A Jeep Thanksgiving

 Hi and welcome once again to another adventure. Over the past decade or so the MTNMAD family tradition has been to Jeep on thanksgiving day then hit Denny's for some grub. This year, do to a social status change, we Jeeped then headed home for the traditional turkey dinner. So I guess that's the new updated tradition. Anyway, we headed back to the Central Pacific rail bed to follow it all the way across. We stopped at a small spring and had a rock skipping contest. Bob won and if you look close in the foto you can see the stone in flight after the first skip!

 The bridge I am driving across is one from 1865. This was the only one I dared cross so I did. As I said before, the majority of them are all deteriorated to a point that even walking them can be a trick. For some reason, this one is still good enough to cross. Who knows how long it will last? It's truly a sad thing that all this history, especially one as important as the transcontinental railroad, are rapidly disappearing. It is a testament to the workers from back then that their work is still around. You can follow the rail bed to the Sierra Nevada mountains for the most part and that is on the bucket list of things to do. 

 We made it across the flats to the other side only to be stopped by a locked gate. What the hell? Why do you leave one end open and the other end closed. So, we did the proverbial U-turn and drove back the way we came, 5.2 miles, to the main road and went west on the modern road. I would have liked to have ridden the train back then from San Francisco to Ogden. I'm sure most of the scenery would have been the same. Not much has changed out there over the years. Fact is, I am sure there would have been more human activity out there with all the railroad stops and towns. Now all we have are fotos and remnants of the places they lived.

 We went out to the point where the lake and road, at one time, were very close to each other. The background of the above foto was at one time a small island in the lake. In the 80's, it was an island with the only access by means  of boat or swimming. As you can see now, its not even close. We got out the pistols and set up some cans and everyone took turns blasting away. Next year, we will plan better and have a larger selection of targets and guns. But, we still had a ton of fun with what we had and made the best of it. The weather was damn near perfect today for our ride and we all added color to our faces. 

After shooting, we headed for home stopping at every mud hole we could find. It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand. We stopped at the climbing hill to see who could set the high mark. I sadly must report old yeller got out climbed today by Sam's Jeep. Though I think the new 3.6 Penastar motor in the Jeeps is to high revving for good, slow, rock crawling, I will admit the higher horsepower it has does really well. I just didn't have the power to win today. UGH! Oh well, I will admit when I lose and I lost today. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it, but oh well, you can't win them all. We made it home and cooked out tiny turkey and it was a great meal. Though I don't like turkey, the whole meal was very very good and I ate too much. Later on my friend Ken stopped by with his woman friend and we told stories of the good old days. All in all, it was a great day with the one exception. Have a great black Friday and I hope all of you enjoyed your thanksgiving day as much as I did!  Jeep on my friends!

somethings are more important than school

 Welcome to a new adventure. Today the foto's are backwards because google decided to play games with me. So, the fotos don't match what happened so piss on it. As you can see I did encounter some mud on the trip though it wasn't in big mud holes. Most of it was along the side of the road . But I did make the most of what was given me and yes, it was fun!

 The above foto shows an original bridge of the Central Pacific railroad. Of course it was new in 1865 and it not quite in the same shape as it was then at this point of time. We are looking south as the tracks cross mud flats heading up into the Promotory mountains. Usually these are behind locked gates but for some reason they were open and hell yes I'm gonna take advantage of it. Years ago, I actually drove across these bridges. OK, I wasn't driving, but I was a passenger and it was a Jeep!

 If you look in the foto , in the center, you can see a tail forming in the clouds. I have no idea if it is like a baby air born tornado or what, but it looked really cool so I took a foto. Though extremely rare, we do get tornado's like once every blue moon. I liked it so you get to look at it, so ha!

 This is a Spiral Jetty brine shrimp, or as you comic book readers know them: sea monkeys. This is a rather large one that I tried to return to the deep blue sea, but the damn thing was too quick and escaped. So, if you spot it, send it back to the lake any way you can! It isn't considered dangerous, but you never know with wild animals.

