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Adventures of Etoimos

Etoimos

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Hey everybody,

Instead of creating a new thread for each of my adventures, I thought it might be better to create just this one thread and post them all in here. Since this is the Gladiator forum, I'll just post my adventures starting with when I got the JT. If you like what you see and are interested in my adventures in my JKUR or some of my other photography, you can check those out on my site: Adventures of Etoimos.

Since I'm consolidating my adventures into this single thread, you may have already seen two I'm going to post here. If you have, my apologies. If you have not seen them, I hope you enjoy them.
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Etoimos

Etoimos

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Trail Run: China Wall

We recently ran the China Wall trail near Tarryall CO. It was the first real trail that we ran with our JKUR many years ago, so I thought it would be a good first trail for the JTR. There is nothing hard about this trail, but it is a fun one to shake down a rig on. The only mods to the JTR are 35s on some new wheels to match our OGT trailer.

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Even my step daughter got some wheeling in.

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Etoimos

Etoimos

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Overlanding: Utah and Colorado Day 1

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos RouteDay1-1024x393
26May20
Peyton, CO to Goblin Canyon, UT
Trip Time: 12:44 (0700-1941)
Miles: 466
Average Speed: 36.6mph
Max Elevation: 11,125 ft

For the past two years I've been trying to do an overlanding trip of the White Rim Road in Canyonlands NP. It was supposed to be the first overland style trip that my wife was to accompany me on. For those that might not know, you pretty much have to reserve spots 4 months in advance. In order to the the good locations, you have to be online right at midnight exactly 4 months out and even then you have to be both quick and lucky. Back in 2019 I had managed to get camping spots reserved for two nights. The first site was one of my first choices, but the second site was a little further down my list. Alas, something came up with work and we had to cancel that trip. Strike one.

Hoping to still make that the first trip for my wife, I managed to snag my first choices for both nights for an April 2020 trip. Of course that trip got cancelled do to Canyonlands closing down for Covid-19. Strike two.

However, for the 2020 trip I still had the time off from work and did not want to waste it with most people staying at home and a nice new OGT Expedition 2.0 sitting in my shop. So, I came up with a remote Lake Powell trip. The plan was to setup the trailer as a base camp in a remote spot next to the lake and then go hiking and explore the surrounding area in our new Jeep Gladiator.

As with most trips, the first day was pretty much just a long stretch of highway driving followed by setting up camp. Since this was the first trip with my wife, the new Gladiator and our new puppy, Maxiums, I knew things were going to be a little different. The first thing was going to be that some of the photos would have my wife’s touch to them.

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After a relatively easy start to the trip, we clicked off the miles to our first camping spot without issue. Maximus enjoyed the first day by sleeping though just about all of it. This was really nice while driving, but would it lead to an interesting night with him sleeping in the trailer with us? We certainly hoped not!

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The first camp site I had scouted out via online resources was a really nice location. It was level, had a fire ring and was sheltered from the wind if it picked up over night.

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Unfortunately the gnats also thought it was a good location and swarmed us within minutes of getting out of the truck. Poor Maximus was covered in bites from head to tail almost instantly. Abandoning the picturesque site, we headed back up to a more exposed location, hoping the light breeze would help keep them away. We were rewarded for moving out of the little canyon with fewer gnats and a beautiful sunset that evening.

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Maximus had no problems sleeping in the create I had built for him in the lower shelf of our OGT Expedition 2.0. He actually slept through the night until about 0500 the next morning. Waking me up see the sun rise.

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Etoimos

Etoimos

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Overlanding: Utah and Colorado Day 2

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos RouteDay2
27May20
Goblin Canyon, UT to Lake Powell
Trip Time: 5:26 (????-1423)
Miles: 104
Average Speed: 14mph
Max Elevation: 5347 ft

Maximus ensured that the day started before sunrise with a short walk and while we waited for my wife to wake up, we both enjoyed the colorful sunrise.

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After an easy breakfast the three of us went on a short hike to explore our immediate surroundings. There are lots of dispersed camping spots in this area and several dirt roads that were calling my name to explore, but this was just an over night location and so we packed up camp and made the short drive to checkout the Temple Mountain Pictograph panel.

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Steve Manning of the Utah Rock Art Research Association contributed the information displayed on the site's information sign, part of which I have copied here for your edification:

"The Temple Mountain Pictograph panel is significant because it contains some of the largest prehistoric painted figures in Utah. The largest image is, at present, about 6 feet tall. It could easily have been 8 feet or more. If you look carefully you will see the blacks of two large animals. The sizes of these images seem to suggest that the creators wanted them to be easily seen and to demonstrate that they were of exceptional significance."

