"BobintheMtns" (bobinthemtns)
12/02/2016 at 11:22 • Filed to: None
24
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"BobintheMtns" (bobinthemtns)
12/02/2016 at 11:22 • Filed to: None | 24
| 28 |
Headed out the desert for eight days over thanksgiving week. I
borrowed a trailer and pulled the Elefant along with the GTI. Worked
great.
Went down to Utah to explore some canyons in the hinterlands between
Monticello and Blanding, Utah. Most of the canyons I wanted to check out
required 10-30 miles of 4x4 roads to reach the access points. That’s
why I trailered out the Elefant.
First, I followed the Colorado River down into Utah.
And set up my camp for the next week. I was probably 50-60 miles south east of Moab, Utah as the crow flies..
First day there I just wanted to locate the access for a canyon about
20 miles away. So took off on the bike racing a storm system.
I expected the storm to drop some rain that day, but I had rain gear
so I wasn’t too worried about it. I did think about a story a buddy
told me about how the dirt out there turns to a slick clay when wet...
and completely gummed up his motorcycle. I figured I’d be fine- it
probably wasn’t going to rain too hard.....
After some exploring, I found an old road leading to the top of mesa overlooking the canyon. Amazing zone.
Crazy views from the mesa rim...
The slickrock canyon walls were between 400 to 600 feet tall...
Got some rainbow action while on the mesa rim.
Even the bike got some rainbow love!
Soon thereafter, I found my access point to drop into the first canyon. I still had a hour of daylight so I thought I’d go check out the trail leading into the canyon.
And of course, once far enough from the bike, the skies opened up. Got to see some cool waterfalls form though....
So it was dark (and wet)(and cold) by the time I got back to the
bike. And not surprisingly, the dirt had turned into the slimy clay I’d
been warned about. The 20 miles to the canyon probably took 45 minutes.
The same 20 miles back to camp took two+ hours....
The wet clay was slick as snot and my front and rear of the bike would constantly fish tail without warning. The tires got caked with so much mud they resembled big frosted doughnuts... Doughnuts so over-iced they had trouble fitting through the front forks.. and the entire rear swingarm was just a blob of mud; with the chain digging its own tunnel deep under the muck.
Next day I had to chisel about 40 pounds of dried clay off the bike. Glad I brought extra chain wax. (note: this pic was taken AFTER I’d already been at work cleaning the bike for a while..) Eventually I just had to suck it up and drive 45 miles to the town of Monticello to a carwash to hose it off.....
On the way back to camp, I decided to check another zone following a road that wrapped around this mesa.
The old road, perched on a shelf overlooking another canyon, went forever. It was amazing. No other tracks.. Just the desert, me and a big-ass Italian dirt bike... Probably one of the best days I’ve ever had on the bike. It’s like the thing was born for flying across deserts.....
Nice views from the mesa shelf I was on—
Racing the sunset back to camp..
Next day, dropped into the canyon I was checking out the access to earlier- But rather than head all the way down to the canyon floor, I traversed the rim and explored the many higher-up slickrock zones... I should of brought a skate board for this one:
Random little arch within the rim rock.
Just craziness....no matter where you looked..
Even the lichen was cool.
Escaping back to the rim.
The next few days I spent checking out some other out-of-the-way canyons. The first required driving up a river bed for 15 miles! It alternated between hardpack sand with “tidal pools” from springs. They were great! Wonderful traction on a terra firma with puddles to hit at high speeds. Fun stuff.
But for every mile of hard pack with splashy fun, I probably had to deal with two miles of deep sand....
Once in the canyon proper, I found some magical stuff....
On the backside of the above arch, I wanted to boulder up to some ledges for a sunny lunch spot. But once getting closer to the rock I noticed some moki steps! (Steps carved into the rock by anasazi.. roughly a thousand years ago)
I bouldered up onto the first ledge, but saw that the ledge systems kept going... leading to a walkway about 100 feet above the ground that traversed around a wall. I got a feeling that I’d found something special...
Here’s a view of the whole escarpment I was on, and the ledge system I was following. But you see how the ledge system traverses into the big grotto on the left...
When you followed the ledge into the grotto, I knew what I was going to find... Hey! What’s that hiding under that wall??
A pretty cool place to kick it is what I found! Those guys that lived here from around 700-1300 AD knew how to do it! Amazing that these structures were around 1000 years old and still in good shape...
Crazy how well preserved the structures were... It looked like there were two ‘houses’ with two graineries....
And totally crappy views from the pad.
Imagine living here your whole life.. Tending small plots of corn and beans augmented with deer and rabbit..... Must of been horrible.
But all good things must end... made my way back to the bike to head back to camp as the sun was getting low...
Alright, back into the river wash!
Anyway.. sorry such a long post, hopefully it didn’t burn up any modems.......
bob and john
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 11:27 |
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stories like this make me want to own and enduro or something off-roady.
then I hope on the SV, and hit a couple of ramps and I’m like you know...i prefer this for day to day.
adamftw
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 11:32 |
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Great post. Wish I was closer to Moab, it is fucking magical there.