As you can see, the Jetty has water all the way around it. Hopefully this will be a wet winter and it will be covered once again by the water. I wish this just because it is so much prettier covered in white salt than its natural black. It been visible for around 12 years now and I think its time to disappear again for a while. Just my thoughts. Any way, I did skip school because like I said, some things are more important. Jeep on my friends!

Bout damn time......

Today's adventure didn't involve my Jeep or me for that matter. Last night, Bob sent me a text asking for my permission to ask Sam to marry him. Of course I said yes, after the the "you treat her like a princess or else" speech to which he whole heartily promised to do. So, it now seems I am getting a son in law. That's a good thing so best of wishes to you two. May your lives be filled with happiness!

the last leg of a long ass drive

 Ahhhh the final day of driving. We left hell ahead of schedule because we really wanted to be out. We had our usual breakfast at McDonald's and headed for home. I really wanted to visit the Cabelas main store but being Sunday it didn't open till 10. What a pisser! So all I got was a foto of it.

 As for the name of this town........ ya. What can I say that's not going through your mind now..... Yes, I was born in..........

 As we entered Wyoming, these became a familiar sight. I can't say for sure whether they are oil wells or natural gas wells, but they were all over. One thing we didn't see were corn fields. Nope, didn't miss that at all. 

 What do you see in the foto????  Woo Hoo! Them be snow covered mountains!!!  Oh ya..... gotta love the mountains.

 Now this is a town you could be proud to call home! Now who is Happy Jack, I do not know. But I am willing to bet he was happy! hahahahaha

Such a lovely sign to see after so long of a drive. The rental truck was fairly new so it had a whole bunch of cool features. It told me we traveled 1876 miles over 29.9 hours getting 8.1 miles per gallon. so, divide 1876 by 8.1 and you get 231.6 gallons of fuel. Now times that by 4.059 and you get a fuel cost of $940. Plus I have to fill it up before we take it back so I'm betting it will be closer to $1000. Wow, that be a lot of fuel. Other than the night in Hell Nebraska, the trip was a good one. Only damage was to a 12 pack of Dr Pepper that had a sharp object land on it totalling out 6 cans. Yes, that hurt. It's a sin to waste Dr Pepper. The truck is 1/4 unloaded so its off to finish that. Jeep on my friends!

A long effing journey, part dos xx

 I am going to begin by saying this blog site sucks shit! For some unknown reason it likes to erase everything I write and leave me ready to smash my laptop. If it wasn't for school, I just might have done it. And the real pisser on top of that is, and this really makes me mad, I delete it, well what was left, and restart by adding the fotos again, and it puts them in a different order..... even tho I did it just like before. So, what to do? I had a really good blog halfway done before the mishap but I don't think I can remember it so to hell with it. The above foto shows how green the Midwest states are. These things are everywhere. Fact is, they are about the tallest things around. 

 This foto was taken as we crossed the Missouri River near Omaha. I know the foto doesn't do it justice but hey, it was taken out the window of a freaking truck. Omaha did look like a very nice town with lots of things I would like to see some day. They have the Union Pacific museum there along with some other cool things. Plus I would love to take a ride on the river in a boat. So much I wish we could do, but the lack of time and $$$$ makes it impossible. 

 Again, I must say that I am not the only person to be bored by the lack of scenic vista's. As we see again, the lovely name of the cities they choose are somewhat....... interesting? Now who in the hell would name their city What Cheer? I give them an A for originality and an F for choosing such a stupid ass name. There were more of them we passed but like I said, I was trying to keep myself awake. 

I have to admit, I did lead you all astray last night. In all honesty, all the states were rolling hills. Yes, they were all corn fields, but they really were not as flat as i portrayed them. Where I live, corn and hay are grown in flat fields for irrigation purposes. I am thinking that in the fields from Ohio to Illinois are not irrigated, thus there is no need for a flat field. But, wow! We cross into Nebraska and there we go...... its flat.... as far as the eye can see. I think I like to rolling hills better than the all flat. It breaks up the monotony of the drive. What was really noticeable was roadkill. I thought Utah was the king of road kill but Nebraska has them beat. I saw more dead deer and bloody road than I have ever seen before. In some spots it was like 1 dead deer every mile. Besides the deer, there were a ton of racoons and prairie dogs. And at these sites, you saw car parts off to the side of the road next to the dead animals. I really wouldn't want to drive a small car on the highway after dark! Tonight we are in Ogallala Nebraska. This is a scary town. We ate at the local Denny's and it wasn't a pleasant experience.  Oh well, hopefully we shall be home tomorrow and can leave the memories of this place here. Jeep on, my friends!

