Ian Anderson
Lifetime Supporter
Fantastic photographs Chris…
Adventure RV
- Thread starter ckouba
- Start date
Chris Kouba
Supporter
Hah!! That is my leveling system...
Actually, with the bumper jacks, I will typically set up with the tail slightly downhill (no site is ever completely flat) and then use them to level us out. It works pretty well and more quickly than the system a buddy has on his Class C rig.
Chris Kouba
Supporter
Quick snippet of some action Sat/Sun:
Chris Kouba
Supporter
We are back from the road trip, logging over 4600 miles including ~900 miles of significant off road. It was a fantastic time in the SW, and the truck had only one extremely minor hiccup- a stuck dump valve for the central tire inflation system, which was solved with a quick application of WD40.
Had a blast with the wife and dog, and a handful of people we caught up with along the way. It would be extremely enjoyable to do this full time...
Checked out Colonnade Arch:
Yet another permit for the Wave...
Wire Pass
View attachment 147577
Took some pretty pictures
A full week on Lake Powell
Ruins we just happened to stumble upon next to where we racked out for the night... just along the side of the road
Made the trek out to Reflection Canyon for sunrise
Had one of my climbing buddies meet me for a "hike"
It got narrow...
And closed out the road trip portion of my time off with gravel roads and gorgeous camping in the San Rafael Swell and the Uinta mountains
We traveled roads we'd been on and places we'd visited before, and we also made fresh tracks in new-to-us areas. All the work to get the boat to travel with us we well worth it as it opened up an entirely new mode of exploration. We caught up with some friends and made new ones when we stumbled upon them. It was a fantastic experience and I look forward to the next one.
I did put together a few videos, but never seemed to get enough signal for long enough to post them in real time... so here they are now. Mostly from the canyons I did with my climbing buddy. Feel free to peruse if interested:
High Spur slot canyon
Red Breaks slot canyons
Egypt 3 slot canyon
Drone shots from our last backcountry campsite of the trip
As for the truck, it was awesome in its element. It did things I thought I'd never do with it and has far more capability than I have courage with it. It simply went anywhere I pointed it, without issue and without fail. I will never again complain about it's highway speed going uphill. It is a truly daunting and capable piece of gear, which just happens to have all the comforts of home along for the ride.
I will have more vids and such as I have time to go through things... stay tuned for updates.
Steve- It was a pleasure to connect with you in Page and glad you guys had such a good time and memorable trip.
Joel- Your still on my list of people to connect with and I hope to do so in the near future when we (eventually) get down to see the inlaws.
Chris
Had a blast with the wife and dog, and a handful of people we caught up with along the way. It would be extremely enjoyable to do this full time...
Checked out Colonnade Arch:
Yet another permit for the Wave...
Wire Pass
View attachment 147577
Took some pretty pictures
A full week on Lake Powell
Ruins we just happened to stumble upon next to where we racked out for the night... just along the side of the road
Made the trek out to Reflection Canyon for sunrise
Had one of my climbing buddies meet me for a "hike"
It got narrow...
And closed out the road trip portion of my time off with gravel roads and gorgeous camping in the San Rafael Swell and the Uinta mountains
We traveled roads we'd been on and places we'd visited before, and we also made fresh tracks in new-to-us areas. All the work to get the boat to travel with us we well worth it as it opened up an entirely new mode of exploration. We caught up with some friends and made new ones when we stumbled upon them. It was a fantastic experience and I look forward to the next one.
I did put together a few videos, but never seemed to get enough signal for long enough to post them in real time... so here they are now. Mostly from the canyons I did with my climbing buddy. Feel free to peruse if interested:
High Spur slot canyon
Red Breaks slot canyons
Egypt 3 slot canyon
Drone shots from our last backcountry campsite of the trip
As for the truck, it was awesome in its element. It did things I thought I'd never do with it and has far more capability than I have courage with it. It simply went anywhere I pointed it, without issue and without fail. I will never again complain about it's highway speed going uphill. It is a truly daunting and capable piece of gear, which just happens to have all the comforts of home along for the ride.
I will have more vids and such as I have time to go through things... stay tuned for updates.
Steve- It was a pleasure to connect with you in Page and glad you guys had such a good time and memorable trip.
Joel- Your still on my list of people to connect with and I hope to do so in the near future when we (eventually) get down to see the inlaws.
Chris
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Chris Kouba
Supporter
Mods- I can't get the portrait layout pics to post correctly. I think one of you (Brian?) fixed this for me last time. Any chance it could be done again? I don't know why it's suddenly different...
Neil
Supporter
Antelope Canyon! I'm glad you got to see it.
Chris Kouba
Supporter
Nope. Some other random canyon I found on the internet. For all the stuff that's out there and crowded, there is so much more still out there, not yet crowded, and waiting to be enjoyed...
The one of my buddy crawling through is in Red Breaks and the rock only pic is in Egypt 3.
Fun story: I was walking the dog in the middle of nowhere and an SUV rolls up. The window goes down and someone in the back seat asks if I know where the Egypt 3 trailhead is. I know it is close but not necessarily exactly where (because I had just seen it on a map but didn't think about doing it), and I know there's a trailhead ~1/4 mile up the road, so I told them I think it's there...
