The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[hgs_notes]

Nice stuff. I haven't been able to do a road trip this year because of a job change and other obligations. When I see this I'm really feeling the tug to get out on the road again for something other than work.

[Average Joe]

Wow! More great pics! Thanks again for taking the time to post all of this. It truly brings back lots of great memories.

[Dieselwrencher]

A lot of sweet pics, thanks Mr.Mosesburb. How old do you think that barn is on the previous page? Covered wagon settler old? Those chunks laying on the road would be deadly. That is massive amounts of wash out. That's a sad sight of the marina that is gone now. I bet you see a lot of that on your travels. The water issue on the west doesn't sound like a good deal. Those bridges are nice. The stone one is pretty awesome. Did you dare to go across it on foot?

On our vacatoin to the Ozarks last month, we did some Nick Blank expedition-ing again. this time we went n search of 2 old bridges used for the military before world war 2. They are referred to as 2 swinging bridges. We drove over the first which was steel sheet covered suspended by steel cabling. It had a weight limit of 15ton. We were in a borrowed '14 F350 CC LWB diesel 4x4. I felt that was safe. The next bridge was twice as long with a 5 ton limit. It was wood decked. I was out. Haha We walked across it and there were spots where I was sagging. There was a couple at one end under it fishing,"Yelling drive across, we do all the time." They were driving a grand cherokee. Go right ahead. No way I'm pole vaulting that rig. I'll have to load the video some time and the pics to show you.

[lower50's]

Wow so crazy. It must have rained really hard. The natural bridges are neat. Is or was there a dam to form the lake? Good to see the "impossible meet-up" worked out.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

A lot of sweet pics, thanks Mr.Mosesburb. How old do you think that barn is on the previous page? Covered wagon settler old? Those chunks laying on the road would be deadly. That is massive amounts of wash out. That's a sad sight of the marina that is gone now. I bet you see a lot of that on your travels. The water issue on the west doesn't sound like a good deal. Those bridges are nice. The stone one is pretty awesome. Did you dare to go across it on foot?

No idea how old the barn is. No, none of these natural bridges are accessible to walk on.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

On our vacatoin to the Ozarks last month, we did some Nick Blank expedition-ing again. this time we went n search of 2 old bridges used for the military before world war 2. They are referred to as 2 swinging bridges. We drove over the first which was steel sheet covered suspended by steel cabling. It had a weight limit of 15ton. We were in a borrowed '14 F350 CC LWB diesel 4x4. I felt that was safe. The next bridge was twice as long with a 5 ton limit. It was wood decked. I was out. Haha We walked across it and there were spots where I was sagging. There was a couple at one end under it fishing,"Yelling drive across, we do all the time." They were driving a grand cherokee. Go right ahead. No way I'm pole vaulting that rig. I'll have to load the video some time and the pics to show you.

Ha, sounds like fun. I've crossed some sketchy bridges in my day, both in personal as well as work vehicles...

Originally Posted by lower50's

Wow so crazy. It must have rained really hard. The natural bridges are neat. Is or was there a dam to form the lake? Good to see the "impossible meet-up" worked out.

Yeah, a couple of the storms were literally like a lake falling out of the sky. With so much dry and rock in the area, the water really has nowhere to go but to run off. Flash floods can happen faster than one thinks is even possible.

The lake is Lake Powell, which is retained by the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, AZ.

The "impossible meet-up" was a thing of beauty. It really worked out very well. I wish we would have been closer so we could have spent more time here and there along the way, but with all the rain, it probably worked out for the best anyway. Kind of strange meeting someone in the middle of nowhere with no communication since the day before.

[MaxPF]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

The lake is Lake Powell, which is retained by the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, AZ.

The last time I was on lake Powell it was at capacity, and you could boat up to a dock near Rainbow Bridge and hike all of a couple hundred yards to reach the bridge. Now it is truly a hike to get there from the lake. I wonder if Lake Powell will ever be full again in my lifetime

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by MaxPF

The last time I was on lake Powell it was at capacity, and you could boat up to a dock near Rainbow Bridge and hike all of a couple hundred yards to reach the bridge. Now it is truly a hike to get there from the lake. I wonder if Lake Powell will ever be full again in my lifetime

Man, it would take a decade or two of abnormally wet years to achieve that feat. Possible?? Yes. Likely?? Probably not....

