by "wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
Published 06/15/2017 at 12:46
by "wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
Published 06/15/2017 at 12:46
Tags: Alaska 2017
; Road Trip
; Off-Road
; Canyonlands
; White Rim Trail
STARS: 9
I was supposed to leave Sunday. I was actually hoping to leave Saturday. Neither were the case.
At five o’clock Monday morning, I left Fort Lauderdale for Panama City. It would be a couple hours out of the way but I couldn’t come that close and not say hello to my little sister. Within a few hours, I noticed that the truck was starting to run hot. Fantastic. Much of the cooling system had been replaced just eight months ago and I had never noticed it heating up after that, so this was a disappointing start to my months-long road trip. Slowing down brought the temperature down, so I dialed it back to 60 mph and carried on. I had to be in Salt Lake City by Wednesday night, meaning I had forty hours of driving to do in three days. I didn’t have much of a choice.
Cruising along under the speed limit the next day was tedious, but it worked. Eventually I was reminded that I could blast the heat to keep the temperature down, so I switched my method and picked up the pace. I was about to be off-roading in the desert and the last thing I wanted to do was get stuck on the trail, so when I got to Albuquerque late Wednesday morning I stopped at a local Nissan dealership and told them exactly what had been happening. That was a mistake.
Three hours and $120 later, they couldn’t figure out what was causing the truck to run hot. I told them it only happened at speed, but apparently that didn’t register. So instead of fixing what I came in for, they unfixed a problem that had already been fixed and lost the rubber hose that kept my wind deflector from rattling against the roof. Five minutes after I left I took it back and told them to change it back to how it was. They fixed the timing, found my hose and I was on my way.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
The next morning we set course for Moab. I had arrived in Salt Lake sometime after 2:00 AM, but managed to get enough sleep to press on. The previous three days had been over twelve hours of driving each, and the next few were not going to give me or the truck a break.
We were off the pavement by mid-afternoon. FINALLY. This trip had been an on-and-off plan for months, and for a while it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. It wasn’t until Griff and I made some official plans that I decided to use this as a starting point to shoot for Alaska. So far that goal seems pretty far out of reach.
Entering the trail from Potash Road, it took us a while to get to the national park boundary. Before we even got there, Griff dumped the bike in the sand and the kill switch got stuck in the “kill” position. Off to a great start.
After disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling the kill switch we were on our way. The DRZ was obviously much faster on the trail than the Xterra, especially when the Xterra was loaded with everyone’s crap that I didn’t want to break, so Bob and I told Griff to go ahead and we’d meet up every once in a while. It seemed unfair to keep him on a leash.
Sometime around eight o’clock we made it to our campsite. The bike was there but the rider was nowhere to be found, so we met our fellow Airport campers who told us he had wandered off toward the canyon a while before. I found him laying on a rock where he’d been waiting for us for over an hour. The sun and moon shared lighting duties as we set up camp, and with that we were in for the night.
As the cool desert night gave way to a warm and sunny morning, we broke camp and continued to move. We had a long day ahead of us; since we were not able to reserve another campsite on the trail, we had to be off that night and find another somewhere in Moab. But the longer the day went, the less we wanted to spend another night camping. The X had been running well, and it seemed like we would easily be back in town by dark. Bob and I would soon realize that we’d be camping on the trail again whether we liked it or not.
I have to admit, I’m not much of an off-roader. I don’t have a problem with it; in fact, I bought this truck specifically so I could tackle some trails when I took my last trip. I just don’t leave the pavement much. This trail seemed pretty easy though. Maybe not easy, just not technically challenging. It is long, and that made it somewhat tedious, but if you know how and when to put your vehicle into four wheel drive it shouldn’t be tough.
And then we got to a section called Hardscrabble Hill.
Hardscrabble is steep, twisty, and full of very fine, soft sand. Most of the trail thus far had been a sightseeing excursion, whereas this required a little more concentration. Again, not overly challenging, but definitely forced you to pay attention to what you were doing.
We began our descent at the end of Hardscrabble, over ninety miles from where we started in Moab. And then we heard the thud.
“That’s not good,” Bob said to me as the truck dropped hard off a ledge and stalled.
We got out to assess the situation and found a very large rock wedged under the passenger lower control arm.
I thought to myself, “Where the hell did that come from? How could I have missed that?”
I’m still not sure exactly how it happened. I must’ve picked a terrible line. That’s the only explanation I can come up with. The front end came down on this ledge and seemingly broke off a very large chunk of it. The truck didn’t look damaged, so we tried to get it off.
Unfortunately, the only tool I had remotely qualified for the job was an ax. I used to joke about the mall-crawlers that drove around with their hi-lift jacks, shovels and Maxtrax always strapped to their rigs, ready to winch their way out of the Starbucks parking lot when necessary. I will be keeping my mouth shut from now on.
