Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

PLANNING: Western Road Trip Part 2

Trips/trails in the western part of the U.S. (loosely follows the Mountain Time Zone).
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Please label new threads with the following to indicate the type of thread:

COMPLETED: a completed trip
IN PROGRESS: a trip currently in progress
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by mikekey » Mon Apr 01, 2013 8:45 pm

Just throwing it out there, we're in the very early stages of planning a second Western Road Trip. We for sure want to revisit parts of Utah. And we're curious if there is anyone who might like to meet up for a section or two of the trip. The time frame is probably going to be the same, the first week of August 2013. I'll probably have a more solid idea of the places and trails after TECORE. This is very preliminary.
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by DirtyBacon04 » Mon Apr 01, 2013 8:49 pm

I'm going... invited or not.
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by djthumper » Mon Apr 01, 2013 9:07 pm

Well that may depend on where you are going... Or you could travel to Death Valley.
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by mikekey » Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:17 pm

But that's a valley.....
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by djthumper » Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:30 pm

With lots of trails... not just flat land.
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by Moots1288 » Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:13 pm

DirtyBacon04 wrote:I'm going... invited or not.

You're not invited!
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by 06MidnightBlue » Tue Apr 02, 2013 12:07 am

I reckon you won't be coming anywhere near Sacramento will ya?
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by mikekey » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:35 am

Too far to the left.

You can make your own interpertation about that one.

I know that Canyon lands, Capitol Reef & Grand Staircase are high on the lists.

If I could find some higher alpine trails in CO or WY I'd be interested in those. Been going thru peoples stuff over on expo forums for ideas.
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by The Roadie » Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:22 am

I'm in. Last time in Moab I had to skip Escalante / Staircase due to thunderstorms and the threat of slick mud. Now I'm obsessed with going back.
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by redleg6 » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:45 pm

look up the areas between Redstone, Silver Plume and Georgetown...all in Colorado on I-70 and CO Hwy-133

http://www.chairmountainranch.com/activ ... -road.html

http://clearcreekcounty.org/trails/
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by Trail X » Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:11 pm

The Roadie wrote:...I had to skip Escalante / Staircase due to thunderstorms and the threat of slick mud. Now I'm obsessed with going back.

Same here... I really wanted to camp off Smokey Mountain Rd.
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by plaen » Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:27 pm

redleg6 wrote:look up the areas between Redstone, Silver Plume and Georgetown...all in Colorado on I-70 and CO Hwy-133

http://www.chairmountainranch.com/activ ... -road.html

http://clearcreekcounty.org/trails/


That's one of my favorite spots to wheel, also helps my dad has a house in Marble right up the road from Redstone, lol.

The area around Telluride, Ouray, and Crested Butte has some really good trails for day long trips.

Another is Taylor Park, tons of trails ranging from the easy dirt to the challenging boulder field trails.
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by mikekey » Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:53 pm

Anyone ever try shipping their vehicle by freight or transport ahead of them? I've heard of some Jeep guys sending their Jeeps ahead of them via train. And as much as we love driving, if I could send the truck ahead of me, I'd have close to 84hrs of additional trail time available to me, give or take. A lot of variables there I realize.
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by Trail X » Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:56 pm

I had looked into that Mike. I was quoted roughly a $1k trip each way. Don't forget to add in your flights when you consider the entire cost variable.
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by Conner299 » Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:00 pm

mikekey wrote:Anyone ever try shipping their vehicle by freight or transport ahead of them? I've heard of some Jeep guys sending their Jeeps ahead of them via train. And as much as we love driving, if I could send the truck ahead of me, I'd have close to 84hrs of additional trail time available to me, give or take. A lot of variables there I realize.


I just did a quick quote on uShip.com. From Louisville, KY to telluride,CO, it would around $750.
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by JorDaneeKey » Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:08 pm

mikekey wrote:Anyone ever try shipping their vehicle by freight or transport ahead of them? I've heard of some Jeep guys sending their Jeeps ahead of them via train. And as much as we love driving, if I could send the truck ahead of me, I'd have close to 84hrs of additional trail time available to me, give or take. A lot of variables there I realize.



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by djthumper » Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:09 pm

There you go take the train and ship the truck on the train with you.
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by mikekey » Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:11 pm

To much money even for my blood. But with that being said, after a lot of reading and our own experiences, I think I might push this to the last week of Aug or first week of Sept for cooler temperatures in Utah. There are some spots in Nevada that might be interesting as well.
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by Regulator1175 » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:04 am

I would love, love, love to jump on this. However, I am expecting my 4th child the last week of August and I am pretty sure my wife will have no interest in traveling. If this turns into an annual trip for you all then I will definitely be a vehicle in convoy with you all. It has been 8 years since I have been in that part of the country and I really miss it.
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by The Roadie » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:08 am

I've seen more than one fully-built $80-100K expedition vehicles get sold on ExPo to folks who just leave them out here in the West close to good wheeling. Like owning a condo in Hawaii, the owners just fly in from the rest of the country or Europe when they can to take a trip. I'd baby sit and keep a vehicle like that ready for the owner for a small fee.
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