[mosesburb]

So as of the last installment, we were holed up in a motel with a very viscous parking lot. We had an idea that after we met up, the next day we would head into an area not too far away and run some trails to visit some sites along the way. Having just dealt with wet Utah dirt/mud/red moly grease masquerading as dirt, I was not really liking the idea of traveling on anything other than pavement anywhere near where we are. My buddy was still thinking it would work, but eventually agreed with my assessment and another plan had to be hatched. I'm not sure where it came from, but he got the crazy idea to call the Canyonlands National Park, Islands in the Sky visitor center and inquire about weather conditions in the area. Well, come to find out, all the weather that we dealt with the past couple days had missed that end of Canyonlands completely. They had gotten some light rain a couple days ago, but nothing worth worrying about. Ok, so then he inquired as to whether they had any camping permits available for the White Rim Trail. Interestingly, some of the permit holders had heard of the rain in the area and cancelled their permits so they actually had a couple permits available. Amazing. Usually, White Rim Trail (WRT) camping permits are sold out several months in advance and here we are calling the same day and finding they are available. Wow. We'll take two. Unfortunately, the only way to get the passes is in person. No reserving them over the phone, online, nothing. They did say we could go the, IIRC, USGS field office in Moab and get some there which is probably 45min to an hour closer than the Islands in the Sky visitor center. We are nowhere near Moab at the moment and the permits are first come, first served. We've got some boogying to do, NOW. So we start boogying. We pass this old cool looking gas station and I think I take a picture of it every time:



We make it to Moab and get the permits, grab some fuel and head up to Canyonlands. We check into the visitor center and then hit the road to the WRT. It's a short jaunt, we reach it, air down and we are on our way.

Starting down Schafer trail toward the WRT. An amazing chunk of rock sluffed off the cliff sometime in history but left a really amazing scar:



Schafer Trail is really pretty amazing in and of itself. It is a shelf road hanging on the side of a sheer cliff. This is a link to Google Maps satellite view. If you move it around and zoom in a bit, you'll see blurry looking areas below the trail. They are blurry because they are vertical and difficult to focus on from outer space.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Is....8209613?hl=en

Ok, so from this point on, it was really difficult picking which pictures to post up from the literally thousands I took. Most are just generic scenery, but some may have some reason behind their capture. Anyway, on to the scenery..











I think they're following me:



We found a trail that we could follow down and reach the Colorado River. We came upon a flooded area of the trail and not wanting to deal with shoveling a truck out, I decided to park and hike around it:



Upon reaching the river we found it to be running very high and fast with tons of flotsam and jetsam in the water from the storms:



The monolith on the right is called the old woman and the wash tub (or something like that):



A lizard dragging its tail makes a neat track in the sand:



Two examples of the Suburbansaurus specimen in their natural environment:



Some neat erosion to the rock:



So we made it to our campsite, got set up and settled in for a very bug-filled evening. The sun going down treated us to some spectacular views and colors:



So that's it for today. Stay tuned to see if we meet someone famous on the trail and unintentionally engage in a race with a guy on a bicycle. We may not do that, but we might....you never know...

[hgs_notes]

I did some (sort of) off roading this week too!!!


Some of it was really rutted.








Not bad for a ford fusion.

[lower50's]

Simply beautiful!!!! People who don't get out like you guys do are just missing out on life.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I did some (sort of) off roading this week too!!!

I'll take mine over yours, but they are both similar in the amount of trees found in both areas. That looks like one of those areas that has to have wind speed of 30mph or more to be considered "windy". 25mph = calm day.

Originally Posted by lower50's

Simply beautiful!!!! People who don't get out like you guys do are just missing out on life.

In my opinion they are, but then again, I know people who harbor great disdain and hatred for road surfaces made of dirt, so I'm sure to them, this is no big deal to miss out on.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

I'll take mine over yours, but they are both similar in the amount of trees found in both areas. That looks like one of those areas that has to have wind speed of 30mph or more to be considered "windy". 25mph = calm day.