“Well this sucks, but no big deal, we saw plenty of rigs pass us on the trail. Someone will come by eventually,” we thought. We got stuck around five o’clock Friday evening, and by dark we were wondering where the hell everybody was.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
We “slept” in the front seats that night. We didn’t want to set up camp in the middle of the trail, for fear of someone barreling around a corner and not seeing us until it was too late. Early the next morning a few mountain bikers came across our stuck rig and tried to help, only to have that rock laugh in our faces. We had no cell service, so they offered to alert the park rangers that we were stuck. Still thinking that plenty of Jeeps would be along in the next hour or two, we declined and they were on their way. It wasn’t until the rest of their group came by us later that we took them up on the offer.
We had managed to move the truck twice: jacking, digging under the tires, adding rocks for traction, punching it, digging the other tires in, repeat. The rock moved from the lower control arm to the frame, then from the frame to the rear leaf spring, but all attempts after that were fruitless.
When I did my national park run four years ago, my parents bought me a Spot GPS tracker. I loathed the idea of them keeping track of my every move but it grew on me when I started using it to map out the trip. I never had to use the emergency buttons, and did NOT want to have to use them now. But we were not ready to be stuck for more than a day. We had food and water, and I had tablets to treat water in case we ran out, but it wasn’t looking promising for much longer. We had already been there for over twelve hours and we did not want to be there another twenty-four.
By ten o’clock Saturday morning it was getting hot, and since nobody had passed us except the mountain bikers, we caved. I pushed the non-emergency button. Little did we know (although we had hoped), around that same time Griff had already come across a park ranger who had been alerted to our situation. By 11:30 Brooke was walking up the trail to greet us.
She was walking with her mountain bike because, unbeknownst to us, the trail was washed out a couple miles ahead of where we were stuck. Any thought of fording that wash left my mind when she told us it was forty-four inches deep in some spots. This was where I REALLY started to feel like an idiot. I know better than that. I know that flooding is common in the desert. I know that trails get washed out. I know I should have checked the trail conditions, because we were just learning that the trail had been washed out for weeks and I should have known that before touching the dirt.
So we had two options: wait with the Xterra for a tow, which would take at least six hours, or hope that someone else would come by; or walk to the wash, wade across, and ride back in Brooke’s truck where Griff was waiting. We walked.
At quarter to five the next morning, we were riding with Chris, a local tow yard operator, in his King Ranch F-150 to pull the X out. Since the trail was washed out and there are no shortcuts, we had to go in the long way, and we had to be in and out in a day. It was going to be a long one.
We made it to my truck around 11:30, and about thirty seconds after arriving on scene it was free. Chain up, pull, and off. Easy as that. The interior was filthy, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to be off that damn trail and I had seven hours of driving ahead of me.
Driving back was easy, and gave us plenty of time to reflect on what happened. Would more tools have helped? Maybe, but not without having all of them. A shovel. At least two, probably three traction pads. A better jack. A winch wouldn’t have helped because there was nothing to winch against. Extra gas, because I was already under half a tank when we got stuck, so even if we hadn’t gotten stuck we wouldn’t have made it back before running out. Was I really paying that little attention, or did the ledge just deceive me? I’d like to think the latter, but can’t argue against the former. Overall, though, I’d say I’ve learned my lesson:
Don’t be a dumbass.
I cannot begin to thank the staff at Canyonlands enough, specifically park rangers Brooke and Cody, as well as Chris at Nation’s Towing in Moab. Everybody was extremely helpful and made this about as easy for us as possible.
"BobintheMtns" (bobinthemtns)
06/15/2017 at 13:33, STARS: 1
Dude.
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/15/2017 at 13:34, STARS: 2
Dang, thats a heck of a story. Its stuff like this that still makes me a little nervous to take the family on trails, even easy ones like white rim or cathedral valley. When I was there (cathedral valley) last we had my wife’s new GX and while I had every confidence that we wouldn’t run into trouble I still had my traction boards on the roof just in case. In your case, a HiLift and a pivot move would have had you on your way in no time. Its funny how the tool we didn’t bring is always the one we need. Its good that its a heavy use time for the rim though, we did it in November with kids and saw no one the entire 3 days we were there. I’ve got better radios now and we had 3 trucks with gear but still.
Glad everyone was okay. Amazing to see that wash full, I’ve never seen water in it at all, let alone full.
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/15/2017 at 13:43, STARS: 0
You ever figure out the overheating issue btw?
