ROCKtober Therapy - THE Moab Gathering

Been slacking on the whiskey drinking now worries it will all be forgotten by Monday

 

Yeah, that’s after driving a few hours. It’s also to @Sub-Zero ’s place in CO. The Trail head is six more hours I believe. It’s like 2,270 miles from my place to Moab.

Worth every mile though.

 

Almost 8 MPG!

 

Ouch.

 

Damn dude... lay off the skinny pedal

 

My RTT is for sale. I can bring it to RT

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/colorado-trading-post.148930/page-1020#post-18902157

 

Desert is dog friendly

 

Not an option. It’s a LONG drive

 

The last couple hundred miles kind of sucked...

 

Makes sense.

you must be getting close

 

Ha! We’re in Aurora at a diner right now. Trying to decide what to do.

1) Eat and retreat back to @Sub-Zero ’s house. Not sure what crossing the Rockies will be like right now.

2) Just go to Moab and skip the Kokopelli since I have no idea what to expect for weather in the higher elevations.

3) F-it. Head to Loma now and just do it. After de-icing the truck and trailer at the Fruita car wash, of course. It’s in the 40s there.

 

My vote would be (3).

https://www.coloradowebcam.net/cdot-camera-routes/i70-mountain-pass

You can click around all the cameras on I70 here: http://cotrip.org

Doesn't look too bad at the moment. Road will be wet I doubt there will be black ice. It's not the middle of winter, ground hasn't frozen yet, it will melt pretty fast. Just take it easy.

 

Don’t wonna be a Debbie downer, but I wouldn’t wonna blow it before the event even started....that’s just me.

Good luck haha

 

not many high elevation areas you have to worry about on kokopelli until you pass RGH or onion creek... the thompson canyon to polar mesa climbs into higher elevations and will be MUDDY and possibly snowy...the mud there will suck big time...

cisco wash crossing could suck if it is muddy below... there are routes north to paved routes over to 128 if needed to bypass that section...

you could go rabbit valley to fish ford, then bypass the next section over to 128 and pick up the route from there.. roberts bottom gets muddy if wet, so you may want to find a camp site above the river valley... then head into moab after that...

or camp at the dome plateau overlook, then hit TOTW in the morning before heading into moab


the links Zizzle mentioned are great to use in deciding whether to press on today... cotrip usually has a map showing road conditions as well and up to date closings if any

 

@HolyHandGrenade @NYCO

Banned @Littles and me are sitting at Moab Brewery after the Kokopelli section we could do. Here is my $.02 for you all.

We started Friday morning and the mud was unreal hopefully drier for you all now. Literally spent 30 minutes in the wash getting the mud off a few hours ago. The transition after Cisco is not passable. @Littles tried and got buried in 8 inches of mud. Took 90 minutes but got him out. Do no attempt!! Take the easy detour via Cisco pump house that @NYCO talks about. Stay right on the paved road instead of going left toward fish ford.

We skipped Top of the World trail and stayed on Kokopelli. Fair warning with a trailer there is a great section that might prove challenging. You can skip this with an easy bypass groomed road (Stay left on the groomed road when you see signs for TOTW/Kokopelli) but without question that was our favorite section, next to a cliff most of the time and the very end had a hard section that took rock buildup for traction. There is no turning around on this section. We ended up on a groomed road from there.

Then onto Rose Garden. We BAILED this section. I have pics but they do not do it justice. On the way down the right side was an easy 4 foot straight drop and the left was 3 foot drop off camber. You can easily get to the top of rose garden with a trailer and detach and turn around, large plateau right there. Feel free to try but there was no way I was sending my DD truck down it.

We double backed and made camp then went out Duey bridge in the morning to hwy 128 and onto the last La Sal section of the Kokopelli which is extremely easy, zero 4wd section invoked. If we could do the morning over we would have done TOTW then onto La Sal.

Hope that helps you all.

 

Weather should be down right horrible. But I'm loaded. Two Toyotas a lot of camp gear a toddler two small dogs and a very nervous momma . Weighed in at 23,700 without passengers. Call it an even 24,000#'s

 

Shoulda used that white big rig in the background.... just saying'

 

If it was mine and I liked getting 6mpgs . I would . Last year it weighed the Same cuz I was pulling marks truck with mine. Still averaged 14.5 mpgs