OK I must make a quick disclaimer. This foto has nothing to do with today. I'll explain in a few. So, a semi-local 4x4 club I am interested in joining did a run on Saturday that piqued my interest. They went to the Paris Ice Caves located north-west of Bear Lake in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. I had never heard of the cave so I thought to myself, I need to go. I talked to Womak and we agreed that it would be a fairly simple Fathers day run. He called at 11 and said lets go. I was thinking it wouldn't be till mid afternoon but hey, more time to explore this new area. We headed over to Logan and proceeded up Logan Canyon to the Franklin Basin turn off. I must explain that there are various ways to get there but he promised this one would be fun. It had rained lightly 30 minutes before we hit the trail so the dust was non existent. I was very happy with this and thought this is gonna be a good day. We followed the road across the basin and went down Hell's Canyon, according to Womak, and then continued by going up the trail to Mink Creek. We passed a really nice Boy Scout camp along the way and began the climb up the mountain. We arrived at the turnoff and I was like, what the hell? German Dugway.... The road was marked travel at your own risk. The road is barely wide enough to fit a Jeep so I knew this was going to get interesting. I put Old Yellow in 4-LO and began crawling up the hill. It was 2.4 miles of some of the gnarliest rock crawling I have done in a long while. I must interject that the sky was looking like the 20% chance of rain was going to be 100 and right quick. I can say I would not do this trail if it was wet. So, seeing what was coming, I pushed the pedal a little bit more so we wouldn't be on it when the storm hit. I really wish I had used the GoPro on this trail. It was quite the adventure. Needless to say we made it to the end and were rewarded with a lot nicer trail. But, Mother Nature was mad she didn't hinder our Dugway trail so she opened up the heavens and all hell broke loose. Seriously....it was a freezing cold rain mixed with some descent sized hail stones. We went from a lovely 75 degrees to like 52 in 2 minutes. Of course, when I read that there was only a 20% chance of rain I figured I wouldn't bother putting on the bikini. Big mistake. Everything became soaked within 30 seconds. Plus, every time one of the hail stones hit you, it really hurt like hell. I understand the name now. Hail=hell. We tried to duck under some of the trees there but that was worthless. We decided what the hell and made a mad dash to get down off the mountain. Now, I had planned on taking a bunch of fotos at the cave but we blew by it with just a quick glance. 25 minutes later we hit pavement in Paris Idaho. We parked under the canopy of the local gas station while we decided what to do. The lady there was really nice and gave us several garbage bags to try and keep us dry. Too late for that! Womak wore his and I covered my camera bag. The interesting thing about this storm was that there was breaks every so often. One break hit while we were there and so we decided to head for home. We made it to Garden City and Womak had me pull into a KOA Campground. He wasn't feeling very good so he decided to rent a cabin and spend the night dry. I was ok with that. I went next door and bought a tarp and covered the Jeep before I went in to dry out. Now, I gotta tell you this. The people we ran into today were so very nice to us. A young man named Collin I believe showed up at the cabin door with a hot pizza for us. He was so awesome. The staff there helped us get settled in and life was ok for the moment. Everyone who knows me knows I have RLS. (look it up) I can't sleep or function after about 7pm without certain drugs. Womak Passed out on his bed and I twiddled my thumbs dreading the 13 hours ahead. My body turns into a Mr Hyde and life becomes unbearable. Womak woke up at 8:30 and asked if we should make a run for it or stay the night. I have 2 weather radar apps on my phone for situations like this. I told him there would be a break in about an hour and we could make it home. He went and dried his clothes and my shirt and we packed up and split. We made it about 5 minutes before all hell broke loose again. We went like 40mph for about half an hour because I couldn't see out the windshield. The wipers did fine on the outside but the inside was just a wet mess. As we passed Beaver Mountain Ski Resort the break showed up. The rain went down to almost nothing so we sped up and ran for home. It was dry the whole way pretty much. It did start to sprinkle again in Garland, but it was really nothing. Later this morning I get to go clean out Mother Natures war on my Jeep. I did learn something though. Hail stones have dirt in them. My back was covered with this fine dirt from where all the stones hit. Weird huh? So, ya. What a great day for the most part. I have updated my first aid kit and now I need to update what I carry. I think I will now carry a change of clothes and a days worth of the drugs I take. Plus, next time it says 20%, I'll know it really means 100. Jeep on my friends!