As I continued back to the camper, I started thinking, "If these knuckledraggers can't find the trailhead, how are they going to fair in the slot canyon??"
I got back to the camper where we had one bar of 4G coverage between us. I looked up Egypt 3 and somehow, eventually, someone's online notes showed up, and the review was glowing, 5 stars... I tried to do a little more research but the coverage waned, though I already had enough knowledge to feel comfortable giving it a shot.
The next morning, B and I walked the approach with Bigsby (the dog). When it got rocky, she took him back and I carried on. It was fantastic...
I made a video from that experience and it's on YT:
Egypt 3 -
Red Breaks -
(same links as posted above)
I've been back to work for a week and change now. Man did I not miss that...
Neil
Supporter
Excellent photo, Chris. Nice video production, too. Looks like you had fun rappelling down and chimneying up.
I can recommend a trip to Wyoming into the Wind River Range. It is a beautiful alpine region that offers spectacular scenery and great hiking. I'm too old for that now but here is a small sample of what you'll find there.
Chris Kouba
Supporter
Thanks to you Neil, I was actually researching stuff in the Wind River Range prior to going on break. If I didn't have a dog and my wife was more into climbing, that would have been a leading option. I'm a sucker for routes in obscene places like that.
I am in the middle of processing a video from the whole trip, and will link that here when it's online. It was a great time off!
I am in the middle of processing a video from the whole trip, and will link that here when it's online. It was a great time off!
Chris Kouba
Supporter
Video appears to be processed and viewable now:
Neil
Supporter
Nice video. Great companions for your adventure- a good- looking wife and a dog with character. Toto, we're not in Portland any more...
Neil
Supporter
Here is another video to entice you into the Wind River Range. There was LOTS more snow back then!
Neil
Supporter
Here is the story of that trip.
The previous year my friends and I ventured into the Wind River Range in Wyoming to climb Gannett Peak, the highest point in the state. At that time its height was listed as 13,785 feet. On that trip we approached from the East side of the Continental Divide and successfully summited. We enjoyed the trip and the Bridger Wilderness Area so much that we made plans for another trip the following year.
In late August, 1969 we met in Pinedale, Wyoming and drove to Elkheart Park where we left our cars (I left mine parked securely on the main street in front of the visitor center in Pinedale- more on that later). We had the same three from last year, Neil Albaugh (me), Jim Hunter, and Mike Byorick. Mike had just gotten married, so in addition we had Mike's wife Dolores, and one another addition, Robert and his wife Roberta (Rob & Rob) Culberson. Our objective was to climb Mt Woodrow Wilson and perhaps Fremont Peak. This was the start of our trip. The trail to the Titcomb Lakes where we planned to setup our base camp wound through a beautiful area in the Wind River Range. It was well-marked and passed by many small lakes.
We setup our first camp site on the shore of Island Lake, fixed a dinner made with some of the freeze- dried food that we had bought earlier.It was surprisingly good but we were hungry, too. After dinner we retreated to our tents and were asleep almost immediately. The dark skies shone with brilliant stars, a beautiful setting here in the wilderness. Next morning we met some fishermen who had caught more fish than they needed and they offered us Rainbow and Native Cutthroat Trout. These made a tasty breakfast and afterwards we continued on to the Titcomb Lakes. These consist of three interconnected lakes- Lower, Middle, and Upper Titcomb lake. Our plan was to set up our base camp on the South end of Upper Titcomb Lake,allowing an approach to both Mt Woodrow Wilson and Fremont Peak.
After arriving at our campsite and taking a short rest we pitched our tents near the water's edge. I was in my tent when a tremendous blast of wind flattened the tent! The gust subsided and we took stock of the damage- only a tent pole was bent double. This was easily straightened and the tent was restored. A few minutes later, the same thing happened; in addition the wind blew a stuff sack off the head of my ice axe and out into the middle of the lake! It was very clear where the “Wind River Range” got its name. We re-established our campsite back in the shelter of large boulders as protection. It was a wise decision.
Waking up early the next morning, Mike pointed out a bear in the water on the other side of the lake but too far away to get a picture. After breakfast we lounged around, regaining our strength for a summit attempt the next day. The rest of the day we re-arranged and inventoried our packs for the climb, not wanting to carry any excess weight up high.
We,Mike, Rob, Jim, and I, were up and on the trail before dawn, skirting the Eastern shore of Upper Titcomb lake and we finally reached a large scree field at dawn. Sunrise in the mountains is an awesome thing to behold, the sunlight illuminates the snowy mountain peaks brilliantly and as the sunshine descends and finally reaches you, its warmth is so welcome. Above the scree, we encountered the Sphinx Glacier so we stopped to put on our crampons and from there on we begin to carry our ice axes. The Glacier pitch gradually steepened and the climbing became more difficult but my Choinard crampons bit into the glazed ice surface of the snow. As a precaution against falling and sliding back down the slope, we each carried our ice axe across our chest in the “arrest” position.
