Following in the tire tracks!

I guess I should have posted a few weeks ago, but I didn't. You see, Sam decided to ditch the foreign car and get an all American JEEP! She bought herself a 2012 JEEP Unlimited and its NICE! So anyway, we decided to take it out and play today. We headed out to the Devils Playground in the west desert of Utah to test it out and play in the mud and snow. Our first stop was the lower area where the rock formations are wild. As you can see from the foto, they are bizarre! The trail in was quite muddy, but the best was yet to come.
Our next stop was one of the abandoned mines out there. This was a snow bound trail full of excitement. Sam got her first taste of off camber driving in snow on a steep trail where you can't make a mistake. I am proud to say she made it with minimal coaching and made me a proud dad! Due to no flashlight we didn't enter the mine, but we did enjoy the great view from the trail top.
After that we headed off to the southern end of the playground. the trails were snow/mud mix and a blast to drive. We tried to get to the hidden cabin but there was just to much snow on the trail. We headed up some other trails to this little rock pile. I know it's not much, but it was new to her and she conquered it in style! Way to go! I'm betting she will be better then me faster than I want to admit it. We played on the trail till we hit a dead end then headed out to explore new trails.
Our last trail of the day was a simple dirt road. Nothing exciting, we thought, till we got to the end. We found ourselves a new mine to explore. I actually didn't see the mine entrance due to the snow and steepness of the trail, but we found the base area and all of it's junk. No telling how long it has been abandoned but it seemed to be an efficient operation. There was a shaker table and various other things left there including an old front load tractor. It would be fun to fix it just to play with it. Be one hell of a great toy to have. Anyway, we finished the trip on that note and headed home. It was an awesome day. Hopefully we can continue our trips this year and explore all the back roads of the west. YOU DID GREAT SAM! JEEP on my friends!

new year resolutions 2012

Welcome to 2012! This year I have decided to make a few resolutions. Number 1, Jeep more! So, since I am gonna do my best on following my resolutions,we went Jeeping today. I decided to head west and see if I could find Dolphin island. On the way there, we passed by a Sunday revival meeting of the Church of the Holy Antelope. Very religious group of people? Ha Ha
We blew through Kelton heading south along the west side of the Great Salt Lake on our way to Dolphin Island. We followed the original rail bed of the Central Pacific and decided to stop by the famous Chinamans' arch. Instead of hiking to it like idiots, we Jeeped up the mountain to it. Yah I know.... but what the hell. If you got it, use it.
So we continued along the shore until we came to where we could see the island. The ground over to the island looked dry but it wasn't. I have been stuck in the mud flats once so I will never again venture out on them! It was late by then and its about a 3 mile walk so all we have is a foto from the distance. Maybe someday in the future I'll venture across the lake to the land locked island!
We headed back and stopped in Kelton to check out the sunset. It was so awesome. Fotos cant do this sunset justice. So, that was the 1st Jeep trip of the new year. There will be plenty more if I have my way. As for my other resolutions...... what resolutions? Jeep on my friends.

Going.......Going.........