A super long, yellow adventure: part uno

 Welcome to day one of a super long, adventure in another yellow beast. Unfortunately, it's not a Jeep, but Bob will like that it is an International......but not a scout.Do I make any sense at all? I don't think I am  due to the fact I drove the above beast 680 miles today. Ya, its not a Jeep. OK, I will think and make this right. I flew out last Wednesday to Akron, Ohio to grab the wife, yes I did, and pack up the household goods and move them back to Utah. We spent Thursday loading said truck and cleaning the house. This morning dawned bright and early..... OK, just remember I am on Utah time.....she was on Eastern time.... so that's a 2 hour difference.so, this mornings 5 am was really 3 am for me, thus the mind loss.

 Now I am not lying when I tell you the earth is flat. I am totally serious. I just spent the last 12 hours looking at the flat corn fields of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and now Iowa. Fact is my fellow friends, I am only like 20 miles from West Liberty, Iowa for those of you you get the joke. Just so you understand, how freaking boring this drive is, look at what the locals named their town! I smell red neck in the breeze. Ha ha ha ha! Farmer City.... they are so bored they can't even come up with anything somewhat descent. We also passed towns called London, New Paris and Lebanon. Go figure??? 

 

 But, on the other hand, there was some cool shit. The above foto is us crossing the mighty Mississippi river. I have flown over it 3 times and today i finally got to see it somewhat up close. And honestly, this is a rather small version of it. The Missouri river joins it at St Louis and makes it bigger. But, I must say, it was bigger than any other river I have seen with the exception of the Rio Plata river that separates Uruguay and Argentina. Now that was a big river. But this was still way cool. 

The other really cool thing was seeing in person the famous I-80 Worlds largest truck stop. We came up on it at hour 11 of the 12 hour drive and ya know, I could have stopped but my attitude at this point was hotel and food. It's true stuff though, the place is freaking huge. I remember watching the show on the History channel about it, how it has tons of stuff in it and its almost a city with in itself. Tomorrow is a shorter drive so hopefully we will be able to stop at a few things along the way that are interesting. I will say this, I am Damn sick and tired of cornfields. I have seen enough of them to last me a life time. well, it be late, so I will end,  Jeep on my friends!

The Greatest Adventure of then all

 I have procrastinated writing this due to school, work and other things but I find that today, at this very time, I am free to do it, so here we go! This greatest adventure began on Tuesday of last week when my better half, known as Beauty, flew into Salt Lake to join me on a joint adventure to......... yup, Ouray Colorado. We left Wednesday morning bright and early and after 7 hours or so of driving, arrived in Paradise. Our 1st stop was at the courthouse of Ouray where we purchased our marriage license. Colorado is unique in that you can buy the license and then just sign it and presto chango, you are hitched. Simple as pie. We took a quick peek at the courtroom above the clerks office just because it was the place where John Wayne played Rooster Cogburn in True Grit and testified before the judge. Kinda cool walking down the famous staircase where Mattie 1st confronted him.

After the quick tour, we headed up Yankee Boy basin to sign our papers at Twin Falls. I didn't add the fall foto on here cuz I brain farted and this thing can be a pain in the ass trying to arrange things. So if you want a copy, just ask and I can email it to you. This is our foto taken by a nice couple at Box Canyon Falls. So you can see for yourself, Beauty and the Beast! After said papers were signed, we headed back down the canyon to our wedding feast. Oh it was a good one. We ate at the Outlaw and wow..... the place never disappoints you. It was the most I have ever spent on a dinner, but it was worth it. Gotta love a good cut of prime rib! After that, it was back to the hotel. 