"There are two ages of petroglyphs present in this panel. The horned figure on the far left is a Fremont anthropomorphic (A stylized human figure). The concentric circles are a common element in Fremont Panels. The Fremont existed from about AD 100 to AD 1300 and lived in nearly all of Utah. The other figures are Barrier Canyon Style which started about 8000 to 6500 BC and ended about 2000 years ago, others believe that they date to AD 1 to 1100. Other dates have been proposed and there is even some disagreement on what actually constitutes Barrier Canyon Style."

After the short visit to the pictograph panel, we hit the highway once again. I normally do not care for the highway portions of these trips, but this stretch of pavement had some interesting terrain to drive through and a few places worth stopping to checkout. Like this cool cliff that you could walk right up to the edge of.

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Maximus was not so sure about getting out to go sightseeing, especially since we had to wake him up!

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There were also some cool bridges that crossed over both the Dirty Devil and Colorado rivers. Both used an Arch design, but of different types.

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Dirty Devil River

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Colorado River

A little further down the road we found the turn off that would hopefully takes us down to the water's edge of Lake Powell, some 14 miles away.

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For such a remote area, the road was in great condition.

For such a remote location, the road in was very well maintained. It did get quite a bit off camber, or tippy as we call it, to the tune of 16°. For whatever reason, getting tippy on a trail always feels way worse than it looks when you get out.

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There were lots of different campsites at the end of the trail near the water, and surprisingly, quite a few different groups of people already there setup (we got there mid afternoon on a Wednesday after all). I passed up several choice spots as they were within line of sight of other campers. When I go to a remote location, I prefer not to be able to see my neighbors for the night.


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I finally settled on a nice secluded peninsula that had amazing views and no other campers in sight.

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Too bad someone decided to drive within 15 feet of our campsite to setup their own camp not more than a 100 feet from us. In full view of course. Sometimes, I guess the world just isn't big enough.

Since this was to be our first joint outing in the new trailer, the plan was to setup base camp here and to go hiking and explore the larger area around us in the Gladiator. We had got to the campsite in early afternoon and the temperature was a blistering 97°. That is really hot for us Colorado folks. It was also really hot for the puppy. Using the weather forecast feature on my InReach device, the next two days were calling for temps of 100° and 102°.

That was simply too hot for the three of us to do any hiking and was even borderline dangerous for Maximus just hanging out at camp. We needed to figure out a new plan. That evening I used Gaia GPS on my tablet to scout out a new route and destination to get us back up in the high country where it was cooler. But without any cell or WiFi signal, I could only get a general idea of where I wanted to go and how to get there.

With a general plan sorted out, we settled in for a warm night on the edge of the lake.

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Overlanding: Utah and Colorado Day 3

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos RouteDay3-1024x823
28May20
Lake Powell, UT to Rimrocker Trail, CO
Trip Time: 10:28 (0911-1958)
Miles: 169
Average Speed: 14mph
Max Elevation: 8602 ft

While not quite as colorful as the previous days, we were still greeted by a wonderful sunrise.

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Like the drive in, the drive out was both fun and beautiful.

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After airing back up we hit the pavement with only a rough destination in mind and not 100% sure where we would get gas, as we were now off script.

It turns out we had plenty of gas to make it to town of Monticello were we further supported the local economy by grabbing some pizza from a local pizza joint. Monticello also has a nice little park that Maximus loved playing in. Adjacent to the park was the Monticello library, which happened to be open at this point in the Covid-19 stay at home period. This afforded me the opportunity to go online and download the Rimrocker trail route I had planned on Gaia many months ago for a future trip.

Now with a full tank of gas and a planned route for at least the trail were were planning to take, we hit the road for the second time that day. But this time it was nearly 4 pm and we had a long ways to go to get to the campsite I had in mind.

During this stretch of highway is when we had our first small issue of the trip. The clip on our Trasharoo broke and it started to slide down the front box of the trailer. One strap was still holding it and the triangle shaped trailer tongue was supporting, but I decided to just take it off the trailer and throw it in the back of the Gladiator.

