The First days

Thursday, March 27, 10:00 AM We left our driveway at exactly 10:00 AM and proceeded to the stoplight at Highway 41 and Seltice. Linda looked at me and said, “We don’t have the big map set!” I was sure we had them but instead of getting on the freeway we drove to the Sonic and I checked behind the back seat of the truck. They were there, and we once again started our adventure.

Our first stop was Missoula, Montana, where we topped off with diesel. The average price of diesel for the trip was $3.99 per gallon and we felt that stopping and filling at a half tank would give me a chance to move about and we wouldn’t faint at the coast of a full tank. I wonder how many station attendants have to rush out and revive people who allow their tank to go below half and fill up only to see the price gage go over the $100 mark and causing them to faint.

On the drive down we had snow prior to Missoula, wind after that and raging wind around Butte. The camper and truck handled well, but there was quite a bit of wind sway caused by the different hurricane force winds we hit. About the only stop we made that was longer then the time it took to top the tank, was in Dillon, Montana where we went to the Patagonia Outlet Store. We got there at about 5:40 PM and they closed at 6:00 PM, but that gave us enough time to explore. Linda bought a shirt for $3.00 and that was the extent of our purchases. It would be a great place to buy a coat, but we are coat rich at this point in time. It was a good break and we hit the road refreshed.

Driving through Ogden, UT we hit road construction and it continued off an on through Salt Lake. We ended our day at the Cabella’s in Lehi, our rig was one of four travelers using their RV lot. We slept till about 5:30 AM and hit the road. We looped down through Brice Canyon National Park and entered Escalante from the south. This was a little different route from our previous year, yes; we missed our turn and ended up discovering our mistake at Beaver, UT. It wasn’t a big mistake, probably only set us back 45 minutes. The views were wonderful and we got to experience an area we had never driven through, things always work out.

We stopped at the Grand Staircase-escalante National Monument Visitors Center in Escalante. Linda talked to the lady at the desk and got us registered to camp at the unimproved camp area on the Hole In The Rock road. We used the restrooms and were on our way. Within about fifteen minutes wee had checked out the camp area and I decided that I didn’t want to stay there. It wasn’t bad, I had a vision of some thing else, and cows were not in that vision.

At my insistence we ignored the recommendation of the visitor center lady and drove out the Hole In The Rock road heading for Harris Wash, about 16 mile out. Six miles later I ate my words and we disconnected the Jeep, turned around and headed out. The road was rough, not real bad, but just enough that I didn’t want to shake up the new camper. Linda drove the Jeep ahead and I followed. We used the radios to keep in contact. She got on the highway and drove to Calf Creek campground and found a very nice spot. I followed and when we got in radio range she let me know where she was and I slowly arrived. It was a nice spot!

We set up camp and claimed this as our spot for the week. We made that decision based upon the fact that we had already explored North out the Burr Trail road, so Deer Creek campground was a choice but not the best one. Our goal is to explore the region out the Hole In The Rock road and this would put us close to that area. That evening we made a great dinner of macaroni and cheese in the Dutch oven.

I also had my first accident of the trip and in our new camper. We had finished dinner and I had scraped the DO as best I could. I put water in it and boiled it for a while and then I took the DO off the stove and was going to carry it out side and do the final clean-up in the campfire pit. Well I spilled it on the rug, but worse then that, on my right foot. It hurt like hell and made a mess of the rug. The camper was not affected. I took the rug down to Calf Creek, about fifty feet away, and stood in the ice cold water while I rinsed the rug. I was so mad at my self! After that I came back and Linda had cleaned up everything from dinner. I put ointment on the food, finished cleaning the DO and we went to bed. The burn was slight on most of my toes; I have a blister on the piggy that stayed home toe. We socked it and I slept great.

Morning came and Linda got on her bike and road for two hours. Our neighbors thought she was crazy, but she road and waved as everyone departed for the various hikes of the area. We cleaned up and had breakfast, and then we packed our lunch for the day and headed out. We figured because of my foot, we would explore some of the drives we had read about. We drove to Escalente and filled with gas, $3.37 for Jeep gas. Then we drove out the road to explore the Hells Backbone road. With in about two miles we came to a fork in the road and, since we had left all our thousand maps and guides at camp, we took the right fork. It was a great gravel road that led us up a valley into a pass. We drove until we were forced to turn back due to snow. At the top we discovered that we were on the road to Posey Lake. Linda later discovered that if we could have kept going we would have eventually circled around and dropped into Boulder, UT.

When the snow turned us back, so we drove down to a off shoot road that led to a canyon hike called, Box Canyon. We hiked up the canyon for a little over two miles. Our hike included some short climbs up and around pour-over’s. These scrambles were not hard but proved to be a good test of our climb assessment skills. We had lunch in the sun and took in as much as we possibly could. Our skin hasn’t been in the direct sun since Mexico and we really loved this brief time. Our hike back was uneventful once in the Jeep we drove to town and went to the store where we bought some food supplies and of course some cookies.

Back at the camper we made soup and salad, had dinner and then got ready for bed. When I awoke in the morning Linda was out for her run. I made coffee and caught up the blog.

When Linda returned we decided to drive the Hole In The Rock road to Harris wash and do a day hike there. The drive in was real cool. We drove through stream bottoms and up and over slick rock. The Jeep loved it, and so did I. At the trail head we took a little detour, a faults trail, but soon we were heading down Harris Wash. It was a wide stream bottom and the trail, created by cows, wove back and for the across the water. I kept track of the weather real close. The guide book said that this area was impassable if you were caught in a rain storm.

The Jeep is a good old boy, but I didn’t want to put him through a mess and possibly get him stuck. We hiked about two mile down stream before the wind picked up. Looking back over our shoulder, we noticed rain clouds with what looked like showers moving in fast. We cut the hike short and beat feet back to Mr. Jeep. As we arrived to our launch point a few drops of rain hit and we were off. The wind was a howling but no real rain developed. We made it back to the Hole In The Rock road and at that point we turned left instead of right and drove about two miles to the area they call Devils Garden. Now this is a cool place.

We hiked around a bit but the wind and clouds made it a bit cold. We packed up and drove back, but we pledged that we would be back to explore Devils Garden again. In the Jeep we remembered that we had left the awning out on the camper so we put “the peddle to the metal” and flew back. We arrived to our little home at Calf Creek and found that everything was just as we left it. I put the awning up and with in a half hour the wind picked up to a force so strong it shook the camper. We were warm and sleepy inside, with not a care in the world.