"Official" May Moab run thread

Ok, I guess it is time to get serious about the May Moab run that we can hopefully pull together.

Date: May 13-16
Who is coming:
Me - Kyle
Big Ern
Brett - Possible
Tyler ??

I will probably go down on Thursday, spend the night in a hotel in Moab and then plan on camping on the trails?

I hope more will consider joining us. Even if you can't, your thoughts and advice as we plan this would be appreciated.

Once again, I have never done any runs to Moab so this is all new to me. I have a book that lets me know about camping grounds, approximate times of travel on each trail etc.. but nothing like experience from actually doing the trail.

I don't know but it looks like depending on the trails chosen, you can do one in the morning, another one in the afternoon that has a camping ground on it for the night.

So far, here is a list of of possible trails. Let's get some thoughts going on this and perhaps we can come up with some kind of schedule?

Fins and Things - looks fun. Has some campgrounds on it so this might be one for the afternoon. Says it takes 3-4 hours to complete.
Dome Plateau - Not real difficult but looks like it has some great scenery. takes about 5-6 hours. No camps on the trails.
Elephant Hill - 5-6 hours to complete. Looks like it has a campground or two. Devil's Kitchen campground.

Thanks everyone. Looking forward to your thoughts and participation.

Moose-mann wrote:

Ok, I guess it is time to get serious about the May Moab run that we can hopefully pull together.

Date: May 13-16
Who is coming:
Me - Kyle
Big Ern
Brett - Possible
Tyler ??

I will probably go down on Thursday, spend the night in a hotel in Moab and then plan on camping on the trails?

I hope more will consider joining us. Even if you can't, your thoughts and advice as we plan this would be appreciated.

Once again, I have never done any runs to Moab so this is all new to me. I have a book that lets me know about camping grounds, approximate times of travel on each trail etc.. but nothing like experience from actually doing the trail.

I don't know but it looks like depending on the trails chosen, you can do one in the morning, another one in the afternoon that has a camping ground on it for the night.

So far, here is a list of of possible trails. Let's get some thoughts going on this and perhaps we can come up with some kind of schedule?

Fins and Things - looks fun. Has some campgrounds on it so this might be one for the afternoon. Says it takes 3-4 hours to complete.
Dome Plateau - Not real difficult but looks like it has some great scenery. takes about 5-6 hours. No camps on the trails.
Elephant Hill - 5-6 hours to complete. Looks like it has a campground or two. Devil's Kitchen campground.

Thanks everyone. Looking forward to your thoughts and participation.

I can't head down until Friday 14th.

Dome Plateau isn't very hard and is fairly scenic. I was told the campgrounds on elephant hill fill up a year in advance. The elephant hill trail itself could probably be done in 5 or 6 hours, but it is an hour and a half south of Moab. We will need to keep that in consideration if we stay near town. I was thinking about simply camping at one of the campgrounds along highway 128.

Chicken Corners is an easy trail with a lot of scenery. It also connects with a few other trails in the area you may want to try. Lockhart basin is another good trail. It even has a plane wreck to explore, but it is very long. Lathrop canyon is another one I haven't done yet that sounds interesting.

Check out this link: http://www.traildamage.com/google_utah.php

I just had someone recommend Poison Spider. Has anyone ever been on that one? I just looked it up and it looks like a possibility.

Can anyone else make it down with us? Brett are you going to be able to make it now you are in the new job? Tyler? Bueller?

I might be able to leave Fri after work and be in moab like 10:00ish. I've gotta clear it with the boss though. (The one I'm married to )

That would be great if you could join us!

Big Ern, I just looked at your pictures on the WC Forum. Is that your son in one of the pictures? How old is he? If we can work it out with school I am hoping my two sons will join me. They are 13 and 15.

This is my wife and son on the joint trail. He is 18.



I asked him if he would like to make another camping trip so soon and he was undecided at the time.

Moose, what kind of set up are you running? I think Poison Spider is a little out of my league. I think traildamage rates it at a 5 on the low end and a 6 on the high end.

If you are bringing your kids, I would recommend something with a little hiking in it. Tower Arch, Chicken Corners, Dome Plateau, Lockhart Basin, and Elephant Hill all have excellent hiking trails and amazing scenery. My son loves climbing around and exploring the slickrock. He was a little disappointed that we didn't have more time on the joint trail. I hear Chicken Corners has an amazing trail at the end, but it was raining the last time we did it, so we didn't really explore to much.

Big Ern,

That would be great if your son could make it. I hope my decide to go.

As for my rig, let's just say that I have put more time and money into the rig than I have gaining experience on how to drive it. I believe my rig could do Poison Spider but I couldn't!

So I would be very happy with some trails that were moderate and provided some hiking/exploring as well. I know my 13 year old would enjoy that. That sounds like a blast.

I will send you a PM and give you my cell phone number. Perhaps we should chat about this soon.

Thanks!

I have Kyle's Cell #, but I don't have Tyler's or Ernie's.

I'll shoot out a PM with my contact info in case I can pull this off.

I'm in. I was afraid I would have to go out to OH to check on some property but I'm clear this week now. I can go whenever. I'd like to go down Thursday and come back Sat night.
I've done Fins and Things about 6 years ago on 4 wheelers. I don't remember much. Other than that I'm a Moab rookie.
I got my CB half installed. I'll get it finished in the next couple of days so I am ready. I might have my Exped 1 bumper on by then as well.

Great news Tyler!

Big Ern and I had a discussion last night about what our plans our. I will send you a PM in just a minute and give you my cell phone number so we can connect up on the plans.