The west half of the Rimrocker trail is the more technical and rocky portion of the trial. There were a couple of narrow shelf road sections and one very tight switchback that requited a multi point turn with the trailer. This really made for slow going and we started to neglect taking photos. Jessica did manage to take some "Jeep Hood Shots" as we made our way along.

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With the light failing us and still a good ways away from where I wanted to camp, we decide it was better to just pull over in a decent spot we found along the trial. With the new truck and trailer, I did not want to push into the night not knowing what the trail ahead was really like.

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Overlanding: Utah and Colorado Day 4

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29May20
Rimrocker Trail, UT to Payton, CO
Trip Time: 15:45 (0802-2348)
Miles: 391
Average Speed: 24mph
Max Elevation: 11266 ft

It was another early morning with Maximus, but this time we did not get a colorful sunrise. We did not spend much time in camp that morning as keeping Maximus out of the cow pies was not the funnest of chores. So we ate a quick breakfast and hit the road in short order.

About another hour down the trail we found a couple of really nice areas to camp in. All three of us were wishing that we had pushed on a little further the evening before to find these spots.

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The first one was wide field with lots of wide flowers. Jessica wanted to photograph them and it was a good place to let Maximus out to run around for an extended period of time. That something that he had been able to do much of up until this point of the trip. Of course Jessica also got a rare picture of me with Maximus.

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The campsite I had originally wanted to make the night before turned out to be another 2 hours down the tail, so I'm glad we did not try and reach it the night before.

The campsite was a State campground at Buckeye Reservoir. I don't normally stay at developed campgrounds, but I wanted to give Jessica a somewhat civilized night as it came with at least an indoor bathroom. While checking the place out, I noticed another OGT setup, this one was a Pando 2.0 in the same color as my own. Of course I had to stop and talk to the owner. It turns out they (I'm sorry to say I can't recall the guy's name) were from the Denver area and were also doing the Rimrocker trail, only going from east to west. We exchanged pleasantries and some trail information, then were back on the trail.

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It was not long until we crossed over from UT to CO.

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Getting a little low on gas and already well after noon, we decided to drop of the RimRocker and take the highway a short distance to Nucla CO.

But before we could hit the pavement we needed to air up. On this trip airing up was a long tedious chore. Since I have not decided 100% on my on board air system yet and my the CO2 tanks I used with the JK were off getting a new inspection done on them, I was using a small Viair 88P on this trip. It actually did pretty good considering it was not rated for tires this size, but it was really slow. Like 17 minutes per tire slow, times six tires. Yes, that is correct, it took us just over an hour and forty minutes to air up.

While airing up I always give the rig a once over to see if there are any issues developing. As it turns out, there was an issue this time. The cotter pin on one of the trailer chains had come out or broken and the chain was dragging. The hook was also wedged up against the receiver pin and trailer break away hook. Nothing that a hammer could not sort out. With the tires finally inflated and the one chain safely secured out of the way, we pressed on into town.

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Not a bad place to have to spend some time airing back up.
After spending almost two hours sitting and airing up, it was not 20 minutes later that we ran into more cows on the road. This time a small herd being driven by ranchers on horse back.

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The wait was not too long thankfully and we soon found our selves in Nucla where we got gas and picked up lunch from a local restaurant and eat in a near by park.

By this time it was already after 4 pm and we had to decide what we were going to do next. We could pick up the east portion of the Rimrocker trail and try to find another place to camp in the next couple of hours, we could stay on the highway and find something in the Telluride/Ouray/Ridgway area, or we could just hit the highway and grind it out all the way home in one hard push.

After a little discussion, we decided to push on to the house and wrap this trip up.
 
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Overlanding: Hunting NEOWISE

Living in Colorado has a lot of advantages when it comes to the great outdoors. Having clear skies in the evening during the summer months is not one of them. This is really only an issue if you like to do astrophotography and even more so if you want to take some photos of the NEOWISE comet.

With my son at my mom's for a week and my wife away at her friend's place for a "girls weekend", I decided it was the perfect time for me to hitch up the OGT Expedition 2.0 trailer to the Gladiator and hit the dirt looking for better opportunities to photograph the comet.

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18-21 July 2020
Peyton, CO to BLM Land, WY
Trip Time: 43.5 hours
Miles: 1,303
Average Speed: 17.7mph
Max Elevation: 11,164ft

Since the main reason for this trip was to photograph the comet and the Milky Way, I started my planning off a little different this time. I needed to find a place that had clear skies forecast for the days I was going to be there. Most forecasts only tell you if it is going to be cloudy or not, but I needed more detailed information on cloud cover at various hours throughout the day/night. For this type of forecast I use a site called Astropheric. Besides forecasting cloud cover, it also gives you information on the skies Transparency and Seeing (useful for telescope viewing), tracks the ISS Path, sun and moon rise/set times, temps and dew points among other things.