 Wait, I did add the falls..... top foto. I swear I hate this damn program. I just lost a foto. Anyways, Thursday morning dawned bright and beautiful and we headed up engineer pass to Animas Forks. Animas Forks is a preserved ghost town with quite a few buildings around and some great foto ops. After that it was up Piciuyne gulch to search for another small town. We found it, got some great fotos and managed to sneak up on a Rock Chuck dozing on an old collapsed building. It was fun to film him till I tripped and woke him up. Took off like a bat outta hell. We went over the pass into California gulch, climbed out at California pass then took Corkscrew down to the main road. Tonight's dinner was at a local pizza/sandwich joint. I had a Reuben minus the sauerkraut. Not very good. Then it was back to the hotel where I took a test for school online and aced it. 

 Friday was again, an incredibly beautiful day. We were up and out the door by 8 heading to Black Bear Pass. I love this trail. It's not about your vehicle, but your mental capabilities. We video taped most of it and for the most part its a great film. We did have one spot of video challenge, but we recovered and all went well. Just before the trail turns nasty, we ran into the guy above. He was not the least bit interested in us, but more so the brush he was eating. I did get him to turn his head for the foto, but then it was right back to eating. We continued on and easily conquered the famous stairs and moved on to the switchbacks. They were a piece of cake till number 7 I believe. Since last July, there has been a small land slide about 30 inches

high that makes that switchback a total bitch. But, old yellow made quick work of it and we pressed on. As usual, we skipped Telluride and headed over to Ophir pass. The town itself is awesome and I would love to live there. The pass itself  is steep but the views of the fall colors was awesome. We came down and headed into Silverton. I showed Em the canyon of cable cars and she thought it was cool. Didn't like the idea of having to ride one to work but I think it would have been fun! Beats what the foto above shows. The miners of this mine had to crawl down these ladders to get to work..... and its a long way down if you slip. Saturday was a return to Yankee Boy and some trails I hadn't run. Governor basin was very interesting. There were some other trails we skipped by and went partially up Imogene to a beautiful fall. Don't know the name but is sure was a nice place to hang out for a few. Dinner that night was at O'Briens pub for the 2nd night in a row. The food is great and the price is right! We finally made it to the hot springs Saturday night and they sure felt good. Wish I lived down that way again. That was our adventure. I had 2 more fotos, but blog spot ate them and I am not gonna do this again. So ends my greatest adventure ever..... I couldn't have asked for a better partner in crime and a better place to do it! I love ya Em........ Jeep on my friends!

Yes, life is good

 Well, after driving over 1300 miles in 4 days, I am finally back home and reunited with my girls. The drive home was so much better than the one going over, yet is wasn't much fun. It is so hard to leave the area around Ouray...... it holds you like a bear trap. The beauty of the mountains is unlike anywhere else. Sure Utah has some awesome vistas, and Idaho too, but no where else I know comes close to Ouray! The sad thing is, fotos do not do it justice. You have to see it to believe it. Above I tried to frame the Jeeps with Red mountain as a background. Its an OK foto, but in real life..... it kicked ass!

 This foto of Bridal veil falls also is a good one..... but real life is better. You can get within 50 yards of them at the bottom and as you stand there, you can feel the drops almost like rain. It cools you off and feels so good. It attracts the attention of many tourists. Black Bear pass ends on this road. From the service road that goes to the power plant and down is 2 way traffic. There were cars and trucks parked all over the road as people hiked over to see it from the top. Thank heavens its one way above that road or they would be parking up there too. Some day I will take the hike over to the top and see what cool sites there are. I saw a road as we went up Imogene that goes up the valley from the power plant. It would be fun to take it and see how far it goes up that valley.