Pretty much. That area is on the very edge of the SD badlands. About an hour drive east of the black hills. It gets more canyon-like the further in you go. Nothing like your area though. There are few places in the world like your area.

[mosesburb]

So we had a good nights sleep after the bats came out and the bugs went away. We got packed up in the morning and started moving out. While we were heading back to the trail, a guy on a mountain bike went riding by. He was making an oddly good pace and it took some time to actually catch him. He was cool and allowed us to pass and we continued on. We got to a place we decided to stop and check out. No sooner do we get stopped and here goes this guy on the bike, passing us while we were stopped.
The scenery is still awe inspiring:



This is the only pic I got of the guy on the bike:



Gratuitous truck/s pic:



More scenery:









So we came upon a trail heading down to White Crack Camp Area. We turned down the trail as it looked like it might have a view of the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. It turns out we couldn't see them, but at the end of the trail we found a mountain bike. After wandering around and taking a bunch of pictures, we came upon the owner of the bike. This is the same guy that we passed and then he passed us. He was walking back out from the overlook point to his bike when we came upon him. He looked to be around 50 years old and we chatted for a bit. We asked where he camped the night before and he said he had dropped in that morning. Wow, already caught up with us. When we asked where he was camping that night, he said he wasn't camping, he was riding out. Huh?!? This is like a 100mi loop. In summer. On a bike. The only water he had was a Camelback reservoir on his back! We asked if he wanted a top off on his water and he said he didn't need it. Huh?!? Uh, ok buddy. Well, further into the conversation we find out that he was the first person to ride a mountain bike from the coast of Antarctica to the geographic south pole. Holy cow. That's pretty hardcore. So with a little more chat, he bids us a farewell and gets on his bike and heads on down the trail. Hey, did you get his name?? Nobody got his name. Damn. Oh well. We head out to the point to take pictures and soak up the views. One of the things we come across are these pools of water. The pools are normally dry "potholes", but fill up with water when it rains. The coolest thing about these pools are the life forms that "wake up" when the water fills the pools. Their real name is Ephemeral Pools. The dirt in the bottom of the pothole looks like plain dry dirt, but it is actually biological soil crust full of bacteria and other creatures that have developed a resistance to dehydration over thousands of years. Some of these invertebrates can go from dehydrated to functioning in less than an hour. It is absolutely amazing to look into this pool of water and see things swimming around in it!!



A view from the point:



A neat twist on a cairn:



The diagonal line going up the side of Murphy Hogback doesn't look like much from this angle or from the top looking down at vehicles coming up it, but it really looks different from inside the vehicle--an angle I had not seen before. Luckily my wife was running the camera while I had my head hanging out the window keeping the truck on the trail.



A view back before we start up the hill:



On the hill:



A little further up: (getting the feeling that it is steeper than it looks from below??)



Nearing the top:



A view from the top:



We met up with some bike riders coming up the other side of Murphy Hogback and asked if they saw a guy riding a bike by himself . Oh yeah, Dan Burton. That guy rode his bike to the south pole!! Yeah, that guy!! Some other bike riders had seen him go up Murphy Hogback and he made it 3/4 of the way up before he got off and walked his bike the rest of the way. Unbelievable. We had asked where the bike riders had camped and various locations were given by various people. One thing they all had in common was any campsites near water were mosquito infested misery. Oh swell. Our campsite that night is Hardscrabble Bottom. Right on the water. Not good. Somewhere around then we decide to head out of the trail that day and camp somewhere else. We continue on with minimal stops. Moving right along we cover a decent amount of ground.

More scenery:



Later the trail ends up on a shelf road right next to the Green River:



Lance coming up from Potato Bottom:



So we kept going at this point trying to make some time and get to Moab so we aren't setting up camp in the dark. We never did see the guy on the bike again. Coming out of the White Rim Trail is a series of switch backs and rapid elevation gain. We made it up those and we end up on a long straight, flat road leading back to the paved road that connects the visitor center to US191. So we are on this dirt road, moving at somewhere around 50-55mph and I see something on the road ahead of us. WTH is that up there, I ask. We can't tell. It's not long and I can make out the distinct shape of, wait for it, wait for it, a guy on a bike!! Dan Burton had ridden his bike fast enough consistently to stay ahead of us all day long in our air conditioned, four wheel drives with supplies and refirgerators. We slowed and hollered at him for a minute, then continued on out track back to Moab. My boy did some research on Dan and found some neat information. There is a bunch out there, but this is a link to some wiki information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Burton

It just goes to show, you never know what you'll find or see out on the trail!! My boy still talks about this encounter to this day.