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After finding a large area in Wyoming that had little to no clouds forecasted, it was time to find a suitable location to photograph from at night. For this you need to find a location that has as little light pollution as possible. I use the site Light Pollution Map for this.

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Trying to photograph both the comet and the Milky Way in the same trip is a little difficult as they are in opposite directions from each other in the night sky. The comet is to the northwest and the Milky Way moves from the south east to the south west as the night progresses. Luckily I was able to find an area north east of Cokeville WY that had little light pollution in either direction.

At this point I was ready to use Gaia GPS and Google Maps to scout out possible campsites in this area. I was able to find what looked like several good spots relatively close to each other. I always to try and mark out 4-5 possible sites so that I have some backups ready if need be. For this trip, I actually camped at a better location near several of my marked sites.

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The site was not too far from a possible water crossing I'd noticed on Google Maps. I love water crossings and any chance I get to drive through one I take! I did not know it now, but this water crossing would add even more interest to this trip then usual.

Since my planned destination was a pretty long drive from my house and I know I was going to get a late start in leaving, I went a head and planned to brake the trip up into two days. The first day I would pound the highway to the Sand Wash Basin Wild Horse Management Area. I've been here a couple of times to photograph the wild horse and it was roughly half way alone my route, so I decided to stop there for the night. If the skies turned out to be clear, I could get some decent shots from there as well as photograph the horses the next morning.

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As the forecasts told me, there was pretty heavy cloud cover that night so I did not get any photos of the comet or Milky Way. I also did not see as many horses this time out and since I still had a good ways to drive and find a campsite, I took just a few shots and hit the road again. Well, there was one little issue before I could hit the road. It turned out that I had left the coupler for my CO2 tank back at home. This meant that I could not air back up as I was leaving the dirt. The nearest gas station was some 80+ miles away, so it was going to be slow going for a while.

With my paced already slowed and taking a highway I'd never driven before, I was pleased to find an interesting bridge just about half way to the gas station that I could stop and check out.

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The Swinging Bridge (not a very apt name as it did not swing when I crossed it) is a very narrow bridge that crosses over the Green River. It is posted as an 8' max width and 20 ton limit bridge. I had my trusty laser measuring tool with me for my photography, so I pulled it out and checked the distance between the two sets of "gate keeper" poles at either end of the bridge. It turns out that they were almost 8.5 feet wide and since the Expo 2.0 is only 7.5 feet wide, I decided to go ahead and make the crossing. For posterity's sake. Okay, I really just want to get some cool photos!

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There was a "High Clearance 4x4" road on the other side, but I did not have time to go explore it. I'll have to do this on another one of my trips to photograph the wild horse.

I also found the fencing they used leading up to the bridge interesting. It was part old logs and part old Marston Matting. For those that don't know, Marston Matting was used to build make shift airstrips during WWII and was a major player in the air war in the Pacific.

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After airing back up at the gas station, I made my way up to the area I was going to camp at. I spent that afternoon and evening scouting around the local area and taking some photos while I waited for night to fall.

No sooner had I gotten camp setup and Maximus was wanting to know where dinner was!

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He was much happier when I took him on a hike.

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There was a lot of lavender growing in the area and it smelled just as nice as it looked.

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The sun was finally setting and while the low clouds to the west and north were not what I was hoping for, they did make for a pretty sunset.

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As luck (or was it planning) would have it, I was still able to get a photo of the NEOWISE comet and the skies were mostly clear to the south west for Milky Way shots later in the night.

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The setting sun and the low thin clouds made the comet glow a bright reddish orange. It immediately made me think of the comet in George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. Which I happened to be listing to book one of on this trip. I've read all of the books several times over the past 17 years, but this is the first time I've listened to them. The story is the same of course, but the characters take on a different feel to them when someone else gives them a voice that does not match the one you have in your head.

Finally with darkness all around me, I was able to get my photographs of the rig with the Milky Way and the comet.

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I'm personally not a big fan of the LED string lights people put on the outside of their campers, but I think I'm going to have to look into some for these types of photos. A little light coming from the truck and trailer would really help to give some life to the images.