 With the altitudes of the mountains around Ouray, spring flowers don't bloom till late July and they were out in full force. I would have loved to had the time to go out among them and take more fotos, but this was a limited time trip so that wasn't part of the plan. I took a few shots from the road and this one was the best. It's such a great sight to see mountain sides and valley's covered in spring time blooms. Sea's of purple, blue, red and yellow flowers, like a carpet covering a square foot to an acre or more for any ones pleasure to gaze upon. The wildlife you can see is also incredible. We saw lots of deer and chipmunks, but my favorite were the Rock chucks. They wander about and sun themselves on rocks like they are tourists too. Years ago on our first trip to Ouray,we were walking among some old mining buildings with some older ladies from Indiana. I was filming everything when all of the sudden there was a horrible scream. We raced out of the building and a rock chuck was observing one of them. It freaked her out! We laughed so hard, we almost peed are pants! Back then, Ouray was a quiet, peaceful town. Now its as crowded as Telluride and almost foreign feeling. The first few years we visited, we hardly saw anything but Jeeps on the trails and a few motorcycles. This weekends trip was like a freeway in Los Angeles. We dodged every type of ATV out there along with motorcycles and even mountain bikers who believed they owned the trail. The well kept secret of Ouray is out. So sad! The trip did end on a funny note. An older couple in their 70's were gawking at my Jeep as we came out out of a store. I told them I charged a fee for looking..... they laughed and the lady asked " did you drive that here like that''? (meaning no doors or top) I said I sure did. The old man asks " what do you do if it rains?" I looked at him seriously and said " I get wet"!
Jeep on my friends!

A proud day for a father, or, Samantha kicks ass!

Welcome to day 2 of our adventures.Today was the day to run Black Bear pass from Red mtn to Telluride. We got a very late start today due to the fact we all slept in. So, instead of an 7am departure, we left around 8:30. Not a big deal, but it did keep us from reaching our 14000' goal...... this has to do with my nephew so ya...... Anyway, we blew thru Ouray and headed up to Red mountain pass  where the trail began. We took a brief detour and went up the left hand fork of the trail so I could check something out I had seen 12 years ago. This sign greeted us and of course we ignored it. The trail wasn't as bad as the sign said it was, but I'm sure a beginner wouldn't have enjoyed the challenge as we did. 

My goal for this side trip was to check out a foto I took years ago of a waterfall. I had to see where it came from. By the way, I have a thing for water falls. Anyway, I didn't find the source because the trail ended and quite frankly, I'm in no shape to hike further up the mountain. The incredible thing about these mountains is the water falls. They are everywhere and range in size from tiny garden hose types to huge, wow, this is awesome! This little guy was one I liked so I decided to share it with you. The foto doesn't do it credit, but you can kinda see what I mean. We left the side trip and headed back down the trail to the main road and began our ascent to Black Bear pass. An interesting side note is that up there, at well over 11000 feet, there were herds of sheep. Never saw that before..... go figure.

We arrived at the summit and looked down to Telluride sitting about a mile below us. This is Sam and Bob posing for the camera. Up to now the trail was fairly easy, but the best was about to come... or should I say the worst? I dunno, its a fun trail that makes you keep your attention on the trail and nothing else

 I kept our pace slow, not to delay the crazy ride ahead, but to keep snapping fotos of water falls. I shot this one using the telephoto lens and again, the foto doesn't do it justice. We arrived at the section of the trail called the stairs. I was driving one handed and using the other one to take video with my Iphone.  Not a good idea but what the hell. Maybe when I figure out how to add video to posts I will share them with you. Sam did and awesome job  crawling down the stairs

 There isn't a spot to stop in this section so all I got was her making the 90 degree turn at the end of them. Next up was the 26 or so switch backs. A lot of the switch backs are hard to hike, let alone drive a vehicle thru, but Sam again, took charge and kicked some ass. She ended up on 2 wheels on one of them and I actually had my camcorder  out for it. But I really think I messed up and had it on pause. I wont know for sure till I get home and finalize the disc. For me, that was the only moment of the whole trip I was actually nervous. But, being the great little Jeeper she is, she took it all in stride and made it down the mountain. YOU ROCK BABY GIRL!

