depending on the reviews, it's either easy or really hard …it's hard to tell if the reviews are from trucks or ATVs." This wouldn't be the last time that Devin worked her Google-fu for us on the trip!

What more could we ask for?

But then, over the CB, @drr called for Monte to pull over at the next exit for a quick discussion. He'd gotten an email that we all knew could come but had hoped wouldn't - an email that said he had to be back to work at 9am the next morning. Such a bummer - to have driven from Seattle for a night of camping, no trails, and then the drive back to Seattle!

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Goodbyes shared, we parted ways and soon found ourselves at the Benbow Trail, airing down and looking forward to some bumps.

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And with that, we headed up the trail. There were lodgepole pines, rocks, mud, water, and eventually a bit of snow. For each of us, the experience was a bit different. On 35's, Monte and Devin were floating and choosing any line they liked. Zane and Mike on 33's were moving a bit more slowly, but were still quite comfortable. On 31's (with what turned out to be near no-lift), I had to be more careful picking lines, but was still doing just fine.

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And then, trouble. It was trouble that we'd heard about. It was trouble with a name. Frankenstein.

As we pulled up to the top of the hill, we saw Frank in the middle of the road, hood raised. Monte was on the CB telling us that he had diff fluid on the ground and that his auxiliary battery was boiling.

"This is why I hate Frank," could also be heard.

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To everyone else, this was pretty much par for the course - Frank breaks. This time, Monte wasn't super happy - he'd just had the front diff rebuilt, and it was still under warranty. So, as he pulled off the skid to get a look, and discovered that the tube for the diff breather had become dislodged, he was both pissed and relieved. The trail fix was to be a couple strategically placed zip ties, but it was too hot to fix immediately, so we waited.

And we ate cookies.

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And eventually, Monte got Frank buttoned up enough to head back down the trail - because not only was it starting to get late, but it was also starting to snow, and we weren’t sure of the trail conditions or when we'd reach camp if we continued on. All we knew was that it the snow and mud were getting thicker.

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And then, we were on our way to camp. We'd arrive at dusk, having driven past the two campgrounds (that had been open just a couple weeks before on the trial run) to find a large spot on the side of the road that easily fit our rigs.

We all got to fixing dinner. Having prepped mine before leaving, I feasted on chicken and mushrooms and a fresh salad. And this of course got me a bit of ribbing. But it was all in fun, and frankly totally worth it… 'cause I was the one eating chicken and mushrooms.

Mike broke out two things this night: the propane fire ring of course, but also some of his homemade salsa - a favorite amongst the group, for obvious reasons - it's delicious! We'd have the salsa during several meals on the trip, each time just as tasty as the last.

With dinner behind us, we again chatted around the fire late into the night, all the time hoping that the light rain would stop - if not before we went to bed, at least before morning so that we could put our tents away dry. The conversation (perhaps obviously) centered around trucks and trips and got especially lively when Mike and Monte recalled different details of the same trip, some 5 years earlier.

"Five years," I thought to myself, "I can't remember details of 5 weeks ago."

In the end, the discussion of "facts vs. what's in trip reports" went unsettled - perhaps on purpose. Because really, everyone just had a great time with the fun-loving debate! Plus, by leaving it unsettled, we were able to bring it up many times over the remainder of the trip, any time there was a disagreement about just what unfolded some time ago.

Of course, that will never happen with the De-Tour - since it went so perfectly to plan, I'm sure we'll all remember it identically. And if we don’t, we'll all know that this trip report is fact.

As we wrapped up around the fire and climbed into bed the rain only got heavier, lulling us to sleep.

And it rained all night.

 

Oh I can already tell the two trip report thing needs to become standard. I like this, good writing as always Dan!

 

Shit man.

This already fun. haha

 

Thanks Zane. Two trip reports is definitely fun. @mrs.turbodb and I do that with the family already sometimes - so fun to see what/how the memories are different/similar .

So. True.

 

Oh this is gonna be interesting

 

It's only been 10 months and I had already forgotten about the cookies... and the spiders.

 

Chapter 2​

The De-Tour: Day 3 - Weather
September 19, 2017.

Hoping the rain would stop, we all stayed in bed until 8:30am. Or at least, that's why I stayed in bed - I'd later realize that 9am was the general wake-up time. Once again, morning provided a clearer view of our campsite as the rain let up slightly I headed out to take a look and get started on breakfast.