Our goal was to follow a route described in Bonney's book- the West Col route up to the summit of Mt Woodrow Wilson, so named by early climbers since it seemed to have “Fourteen Points”. We rounded the top of Sphinx and found ourselves at the mouth of the couloir. (A couloir isa steep, narrow “gully” leading up the side of a mountain). We were dismayed by what we saw. Either Bonney had never been here before or he had seen it under totally different conditions. His description of its difficulty bore no relationship to what we encountered that morning. Since we were committed to this route, we started climbing with Mike Byorick leading.
We were climbing up an ice-floored couloir with a layer of neve on top. It was awful, ice screws wouldn't hold, crampons wouldn't bite, the rock was too rotten for pitons- ugh! We ended up using rope slings over rock outcrops. On top of this misery, halfway up a thunderstorm hit,with lightning striking the peaks just over our heads. Fortunately,the shape of the couloir formed a kind of Faraday Cage and none of us were hurt. Accompanying the storm was a blizzard of heavy snow. BTW,when you're that close to a lightning strike, you can hear the snap of the leader strike a few milliseconds before the main one...snapBANG!
After the storm passed the sky cleared and we continued onward in the cold.Rob Culbertson was the only good rock climber of us four and he bailed on the ice and went up the couloir North wall toward the summit of Woodrow Wilson. We followed and there is a photo of me with the red Gerry pack frame and my caving buddy Mike Byorick in his red jacket. I'm standing on my left leg with my right knee on a small ledge. You can barely see my Choinard crampon straps. We continued until it was getting too late and finally abandoned the attempt about25 yards short of the peak. The sun was setting as we started back down and it formed a beautiful sunset framed by the steep walls of this “Couloir From Hell”. Darkness was upon us quickly so we continued our descent carefully.
We retraced our route back down the couloir by flashlight until its batteries finally died; after that there was enough moonlight to negotiate a descent down the Sphinx Glacier. The moon finally set and we hiked back along the shore of Upper Titcomb Lake to our base camp by nothing more than starlight from the clear sky and sacked out.Mike announced that we had just accomplished a "self- rescue". I was so tired I didn't know whether I should laugh or not.
After a day resting, we hiked over to Fremont Peak and on the summit a cloud passed over causing our hair to stand on end and it felt like it was full of Bumble Bees. Not good! Static electricity- a precursor to a lightning strike. We had disregarded an old saying “Be off the peaks by noon”.
We packed up our camp gear and headed back down the trail to Elkheart Park, loaded all of our stuff into the cars, and drove back to Pinedale where my car was parked. No!... it was missing! I found that it had not been stolen- the police had towed it away! It seems that parking on a street in Pinedale more than 24 hours was against the law... even though no signs indicated this.
My trial took place in the Sublette County court house. The Justice of the Peace, who owned the local hardware store, presided and the prosecutor was a lawyer named Mason (no, not Perry) who read the charges against me. “That Neil P. Albaugh, on August xx, 69 – did park one 1963 Ferrari on the streets of Pinedale for a period of more than 24 hours in violation of Ordinance Number such-and-such”. Boy,was I in trouble; the whole thing was laughable. I made a motion for dismissal on the grounds that on the date specified, the year “69”,the Italians were building chariots, not Ferraris. That was waved away as a simple clerical error and the trial continued. I did think that had I been on trial for murder, my brilliant ploy would have brought the proceedings to a screeching halt- at least on TV. Oh, well so much for my law career.
I was found guilty as charged and fined $9. I asked “What if I don't pay the fine?” The answer was that I would be jailed and credited with $1 per day of the fine. I refused to pay that parking fine on principle and I was sentenced to 9 days in jail . Nine dollars seemed like a curious sum but I thought it was not fair to fine people if the local law was not posted anywhere so I chose jail. The Pinedale jail was in the rear of the court building and it was evidently very old. Instead of round bars on its cells, it was made of flat steel strips.
My cellmates were a curious lot. One young lad was arrested for stealing a pair of cowboy boots and two others were for something else that I can't remember. In the middle of the night another young guy was brought in and locked in a cell, he had wrecked his car. Frankly, he should have been in a hospital. He was in bad shape and he was passing blood in his urine, to me that indicated the possibility of internal injuries. After a day or so he was removed and I never heard what happened to him.
Actually,I spent 3 days in jail, then paid the remaining $6 and got out.Eventually I was released, retrieved my car (Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2) and left Pinedale. I drove up to Jackson Hole and talked to a lawyer who told me that if the fine was under $10, I couldn't appeal it under WY law. That SOB Justice of the Peace had fined me only $9. On the way home I stopped into the capitol in Cheyenne and spoke to the Wyoming Attorney General about my experience. He apologized for what that JP had done and offered to write it on a state letterhead!
It had cost the city of Pinedale more than $1 a day to feed me in jail. The Pinedale jail food was not bad at all-it was take-out from a local restaurant. By my calculation, the city had lost about $7 a day by putting me in jail.
The long drive back to Charlottesville, VA was uneventful, not even a speeding ticket! However, I left Pinedale smug, realizing that the city had forgotten to collect the $25 impound fee on my car.
