Moab 2017 - Bucket List Trip - Cross Country Rock Therapy Adventure

I like your thinking

 

Ah yes I was thinking maybe a satellite also. Either way, it's cool! Love the video too. Maybe I'll be able to join the Best Gens some day on a trail run

 

sub'd!

 

Thank's man! Getting all this shit done is a ton of work but I feel will let me remember all the fun details of the experience over and over again.

Dude it was awesome to learn and play with. I'm really proud of a lot of the shots.

lolol yeah I made a last minute decision to try to clean them up since I was going to be doing an overnight of driving and also had a bulb go out right before I left. Very glad I did because it helped visibility a lot. Really need to get and retrofit some headlights soon though.

Set it up and do it! It's crazy when we look back at the PM's that the Kokopelli trip was in the works since March.

 

Awesome work on this report, Mike!

I always say I'm going to do a complete trip report, then I don't take enough pictures, and get to lazy to do a full write up.

Can't wait for the rest!

 

Awesome story you have going. I'm from Jersey as well, that drive out there must have been killer. I hope to make it out west at some point, looks so amazing. Good work!

 

Lol it's a huge pain in the ass but it's really fun reliving all the memories in my head and going through the photos again.

Thank you! Would love to see your 3rd gen 4runner one day, easily one of my favorite gen's. Maybe I'll see you at Rausch one day.

The Kokopelli Day 2: Top of the Fucking World!

So needless to say, I was excited for this trail. I always loved the idea of doing this trail and enjoyed all the pictures people take up there. I know it's probably played out for a ton of the Rock Therapy/Moab vet's but for a guy from Jersey who barely could ever hike to a cool cliff like this, let alone DRIVE UP TO IT, it was the cat's meow. So because of this excitement I was up before dawn and got a nice shot of the sunrise.

101517__0003 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

We were all packing up and eating breakfast knowing it was still pretty early. We were on the road that leads to the TOTW trail and knew that if anyone wanted to hit if from Moab, they would likely need to come past us to do so. This was great because the last thing we wanted to deal with was trail traffic. Well we were all packed up and kinda dragging ass a bit on rolling out. Then around 8 jeeps roll by and we all were like shit. Our hope was that they all were still on street pressure and haven't aired down yet. We book it right behind them and start the trail. 5 minutes in and we are stuck behind a Jeep convoy who were all in fact aired down and slow going through the trail. Oh well, it was the thought that counts. Luckily after about a 20 minute delay we didn't get stuck behind them again till way later.

IMG_0003 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0004 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Brett lead the way picking the harder lines up all of the ledges. TOTW is interesting in the fact that for the most part a less built vehicle can get by most of the ledges with little trouble. Well none of us came to Moab to do the bitch lines so we tried some of the harder ways up. For the most part we didn't have too many issues, only where the rocks were pretty undercut and it was super dusty/pure dirt underneath.

IMG_8021 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

This is where I learned the almighty "Moab bump" from Brett. The Moab bump was an invaluable lesson and something I used to navigate the rest of the trails in Moab for the rest of my trip. I'm sure it's been discussed elsewhere but here it is in a nutshell. Roll up to a ledge slowly, get your front tires to the ledge and slowly climb up it. Boom front typically comes right up and instills confidence in the driver that things are going great. Well I learned that confidence can be shattered instantly by hopping and bouncing. Those are the things you want to avoid if you don't want to break your shit. You'll be able to see in my edit that I have not caught onto it at this point. What you want to do is get your rear about 2ft from the ledge, and gas it just fast enough to carry some momentum and bump that bitch. It's crazy because it doesn't even feel rough, it honestly feels super smooth and your rear just climbs right up.

IMG_0008 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0011 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0012 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0015 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

After a bunch of ledges we finally made it, Top of the World. There was a Jeep up there taking photos so we waited our turn at the edge. In the mean time I just took in the sights in all it's glory.

IMG_0017 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_8028 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0018 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The Jeep moved and it was me going up to the edge first. I was excited as fuck and nervous as fuck all at the same time. Ryan guided me to the edge as I stared out into basically nothingness from my view. I felt like I was already at the edge and Ryan kept telling me to come forward, standing between me and the cliff edge. I tell him to not stand there because I don't want to be responsible for pushing him to his death lol. He told me I had another 4 feet so I went up another 2 and called it good. I'm okay not being that guy who had his tire basically off the edge, fuck that noise. After I got out I got to really enjoy it as the shakes went away. I went full retard with the camera trying to capture every angle I could.

Some of my favorites:

IMG_0028 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0033 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0035 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0040 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0041 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0044 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And then Brett helped me out again by getting some photos of me actually in them. They came out fucking awesome.

IMG_0047 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0049 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

While everyone else was taking their turns, I took more photos of the gorgeous view some more.

IMG_0057 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0058 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0065 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I believe this is Onion Creek Rd. which we will be seeing later on in our journey as well as the La Sal Mountains that we have been driving towards the whole time.

IMG_0069 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

After we all finished our photos we decided to roll out and try to beat the jeeps down. We went around doing the loop as they were still packing up their trucks.

IMG_0077 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0081 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Well it was for nothing, because we got stuck behind the bastards again. Oh well, at least it was a nice view on the way down.