Next to the creek, everyone was dry in their tent - but Zane was clearly in need of a new rain fly.

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Once again breakfast was sausage, eggs, and strawberries but on this morning I had the bright idea to cut down on dishes by cooking the sausage in the egg pan, and then scrambling the eggs in the sausage fat (rather than using butter).

It was a disaster. The sausage cooked just fine, but there wasn't enough fat, and scrabling the eggs in the buterless pan just meant that the (sticky-from-protein) egg whites could stick to the pan before the yolks were mixed in.

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Tastiness was reduced, and dishwashing time was at least doubled - which meant that by the time I was done, everyone else was up and had finished (or nearly) their breakfast. Smarter than me, they had no dishes to wash.

And then, the rain started turning to snow.

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At first it was relatively light snow, but it was enough to get us all moving with the tents. They'd go away wet, but wet was better than snow-covered.

Within minutes, the snow picked up. By the time we pulled out of camp and got back on the road, it was thick and sticking. Monte's warning in the prep-post was definitely coming true - it was gonna be cold!

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Out of the woods, we headed for Roscoe where we'd air up and evaluate our next move.

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While airing up, we decided that our best bet would be to head into Red Lodge, where we'd planned to eat lunch anyway at Mas Taco, in order to get a new battery for Monte, some propane for the fire, and of course food for our bellies.

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Mas Taco was good (more 'meh taco' when your bar is California), but food and propane were all we could find - there were no batteries for Frank. So, after a bit more discussion, we decided that the best plan was to head south - to Powell, WY - where we could regroup and repair before heading out again.

Knowing we had a few hours of driving in front of us, we settled in for the haul by turning up our radios and setting our cruise control (at least, I set mine).

That of course meant it was time for a pit stop! We checked out the view of-and-around the Smith Mine, a ghost town/mine the result of the worst coal mining disaster in Montana (74 people killed in 1973).

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From there, it was back on the road, where the tunes and cruise control were put to good use. By early afternoon, we arrived in sunny (to our joy) Powell where we all immediately unfurled our tents in front of Monte's house to dry them out.

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Then, Monte, Zane, and Mike got to work on various repairs - a battery for Frank, a fix to the camp table on the Red Head's swingout, and a new taillight for the grey truck.

But I had the hardest job of all (eventually shared by Monte) - talking to the neighbor (character!) across the street.

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At 3:45, Mike stopped laughing long enough (from across the street - he was smarter than to actually engage) to excuse us from the neighbor so we could pack up our tents and get back on the road - still eager to "stay on schedule," which - unbeknownst to us - we were just about to scrap entirely! Destination: Cooke City and Goose Lake.

As we drove up the Bear Tooth Highway, we headed up and over Dead Indian Pass, where we got an amazing view of the road down to the valley below

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Little did we know that we'd be back relatively soon, for one of the most memorable moments of the trip!

From there, we headed on to Cooke City for fuel, and up to the Lulu Pass road and Goose Lake, hoping that the snow in Cooke City wasn't an indication of what we were about to run into - a thousand feet higher in elevation!

Of course, we had no such luck. Not only did the snow get deeper, but as we reached the trailhead, it was clear that we'd be breaking trail. It was time for a pow-wow.

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Monte of course wanted to continue - afterall, Ben (@m3bassman) and Kirsten were to meet us after midnight at our camp near Lulu Pass - but Mike, Zane, and I reminded him that he was on 35's and we weren't. In the end, given the time (6:30pm), we decided that the smart move was to head back to Sunlight Basin and text Ben the new location - we might arrive after dark, but at least it would be warmer and dry.

At least we were right about the arriving after dark part.

As we drove up Sunlight Basin, we once again realized that the weather wasn't on our side - what had been dry a couple hours earlier was already covered in snow - beautiful, but wet.

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We thanked the weather gods as we pulled into camp that while it was dark, it wasn't snowing. And, since we were now in Wyoming, it meant we could have a real fire! Monte got on it right away, and within minutes had cleared a spot from the snow and built one of his trademark log-cabin fires.

The rest of us made our dinners.

The weather gods giggled, and let loose the snow.

Perfect.

Determined, we tried - for a good 15 minutes - to keep the fire going, but the snow got heavier and heavier, and in the end it was clear that even if Monte kept the fire alive, no one was going to stay out in the snow to enjoy it. We all wrapped up our dinners and dishes and buttoned down the hatches.

