Okay mister "windows up AC blasting on the trail" man.But I didn't think that the point of getting out and seeing the country, was to get it done quickly and get back to the BS of regular life!
CK5
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'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper
This is the build for my 1991 V1500 Blazer, AKA the K5.3. It started out life being sold to the U.S. Government with a 350 TBI/700r4/241 combo. 4 years with a 5.3/700r4 Combo and now moving to an 8.1L Vortec and NV4500 5-speed.
The AC was nice when we were chasing drive shaft parts.
When have you or anyone seen my truck with the windows UP on the trail? Only if it was raining. I had them down with the A/C running!
Shush wrinkle-lid
I get the same thing when we're trying to do trips, everyone just wants to go and come back quick like it's an accomplishment, a bucket list item.But I didn't think that the point of getting out and seeing the country, was to get it done quickly and get back to the BS of regular life!
I want to stay and enjoy the place.
Yes, but it will be a long ass day and you'll be running Baja pace. In a go-fast deserty type ride like Wades or a Raptor it could be done. But you are going to miss a lot of the scenery hauling ass like that. We were carrying more speed than I normally do on something like this because I wanted to hit Buckeye before dark. We bypassed one section to make up time too and still missed the mark.
But I didn't think that the point of getting out and seeing the country, was to get it done quickly and get back to the BS of regular life!
Exactly correct. This is the kind of trail that taking 2 days would be perfect for it. Not two full days if you stay on the main trail either. Hit it mid-day in Montrose and you'd be in Moab by mid-day the next. If you wanted to hit the side loops and other sights like the town of Uravan or other interesting spots you could stretch the time out another day. Really depends on your timetable and how much you want to check out. The sights are most certainly worth the drive and lack of any technical off-road difficulty. It's amazing country. The other thing that tends to spook some from travel like this is the remoteness and lack of any fuel sources on most of the trail. This isn't a problem on Rimrocker. We topped our tanks in Montrose and filled a 5-gallon jerry can each just in case. We never needed the extra fuel. One can stop in the little town of Nucla as there is a gas station there if you had to. But again we didn't need to even with getting fuel mileage in the 11-12 mpg range. Once we got to Moab we filled up again and I don't think I used more than a half tank on Rimrocker and La Sal pass. As long as you don't get single-digit mileage numbers the trip could be made on one tank with having an extra jerry can filled onboard for the just in case situation.
I assume it would be ok with Rob if I add my two cents.
While I totally understand our get it done quick society doing the Rimrocker in one day is the equivalent of having a free loaner supercar of your choice for a week and taking it back after one day. The escape from the rat race/society is one of the best parts about trips like this. The scenery and solitude is as good as most any other place you will ever find and I believe if someone were to explore all of the side trails and stop and camp at a few different places the rewards would be phenomenal. If you are looking for a place to do some serious wheeling the Rimrocker trail is not your cup of tea. Camping, relaxing, hiking, photography and breathing some of the cleanest air you could ever find is what this trail is all about.
Now with all that being said while on this trail I added 2 things to my bucket list.
1st
I am going to spend at least 3 days exploring and camping and learning as much as I can about the trail while doing nothing but relaxing and decompressing. Probably late July of next year.
2nd
The following weekend I am taking my dirt tire equipped, 120hp, medium travel suspension sandrail on the Rimrocker and let it all hang out. Man,machine and no fear. While I hung back because of the dust while following Rob, in my rail I am a different person. I think I can do the trail in 3hrs 33 minutes and 22 seconds.
Dude you were part of the trip, add as you see fit.
One can make what you want of that trail but if hauling ass is the key, I'd be doing it in the real desert like Mojave, Nevada or other similar locations. There's a lot of shelf driving and it's the last place to overrun a turn that you don't see coming. The other problem is while we didn't see much traffic on the trail except for hunters outside of Montrose and on the other side near La Sal, traffic will increase as the popularity goes up for this trail. The Rimrocker website already has noted that it's the 2nd most popular off-road destination on the western slope. Wait until the Overland Bound and other Khaki pants trendy off-roaders figure it out.
One can make what you want of that trail but if hauling ass is the key, I'd be doing it in the real desert like Mojave, Nevada or other similar locations. There's a lot of shelf driving and it's the last place to overrun a turn that you don't see coming. The other problem is while we didn't see much traffic on the trail except for hunters outside of Montrose and on the other side near La Sal, traffic will increase as the popularity goes up for this trail. The Rimrocker website already has noted that it's the 2nd most popular off-road destination on the western slope. Wait until the Overland Bound and other Khaki pants trendy off-roaders figure it out.
All good points I just have had a thing for hi speed driving in the mountains from my time spent on a motorcycle when I was younger. The Khaki pants folks is a great point so in the interest of their safety my plans should be modified to do the run in the middle of the week. If I remember correctly we only saw one maybe two other vehicles actually driving on the trail when we were there. Sorry for the derail. Back to the best show in town.