I did setup my propane fire pit and get a "selfie" shot. Just the light coming off the fire gives the photo a little more life I think. I wish I would have thought to add some more lighting to truck in this shot so that it stood better. Something I will have to work on in a future shoot.

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The next day I continued to explore the area and found some pretty good hills to go up and down.

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I managed to hit 23° on a long climb up a hill. That equates to a 42% road grade! For this climb I tested out the Jeep's Selec-Speed Control. This is basically a cruise control for off roading. I was able to set the speed to about 3mph and the Jeep maintained that speed all the way up the hill. It was pretty cool.

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I also decided to go checkout the water crossing to determine if it would be worth hooking up and dragging the trailer all the way there for some photos (it was about 2.5 hours away from my campsite) the next day before heading home.

The water crossing was a little bit interesting as they had put down a paved "bridge" across the Hobble Creek. The "bridge" was underwater, but it did seem to keep the creek bottom from getting tore up from people driving though it.

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I had left my tripod back in the trailer, so while I was propping my camera up on rocks to take these photos, I heard the sound of a low and slow helicopter approaching. I was down close to the creek at this time and the really tall brush only offered a glimpse of the chopper as it flew down the creek. I ran back to the crossing in hopes of getting a few shots of it as it flew by. Only, it never passed by and it's sounds where all but gone. Realizing that it must have landed right along the creek, I hiked down the road a little further and walked right into an active search and rescue mission being conducted by the Lincoln County Sheriff's SAR.

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Someone had gotten lost a couple of days before and the helicopter was flying the SAR teams in and out of the area they were searching. Otherwise it would have taken them several hours each way to hike back to where they were searching.

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


I've not been able to found out any information regarding the search, so I don't know at this time if they ever found the missing person or not.

On the way back to camp I had my first and only real issue of the trip. I hit a pretty good sized pot hole while going about 20~25mph and the force from the hit was to great for my new overland style "Upper Decker" tonneau cover. It appeared to break either the hinges that attach the front of the cover to the truck bed or the bolts that hold them in. Either way the cover had shifted all the way forward to rest against my back glass and a little to the passenger's side.

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


Being that I was doing this trip solo, I had to be a little creative to get the cover slid back in place enough to make the trip home.

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


Back at camp I again waited for night to fall and took advantage of the nice golden light to grab a few more images.

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682


Earlier in the day I had found an old barn that I really wanted to photograph with the Milky Way, but I was a little bit concerned about doing more off road driving then I needed to with the damaged tonneau cover. But a ratchet strap on all four corners secured it enough that I decided I should go make the images while I had the opportunity to. It was unlikely I'd be back to this exact location in the future.

I'm really glad I decide to go photograph the old barn, as it turned out to be my favorite Milky Way photo I've taken to date. It was also a great way to wrap up an extended weekend photography trip!

Jeep Gladiator Adventures of Etoimos Loves_Lake_Powell-2464-1024x682
 
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Etoimos

Etoimos

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Overlanding: Grama Goes Camping

For the last couple of years Kiefer's Grama has watched us go on trip after trip. This year she told me that I needed to take her on one of these trips before she gets too old to do it. So, we did.

My family has gone to Ouray CO many times since we bought our first Jeep back in 2013, but it has been a few years since we have been back. So I thought the Ouray area would be a great place to go on an extended weekend with Kiefer and my mom.

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7-10 August 2020
Peyton, CO to Ouray, CO
Driving Time: 18 hours
Miles: 676
Average Speed: 7.6mph
Max Elevation: 12,939ft

This trip was going to be different then most of my trips as we were going to be base camping. Knowing that I would be dropping the trailer off and leaving it in one location meant I needed to find a really nice location and I could put a little more effort into getting the trailer there since I'd not have to get it back out for a few days. As such, I digitally scouted a location about 4.5 miles up Imogene pass on the Ouray side.

I've ran Imogene several times in the past, but never with a trailer in tow. My biggest concern on this portion of the trail was not the terrain, but meeting traffic coming down the mountain. Not only is the trail narrow and hard to pass on, but they would also have the right of way. This all added up to the possibility of me having to back the trailer down the narrow trail some distance. Luckily, I only had to do this once and for a short distance.

