Top of The World 03-31-14

Several of the others in the group left this morning.
The only ones left were Cheryl and Dennis M, Becky and Dennis K, Patti and I.
We met at the Lions Park parking lot at the intersection of 191 and 128 at 9:00 and headed east on 128 along the river again. We were headed for the Top of the World for lunch.
Patti and I had driven this trail last year but none of the others had so we guided the trip.

Once again we stopped at the Dewey Bridge to air down.

This time however we followed the road to the south. The first five miles were on a graded dirt road.
Along the way we passed these folks herding some cattle up the road.

We continued along the road

until we came to the turnoff for the top of the world.

The trail starts out as a narrow dirt road but quickly becomes rocky with many steep ledges to climb.

Here are a few pictures of the trail.

Patti got another flower picture along the way.

Eventually after a bone jarring couple of miles we came to the top of the world at 7088 feet, just in time for lunch.

The views are great.

Here is Dennis M standing on a rock overhang enjoying the view.

The trail has a loop at the top that connects back to the main trail about a mile back down the mountain. It is actually rougher than the trail going up although the pictures don’t show how rough it actually is.

 

This trail is probably the bumpiest trail that we have driven on even though the obstacles aren’t as technically challenging.

We got back to the highway around 2:30, aired up the tires and headed for home. Even though the ride wasn’t very long we are still pretty beat up.

Around 5:00 we went to dinner at the Szechuan Chinese Restaurant. The food was fantastic and we ate every bit.

Tomorrow will be our last ride in Moab for this year. We will be following Dennis M, on a trail ominously called “Steel Bender”.

I’ll let you know how that works out.

Dome Plateau 03-29-14

I was so tired after yesterdays ride that I didn’t do a blog last evening.

WE met the group at The Lions Park; parking lot at junction of highway 128 and 191 at 8:00. There were 9 jeeps. Once every one was there we headed east on highway 128 along the Colorado River. The drive along 128 is very scenic.

 

We stopped 30 miles out at the highway and stopped at the old Dewey Bridge

to air the tires down.

From there we crossed the river on the new bridge and turned left onto the Dome Plateau trail.

The beginning of the trail is pretty rough That’s why we didn’t get any pictures; Patti was to busy holding on.

We climbed a steep hill over some rocky ledges and across some slick rock.
After a couple of miles the trail got better.
We passed a small arch on the right.

And followed the sandy road to the west.
At one point we came to a steep drop down some small ledges.
The drivers got out and inspected the rout.

We decided that the best way was straight down the right side.

It turned out to be a piece of cake.

At the bottom we grossed Yellow Jacket canyon.

We continued along the dirt road

and turned onto a short track to La Boca Arch

After leaving La Boca Arch we followed a few dirt roads some small and narrow and some wide and graded

until we got to the lunch spot at a fantastic over look of the Colorado and the mountains and mesa’s beyond.

Patti tried this panoramic shot of the view.

I’m not sure how well that worked out.

Every one seamed to enjoy the views.

This is probably what she is seeing below her.

I coxed Dennis over near the edge to have a look. He has a  problem with height so this was a big step for him and he did very good to get as close to the edge as he did.

After lunch we retraced our path and drove about 3 miles on smooth dirt roads the flats to Cave Springs where we stopped to let everyone explore the caves.

This one has a spring inside that feeds a water trough for cattle.

 

In this one has a very large room where native people lived.

 

It looks like a perfect spot for a native settlement as there is water, shelter, plenty of game in the area and large flats for growing corn and beans etc.

We left the caves and continued along the road past the whale,

up a steep rock climb and along a graded road to an old mining area where the buildings were built from railroad ties.

While we were there a cowboy came by with his horse.

After checking out the buildings we continued on this road for a couple more miles until we came back to 128 where we stopped to pump the tires back up.

From there we got on the highway and headed west looking for the cave house.
I had been there once before but couldn’t remember exactly where it was so I had to pull off and check a out a couple spots before I finally found it.

The owner started the project several years ago but ran into trouble because the rock was too unstable and part of the roof collapsed.

The county pulled his permit and he had to stop construction. It looks like it would have been a pretty neat place if the builder had chosen better rock to excavate.

The square things in the sealing were the builders attempt to stabilize the rock but it failed.

From the cave house we headed for Moab enjoying the scenery along the way.

Patti took some wildflower pictures during the ride.

We got back to Plan B around 5:00. At 5:30 we went to dinner at the Branding Iron Steak House.

Today we are taking the day off. We went to Milts for lunch; Yum.
Patti is presently doing laundry while I finish the blog. When we left to go to lunch I tried to save the draft but hit the Publish button instead. so if you only got the first half, I’m sorry. 

Since Patti is doing laundry I had to proof read this my self. Therefore there are probably several mistakes.

Poison Spider Mesa 03-28-14

Another interesting ride.

We met the group at the north end of town and headed north on 191 to Potash Road where we turned west and followed the north shore of the Colorado River.

We turned right onto the Poison Spider trail.

The first part of the trail was pretty easy.

But that didn’t last long.

Near the top of the switchbacks we came to the first rough spot.

A little further on there is a challenging obstacle on the left. The ones with front lockers took the challenge.

Those of us without front lockers went around.
A ways further on there was another optional challenge on the right. Once again the jeeps with front lockers took the challenge.

I watched them struggle to get up the ledge and decided to go around.
The next obstacle is called the waterfall it looked pretty tough

but turned out not to be too bad.

The trail continued along over a mixture of slick rock,

steep ledges,

very bumpy stretches,

and more steep ledges.

Going over the top of one steep climb we were treated to a beautiful view of the La Sal Mountains with the red rock crags in the foreground.

The next challenge is called the Wedgy. It looked a bit scary from the bottom.

 

But turned out to be a piece of cake.

The trail continued to climb over steep ledges.

Every now and then we were treated to another beautiful view.

We watched these guys in the Rock Crawlers climb some of the most challenging obstacles with ease.

We left them to play on the rocks and continued our travels.

The next thing we came to was a steep sand dune.

   

We all made it through without having to be towed.
Then it was back to the rocks.

Eventually we came to our lunch stop on the ledge overlooking  Moab.

 

We lined up along the cliff and had lunch.

From here we could not only see Moab but also some of Arches NP.

After lunch we got back on the trail.

We passed this deep pot hole.

Traveling along we eventually came to an arch that if you walk down a steep hill you can look through the arch and view the Colorado River, the highway on the south bank and the parking lot for the Moab Rim Trail.

Patti actually climbed down there to take the picture. I was so proud of her. It was a long steep climb.

After hanging around there for a while we continued on along the trail. At one spot we went through a tunnel of juniper trees.

A little further on we passed Pig Rock.

We came to another optional challenge.

After a few tries Reni made it with his heavily modified 4 door Rubicon.

 

Of course Dennis M made it in his white jeep once he got his front lockers engaged.

Dennis K tried it several times but just couldn’t get enough traction to get up the rock.

 

The rest of us went around.

After traveling for a while longer we found ourselves back at the Wedgy going down hill.

We all lined up and went down one at a time. It looks more impressive from the bottom.

A little farther down the trail we saw this unfortunate ATV’er being towed out by his friend.

We easily got passed the waterfall and continued along.

Eventually we came to the switchbacks

and one last obstacle.

It looks kind of bad but was actually pretty easy.

A few more bumps,

a couple of turns and we were back at the beginning.

  

It was a fun trip but Patti and I are really beat.

Tomorrow will be another long day. We are leading the group on the Dome Plateau trail.

On another subject; We bought some mouse traps yesterday. I bated one with peanut butter and set it between the couch and sink. So far the mouse hasn’t returned.