By 9:30 it'd been snowing for an hour and we'd gotten 2+ inches of fresh powder. That was enough for Zane, Devin and I to called it quits - we were ready to get warm and dry and we retired to our tents. Monte and Mike stayed up for another 15 minutes or so discussing the plans for the following day - should we attempt Goose Lake or not? - and it was at this point that Mike titled the trip "Weather." Then they too were ready to get out of the snowstorm.

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Monte's last two acts of the night were to sweep the snow off everyone's tents, and leave a sign for Ben in the snow on the main road - both of which would be completely undone by the snow that would continue to fall throughout the night and into the early morning hours!

But Ben and Kirsten would still find us. It would be 2:38am, and they would have driven several extra hours through white-out conditions, but they would.

- - - - -

Enjoying the De-Tour story?
There's more - @Blackdawg also wrote up a version. Check out his version of this chapter here: [Chapter 2]

or, check out the full story with these links:

As told by @turbodb: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13a] [Chapter 13b]

As told by @Blackdawg: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13]


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You know, I have a brand new rainfly for my tent but I never have gotten wet and mine has no tears yet so I haven't put it on. Also again I'm getting cold looking at pictures. I remember eating my soup under the shelter provided by Mike's tent while Monte's sad ass fire fizzled out from it's rough 15mins of steaming haha

 

haha man Im ready for the cold! Sick of this 90º+ BS. Finally getting into the 50s at night. Super awesome.

Love it Dan! This chapter was VERY different from mine! haha

 

can't wait for the rest of the chapters

 

Chapter 3​

The De-Tour: Day 4 - Sun! …and a Soap Explosion
September 20, 2017.

Most of us were awoken at 2:00am by Mike's radio blasting when Ben calling over the ham radio to see if anyone was around. I say "most" because Mike slept right through it! Of course, no one was getting out of their tent and into the snow to reply so Ben had to make do with the description of the camp site that Monte had communicated the evening before.

Oh, and there was that "sign" that he'd written in the snow on the road. Hours ago, as it continued to come down.

So when Ben and Kirsten (and the pups) rolled in at 2:38am, we were all a little surprised. At that point, we did roll out of our tents to give a warm welcome before heading back to bed, happy to know that they'd arrived safely.

Ben was the first one up in the morning, and after his dogs discovered our nearest neighbors (who also had dogs and were a little…strange), we chatted for a while before everyone else moseyed out of bed. Though we'd gotten ~4" of snow the night before, it had stopped around 6am, and both our campsite and the canyon we found ourselves in were amazingly beautiful.

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A warm breakfast (made correctly this time - and no plate to wash!) really hit the spot as we all took stock of our gear and got things brushed off and put away (dry snow is way better than rain - the tents were nearly dry as we put them away).

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Ready to go around 10, we had a quick discussion to decide our plan of attack for the day - would we go to Goose Lake, or just skip that and head up Sunlight Basin and then out and over to the Pryor's, essentially writing off a few of the trails Monte had planned?

Or, would we go to Moab?

Yes. It was day 4 of 14 - on a trip where we'd been warned that it could be cold - and Moab was floated. In fact, Ben may have discussed it with Kirsten before they even left home. But we weren't there yet. We still wanted to make The Tour work.

We hadn't had enough pain and suffering. Yet.

We did however decide that with another 6 inches of snow that running Lulu and Goose Lake were probably not the smartest moves, so our plan was to run up Sunlight Basin, and then head over to the Pryor's.

Heading up Sunlight was beautiful. The road was easy and it was overcast, but it was easy to stop and take pictures of the white.

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Along the way, there were several creek crossings, and even one place where the creek had washed out the road for a good 100 feet or so - great fun for all of us, and a photo op for Monte who had raced ahead. Ben also got a pic before heading in…

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Though long, it was a shallow ford and we continued on through several more crossings - each time taking the requisite "poser" shots because well, we like our trucks.

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And then, over the CB, we heard our first "moose" call. Several hundred yards up the hill, Devin had spotted a pair - so it was time for a few animal glamor shots.

The moose were obviously rarer, but boy if the dogs aren't cuter (Milo in this case).

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The end of the trail wasn't much further along, though on our way we did run into a few interesting tidbits. There were the five or so trees that Monte had to clear with his axe. And that of course required a few "lumberjack" comments and whistles. And there were the tracks in the middle of the road, questioned by our tailgunner and identified as "A very special type of wildlife, known as 'hunter'" by the guy breaking trail.