In short, depending on what my boys have in school, I think we may be running down Thursday after school, spending the night in a hotel. Planning on just messing around Friday morning, maybe a short easy run somewhere. Big Ern is planning on getting in town Friday afternoon sometime. We are planning on meeting somewhere in town, finding a campsite and hopefully getting a run in before dark.

We are thinking about Chicken Corners or Dome Plateau. Some good moderate runs with lots of scenery and possible short hikes. I think if Brett can make it, or anyone else who knows what they are doing, we would like to do Fins and Things on Saturday.

Just planning on going down, chilling and taking it easy on a few good runs. Ought to be a good time.

Moose

PS - Good luck with the mods. I am hoping to get my new wheels and tires on Wednesday evening. Cutting it close! What bumper did you get. I have a Exp1 front bumper myself.

I'm bummed I can't make this.

I've been to Moab and run about 10-12 trails down there. If you are all newbies....try Long Canyon and Chicken corners the 1st day to sort of get a feel for it. Then on day 2 give Fins and Things a try, its a really fun trail and gives you a great taste of just about everything Moab has to offer.

Then if your feeling confident, run Posison Spider on the 3rd day.

I'd love to be able to come along and be a trail leader but highly doubt it would happen....although I may be able to swing down there for 1 day, maybe 2. It would be Sat and Sun for me as I have to work...but at this point would be very tenative.

kbjames, Kalen

My wife and I ran down last year on a Sat Morning. Left Cache Valley at like 8:00. Got to Moab. Did top of the world. ate at the brewery. slept. did hell's revenge. ate ice cream. drove home.

We arrived back in Cache Valley. by about 7:30 pm. We felt well rested, and never felt rushed. Even in Cache Valley I cannot believe how close Moab is.

Allright! This is going to be great. I'll call you today. If there isn't anything schedualed Fri morning maybe I'll find someplace to fish. I'm trying to learn fly fishing. But all I catch is trees on the bank.

I was trying to figure this run out if I could go but got some bad news today (OK really great news) I have to head out of town on Sunday for 8 days for work. There is a medical convention that is going on next week so I have to cover it from 1-4 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The bad news is the location kind of stinks. I have to go to (wait for it) HAWAII. Thats right and all expense paid trip for the wife and I to Hawaii. I will have to work a total of 9 hours all week. I know you feel for me an my misfortune. Oh and I have never been to Hawaii, we will be staying at the Marriott on waikiki. If anyone has a don't miss activity let me know.

SKIBUMM wrote:

I was trying to figure this run out if I could go but got some bad news today (OK really great news) I have to head out of town on Sunday for 8 days for work. There is a medical convention that is going on next week so I have to cover it from 1-4 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The bad news is the location kind of stinks. I have to go to (wait for it) HAWAII. Thats right and all expense paid trip for the wife and I to Hawaii. I will have to work a total of 9 hours all week. I know you feel for me an my misfortune. Oh and I have never been to Hawaii, we will be staying at the Marriott on waikiki. If anyone has a don't miss activity let me know.

The humanity of it all! How will you cope with all the sunshine and perfect temps and humidity?

Oh Man! I am so sorry to hear that.

Any way you could cancel?

Sounds like a sweet deal.

I'm hoping to get into town and camp set up no later than 2 PM. We could try to do Tower Arch Friday afternoon, if everybody wants. Tower Arch is about a 4 or 5 hour trail, so it would be late getting back and there is an entrance fee to Arches National Park ($8 a car I think). Saturday we could do Chicken Corners (6 - 8 hours) or Dome Plateau (5 - 6 hours).

Alternatively, we could do some real easy trails Friday afternoon, such as Gemini Bridges and Long Canyon and then do Tower Arch early Sunday before we head back North.

Any thoughts?

Hey Big Ern,

I like the sounds of this. I wouldn't mind doing Tower Arch on Friday. Don't mind getting back late at all, it will just make me sleep better. I like the sounds of Chicken Corners for Saturday. I did send Brett a message to see if he was going to make it on Saturday or not. If he can make it Saturday perhaps we can do Fins and Things.

I would like to get a run in on Sunday before we head back. Perhaps we could do Dome Plateau then??

I think Tyler is coming in Thursday evening as well so we might try some easy short trails on Friday morning. I will give you a call tomorrow to get an ETA from you and determine where we will meet you in town on Friday. It would be nice if we could all camp by each other.

Here are a few pics I took from Fins n Things last weekend in Moab. I'm sure Moose and Tyler will post some pics as well to include some pics from Kane Creek the day prior, which I missed out on.

Tyler going down the first really steep section... Sorry its a little blurry. You were sliding to fast!


Moose climbing the optional rocky section with his tires on fire! I took the bypass on this one.


Tyler took it with a little more momentum...


Another steep decent. Pretty easy. Just stay on the tire marks!




The funnest part of the trail...


And finally a glamor shot of my own rig...

Hey Big Ern,

Great shots! I will try to put a few on tonight when I get home.

Me and the boy had a great time! It was great to meet you and Tyler. We will definitely have to do this again sometime soon.

Great pics! I can't wait to see more.

It was a blast! I'll put up some pics later this week. It was great to meet some guys from the forum. Can't wait to do it again.

OK, after a little trial and error, I think I have this picture thing down. Let's see.

On Friday, Tyler and I decided to take Kane Creek Canyon as our first run. Had a great time but perhaps we should have chosen something a little less intense for our first time?

I think the goal is to keep all four tires on the ground?

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Me coming out of a little tricky spot. Yes, my rear bumper is sitting on the ground and I did lose my trailer wiring harness, didn't need it anyway.

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Tyler at work!

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More Pics!

Big Ern at the beginning of Fins and Things....

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Waiting in line

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Great picture of Fins and Things. I think my son did a great job with the camera.

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Maybe a few more from Kane Creek Canyon

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