On the other hand, there was a section of the trail were the terrain was an issue. It was a pretty tight and steep switchback made up of a large section of rock with good sized holes in it. Both the Gladiator and the OGT Expedition 2.0 have the suspension and clearance to make this climb, but at 11, 031 feet I was not sure the Gladiator had the power to pull the 3,500lbs trailer out of any of the deep holes if the wheels dropped down in to them. If I could not make it up this section of the trail, I'd be in a really back situation with very few options to get out of it. I wanted to enjoy this weekend, so I decided not to try and push it.

This meant I had to back the trailer down to the last switchback and get it turned around and headed back down hill. As this little maneuver took some concentration, I failed to get any photos of it!

Headed back down I decided to take the little wooden bridge over Imogene creek instead of the water crossing I took on the way up (the easier of the two water crossings). The bridge was very narrow and we were just able to make it across. The trailer wheel came off the bridge right at the corner.

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We went back down a ways to an area that appeared to have a couple of campsite options. When we got there a father and daughter team that saw us going up commented that they thought it was a little ambitious for us to try going further up. It also turned out that they were just packing up camp and their spot was nicely suited for our trailer setup. It was a little close to the main trail, but the traffic was not too bad most of the time.

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Imogene creek ran down two sides of the site and there were 2 waterfalls near by, one you could see from camp.

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First time using the RTT and annex on top of the Expo 2.0

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All setup and ready to enjoy the weekend.

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Mountain views in every direction.

The benefits of the site far out weighed the occasional traffic though. The Imogene creek ran down two sides of the site, giving my son a great place to play.

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We spent hours building up dams and river towns!

There were also two waterfalls in walking distance, one of them visible from the campsite.

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The closest waterfall made for the perfect background to get some family photos, something we have not done in many years.

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Kiefer, Grama Martha, and Keith.

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I love sharing these adventures with my son!

On this trip I used my intervalometer to take the pictures of us instead of the built in time on the camera. I did not know it until I got home and started processing the images from the trip, but my son was having fun with the camera while I was getting into position!

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Using the intervalometer is a great little trick I picked up from Adventure Taco. If you like good trip reports and great photography, you should definitely go check out his site. I get a lot of inspiration for trip ideas over there.

Being in the Ouray area it is impossible to not run any of wonderful trails in the surrounding mountains. Most of the trails are easy enough for any 4x4 pickup truck and the views are spectacular no matter which ones you do. For this trip we knocked out Corkscrew Gulch, California Gulch, Hurricane Pass, and the ghost town of Animas Forks. For a cool 3D virtual tour of this part of our trip, check out our Ayvri track.

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Corkscrew Gulch

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The views are always spectacular near Ouray CO.

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Are you not entertained?

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Como Lake

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California Gulch

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Many years ago on a trip to this same area, we passed through a large heard of sheep grazing along the California Gulch. This year we again saw hundreds, if not thousands, of sheep grazing in the same area. This time we also got to see the shepherd and his working dogs. It was really neat to watch them come across the mountain in long lines that looked like a train, and then to gather up into a big flock.

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It was neat watching this shepherd and his dog work the flock.
On this trip, Kiefer and Grama made a game of finding shapes and faces in everything from the clouds, to the rocks and even the brush growing near camp.

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There are several faces in this rock formation.

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Viking or Forest God?

After a full day of exploring on the trails, it was time to settle in for the evening, a slightly chilling evening! Grama was very thankful for the furnace on the Expedition 2.0 trailer.

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It was dropping down into the low 40s at night!

Even with it being just four days after the full moon, I was hoping that our remote location, the high mountain surrounding us, and the colder temps would give me a good opportunity to photograph the Milky Way.

The mountains around Ouray are very, very dark and the peaks block out almost all light pollution form the few small towns near by. They also block out the moon until it gets higher in the sky. All of those things are great, but they also limit the amount of time you can see the Galactic Core as it will get blocked from view behind a peak before it actually sets.

It turned out to be great conditions for the Milky Way. In fact, it was so clear and the Core was so bright, you could just make out the darker "fingers" with the naked eye.

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The universe is eternal, man is not.

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Is there anything better than camping under the stars?

With an enjoyable weekend behind us and many new memories to look forward to, there was nothing left to do but pack up and head home. But first, we had to make our way down the mountain and past the astonished onlookers as we traversed some serious terrain with the Gladiator and OGT trailer.

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Max Coupler for the win!
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18° of roll feels a little uneasy, knowing your trailer is going to do that next makes you pucker up!

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It is easy peasy from here on out.

Hopefully we can get another trip in with Grama before she "gets too old".
 

jurfie

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Awesome thread!
 
 



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