Getting back into the report we were driving across the scree field on La Sal when we encountered what we thought was only one Jeep. Nope, as usual where there is one Jeeper, there is more. Turned out there was 3 and then a pack of top shelf modified 4 seater side by sides right behind them. The Jeep guys made room without much fuss and we thanked them for doing so as we passed by. The SXS guys were accommodating, but were showing they were slightly more than annoyed to see a couple of full-size trucks hauling campers on a mountain trail. We thanked them anyway and continued down hill in the thick brush that was pinstriping both sides of the trucks at the same time.
The views outside of the brush were showing us yet another landscape. One Robbie, Ron and Mason had not seen before. It's crazy to look down from the pass into Canyonlands and the greater Moab area.
Dropping in elevation, the trail still had some challenges to discover. I came up to this section with a large rock on the passenger side, crawled over it and radioed back to Ron to be ready and I'd spot him. I suggested to go to 4 low if he hadn't already been in it. Just for the added control that came with it.
Ron was about 50 feet from it and made multiple attempts to get into 4 low and it didn't seem to go into gear. Well, kinda. Ron felt it get into low range and as soon as he started to creep to the target the t-case came back out of gear and was in neutral. I walked back to see what was up and we agreed to just handle it in high range, granny and go carefully. He wheeled it just fine.
We continued down the pass and started moving a little faster as the trail opened up out of the thick brush.
Still there was some areas you had to tiptoe through that were fun to navigate.
Once we got below this section we found a wide spot and took a quick break for lunch and to stretch our legs. The trail turned into a graded dirt road and eventually pavement. We were mere miles out of Moab and got onto 191 and booked it into town. Pavement was a nice smooth change of pace after the all the dirt we had been on. Plus we saw the temp rise a solid 25 degrees since getting off the mountain so running at highway speed helped our 2-65 a/c systems in both trucks. Knowing Friday on Hell's would start early we headed into town to stock up on supplies and fuel before hitting the campground. I had cooking duty since Mason took care of us the night before. I had fajitas to cook but neglected to bring tortilla shells, cheese or peppers. So we got what we needed and headed to camp. Even still we got in early, like before 4:00 and many were still out playing on rocks when we pulled in. We set up camp and chilled out in the shade with some cold drinks.
We spied on our nieghbors... @onetonbb74 and @Bent77 and the trio from Connecticut in the killer K30.
We waited to let the heat go down slightly before I commenced to cooking. I turned the truck around to make some shade from the sun.
We chowed down with gusto. Camp cooking at it's best.
We had been visiting with Wade, Mark and Dean about Ron's lack of low range and decided to check some things in order to rule issues out. Ron did find the shifter adjustment was slightly off to start, not allowing the lever to pull the shifter all the way to the end of the detent for low in the 241. Adjustment made, low would still not engage. We had 2hi, 4hi and essentially 2 neutral positions. We pulled the fluid to look for chunks and or flakes in the oil. None were found. Clean and fresh without any hint of metal. After much discussion, it was Wade that came back to give a plausible reason for the lack of low being the low range fork either lost the roll pin that holds it to the shift rail or it sheered it off. Either way the only way low range was going to work required teardown. We agreed he'd try to run in high range with the low granny gear of the NV4500 and his rear ARB for added traction. So here's our first bit of mechanical adversity we have to work through. On Hell's Revenge no less too.
The views outside of the brush were showing us yet another landscape. One Robbie, Ron and Mason had not seen before. It's crazy to look down from the pass into Canyonlands and the greater Moab area.
Dropping in elevation, the trail still had some challenges to discover. I came up to this section with a large rock on the passenger side, crawled over it and radioed back to Ron to be ready and I'd spot him. I suggested to go to 4 low if he hadn't already been in it. Just for the added control that came with it.
Ron was about 50 feet from it and made multiple attempts to get into 4 low and it didn't seem to go into gear. Well, kinda. Ron felt it get into low range and as soon as he started to creep to the target the t-case came back out of gear and was in neutral. I walked back to see what was up and we agreed to just handle it in high range, granny and go carefully. He wheeled it just fine.
We continued down the pass and started moving a little faster as the trail opened up out of the thick brush.
Still there was some areas you had to tiptoe through that were fun to navigate.
Once we got below this section we found a wide spot and took a quick break for lunch and to stretch our legs. The trail turned into a graded dirt road and eventually pavement. We were mere miles out of Moab and got onto 191 and booked it into town. Pavement was a nice smooth change of pace after the all the dirt we had been on. Plus we saw the temp rise a solid 25 degrees since getting off the mountain so running at highway speed helped our 2-65 a/c systems in both trucks. Knowing Friday on Hell's would start early we headed into town to stock up on supplies and fuel before hitting the campground. I had cooking duty since Mason took care of us the night before. I had fajitas to cook but neglected to bring tortilla shells, cheese or peppers. So we got what we needed and headed to camp. Even still we got in early, like before 4:00 and many were still out playing on rocks when we pulled in. We set up camp and chilled out in the shade with some cold drinks.
