Lockhart Basin & Moab Trails, Sept. 2012 Pictures & Trip Report

[Maddogjeeper 2]

Let me try this again;

 

 

Plane Wreckage in Lockhart Basin;

 

 

Where the hell does the trail go?

 

 

Wrecked Smoyota;

 

 

Looks a little steep;

 

[Maddogjeeper 2]

Allemande left;

Allemande right;

Do Sa Do;

[ChrisD 24]

Cool Pics, Dennis

[Goose 6]

I almost cry everytime I look at the photos. You guys obviously had a great time without me. I you cared about me you would have pretended you had a lousy time and hid the great pics from me.

 

Seriously, I'm glad you guys had a great time and I LOVE all the pics.

 

As for me, I'm out of the boot and can almost walk without a limp already. For those that didn't know why I bailed on Moab, I torn the Plantar Facia (arch in the foot) ligament in my foot. The doc says it was just a slight tear, but it still hurt plenty.

 

Me with my boot:

[scottL 185]

GOOSE, we missed you buddy. Glad to hear you're on the quick mend.

PS nice booty!

 

Diane and Dennis & Wayne, it's such a hoot to relive the journey through all the great photos that you have posted.

thank you

 

makes me wish mOOse had opposable thumbs so i could teach her to shoot photos for me.

[stockjeep 43]

all great pics and awsome report, thanks again G & D and everyone for the trip.

[ob1jeeper 849]

YIKES Goose... Good to hear you're on the mend...

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

We missed you Goose! Not to add insult to injury, but I'm pretty sure the cabin you were to have was in between ours and Scott's and they all shared a nice grassy backyard, and yours had the choicest patio furniture set, so we often hung out there in the evening, that is except for the 2 nights it was occupied. The cabins were plush compared to last year's place; super clean and well appointed with small kitchen and bathroom AND, wait for it - flat screen TVs! But seriously, we missed you and thought about you often...

[Goose 6]

The cabins were plush compared to last year's place; super clean and well appointed with small kitchen and bathroom AND, wait for it - flat screen TVs! But seriously, we missed you and thought about you often...

Cool! I'm glad you guys found a better place than last years. although, I suppose it wasn't too hard to find something better than last year's turd hole. Thanks for thinking of me.

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

Day 5 - Thursday: Steel Bender

 

The weather was perfect on Thursday, and we made our way south from Moab to the Spanish Valley area. We went east on Spanish Trail road and wove through a subdivision at the golf course and then dropped down a hill into a lush canyon where we aired down.

 

Some of us visited the 'bushes' for a pee-break before starting out, and George almost stepped in a pile of wild animal poop the exact same color as the dirt, making it completely camouflaged. On his way back to the Jeep George saw that my footprints came within inches of it, and worried I would step in it, so he marked it with a stick and said to be careful. Even then I had a hard time locating it on the ground - it was really camouflaged! So as we left the air-down, George made a wide sweeping turn right then left straddling the pile, and said over the CB: "Stay in my tracks to avoid running over poop". And for some reason this really amused us, and we both started giggling, and next thing you know we were hysterically laughing - George even had tears running down his face. When we told Scott about our fit of hysterics later that night, he said: "I guess you had to be there", so maybe we were giddy after almost a week of wheeling and giving such weird directions really struck us. That or you really had to be there.

 

The beginning of the trail is very scenic as you wind through this canyon and cross Mill Creek multiple times.

 

 

 

 

Then we came out into an open area where it looked like the trail went up along the side of a low ridge to the right.

 

 

And when we started going up this part it was much steeper than it looked! Clifford finally couldn't get traction at all, and every attempt to move forward felt like the vehicle was moving/tipping toward the passenger side, where I was. So I 'suggested' to George to back down because I was afraid we'd roll. Funny, looking at the pictures it hardly seems steep or tippy at all! (Photos courtesy of Maddogjeeper).

 

 

From this lofty view we could see the trail markers, which directed us lower along the rocks staying left (to the left of Scotty's Jeep in the picture above). Then we drove up a few rocky shelves, and then from a high spot we could see far off in the distance.

 

 

The trail went up and down across sand and rock for a few miles.

 

 

Some of the climbs were steep

 

 

And soon we came to the first obstacle listed in the trail book, 'The Wall'.

 

 

 

As the trail books states, The Wall is not as tough as it first appears; everyone in our group went right up!

 

 

 

 

 

Continued

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