Hi and welcome back. I decided to take an afternoon adventure today to just get out of the city and play. The chosen destination for today was two fold. The Spiral Jetty and Promontory Point. We hit the point 1st and lo and behold , the trains were out. It used to be they put them away right after Memorial day, but not anymore. The new date is October 10Th! We took some fotos of the trains in the sun then headed south to the Jetty. As you can see its slowly going away. This is a good thing in my book because I think it is so much prettier when it is encrusted with salt. My opinion....... you can decide for yourself.
As you can see, the Jeep found some mud. I really don't know how it does it, but it seems to know where the mud is and its out of my control. I just sit back and enjoy the ride. Today was the one time I was glad that they have "subaru'ed" the road. Yes there were cars out there but it made it possible to return to Promontory in time for the train run. I sure enjoy hauling ass on dirt roads. In fact, I would love to have a chance to race in the Baja 1000. I wouldn't even care if I won. Just the chance to do it.
This is the 119 from the Union Pacific. It was built in 1979 in California almost to the original specs. It is a very beautiful locomotive and burns coal like the original. I learned something new today I had never noticed. When you go out there to see the trains,the Union Pacific is on the north and the Central is on the south. In between the trains is a replica of the Laurel wood tie where the golden spike was driven.
If you look under the 119 , you will notice that the ties are rough cut by what appears to be axes. Look south under the Jupiter, and you find precision cut ties made in sawmills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. In the 30 years or so I have been going out there I had never noticed this. I also learned that the wood burning Jupiter would last 20 to 30 miles on a full load of wood before having to stop and add more to the tender. The 119 burned coal and could go almost 100 miles before needing to refill its tender. Interesting fact. But, both could only go around 15 to 25 miles before needing water! Ok, enough history for today. Enjoy your fall weather while you can cuz I'm predicting a very long, hard winter my friends. Jeep on and enjoy the ride!

The last hurrah?

Today was the last trip..........in summer mode. It seems that Fall is trying to kick summers ass out the door and succeeding, So I figured I would take one last topless jaunt into the woods. The trip started cold with rain and hell..... yes hell! My blog, my choice. By the time we reached Salt Lake, Mr sun had appeared and began to warm up the day. Just for shits and giggles, I did drain 2" of water out of the Jeep before we left. We hit Stockton and took the power line trail across to dry canyon to begin our trip to Jacob City. There was plenty of mud and and loose rock but Old Yellow didn't miss a beat. We arrived at the bottom of the town and entered an open mine there. As you can see it was gated but someone cut a hole in it. Thank you whoever you are.
An interesting site that is starting to appear in the old mines is the formation of stalactites. These little guys have been forming for over 100 years and they are still just tiny. I wish I could have gotten into my favorite mine. It had bigger ones back in the late 90's so I am sure they are at least 4" now..ha ha ha. There were a few in this here mine and this one turned out the best foto wise. Kinda hard to shoot fotos in pitch freaking black darkness. But..... as you can tell I did have my camera and flashlights so I was prepared. This particular mine still had the mine cart tracks in it and who knows what else!
I did have to laugh at someones art work. It appears that there has been some deep exploration in this mine and someone made sure they knew the way back. The total darkness in a mine is or could be quite a frightening experience. I can only imagine how the miners from this mines time period used candles. Be a scary thing to have your candle blow out.....
After exiting the mine we snooped around and Kurt wandered off to see what I have seen many times over. I was staring at the ground looking for whatever and look what I found! Is it gold? I'm sorry to say no, its not. We stopped at an historian that lives in Ophir and he declared it Pyrite with Lead and Silver. Cool beans! I again asked him if his books are finished and again the answer was no. The wait is killing me. I am a history buff when it comes to mines, ghost towns and the American West. To end, a poem

I'm a Jeeper, and I'm always revving up

I'm a Jeeper, I can never get enough

I'm a Jeeper, it's something in my blood

I'm a Jeeper, wouldn't change it if I could!

Jeep on my friends!

Deja vu or I almost did it again!

Deja vu was running thru my mind as this adventure progressed thru the day, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We left the house bright and early and headed south to lake point to meet up with Sam and Bob. We met at McDonald's and chowed down on some great food (yes I love it) and then continued on south to the Tintic mining district. Today's trip was a completely new one. This area we were headed to was virgin territory for us, so we had high hopes on finding some new things. The GPS indicated we were in the mine area so we began to explore. Our first find was this mining camp with the stone cabin. Tho it is falling apart , you can still see it had some quality workmanship in its design. Easily 100 years old you could still use it to get out of a storm if you had to. As usual, the trails were ATV in size, but you know me.... who cares!