IMG_8052 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

From here we decided to do an offshoot of the Kokopelli that apparently not many people know about or do. It's a very tight shelf road into Cottonwood Canyon, and boy I am glad we did. We basically went from one extreme of being at a cliff edge, with 360* views all around us to being in a canyon with red rock walls all around us. We decided it would be a perfect place to grab lunch as we squeezed our 5 trucks into the only place in the trail we could get away with it at.

IMG_0084 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0085 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Brett decided it would be a good challenge to climb some rocks next to the trucks to eat lunch on. Me being an adventurous person myself, wanted to join him up there to get some awesome views as we ate. It was a difficult climb with a camera, a sandwich, and a powerade bottle but definitely worth it. There were some sketchy points when the shaley rock gave way under us on the way up though.

IMG_0087 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0089 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The canyon was extremely scenic and doesn't look very well traveled, at least not by trucks.

IMG_0094 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0104 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0105 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

There were however a ton of bikes doing this section of the Kokopelli as well as three jeeps coming the opposite direction. We waited for all of the Jeeps to pass us since our lunch spot was a safe passing zone and started the climb out of the canyon. Just after the base of the canyon were a couple gnarly ledges coming up. They were much larger than the ledges on the TOTW with no bypass and a thin trail. In the middle of us hitting these ledges we also had several cyclists coming behind us. We tried to be courteous and let them pass as they were walking their bikes up but the going back and forth was putting us way behind on time. Eventually we all made it out though unscathed.

IMG_0107 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0112 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0113 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0115 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0116 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_8056 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

We did our best to try to cover as much ground as possible at this point. We knew Rose Garden Hill was next up on the list but not a lot between. I do remember that the trail had a bunch of intersections that seemed like it would be easy to get lost by taking a wrong turn. We arrived at Rose Garden and started making our way down. All of us had belly skids except Jake so there wasn't a whole lot of concern for damage. I do remember finally hitting one of my sliders for the first time on the way down but nothing crazy. Jake was impressing the shit out of me the entire trip, being the most under built and youngest guy in the group, he was an awesome driver. No belly skid didn't matter for him, he was fine with minor spotting.

We all regrouped at the bottom where the sun was quickly starting to set.

IMG_0124 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

We were discussing what our next steps were, if we were going to try to find camp or what. Brett then mentioned that he wanted to try to go up Rose Garden. Ryan said he was in, and I was mulling it over in my head over and over again. I decided against it knowing I still had so many more trails I wanted to hit in Moab and would be pissed at myself if I broke before I could even try them. Looking back at it now, I do regret it considering the other trails I ran, but I guess it's a good excuse to come back.

IMG_0125 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0129 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Jake rode with Brett and Ryan followed on the way up. Jason and I walked up with Jake's girlfriend so we could enjoy the show. Neither one of them had much issue until this one relatively large ledge. Brett had to find the right line but eventually made his way up the toughest section. Ryan on the other hand wasn't so lucky as his rear locker was leaking like a son of a bitch and not locking properly. After a bunch of rock stacking and attempts to get Ryan up with only 3 wheels, we had to make a decision. Try to get Ryan up the ledge with a winch or do an Austin Powers 30 pt turn around on the hill. We decided to turn him around but were having issues doing it safely. Brett went the rest of the way up to turn around and set his rig up to winch Ryan. We put the rope on his slider to help force him around.

IMG_0133 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0137 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

We all came back down and headed out in the darkness to try to find a place to camp for the night. We found a spot near Onion Creek Rd. around a massive rock just slightly off the trail. We all setup camp and Ryan made us fajitas with moose meat and they were delicious. I later learned around the fire that Brett has been wanting to go up Rose Garden for a couple years now. I know what it's like to have to wait a long time to accomplish a trip or a trail so it was awesome knowing Brett got to knock something off his list that day. It was a really awesome day on the trail, but now I was getting the itch to get to Moab. We headed to bed to get ready for the last bit of the Kokopelli and a sense of accomplishment knowing the hardest part of the Kokopelli is now behind us.

 

A+ job on the report so far. I am enjoying it immensely. So freaking cool.

 

right on Mike! fantastic job writing and great pictures!
I also want to try going up rose garden someday. kinda bummed I didn't try.

 

It was moose! Lol. Great job on the write up Mike you're making me want to go back already!

 

Thanks guys! @Tacofire98 Next time I come out to do it, I'll hit you up. I definitely want to get it done.

Fixed, thanks Ryan! Guys please keep me honest in these write ups too, because my memory is shit!

 

Great writing! In for more!

 

This thread is awesome. Nice write up and pics.

 

Absolutely, I'm always down for Rausch! Keep me in mind next time you go.
OK back to reading this trip report!

 

Day 2 is up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTym2EXMTgQ

Much longer, but a lot more technical wheeling. Kinda rushed the edit so I can continue the story.

 

Sitting in my recliner watching you pull up to TOTW. Left foot on air clutch. Right foot mashing air brake through the floor.

Awesome videography.

 

Ryan was so close to getting up rose garden!!

Awesome work on the video man!

 

Awesome edit Mike! I was so close on that rose garden ledge!

 

Seriously. Ryan was thatclose. I caught myself cheering him on again just watching the video

 

Yeah I was shaking when I was pulling up lol and I am an adrenaline junkie.

Thanks guys! Yeah if Ryan's rear locker was working he definitely would have made it.