Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
I'm heading out right now. See you all at the airport in the morning
Corban (801)-921-thirty nine oh six.
Corban (801)-921-thirty nine oh six.
Spring Time Hole in the Rock Trail ride
- Thread starter Caleb
- Start date
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
It's a little late now, but I'm planning on riding the DR650. I really appreciate the offer though!
Honestly, work has been busy and I'm way behind on packing for the trip. It's late & I'm really tired, I'm having a hard time getting my sh!t together for this trip. :sick:
Actually it's just my left foot.
Not much to the story other than I wrecked a lot and a couple of them were a bit harder than the others. Having a ~350lb (maybe more with all my gear) bike pop up in the air and land on your foot (multiple times) isn't a good thing. EDIT: I should also add that was only in the first ~20-25 miles of the trail. After that point, I couldn't ride anymore so rholbrook ended up riding my bike
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rholbrook
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Kaysville, Ut
rholbrook
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Kaysville, Ut
Here is a picture of Caleb post-broken foot. He kept his boots on which I think kept the swelling down. Every step was placed with care. What a trooper, he never complained. I did get to ride the big Husky, I wish it was my lighter, nimbler WR but It was still fun. Its hard to ride a bike with so much gear on it that he couldn't slide around in the saddle. He literally had the bags placed so he couldn't move around. So, are you casted up? Where did you break it at? I could only imagine how sore it was. Jaxon, my son, told me that every once in a while you winced when dropping of ledges, etc..
To make things worse, the wind blew hard all night and Caleb's and Corbin's tents needed to be pegged in to stand up and there was nothing but sand or rock so they both slept in the wind with saber toothed tiger beetles the size of your thumb crawling around.
To make things worse, the wind blew hard all night and Caleb's and Corbin's tents needed to be pegged in to stand up and there was nothing but sand or rock so they both slept in the wind with saber toothed tiger beetles the size of your thumb crawling around.
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No cast. The doc said everything looks really good so all he did was bandage it up real good and suggested I stay off it. I got bugged by the bandage after just a couple hours so I took it off.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Ouch!
Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
So Russ, did you end up going down to Moab on Sunday or did you come home? And I know you have more pics than those two. Don't be stingy!
I will attempt a bit of a trip report from my POV. Hopefully everyone else will add their .02 (and some pics since I didn't take any). In this report I will use some of the images and maps from this site for clarification: http://www.expeditionutah.com/featured-trails/hole-in-the-rock-4x4-trail/
I left on Thursday afternoon and drove down to Hite. Got there a little after dark and the automated pay station was out of order. So I got a few gallons of gas and drove down to the trailhead. Hit the trailhead about 10:30, parked the truck, leaned the seat back and crashed. The sun came shining in the windshield (right in my eyes) about 5:37 AM. I grabbed whatever I could find and buried my head so I could sleep a bit longer. At about 7 the struggle became useless so I "broke camp" and drove to the airport. Anyone interested in heading down there, the airport is a great place to use the toilet, get gas, have good conversation and park the trucks (just outside the fence but in full view of the guy who runs the place. His wife said he loves to hop on his 3-wheeler and harass any "strange characters" he sees down by the vehicles). I think I got there just after they woke up (it was about 7:30) but they were very cordial and the price of fuel was surprisingly inexpensive ($3.27 for regular-which was cheaper than the gas in Hanksville and not even close to the inflated prices at the marinas.)
After fueling, changing clothes, a good chat with the couple who run the airport and a good breakfast I unloaded the ATK and waited for the others to get there. Around 9:45 or so Caleb showed up and said that Greg had texted him while he was waiting for the ferry and said he was not going to make it. 15-20 mins later Lane and Shane showed up in his JK and Russ and his group with the LJ in tow. They all got unloaded, fueled, etc and we hit the trail about 11. I had my pack (~40 lbs) on my back and Caleb had all of his gear on the bike. Between the saddle bags and the seat packs and the tank bag there was not any room for him to move/shift his weight. More on this later.