The most famous water fall over here is Bridal Veil falls. I don't remember how high it is, but its spectacular to see. I shot this one from high above it just to give you an idea how big it is. The building there by it was/is a hydro electric power plant. Don't quote me, but I have read somewhere that it was the 1st generating plant of this type west of the Mississippi river. I also have heard that its still in use today. The road to drive to the plant it self is gated so you  have to walk to see it up close, but due to time issues we passed it by and went into town. We ate lunch at an expensive pizza place, and to be quite honest.... it sucked! After lunch, we headed up Oak street to the trail head of Imogene pass. This trail would take us back to Ouray, so I could finish the trip right. With the friends I have Jeeped with, once we finish Black Bear pass , we have the right to buy the coveted "I survived Black Bear pass" t-shirt. Today was my day to buy Samantha her 1st one. WOW, such a great moment. The girl took on a wild ride and showed it who's boss. Handing her the shirt was a very proud moment in my life. By now it was late and the sun was headed down , so we began the trip back to Grand Junction and called it a day. So, our adventures in Ouray are over, but we take home the satisfaction and memories of one hell of a trip. Jeep on my friends!

Ambushed at Poughkeepsie Gulch

Good evening and welcome to day 2. Due to the incredible slowness of of the wifi here, I am going to tell the story as it happened, not how the fotos are positioned on the blog. To get to Poughkeepsie Gulch, you begin about 5 miles up the million dollar highway on the Engineer pass road. From my fading memory, this road was a mild easy trail you could coast up. Not anymore. Everyone I talked to agreed the trails are getting more difficult. Unlike Utah, where mini-vans are the new Jeep. We stopped at an old mine a few miles and took the bottom foto. It's so strange to see buildings and such from so long ago still surviving after so much time has passed.

 We continued the climb up the mountain to the turn off for the gulch. There are signs everywhere saying the trail is for modified 4x4's and lockers and winches are recommended. As usual, I didn't pay attention to it and plowed into the first mud pit I could find. Bob happened to tell me that there was mud coming in his side of the Jeep......I like to play like that. We climbed all the way up to the final obstacle and arrived at the hills. There are 3 ways up and the governing body of this area has kindly installed winch points to be used to help yourself if you don't make it. Well with all the rain and mud, the rock was slippery and I knew there was no way in hell I was going up those hills. I do take pride in that I was up there in a mostly stock Jeep. Everyone else, at the minimum, had Rubicon Jeeps and highly modified expensive built Jeeps. So ya, I was happy to be that far up yet sad because I couldn't do it. So, after taking a few minutes of video, we headed down the trail the way we had come and headed back up the mountain. The trail got better the closer to the top we got. We rounded a corner and what did we see????? 

 We saw a Subaru station wagon that had come up from the Animas Forks area. The trail out of Silverton to Animas Forks is a very easy trail. He was headed down and asked us if he was on the road to Ouray. I said yes and informed him there was no way in hell he was going to make it down in the Subaru. We continued up and Bob watched him go about 10 yards down the trail then get out and see for himself he wasn't gonna make it. Sure enough, as we sat and checked out an old mine area, here he comes flying up the road heading back to Silverton. We stopped in Animas Forks, took fotos and headed up California Gulch. Easy trail and it got us to 13000 feet. What a view. As we went down the trail, we took a road that led us to Corkscrew Gulch. From there, Red Mountain stood out like a sore thumb. All around you is a treeless, gray and green mountain range and then like that, you run into Red mountain, which is....red!

 We headed into the Red Mountain area and stopped to visit a few old mining structures. The head frame in the foto is Yankee Girl mine. I went inside and got some great shots of the building and all the surrounding areas. Yankee Girl is one of the most foto-graphed buildings around. But, most people do it from across the valley on the main road. They even built a nice new pull out for that sole purpose. Ya know, I would much rather see it up close and personal then shoot a foto from half a mile away. There is so much history in Ouray, you could spend weeks taking every trail to every site and not get bored.

Last but not least, I took a foto of Mr happy-face I'm certain most of you out there think it's stupid, but I don't.I kinda like him. Besides, he is yellow and matches the Jeep! Now I get to voice my opinion on stuff I saw today. Yes  its been 12 years since I was there, but the amount of ATV's was incredible. They were everywhere. I kinda miss the old days when all you saw on the trails were Jeeps and such. Another thing I noticed was Ouray has turned into Telluride. I have never seen that many people in the town except on the 4th of July party they have. I really don't like it. We didn't stop or anything, but there was hardly any parking on the road and wall to wall people walking the sidewalks. It used to be a quiet town and I liked it for that. OK, it's time to call it a night.... we have Black Bear pass to run tomorrow. Until tomorrow......Jeep on my friends.

