El Freako: Last Trip to Moab in 2013

With the nice weather holding steady; sans snow in the immediate future and plenty of sunshine. I decided to head over to Moab to do some riding. I tend to get antsy not going somewhere at least every few weeks. Not sure why but I need to travel. As well it was to be a shake-down trip to see how the new van pulled the camper. Not that there was any doubts with the van having the V8 and a 5.3 liter Vortec engine with 301 horse. Thus far the van has been great. The AWD with the stabilitrak seems solid performing well on ice packed roads. I haven't had a chance to drive it in a full blown snow storm yet as the weather has been mild this past week.

Unfortunately Laura had to help out her sister with some catering earning some extra cash while I was out spending. Oops! Thanks Laura!!

The van has plenty of power pulling the Wolf Pup camper with no problems at all. Plenty of power on the uphills with spare power to boot. The brake controller was installed correctly ( I was worried since the tech took awhile installing it int he new van in Denver when I picked it up).

I camped out on Willow Springs Road where we typically go camp and pulled into one of the first slick rock areas. IT was cold and overcast out with the looks of snowing at anytime. I opted for the road bike on Saturday and headed out to Island in the Sky up 313. I had gotten a late start and by the time I was on the bike it was pushing 2.30pm. I wanted at least 40 miles. I pushed hard up 313 nearing the National Park entrance and decided I better turn around as the light was going to go fast and the temps were dropping equally as fast. I wore my Spez Deflector medium weight gloves and should have brought thicker ones (or Bar Mitts) for the descent back down. My fingers were hurting by the time I arrived back at camp. Ouch. I changed clothes and took Shady for a quick walk down the road. It was quiet with no other campers in sight. No pictures on that road ride!

The camp spot for the night on Willow Springs Road.

I hunkered down early in the camper with no campfire that night as it was too cold to enjoy a fire. The next morning came and the temps were around 16 degrees. I was nice and cozy in the camper with the heater going. I was dry camping with no water in the campers water system as it was too cold and didn't want to damage any water lines or have to worry about winterizing it when I took it back to storage. Some campers come with the water tanks and lines heated for cold camping but it sucks up a lot of power and when you're boon docking it isn't feasible in my opinion. Unless you want to run your generator all the time. If you're hooked up at an RV park that;s different. I have the winterizing down to a science and typically takes me 10-15 minutes to winterize it with my compressor.

I got out on the fat bike on Sunday morning welcomed by sunshine. What a beautiful day it was. I rode out on Willow Springs Road into Arches National Park. I pedaled over to Windows Arch, Double Arch and Balanced Rock before heading back toward camp. Lots of tourist driving about. I was looked at like a zoo animal on my fat bike among all these gas pedal pushing people. It's comical when people realize the size of your tires and point at you. I did get a thumbs up from a passer by as well. I started heading out toward Salt Valley that would bring you around to Klondike Bluffs but the south facing exposed dirt was getting soft and I knew that would be bad later (mud) as it warmed up more. I got back to camp and took Shady out for a few miles on the bike. I was the only person (and dawg) out there. Very peaceful indeed. I decided to head back home and forgo another night. I had stuff to do at the house and I had my fun.