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/15/2017 at 14:00, STARS: 0
That’s crazy, and yet not all that surprising, that you didn’t see anyone for 3 days. When she told us the trail was washed out everything clicked. No wonder we hadn’t seen anybody. Truthfully, I almost never do trails like this, so buying the tools has never really been more than a passing thought. Mostly I end up on dirt roads that a Camry could handle with the right line. I debate if having Griff with us would’ve helped, but it probably wouldn’t have since he was just on a bike and we really needed tools and/or another vehicle. Plus I still would’ve run out of gas on the way back, but at least we would’ve seen other people and maybe been able to buy it off of someone.
As far as overheating, that’s on this week’s agenda. I have a good friend that happened to move to SLC a couple weeks ago so I’m crashing with her and getting all issues sorted out before I do anything else. A few mechanic friends have suggested a sticking thermostat so I’m starting there.
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/15/2017 at 14:02, STARS: 0
Yeah.
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/15/2017 at 14:31, STARS: 0
I’m in SLC area, if you need any help hit me up
"BobintheMtns" (bobinthemtns)
06/15/2017 at 14:40, STARS: 4
When I replaced the motor in my bike I took it out white
rim road to check its reliability.. I figured if it could get me to
Monument Basin (your 15th pic, and about half-way thru the loop) and back,
it was probably good to go.....
But I took my entire tool kit, plenty of water and most importantly, a good pair of walking shoes... And I went during November....
But to head out there with no tools, in middle of June, and with a suspect cooling system.... Damn man.. you get the adventurer of the month award !
"benjrblant" (benjblant)
06/15/2017 at 15:08, STARS: 1
Wow, that’s nuts. Glad you made it out alright! I drove that Hardscrabble section between Christmas and New Years, it was covered in ice and snow. (report here )
I seem to remember asking someone about hi-lift jacks when I got into overlanding. The gist of their explanation was “Super dangerous, not good for changing tires, don’t get one. But when you do need one, there’s no replacement for it.” It lives on the 80 now. If you’ve no other tools, a Hi-Lift with a Lift Mate and a $10 shovel will net you a lot of vehicle recovery.
"vicali" (vicali)
06/15/2017 at 15:31, STARS: 1
Glad you posted your story, I get accused of carrying too much gear and 90% of the time it’s true - but man that other 10% sure stings if you don’t have it with you.
I’m usually travelling with other people and family who I know don’t carry gear, so I double down and pack everything I need and also a few things extra for them.. No big deal, I get teased but I also get the handshakes and big-ups when my gear saves the day.
"mtdrift" (mtdrift)
06/15/2017 at 16:01, STARS: 0
Wow! That’s a ton of water in the wash - incredible.
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/15/2017 at 21:22, STARS: 0
Thanks, will do
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/15/2017 at 21:25, STARS: 0
Sweet shot. I’d go with “idiot” instead of “adventurer” haha we got lucky.
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/15/2017 at 23:25, STARS: 1
Holy crap screw that. One of the rangers that gave us a ride said he did that in winter and he was terrified. I might get one, I’ve got other issues to sort out first before I make more adventure purchases
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/15/2017 at 23:27, STARS: 1
Yea, another car in this situation would’ve been the most helpful, but I definitely see the reasoning for the gear now. The trail seemed harmless until it wasn’t, and I was wishing I at least had a shovel
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/15/2017 at 23:37, STARS: 1
Yea it was pretty high. I’m glad the water was still, because otherwise getting across would’ve been way trickier, if not impossible.
"TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts." (thebloody)
06/16/2017 at 08:56, STARS: 0
Damn, crazy story. Glad everyone made it out safe and great pics.
Regarding your overheating issue, do you still have all the cowling/foam around the radiator to force air over it? Might be at a certain speed air starts getting deflected away from the radiator? How old is the water pump?
"BobintheMtns" (bobinthemtns)
06/16/2017 at 12:23, STARS: 0
Well.... I was def trying to be diplomatic when I said “adventurer”... But as someone who’s gotten waaaaay over his head in the backcountry many times... ehh.. that’s were adventure happens....
And regarding that pic- when I parked the bike there, I forgot I had a pack strapped behind the seat. And when I threw my leg over to dismount the bike, caught my leg on the pack and ALMOST fell over.. Did a little dance right on that edge regaining my balance...
"wanderwebster" (wanderwebster)
06/16/2017 at 15:30, STARS: 1
I’m sure that got the heart racing haha
"Rufant" (rufant2)
06/16/2017 at 18:12, STARS: 0
Great post. Thanks for being man enough to write about what went wrong, as well as what went well.
Even though you weren’t totally prepared for that particular situation, you were prepared enough to have some supplies and to communicate for help. I’ve been stuck a few times without another vehicle around, and there are no better lessons for next time in my opinion. Isn’t that how you improve your judgement?
Looking forward to more of your trip, cheers.