Good evening and welcome to part 1 of the crazy things I do. This weekend was a spur of the moment, lets go to Ouray and Jeep the dark side idea so here I am. Before I go further, I must admit the foto above has no direct bearing on this trip. I had no opportunity to take any fotos on the way here due to really shitty weather. We left and it was sunny and hot. Got into Spanish Fork canyon and the tell tale clouds of doom decided to rain on our parade. By the time we got to Soldiers Summit, it was 62 and raining. Not fun. We made it into Price and and things mellowed out..... sort of. Between Price and Green River is nothing more than sand and a few odd varieties of plant life. The storm went from rain to wind and it was awful. It almost blew the glasses off my face. Finally after 20 or so miles beyond Green River it stopped and we ran in to another Utah favorite...... road construction. I-70 pretty much from that point on into Colorado was single lane. Colorado even has the disease, because it continued almost to Grand Junction. Crazy I tell ya. So I sit here in a Super 8 motel and write about day one of this adventure. Had to stop and buy super size garbage bags to cover the seats in the Jeep tonight so they stay dry. I don't mind getting wet during a trip, but starting out with a wet ass just sucks! So, tomorrow night will have new fotos of the adventure and who knows what else. Its bed time........ Jeep on my friends!

3 Jeeps and a quest for mud

 Welcome to another adventure of the fun kind. These past few days have brought some much needed rain to the state of Utah. Of course, we all know that with rain you get lots of mud. So, being the type of person to take advantage of the situation, we decided a Jeep trip was most definitely needed. Sam, Bob, and her mom joined up with me, myself and I and headed to the hills. The trip started up Blacksmith canyon and then onto the left hand fork trail. I must admit, things were not looking promising as we began the the trip up the trail. After all the rain, we couldn't find anything other than a few meaningless, tiny puddles that brought no joy to the drivers. Things were not looking good at all. 

 We took the trail to the crossroads and followed it to the east and Old Ephriam's grave. Still, the lack of mud was appalling. We pulled out of that site, heading north to the Temple peak trail, and kept up the search for the elusive mud hold. As we headed east, the trees in this area do not allow a lot of sun to reach the ground and this in turn, helped in our our quest immensely. Winding our way through the trees, we began to find more and more puddles that were actually decent sized and fun to play in. They seemed to get better and better as we climbed in altitude in search of our holy grail. Coming up to the summit of the trail, we struck it rich and found a great place to
 play and proceeded to have a great time. We spent a good half hour in the mud hole trying to see who could cover their vehicle the best. Sam was the winner of this game, turning her white Unlimited into a brown muddy mess. I honestly think she would be a great race car driver. She hit the hole the fastest and covered her Jeep the best. I took it slow trying to see if I could actually get stuck in it. Not a chance. The little old Jeep pulled itself through in 2 wheel drive with out missing a beat. We took some video of the Jeeps going through the mud hole, but for some dumb ass reason, they ended up being sideways and I know not why.

After our fun in the mud, the trip kept getting better. We headed north to the Peter's sink trail and again found a plethora of mud. For those of you who don't know what Peters sink is, well,....... its claim to fame is that it is the coldest spot in the lower 48 states. They have recorded temperatures in this area in the winter at -69 degrees. That's pretty freaking cold. Funny thing about the trip is that on that trail, the temp dropped almost 15 degrees. As I watched the Jeeps thermometer during the day, it stayed in the high 70's and low 80's. During our time in the sink area the gauge read in the low 60's. Weird huh? We were gonna drop down to Bear lake, but from our view on top of the mountain it appeared that they were getting one hell of a rain storm so, we headed to Logan for dinner and then home. All in all, it was a great trip. Found some more trails I wanna follow and who knows what I will find when I do. Until next time, Jeep on my friends!