We split from the jeeps and went cruising down the trail. It is a nice graded dirt road at this point so we were making good time. I was taking it easy trying to get used to the pack and enjoying the scenery. We stopped after about 13-15 miles and discussed how this was a bit easier than we were anticipating. Almost halfway in and it hadn't even been an hour. We weren't there for 10 minutes when the jeeps pulled up. Wow, they were making good time, we thought. So we all took off again. A few miles down the road we began to hit patches of rock, then sand, then rock, etc. This was a bit annoying on the bikes but not a big deal. Then we hit some mild slickrock sections. (probably 2hi or maybe 4hi in the jeeps) Caleb hit a bump wrong and went down so we decided it would be a good time for a break and to wait for the jeeps to catch up. They were there within 10 mins or so and we all chatted for a few minutes. They started out while we were getting geared back up and we shortly passed them right about where they shifted into 4-lo. This was just before the intersection with the washed out original trail. (not the halftrack junction but the other end) Probably around 034 on the map below. Between there and arriving at the intersection there were a few more crashes.
We met up with the jeeps again at the intersection and decided that we would go to the end of the trail and then head down to the washout on our way back out the next day. We headed out and there were a few more crashes, one of which was the fateful toe breaking event. At about 1:30 or so we stopped for lunch near 036 on the above map. Caleb was hurting pretty bad but he didn’t really let on. He took off his riding boot and his foot was quite swollen but he was a tough guy and after lunch he put his boot back on and saddled up. The next part was fairly uneventful AFIK but I was starting to feel the 40 lbs on my back as well as the blistering sun so I may not be recalling that section very well. Soon after we arrived at big alcove camp (see map below) things began to get dicey.
Caleb, with his hurt foot and heavy bike, was unable to make it up this spot:
I will attempt a bit of a trip report from my POV. Hopefully everyone else will add their .02 (and some pics since I didn't take any). In this report I will use some of the images and maps from this site for clarification: http://www.expeditionutah.com/featured-trails/hole-in-the-rock-4x4-trail/
I left on Thursday afternoon and drove down to Hite. Got there a little after dark and the automated pay station was out of order. So I got a few gallons of gas and drove down to the trailhead. Hit the trailhead about 10:30, parked the truck, leaned the seat back and crashed. The sun came shining in the windshield (right in my eyes) about 5:37 AM. I grabbed whatever I could find and buried my head so I could sleep a bit longer. At about 7 the struggle became useless so I "broke camp" and drove to the airport. Anyone interested in heading down there, the airport is a great place to use the toilet, get gas, have good conversation and park the trucks (just outside the fence but in full view of the guy who runs the place. His wife said he loves to hop on his 3-wheeler and harass any "strange characters" he sees down by the vehicles
). I think I got there just after they woke up (it was about 7:30) but they were very cordial and the price of fuel was surprisingly inexpensive ($3.27 for regular-which was cheaper than the gas in Hanksville and not even close to the inflated prices at the marinas.)After fueling, changing clothes, a good chat with the couple who run the airport and a good breakfast I unloaded the ATK and waited for the others to get there. Around 9:45 or so Caleb showed up and said that Greg had texted him while he was waiting for the ferry and said he was not going to make it. 15-20 mins later Lane and Shane showed up in his JK and Russ and his group with the LJ in tow. They all got unloaded, fueled, etc and we hit the trail about 11. I had my pack (~40 lbs) on my back and Caleb had all of his gear on the bike. Between the saddle bags and the seat packs and the tank bag there was not any room for him to move/shift his weight. More on this later.
We split from the jeeps and went cruising down the trail. It is a nice graded dirt road at this point so we were making good time. I was taking it easy trying to get used to the pack and enjoying the scenery. We stopped after about 13-15 miles and discussed how this was a bit easier than we were anticipating. Almost halfway in and it hadn't even been an hour. We weren't there for 10 minutes when the jeeps pulled up. Wow, they were making good time, we thought. So we all took off again. A few miles down the road we began to hit patches of rock, then sand, then rock, etc. This was a bit annoying on the bikes but not a big deal. Then we hit some mild slickrock sections. (probably 2hi or maybe 4hi in the jeeps) Caleb hit a bump wrong and went down so we decided it would be a good time for a break and to wait for the jeeps to catch up. They were there within 10 mins or so and we all chatted for a few minutes. They started out while we were getting geared back up and we shortly passed them right about where they shifted into 4-lo. This was just before the intersection with the washed out original trail. (not the halftrack junction but the other end) Probably around 034 on the map below. Between there and arriving at the intersection there were a few more crashes.
We met up with the jeeps again at the intersection and decided that we would go to the end of the trail and then head down to the washout on our way back out the next day. We headed out and there were a few more crashes, one of which was the fateful toe breaking event.