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We ended up running into those hunters at the end of the road where we all turned around for the trek out. They were hunting moose. We didn't mention the ones we'd seen.

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Driving out, we headed back through the crossings and made good time - we were all ready for lunch and began discussing where we'd eat - ultimately deciding on a large bridge and gorge at the head of the valley.

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Waiting for a couple trucks to catch up, we got a good look at large, medium, and small Tacomas. Clearly, I need some bigger tires.

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As we reached the head of the valley, we left the snow behind, for today. And that meant it was time for truck pics!

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It wasn't far to the bridge, and that of course meant…more truck pics. But only a few by us. Most of them were taken by a minivan full of Chinese tourists who were obviously infatuated with our rigs. They took pictures from every angle. They were smiling. Waving.

We weren't celebrities. But our trucks were.

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Eventually, they packed up into their minivan and headed up towards Dead Indian Pass, while we continued to take in the gorge…

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And then we too headed out - it was too windy for lunch so we decided to eat in a town called Bridger, but not before stopping at the pass for Ben and Kirsten to soak it in (since they'd not seen it the previous day with the rest of us).

And that's when it happened. The celebrity of our trucks was just too much for the minivan occupants (who were now with us at the pass).

Well, not all our trucks. Just Frank. With Devin still on board. Thank goodness there was some quick camera work by Monte to catch it!

Check out that pose! And the photographer! Priceless.

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Our day made and after a good laugh, we rolled out towards Bridger - everyone's spirits up as we recalled the hilarity of the entire situation. And as we drove, the skies cleared. The sun shone. Red dirt and golden grass gleamed. It was turning into a great day.

Who needs Moab with weather like this in Montana? We'd obviously made the right decision.

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In Bridger, we refueled and found a city park where we decided to have lunch. It was perfect, until I opened my kitchen box to find the dish soap had exploded over everything. That made it hard to make lunch, so while everyone else ate, I proceeded to rinse soap off of everything.

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Our bodies refueled, we headed to and into the Pryor's - snow free and mostly dry. A new type of landscape, we were hitting bits of ledge, patches of forest, and big vistas. This was what we'd expected.

And we'd have it for all of one afternoon. This one.

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And of course with these vista's, we had to stop and check out the canyons - especially interesting because that's where most of the trees were growing; more sheltered from the snow and wind that blankets the area in the winter. Everyone was out of the trucks looking around and taking it in.

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Not long after, we rolled into camp at the base of the Pryor's. Big, flat, dry, and relatively sheltered, it was a great site. And, for once we got to see it when we arrived - before dark!

Spirits were high as we opened up and aired out the tents, and as we made dinner and gathered around the (propane, since we were back in Montana) fire.

Dinner for me was marinated flank steak, mashed potatoes, and salad. Oh, and Mike broke out a couple avocados and made guacamole with his salsa! We passed around chocolate chip cookies I'd brought for everyone and recounted how crazy the weather of the last few days had been.

We all agreed - unusual for this time of year, and we were glad that it seemed to be getting better. Afterall, we still had 10 more days of adventuring.

Little did we know when we hit the sack early that those 10 days of adventure would dwarf the first four!

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- - - - -

Enjoying the De-Tour story?
There's more - @Blackdawg also wrote up a version. Check out his version of this chapter here: [Chapter 3]

or, check out the full story with these links:

As told by @turbodb: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13a] [Chapter 13b]

As told by @Blackdawg: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13]


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Yay!

 

Good stuff man!

I did tell the hunter about the moose He just was looking for a Bull he'd seen earlier.

 

Chapter 4​

The De-Tour: Day 5 - They survived only by killer instinct
September 21, 2017.

For those of us that awoke to the pitter-patter of rain at 1:30am, our weather-contentment from the night before was short-lived. For everyone else…ok, there was no one else.

We waited for the rain to slow before getting up the next morning - even Ben and I getting up a couple hours later than usual, at 9:30. But, eventually we realized that it wasn't going to stop, so we tumbled down our ladders and got to breaking camp. Oh, and Mike started the only real "breakfast" of the morning, …which was warm by lunch.

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It was at this point that we were all eying Ben and Kirsten's tent. The new-fangled pop-up variety, it looked a bit goofy on the truck, but it put away quickly, and stayed a whole lot drier than the rest of our RTTs.