On our way out, a super-neat cut for the roadbed.



So we camped up over Moab and the next day came back into town and had breakfast. Then we filled up the tanks and hit the road southbound for home. We made it home in a little less than the "specified" amount of time. All in all, for no plan, ever-changing weather and an impossible meet-up, we had a great time. My boy's record for liking every stop better than the last one remained intact as the White Rim Trail was complete and total visual sensory overload for him as well as us. Every turn was another view that can not be captured effectively with a camera, nor described accurately with words. Obviously, my combining of the two doesn't do the job either, but it's the best I have to offer. This is a run I highly recommend if you are ever in the area or going to be in the area. Actually, everything on this trip would be highly recommended to see if the opportunity presents itself.

[hgs_notes]

Fascinating.

Really.

[piratexpress1369a]

Just awesome

[Dieselwrencher]

Exactly what they said! Man, that Dan Burton is hard core! Thanks for taking the time to post these. So much awesome scenery!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Fascinating.

Really.

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

Just awesome

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Exactly what they said! Man, that Dan Burton is hard core!

Yeah, that dude is an animal. He was the oldest guy on a bike we saw those days and he literally had the younger bike riders in awe. Amazing.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Thanks for taking the time to post these. So much awesome scenery!

It really was. This was a very time consuming update due to having to pick the "best" pics out of thousands taken. In the end, I still did the trip no justice with pictures, but even if I posted everything we took it would still not come close to what is seen in person.

[lower50's]

Great story and amazing trip. Do you keep track of mileage and moving time on these trips?

[1985-GMC]

Awesome sights! I went to big bend this past weekend and some of it reminds me of your pictures.

[tune_1]

Really enjoy your thread. Thanks for posting your trip and the use of you suburban. Love the pictures.

Dwight

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by lower50's

Great story and amazing trip. Do you keep track of mileage and moving time on these trips?

Thanks!! I do keep track, but I forgot what it was for this run. I think this one was eight days. I don't recall how many miles we drove. The mileage would be in the 16-17 range.

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Awesome sights! I went to big bend this past weekend and some of it reminds me of your pictures.

Thanks!! What is Big Bend??

Originally Posted by tune_1

Really enjoy your thread. Thanks for posting your trip and the use of you suburban. Love the pictures.

Dwight

Thanks!! I'm glad you enjoy it. Thanks for posting up!!

[MaxPF]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Thanks!! I do keep track, but I forgot what it was for this run. I think this one was eight days. I don't recall how many miles we drove. The mileage would be in the 16-17 range.



Thanks!! What is Big Bend??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bend_%28Texas%29

[deejaaa1]

love Big Bend. been there at least a dozen times.

[DirtyLarry]

Cool pics Mosesburb! Looks like you all had a great time. Interestingly enough, last time we did White Rim in 2015 it rained like crazy on us when we camped at Murphy Hogback but by the time we reached the Candlestick area 10 to 15 miles down the trail where many of the potholes reside they mostly dry as a bone but one here and there with just a small layer of water in them.

Then when we did WRT with 1leglance in 2011 it was HOT and dry. We didn’t see an ounce of rain until we started up the steep and narrow Shafer Trail towards the Visitors Center. Right after we reached the top they closed Shafer until it dried out. That was the year Mineral Bottom was washed out so we went as far as Potato Bottom then back tracked all the way back out. Basically, we came in by the Visitors Center went 7/8's of the entire WRT and back tracked out the same way. On the way out we drove about 8 hours straight through back to the visitors center. Made for a LONG hot day. Cool to see the potholes so full and so full of life in your pictures.

Along the same lines, I just barely finished up the trip report from Desert Trip 2016 last week. Only took me 4 dang months to write it up this year

[big dump]

Awesome pictures and awesome build thread. I've been through the entire build thread more than once.

I'm wondering if you can share any more details on the blue suburban? What kind of drivetrain, etc.?