At about 1:30 or so we stopped for lunch near 036 on the above map. Caleb was hurting pretty bad but he didn’t really let on. He took off his riding boot and his foot was quite swollen but he was a tough guy and after lunch he put his boot back on and saddled up. The next part was fairly uneventful AFIK but I was starting to feel the 40 lbs on my back as well as the blistering sun so I may not be recalling that section very well. Soon after we arrived at big alcove camp (see map below) things began to get dicey.
Caleb, with his hurt foot and heavy bike, was unable to make it up this spot:
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Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
He wanted to stay there and let us go on to the end but I told him that I would ride it up so that he could continue. Little did we know what lay ahead. after navigating that obstacle I was amazed that Caleb had made it as far as he had with his setup. We decided that he would need to do some repositioning of the gear to allow for more rider input. We proceeded about 200 yards down the trail and headed down this:
I didn’t see it coming until I was about where the jeep is in the picture and was lucky to make it off the ledge without crashing. Caleb was not so lucky. I turned around to see him stopped about halfway down looking ahead at the steep drop with loose, soft sand at the bottom. While I could not see his expression, I am sure it was something along the lines of; I can’t believe you talked me into continuing when I could have been setting up camp and resting by now! At my urging he hit the gas and almost made it but the front tire washed out in the sand and he went over the bars with the bike landing on his leg. By this time the jeeps were right behind us and they witnessed the spectacle. After making sure Caleb was alright (other than the-by now quite painful-broken toe and the large burn his hot exhaust had just inflicted on his calf) we joked that he needed to go do it again so we could get it on video. At this point Russ offered (a little more forcefully than he had at lunch time) to ride the bike. After some prodding Caleb agreed that he was pretty sore and decided to ride in the jeep. Some sand had entered the carb on his bike during the crash causing the slide to stick open so after a “quick” trail cleaning job we transferred the gear from the bike to the jeeps and were on our way again.
Russ very quickly showed me how a real motorcyclist rides and I somehow was able to make it to the top of gray mesa alive. The climb up to the top was the most challenging part of the trail. By this time I was tired and hoping the end was near. As you can see from the map, I was in for a bit of a beating still. After the quick drive across gray mesa we decided to descend and try and find a spot out of the wind (which had become quite strong) to camp. At this point it was all I could do to keep the bike tires between me and the rocks so the details become a bit fuzzy. Suffice it to say that we found what looked like a good spot to camp and stopped. We kept hoping that the wind would die down but by about 10 it was still raging. Lane had found a spot that was a bit more sheltered (and more importantly had less sand for the wind to blast us with) so we went over there and tried to cook a bit of food. It was all naturally seasoned with sandstone grit by the time it was done and we all got a good laugh out of Russ’s first attempt to set up his tend in the wind. Around 11 the wind died down to about a 20mph breeze with occasional gusts so those with freestanding tents set them up while Caleb and I laid out our bedrolls on the slickrock. After a long night of being sandblasted we were awakened at about 7:15 by the sun. After breakfast Lane came over and offered to take my pack in the JK. I wanted to be the tough guy and say no but I was still so exhausted from Friday’s beating that I said yes. That turned out to be the thing that turned the trip around for me.
Saturday was cooler and without the extra 40 lbs to slow me down it was much more pleasant. We went down to the end of the trail and marveled that the pioneers could have taken wagons up that trail. Then we turned around and headed back out. Lane walked the JK up the hard lines on everything and the little LJ with 32?s and open front LS rear did awesome as well. Jaxon did a great job driving. We went out to the intersection with the washed out road and headed down to see it. The washout is very impressive and would have been quite the thing to see when it happened. We ate lunch there and decided that after the wind on Friday night and the increasingly stronger wind on Saturday that we would just push out and head home. Lane and his son Shane wanted to stay and explore but did not want to do so alone so they decided that they would head down to Moab, spend the night in a hotel and hit some trails on Sunday. I arrived home around 10 on Saturday night.