Still not sure any of us would have traded though. Hahaha!

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As we headed back up the Pryor's, the going was nothing like the previous day. Dry, dusty trails had turned to mud, and warnings of slick sections were frequent. In fact, as we entered the tree line, Monte popped out of his truck to tell each of us in person to be careful - "This part gets off camber and if you slip into the trees I don't think we're getting you out."

Right, "Thanks Monte!" At that point we were are all careful, and we didn't lose anyone. At that point.

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We continued on for a bit, only to hear Monte - over the radio this time - with two phrases that just didn't seem to go together…

Monte - 11:33 - "That was one of the scariest things I've ever done in my life!"

Group -

Monte - 11:34 - "The edge is about to give out, but you guys should follow, I'm going to go get my Muck Boots on."

Right.

Most of us got out of our trucks. But not Zane. Zane started to follow. And then, he lost traction in the mud and started to slide off the edge. Or rather, the edge started to slide down the hill. He stopped.

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We realized pretty quickly that like many of the trails before, this just wasn't happening - at least not today. The problem was that Monte was already through the narrow section (with Frank, a good 12" wider than our trucks), and "There's no way I'm driving through that again," was his reaction when we suggested that we rescue Zane and then all head back down.

Understandable, I guess.

So we decided that the best course of action was to have Ben winch Zane out of trouble, and then have Mike, Ben, Zane, and I head back the way we'd come, and Monte would continue on, heading down the mountain via another route. We'd meet up at the bottom as soon as possible, and stay in touch via ham radio in the meantime.

So out came the recovery gear, and we got started with the rescue - eventually getting Zane winched off of the edge using his slider and a tree, and back towards wider ground.

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We then turned around and headed back down the way we'd come - all of us that is except Monte and Devin.

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Down was easier than up in this case, and by lunch time we were back at the main road, waiting for Frank (which we could hear rev-ing his way through the mud towards our location). Sandwiches were made, and as we recounted the morning - mostly discussing the grippy-ness of the various tires we were all running - it was generally decided that KO2's were probably not the right tire for this trip.

Except by Ben, who was running KO2's. (So was Zane, but he agreed with the rest of us. Sorry Ben.)

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Bellies full, we decided that the only thing to do was to head towards the next stop - an ice cave in the Pryor's that was on a more maintained road than the one we'd just attempted. The highlight of the cave - Monte had told us -was that on an 80 degree day, you could feel 30 degree air pumping out of the mouth of the cave.

That wasn't going to happen, but we wondered if it might actually warm us up on this day.

On the way to the cave, we drove through and around several canyons deep canyons and fire-burned areas. Even on this wet and overcast day, they were amazing. We couldn't help but to stop and take pictures.

Oh, and of the trucks.

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Eventually we reached the trailhead to the cave and made the short trek down the trail to it's entrance.

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Neither warmer nor colder inside the cave, we looked around for a bit and then decided it was time to move on - we wanted to get out of the cold and rain, and perhaps to sunnier skies by the time we camped that night.

We clearly hadn't learned.

So we packed into the trucks and headed down through East Pryor, on the lookout for two highlights - Pen's Cabin, and the herd of wild horses that Monte and Devin had seen in the mountain meadows just weeks before.

What we got, initially, was snow.

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We were breaking trail, and there were points at which Monte was driving by GPS, having lost the road entirely. Later, he'd tell us that "we survived only by his killer instinct in finding the road," which might have been true if we couldn't have simply followed our own tracks out.

But we continued on, and the snow gradually stopped as we reached the top of the ridge (above the clouds), and came first upon Pen's Cabin and then on a few wild horses.

Could it be? Our first success?

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Even Milo's spirits seemed raised. Or maybe he just wanted to chase the horses!

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From there it was back down out of the mountains as (we assumed) the sun was setting - our quest for sun and warmth still unfulfilled - and into Lovell where we could refuel and destroy a car wash by power-washing some of the mud off of the trucks.

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We also picked up Glen - a third-gen owner - who was going to join our first-gen bunch for a few days of wheeling. The fact that his was Inferno Orange immediately endeared him to Ben, who'd recently purchased the same!

Intermittent rain showers continued as we left Lovell for our camp site some 17 miles down the highway. As we arrived, it was perhaps fitting that a 50-foot long, 12-inch deep mud puddle stood between us and our camp. We each proceeded to gun it through the mud. And yes, we should have skipped those car washes.