450X_FTW
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 11:33 |
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Great pics and write up! Tell me more about this Ducati ADV bike though, didn’t even know they made them.
HammerheadFistpunch
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 12:25 |
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This looks great! Makes me wish I had more time to play when I was down there. What was the area called where you were?
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BobintheMtns
> 450X_FTW
12/02/2016 at 12:25 |
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It’s actually a Cagiva Elefant 900, designed for the Paris Dakar. Ducati imported a 100 of them as “Ducati Elefants” back in 1994.... they’ve been out of production for a loooooong time.... (which is a damn shame....) But found this one a few years ago and rebuilt- it’s a hoot!
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BobintheMtns
> bob and john
12/02/2016 at 12:26 |
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Yeah man, who needs desert playgrounds when you’ve got highway on and off ramps........(????)
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bob and john
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 12:29 |
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well, DVp and the on ramps are essentially a mini track at 2am in the morning.
and are much closer/easier to get to then any desert or off-roading thats actually worth it.
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BobintheMtns
> HammerheadFistpunch
12/02/2016 at 12:29 |
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I lived in Durango for over 15 years- so were down in the desert about every weekend during the winters then, but this was prob one of my best desert trips ever... I had wanted to check out these canyons for years, but just didn’t want to deal with 30 miles of 4-wheeling in a truck etc and the hours it would take.... So it was so nice to be able to just zip around on the bike.....
I was south of the Indian Creek zone-- these canyons were at the very south east edge of canyonlands NP--
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HammerheadFistpunch
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 12:35 |
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Ah, now Im on the trolly. Yeah, that place looks amazing! Not surprised though, the canyonlands area is probably my favorite area on the planet.
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BobintheMtns
> HammerheadFistpunch
12/02/2016 at 12:37 |
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Ditto... def one of my faves.... If (or next time) you head down to that zone, let me know- I’ve got some epic beta on some spots you don’t want to miss.....
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BobintheMtns
> adamftw
12/02/2016 at 12:37 |
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I wish I was closer to there too!
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HammerheadFistpunch
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 12:38 |
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Will do. I was hoping to slip away this month back into the maze, but the timing isn’t likely to work out. In the spring maybe I will be headed back there.
S65
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 12:43 |
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What’s it like to offroad a GTI, or rather “dirtroad” one
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BobintheMtns
> S65
12/02/2016 at 12:46 |
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It’s actually pretty good... the GTI has surprisingly good clearance for a tiny vw.. To get to my campsite I had to ford a creek and climb out a steep, muddy bank.. while pulling that trailer. And the gti did it without missing a beat.....
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adamftw
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 13:23 |
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The VW traction control is pretty damn good. My Mk6 Golf went through snow way better than it should have on the stock Contis.
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BobintheMtns
> adamftw
12/02/2016 at 13:27 |
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The tc really is amazing in these... I don’t know how many times I’ve started up snowy, STEEP hills thinking there was no way... but the damn thing just won’t quit...
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450X_FTW
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 13:37 |
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NICE! Looks like it’s an Italian version of the Honda Africa Twin
DipodomysDeserti
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 13:55 |
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Awesome write up! What a great trip! I love the canyonlands..
Rufant
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 14:24 |
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Great write up, thanks. Really shows the benefits of exploring on two wheels.
Lovely bike too.
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BobintheMtns
> Rufant
12/02/2016 at 15:03 |
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Thanks-- and yeah.. for traversing the backcountry.. bike will do what a truck can do in a quarter of the time, using a tenth of the fuel....
Tim
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 15:20 |
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Beautiful shots and great adventure. I love that area. You’re making me start mentally planning a new trip! :-)
nermal
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 16:51 |
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This is awesome, and the photos are great. Thanks for sharing!
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BobintheMtns
> nermal
12/02/2016 at 17:07 |
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Thanks homie!
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BobintheMtns
> 450X_FTW
12/02/2016 at 19:09 |
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Well it does with the round headlights... But this is quite a bit more powerful and lighter than the original AT’s..... Where as the AT’s dominated the Paris Dakar in the 80's, this was the bike to beat in the early 90's...
Nothing
> BobintheMtns
12/02/2016 at 20:26 |
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That looks awesome. I’ve been searching for a bike that won’t get me in trouble with my wife. The downside is, I bet I’d have to part with the Cougar. I just need to get out more next spring/summer regardless of method.
Thanks for the post and the pics!
Cooperd0g
> BobintheMtns
12/03/2016 at 11:09 |
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You look like a prime candidate for a Sylvansport Go trailer.
TylerLinner
> S65
12/07/2016 at 08:43 |
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Cars are surprisingly capable off road. Here is my friend breaking the ‘trail’ in his lowered Mk3 in the UP this summer. Filmed from my F100.
greasemonkey235097
> BobintheMtns
12/28/2016 at 19:50 |
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Wow! but all i can think of is a DeLorean being dragged by six horses!