We had been visiting with Wade, Mark and Dean about Ron's lack of low range and decided to check some things in order to rule issues out. Ron did find the shifter adjustment was slightly off to start, not allowing the lever to pull the shifter all the way to the end of the detent for low in the 241. Adjustment made, low would still not engage. We had 2hi, 4hi and essentially 2 neutral positions. We pulled the fluid to look for chunks and or flakes in the oil. None were found. Clean and fresh without any hint of metal. After much discussion, it was Wade that came back to give a plausible reason for the lack of low being the low range fork either lost the roll pin that holds it to the shift rail or it sheered it off. Either way the only way low range was going to work required teardown. We agreed he'd try to run in high range with the low granny gear of the NV4500 and his rear ARB for added traction. So here's our first bit of mechanical adversity we have to work through. On Hell's Revenge no less too.
I will get better at taking pictures I promise.
No complaints from this dude. Nice shots.
Good lord, I'm only asking about doing the trail in a day because I don't know anything about it. I'm not trying to baja race or be part of the get it done quick society or whatever the hell else my question evoked. Was just wondering what it would entail to add a trip on Rim Rocker to a Moab trip. I know that Rob seeks out the overnight trail and I was curious if this was an overnight trip because it had to be or because Rob wanted to explore around more and make it more of the journey that he enjoys.
I assumed you'd figured it needs more time because in his story he took 2 days and had to rush through some of it and didn't make it to the lake the first day.
Sorry if we made you sound like one of those
I was trying to give @mrk5 some grief so that I might be able to keep up with him! He keeps picking on this old man, and I gotta try to keep up! Durn whippersnappers!!Sorry if we made you sound like one of those
Hey Rob, what do you think that it would be like to run down Hwy 141 and skip the section from Montrose to 141? I was thinking that maybe it would be a nice change to run from Uravan/Paradox area to Moab on his way. I have talked to a few guys that like to go camp out at Buckeye, so it may be hard to just drive past it.
The other option is running up over John Brown from Gateway to Hwy 191 in Utah. (I haven't done either way, so no experience)
So I forget if I already asked you but are you more than 50?I was trying to give @mrk5 some grief so that I might be able to keep up with him! He keeps picking on this old man, and I gotta try to keep up! Durn whippersnappers!!
Hey Rob, what do you think that it would be like to run down Hwy 141 and skip the section from Montrose to 141? I was thinking that maybe it would be a nice change to run from Uravan/Paradox area to Moab on his way. I have talked to a few guys that like to go camp out at Buckeye, so it may be hard to just drive past it.
The other option is running up over John Brown from Gateway to Hwy 191 in Utah. (I haven't done either way, so no experience)
Out of respect for Rob's thread, I will refrain from further harassing comments.
Going form Gateway was fun but from what I remember we got a little mixed up once we were in the La Sals. I don't think we came out the way we meant to and ended up much further south of Moab and had to do quite a bit of highway driving once we were off the dirt. I thought maybe Rim Rocker was a more established route that was easier to follow than the older John Brown route, but still part of it was the John Brown route.
Getting to Moab from Gateway in a day wasn't a problem. We started that morning in Junction. You do need to give yourself some extra time to check out the car museum in Gateway.
I have done that one which is why I was curious about Rim Rocker. I guess I kinda thought they were the same thing; just a revised and renamed route.The other option is running up over John Brown from Gateway to Hwy 191 in Utah. (I haven't done either way, so no experience)
Going form Gateway was fun but from what I remember we got a little mixed up once we were in the La Sals. I don't think we came out the way we meant to and ended up much further south of Moab and had to do quite a bit of highway driving once we were off the dirt. I thought maybe Rim Rocker was a more established route that was easier to follow than the older John Brown route, but still part of it was the John Brown route.
Getting to Moab from Gateway in a day wasn't a problem. We started that morning in Junction. You do need to give yourself some extra time to check out the car museum in Gateway.
Oh a baby.
Don't sweat it, these things get out of hand pretty quickly. Short version to answer your question, yes I think it could be.
But like I said it's going to be a long day. I'd be getting out of Montrose at 8:00am and I bet if you don't stop much, you could be in Moab by 8:00 pm. Depending on how good or bad of progress you are making you could bypass some sections like we did to save time. La Sal pass will not save you time by the way. Fun yes, but slow going.
If you really study the map beforehand you can see some bail out points on the east side of 141 to skip ahead to the trail on the west side of the highway. After buckeye there looked to be a couple of options to ditch the main trail around the south end of the La Sal range. Either could shave some time off of it.
On the '17 desert trip we kinda took a similar route to Moab from Montrose but it ran more south and dropped us into 191 south of the hole n the rock tourist trap. Comparing thr two runs they were very similar in view, but we hit pavement at the state line. It ended up being much faster. We left Montrose at lunch and we're in Moab before 6:00 pm. Plus we stopped to check out hole n the rock for 30-45 minutes.
It would give you the flavor without all the indirect trail time diving in and out of side canyons and such.
That sounds like the trip we made to Moab 4 or 5 years ago. I think it was just me, @B_to_C and @fishnk5.
You're pictures make the Rim Rocker trail look very appealing. Just have to figure out if could make the number of days needed work. If I had my ducks in a row, it would make good practice overnight camping on the trail trip before going to the Rubicon.