Camp was smaller than Monte remembered it, and that unfortunately meant splitting up the crew into two groups. Mike and Glen (in what turned out to be the "red truck" group) ended up hanging back, just out of the main camp but would both survive the herd of "killer goats" that we'd seen as we drove in.

The rest of the evening proceeded as usual - we setup in the dark, made and ate dinner in the dark, and chatted around the campfire until sometime past midnight. We filled Glen in on the adventures of the day (and previous days) and wondered if Mark (@IDtrucks, aka Derp) would be able to find us - because just like Ben and Kirsten a few days before, he was going to drive through the night to meet us for a few days on the trail.

And as usual, as the rain started to pick up, we all headed into our tents hoping that tomorrow would bring just as much adventure, but with significantly nicer weather.

Yeah, one can always hope!

- - - - -

Enjoying the De-Tour story?
There's more - @Blackdawg also wrote up a version. Check out his version of this chapter here: [Chapter 4]

or, check out the full story with these links:

As told by @turbodb: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13a] [Chapter 13b]

As told by @Blackdawg: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13]


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That snowy area was fun I thought, I was just playing a game of kick the clutch (which had less than 500mi on it still) to make the ass slide around while we found our tracks.

 

Killer instincts! hahaha

Great stuff man!

 

Chapter 5​

The De-Tour: Day 6 - The day we reached camp before dark
September 22, 2017.

It was 5:22am when Mark rolled in, and curled up in his passenger seat for a couple hours of sleep - that is, until Ben found him around 8 and he headed back into town for coffee and some crazy energy drink - the breakfast of 25-year-olds!

The rest of us stirred late - again, hoping the rain would stop, and then accepting our muddy fate - exiting our tents to perhaps our least beautiful camp site yet. And smallest - separated into the green team and red team the night before.

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As we were getting ready to go, Mark returned - light on sleep but high on energy. His truck - on 35's that stuck out several inches beyond the fenders - was already covered in mud, but that didn't slow him down a bit.

Unfortunately, we also discovered that Zane was being called away for work. Lucky for him, it was in Arizona. Which, we were reasonably certain, was sunny and warm!

Within 30 minutes, we were ready to climb into our dry trucks and go - in search of adventure (which we'd find) once again. Our first stop was Devil's Canyon Overlook - an amazing convergence of the Bighorn and Devil Canyons narrow, winding, colorful canyon cliffs that tower 1,000 feet above the Bighorn Lake.

It was truly breathtaking.

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An amazing echo chamber, we had a blast yelling and carrying on, with conversations that were 5 or seconds delayed but clear as day. And then, Monte got out the elk bugle.

Smiles resulted, all around - perhaps none more-so than Devin!

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Spirits raised, we decided we'd head up the Bighorns to Hunt Mountain road, and eventually to camp just past Antelope Butte, in a high-mountain meadow.

But oh, how we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The closer we got to Hunt Mountain road, the foggier it got. And colder. And snowier. Eventually, we turned off the highway onto the road, and we took a minute to eat lunch. And that gave Glenn and Mark a chance to air down.

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And then we were off. And just like the day before, the weather only got whiter. In fact, where we thought we couldn't see anything the day before, today we could see even less.

Monte remarked, "Well guys, it's déjà vu from yesterday. I'll tell you that it's quite breathtaking when you can see!" To which Glenn replied, "It's actually a bit butt puckering."

Of course, the rest of us already knew of Monte's "drive-by-GPS-killer-instincts," so we just enjoyed ourselves and the trail - spinning tires through the snow, and eventually some of the deepest mud we'd encountered so far, which by the end of the trail meant that certain of us (with 35's that stuck out way past our fenders) couldn't see our trucks.

Devin wasn't pleased. "Monte is doing all the setup and getting everything out of the truck," she said. And that seemed more than reasonable to the rest of us, 'cause that woman puts up with a lot.

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It was at the end of the trail that I also noticed that one of the bolts holding on my bed rack had come loose - the nut having backed off (and likely fallen behind the bedliner). Luckily for me, Mike had a bag of nuts, and the first one I grabbed was a perfect fit. In a few minutes, and after a few pics of some heavy machinery at the end of the trail, we were once again ready to go!

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Then, miraculously, as we headed into what Monte promised was one of the most beautiful areas of the Bighorns, the clouds started to part, and the sun came out.

