A big western loop: day 4 & 5

I woke up early in Moab, Utah, ready to hit a bunch of trails I've had my eye on, but never did in the past, including Wipe-out Hill, Seven Mile Loop, Courthouse Rock, and Onion Creek. Mostly, they were picked for looking scenic, and not necessarily being too difficult. Wipeout Hill was a bit crazy, but otherwise I didn't see much danger until the afternoon.

It's hard to describe how expansive and massive Utah's backcountry is, and how insignificant you feel when you don't see a single other person the moment you leave a paved road.

The snow-capped mountains in the distance reminded me that it was still deep winter, but being in the high desert, the air was so dry even though the daily high was around freezing, it felt more like a random chilly spring day. There was almost no snow or ice anywhere, even though the nights were well below freezing.

After three days of solid driving it was good to finally stretch my legs with some hikes and trails.

Everywhere you look around Moab, Utah, you see incredible rock formations. I picked trails that butted up against them and went around major outcrops so I could stand at the base of each and just gaze upwards in awe.

The most surprising trail of the day was Onion Creek, just off the Colorado River about 30 miles east of Moab on the way to Grand Junction, Colorado. It was a mellow dirt trail you could drive in any Subaru, but thanks to the dozens of small creek crossings and the way the canyons narrowed and changed colors wildly over the course of ten miles or so, it was a beautiful, unforgettable experience.

After Onion Creek's easy cruise, I looked at my trail maps and thought it'd be fun to connect back to the main road by jumping on a trail called Rose Garden Hill. It sounded innocuous and even though I was doing it in the reverse direction I didn't think it'd prove much of a challenge. In my head, I made plans for more trails to do after this one was done.

Turns out, I was wrong. After cruising across a gorgeous, wide open valley, I began to ascend, and it started to get rocky and gnarly very quickly.

I was doing this trip solo, which isn't advised anywhere in Utah, but after years of learning emergency communications like CB, GMRS, and Ham radio, I'd even gotten a Garmin InReach unit that let me text via satellite phone connections but that was very expensive, on the order of $65/mo. But this trip was my first with a Starlink Mini (I'll write a full review of it soon), and it was pretty incredible over the course of the whole journey, giving me 50-150Mbps internet at all times, at any speed, in any location as long as there wasn't a rooftop or thick trees directly over my jeep (and it was cheaper than satellite emergency texting).

I was feeling great going into this trip as I'd just added a 2kWh backup battery and a small electric fridge/freezer to the back of my Jeep. This meant I had enough power and supplies to give me ample food/drinks for several days and about a week of broadband internet just using the extra battery. If I ever got into a pickle, it'd be easy to get in touch with towing companies or communicate in real time with search and rescue.

But trouble is my middle name

Eventually, the Rose Garden Hill trail hit its worst obstacle, a rocky waterfall climb with no water in it that I had to go up instead of down. I was basically scaling a hillside composed of giant boulders about 5-6 feet in diameter. It was like trying to drive up and over an ocean jetty (those giant jumbles of rocks that control sand erosion you might see on the coast).

There were no winch points I could use, and it took me a couple hours to slowly pick my way through the rising boulder field. Eventually, the jostling took its toll as the jeep jumped from ledge to rock ledge. The backup battery popped out of its screwed-in mount and broke the USB-c cable attached to my starlink dish, which meant it was now dead. My wall plug that came with it was sitting in my garage at home. Did I mention my phone hadn’t seen a cellular connection for several hours?

One of my tires reported an error with its air pressure sensor. Driving very slowly in low gears, my transmission temperature was also getting dangerously high.

So there I was, in the middle of nowhere on a very tough trail. I hadn't seen any other person since the early morning, and the giant rocky landscape reminded me of how insignificant and vulnerable humans are in a place like this.

After a wave of anxiety washed over me, I took a break, ate a late lunch, and then proceeded slowly as I picked my way up and over and out the Rose Garden Hill trail over the course of several more hours, with the sun setting directly into my eyes. What started as a fun adventurous day turned into a long, slow, frustrating slog where I was hopeful it would mellow out after every turn.

I know things were bad because I didn't take a single photo or shoot any video for all these hours. I just wanted the ordeal to be over with.

It was starting to get dark by the time I started the drive back into Moab, where I also learned my onboard air compressor's pressure valve broke at some point and I couldn't air my tires back up to highway pressures for the pavement. C'est la vie!

And like that, it was done

It's actually a good thing when you experience setbacks like this. I was getting overconfident, feeling like my jeep was indestructible as I had replaced a ton of broken parts over the past few months with beefier things, and the starlink gave me a false sense of security letting me be connected at all times even dozens of miles off-grid. I had extra parts and tools in the back of my jeep, but I left a lot of them at home and you never know what nature will throw at you or when a Jeep will decide to shit the bed. A bunch of things went wrong quickly and it put me in a bad spot but luckily I made it out unscathed.

I nixed plans for spending another day hitting hard trails in Moab and after some dinner decided to start heading home instead. I got up near the Idaho border that night around 11pm and slept in a hotel.

The next day I hit the road early and eventually made home around 8pm.

Here's a quick recap of the day spent in Moab:

Over the course of the trip, I covered 2,950 miles over five days, completed half a dozen trails I'd never done before, and I had a good time making a giant lap around the western US before the universe reminded me of how lucky I was to spend time out there and any safety and security could be taken away pretty quickly.

On the way home I started a punchlist of all the things I need to fix and modify to prevent future problems and that's what I'm working on over the next few weeks. I am shooting to do some more off road trails in Arizona in the spring and hope things go more smoothly next time I'm out.