Besides the mines, we also had a goal of finding the infamous Chicken Rock of Utah. The GPS showed us the way and there is it. Now why in the hell it is called Chicken Rock I cannot say. I saw one area that could have looked like a chicken head, but who knows. I have to admit that I am a wee bit baffled. Its here that the deja vu took place. On the left side of the foto is a trail that goes right to the base of it. Its not a very nice trail so I don't recommend this one to any one unless you have an ATV. The foto is taken from the eastern trail which isn't much better but you can get a jeep up it fairly easy. On the top of the trail, we got out, looked around, took fotos, used the GPS to see where to go next and this is where we had our deja vu. We headed down the mountain and got back to Bob's truck when I realized I didn't have the GPS. Sound familiar? Yes I had sat in on the jeep AGAIN, and driven off. Damn it! This is getting to be a bad habit. So, we flipped a u-turn and headed back up the trail. I had figured it would be found on the top where we had stopped. Wrong! As we headed up the steep part of the trail, I just happened to have my head out of the Jeep and wow....... I spotted it. Talk about a lucky find. I wouldn't have guessed it would have made it that far down the trail. YAY! I don't have to buy another one. The sky was turning black by now so we headed out of the new area and decided to go over to Eureka and search for bottles in the mine dump I had discovered. As we headed up the trail to the dump, it started to rain really hard. We found a part of the trail where the trees hang over and stopped and ate lunch. The rain let up after a while so we continued on to the dump. It is a little late in the season to find anything but we looked anyways. No luck today on finds. Found a ton of broken ones but nothing to write about. Laura did find a suspender clip that we have dated to the early 1900's. Its in great shape and kind of a cool find. I found some beautiful pieces of broken glass that I wish I could have found complete. Love the purple bottles that used to be common in America.
The last 2 fotos are shots of friends we found along the way. The lizard shot was tough because he blended in so well with the wood. The baby bunny on the other hand stood nice and still for the foto and we thanked him by tossing him some food...... which scared him and he ran away. We also saw tons of deer, none of which would stand still long enough to be fotographed. Damn them. oh well. The trip was great and I will have to return some day so I can discover more secrets of the area. Until then my friends......... Jeep on!

July 3rd...... a special Jeep day

Welcome to another adventure! I really shouldn't have gone today due to some fuel line issues but..... what the hell! When its your daughters birthday and she wants to go.... you go! We headed up the public access or as I like to call it the back door to La Plata. With all the snow this year I had my doubts as to whether we would make it, but we had to try. The trail was in bad shape from the get go but the Jeep and the Dodge didn't have any problems............yet.
As you can see, there is still snow where the sun shines all day so I knew we were in for an adventure. All the mud holes were passable till we got to the 2ND to the last set. This is a year round spring and with all the melting snow , it was not looking good. The trail is barely wide enough due to the thick trees and the mud holes were deep. I was leading and started into it about 40 yards when we went around the corner and saw it was impassable. We slammed on the brakes, did a quick oh shit, and slammed it into reverse. The little yellow Jeep powered thru the goo and we made it back to dry land. As we set there talking, we discovered another huge problem. We were attacked by the biggest damn mosquitoes I have seen. The talk ended very quick and we headed out of the area and back down the mountain. No snow for us today.
Bob had blasted this on the way up and had to do it again on the way down. I sooooo wanted to but with open lines to my gas tank I chose not to, this time. Good news is the parts are ordered and will be here next week so I'll be ready to try it myself soon. As I have said before, gotta love a daughter who loves to Jeep. We had a blast and I hope this becomes a tradition. Happy birthday Sam.... you are the greatest! Jeep on my friends!

New beginings

well I am finaly back on track. My old Dell took a huge shit and I lost everything. All my music and fotos are history. Talk about sucking the proverbial donkey dick. So all my posts now will all be made from my new laptop. There are no fotos to post today due to the fact I have none. I will over come this snafu and we will move forward. So, until my next adventure.....Jeep on!