We. Were. So. Jazzed.

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We stopped several times for pictures along the way, enjoying ourselves in the sun, and letting the dogs run about in glory as the snow melted.

Oh, and there was a near disaster between a moose and Ben's truck. But it was only a near disaster so we continued on!

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And then, we reached our camp site. Only Monte knew it, so when he told us, and it was just 5:15pm, we were all stunned. How could this be? It was still light. The sun was out. We were going to be able to dry our tents. And, we were positioned in the valley so that we'd get morning sun the next day.

It was glorious!

…for about 15 minutes, until the fog started rolling in.

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But that was still just fog, and we weren't going to let that get us down. We built a fire and ate our dinners - Ben and Kirsten had some amazing sausages that they shared with Mike; Glenn ate a pork chop the size of Montana, Devin whipped up foil-wrapped delicacies for herself and Monte, I had cheese tortellini with cauliflower and meat sauce, and Derp dropped a chicken breast directly into the fire (luckily, he had a second he could wrap in foil first).

In all, spirits were high as we gathered around the fire for conversation.

The topics that night were varied - the trip so far and trucks were of course common topics, but it was Glenn's first real night in camp as well - so like me a few nights before, he was subjected to several probing questions about himself, his truck, and how the heck he found himself with this totally awesome, obviously fun, clearly beautiful set of folks…especially given that he drove a third gen.

And then, as we'd become accustomed to on this trip (but still hated), it started to snow.

Naturally, that resulted in a few choice words about the weather, and then we resigned ourselves to washing dishes and covering up things we wanted to keep dry. Well, except that Glenn couldn't cover up his tent.

Fire chat continued until 9:30 or so, when the snow started coming down harder and wetter, and we decided it was best to get warm in our tents and hope for the best in the morning. After-all, we were on the side of the meadow that would get morning sun, right?

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- - - - -

Enjoying the De-Tour story?
There's more - @Blackdawg also wrote up a version. Check out his version of this chapter here: [Chapter 5]

or, check out the full story with these links:

As told by @turbodb: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13a] [Chapter 13b]

As told by @Blackdawg: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13]


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THE PORK CHOP! HAHAHAHAHAHA

fuck i forgot about that shit. God I laughed so hard at that haha

 

Chapter 6​

The De-Tour: Day 7 - End of the trip. For Frank.
September 23, 2017.

Amazingly, Ben @m3bassman wasn't the first one up. Glenn @Glenn_R was, to clean off his tent. Snow had continued through the night, and we had a good 3-4 inches covering everything. It was pretty, but cold.

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As we got up and took stock of the situation, Ben made an off-the-cuff remark that it was too bad it wasn't sunny, because he and Kirsten had been planning on making breakfast for everyone if it had been.

And then, like magic, the sun started to peek through.

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We all smiled and turned to Ben. He mumbled something under his breath and went to talk to Kirsten. And, as we dusted the snow off of everything, they made a delicious breakfast of family-made bacon, eggs, and potato "surprise" (all mixed up in one pot to reduce cleanup) - delicious!

Then, we were off. Getting down was back through the fog, muck, and snow from the night before, but we were "used to it" by now, as much as one can be used to cold and suffering, so we soldiered on.

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Our destinations for the morning were Shell Reservoir and then Boulder Basin - a couple of roads that Monte was sure would "Be fine on your 31's, since you'll use your skids."

Hmm, I'm not sure I equate the two - but I'd been OK to this point, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I mean, it's not like the snow and mud made it even slicker or anything…

At any rate, mid-morning, most folks were down to a quarter or tank or so (except Derp who had 1/8th) so we decided it was time to break out the spare fuel. One of Monte's rules for the trip was to bring at least 5 gallons of fuel, since the plan was to be in the wild for 2-3 days at one point. Everyone did, except Derp. And so yeah, the guy with the least gas had to bum some off of Glenn. Turns out he'd later "permanently borrow" Glenn's gas cans too. Way to go Derp! @IDtrucks

It as also at this point that we noticed how low the reservoir was - normally full, it was a good 10-12 feet lower than normal and we couldn't see any water at all, and not just due to the foggy conditions.

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Full of gas, we wrapped up the Shell Reservoir road and continued to Boulder Basin. In fact, I'm not sure where one stopped and the other started, because the whole area was covered in snow and of similar terrain: "the rocks are the road."