All in all it was a pretty good trip. I would not do it again on a bike with a pack as that took most of the fun out of the ride and made it into work. The company was phenomenal however. Russ and family are great people and I can’t say enough good about Lane and his son. Caleb was a trooper who made the best out of a painful situation. I look forward to hitting some more forgiving local trails with him after the toe heals. It was great to meet you all.
after navigating that obstacle I was amazed that Caleb had made it as far as he had with his setup. We decided that he would need to do some repositioning of the gear to allow for more rider input. We proceeded about 200 yards down the trail and headed down this:
I didn’t see it coming until I was about where the jeep is in the picture and was lucky to make it off the ledge without crashing. Caleb was not so lucky. I turned around to see him stopped about halfway down looking ahead at the steep drop with loose, soft sand at the bottom. While I could not see his expression, I am sure it was something along the lines of; I can’t believe you talked me into continuing when I could have been setting up camp and resting by now! At my urging he hit the gas and almost made it but the front tire washed out in the sand and he went over the bars with the bike landing on his leg. By this time the jeeps were right behind us and they witnessed the spectacle. After making sure Caleb was alright (other than the-by now quite painful-broken toe and the large burn his hot exhaust had just inflicted on his calf) we joked that he needed to go do it again so we could get it on video.
At this point Russ offered (a little more forcefully than he had at lunch time) to ride the bike. After some prodding Caleb agreed that he was pretty sore and decided to ride in the jeep. Some sand had entered the carb on his bike during the crash causing the slide to stick open so after a “quick” trail cleaning job we transferred the gear from the bike to the jeeps and were on our way again. Russ very quickly showed me how a real motorcyclist rides and I somehow was able to make it to the top of gray mesa alive. The climb up to the top was the most challenging part of the trail. By this time I was tired and hoping the end was near. As you can see from the map, I was in for a bit of a beating still. After the quick drive across gray mesa we decided to descend and try and find a spot out of the wind (which had become quite strong) to camp. At this point it was all I could do to keep the bike tires between me and the rocks so the details become a bit fuzzy. Suffice it to say that we found what looked like a good spot to camp and stopped. We kept hoping that the wind would die down but by about 10 it was still raging. Lane had found a spot that was a bit more sheltered (and more importantly had less sand for the wind to blast us with) so we went over there and tried to cook a bit of food. It was all naturally seasoned with sandstone grit by the time it was done and we all got a good laugh out of Russ’s first attempt to set up his tend in the wind. Around 11 the wind died down to about a 20mph breeze with occasional gusts so those with freestanding tents set them up while Caleb and I laid out our bedrolls on the slickrock. After a long night of being sandblasted we were awakened at about 7:15 by the sun. After breakfast Lane came over and offered to take my pack in the JK. I wanted to be the tough guy and say no but I was still so exhausted from Friday’s beating that I said yes. That turned out to be the thing that turned the trip around for me.
Saturday was cooler and without the extra 40 lbs to slow me down it was much more pleasant. We went down to the end of the trail and marveled that the pioneers could have taken wagons up that trail. Then we turned around and headed back out. Lane walked the JK up the hard lines on everything and the little LJ with 32?s and open front LS rear did awesome as well. Jaxon did a great job driving. We went out to the intersection with the washed out road and headed down to see it. The washout is very impressive and would have been quite the thing to see when it happened. We ate lunch there and decided that after the wind on Friday night and the increasingly stronger wind on Saturday that we would just push out and head home. Lane and his son Shane wanted to stay and explore but did not want to do so alone so they decided that they would head down to Moab, spend the night in a hotel and hit some trails on Sunday. I arrived home around 10 on Saturday night.
All in all it was a pretty good trip. I would not do it again on a bike with a pack as that took most of the fun out of the ride and made it into work. The company was phenomenal however. Russ and family are great people and I can’t say enough good about Lane and his son. Caleb was a trooper who made the best out of a painful situation. I look forward to hitting some more forgiving local trails with him after the toe heals. It was great to meet you all.
rholbrook
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Kaysville, Ut
I can't add anything to that detail except for pictures. I am currently going through 385 pictures to find the best ones. Once I get them sorted out and shrunk in size I will start posting them.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Great writeup, sorry to hear of all your woes but it sounds like you all made the best of it.
Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
I didn't mean to expound on the woes-they just seem to make the story better. An uneventful trip would have had one paragraph. It was a pretty good trip all told. I had a great time and got to meet some great people. I would probably do the trail again on the bike but in and out on the same day or with 4 wheeled vehicles that could carry all my "comforts of home". (and provide a refuge in case of inclement weather)
An uneventful trip would have had one paragraph. It was a pretty good trip all told. I had a great time and got to meet some great people. I would probably do the trail again on the bike but in and out on the same day or with 4 wheeled vehicles that could carry all my "comforts of home". (and provide a refuge in case of inclement weather)