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We proceeded at various paces through the obstacles, not running into too much trouble for a while - even I, on my 31's got through everything with minimal difficulty and only a lost front mud flap (which I'd be reminded by several folks was going to have to come off anyway when I get bigger tires).

And then, over the radio, we heard Devin scream, "Oh f***, watch out!"

Ben rounded the corner first, but we all shortly came on Frank in a bit of a compromising position.

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You see, Monte likes to go fast. And in this case he missed the road and Frank went for a swim. We weren't sure if Frank would be OK, but Devin was definitely sure about one thing, "I hate Frank." And we all understood.

So, we hooked up Frank to Ben's winch and gave a tug. Nothing. Well, not quite nothing - Ben's truck was pulled toward the river as well. Then, we strapped Ben's truck to my truck and tried again - a bit of movement, but we were still pulled forward. Finally, we hooked up two winches and four trucks, and pulled Frank back up onto dry land.

He was waterlogged, but otherwise seemed OK, because luckily he started right up!

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Now able to laugh at what could have been a serious situation, we continued on until the next major obstacle - a narrow rocky section that I decided to by-pass. With 35's, Monte and Derp made it up easily, and Ben was able to gun it at just the right second to bounce over the main rock. But both Glenn and Mike @Digiratus ended up with their rear diff stuck and had to winch themselves up the final ledge, with a peanut gallery egging them on!

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It was all good fun, and as we got back in the trucks, Monte told us that we had just two more major obstacles on the trail - an off-camber ledge that could be really slippery if it was covered in snow/ice, and a final hillclimb that would "be especially fun for Dan."

Dang.

First though was the ledge. Luckily it wasn't covered in snow or ice and so was relatively straight-forward for us to cross. We even gave Monte a bit of a hard time for over-hyping it.

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But then, not fifteen minutes later, we hit the last hill climb. As Monte started up, his last words on the radio were "We may need to winch Dan up this." And then, "Everyone except Derp (also on 35's) is going to need to bypass this one, to the left."

Well, that was enough for all of us to get out and look…and in doing so we noticed that something wasn't quite right with Frank, again.

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Our Tacoma's (and especially Frankenstein) aren't known for their amazing turning radius - so that just wasn't natural. Monte knew immediately - he'd broken a ball joint.

It turned out that one of the four bolts that hold the ball joint had backed out, and then under extreme pressure, the others had sheared. Luckily, Ben had a spare in his OSK, and so we got to work with the trail repair. And it truly was a group effort (of sorts). In order of importance:

• Devin vowed never to ride in Frank again
• Monte was able to fix Frank
• Derp, Kirsten, and Devin made us all hot dogs for lunch while the repair took place
• Ben supplied the ball joint
• Mike supplied a necessary bolt
• Glenn noticed that the truck was slipping and suggested we use the winch to anchor it
• Dan supplied the hi-lift

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With that, and three hours, Frank was once again drivable. But we all knew that the drive out of Boulder Basin would be the last for Frank on this trip. After breaking down on the first day, flinging mud everywhere every day, and two incidents in a 30-minute window today, either Frank was staying home the rest of the trip or Devin was, and we all wanted Devin to continue.

So, it was up and out of Boulder Basin in the increasing snow to air up and head back to Powell.

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But of course, even airing up didn't go to plan as once again, Frank decided to be a pain in the ass and not start after airing up.

Glenn was quick to offer Monte a jump - "Saved by a third gen," he said…except that the jump didn't work - and Frank saved a little bit of face by having us all run behind and push-start start him to get going.

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With that, we headed back into Powell where we first destroyed a car wash and then met Monte's dad and the FRV for dinner before most of us headed Monte's house for the night - we'd still sleep in our tents, but not before our first shower in a week!

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After getting clean, we hung out in the shop until 3am as Monte moved all the gear and communication equipment from Frankenstein to Igor, chatting about trucks, ham radios and APRS (Monte's dad being the resident expert), and what the plan should be for the rest of the trip.

It was at this point that we started to seriously float Moab for the first time. Because, "it's always sunny in Utah," and after our last week, we really needed some sun.

- - - - -

Enjoying the De-Tour story?
There's more - @Blackdawg also wrote up a version. Check out his version of this chapter here: [Chapter 6]

or, check out the full story with these links:

As told by @turbodb: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13a] [Chapter 13b]

As told by @Blackdawg: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13]


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Great read man!

Again, some juicy details in there I forgot. Love it.