San Rafael Swell Part 3
March 16-18, 2007

San Rafael Swell Part 3 - March 16-18, 2007
Report by Steve Edumnds

The trip started off with some of the best weather we could ask for. This trip had two caravans leaving from Spanish Fork, the first one with Scoutabout, Morty, SloPoke and another Scout owner named Dirk. It was a pretty uneventful trip down to the Swell with a stop at the BLM office in Price to pick up some maps. Once back on the way – a stop for fuel and spare parts in Castle Dale before we missed the turnoff in Ferron.

The roads were dry and dusty, and we ran along the road until we found our campsite. We all picked out our spots (far enough from Steve’s Snoring) and set up our camp. With enough daylight left – we wanted to see how deep the San Rafael river was and headed out to Fuller Bottom. The water was not as deep as the previous trips and Steve and Jason crossed the river and played in the water for a while. While the sun was going down soon – we headed back to camp.

After cooking our dinner and hanging around the campfire, we were wondering when the second caravan would be showing up… when the CB started blaring “where are you guys?” (or something similar with better words!!) Minutes later Eric, Krazzle, Sprite and PokeyTJ pulled into the camp and started to setup their tents. Everyone met around the campfire and introduce themselves, we met the new folks and Steve (Scoutabout) started right in by recruiting them into U4WDA. As the night went on with stories about past wheeling adventures, some went off to get some sleep for the trails on Saturday.

We woke up to the sun shining on the tents, warming them up quickly in the cold morning air… only to notice that something was much different than when we went to sleep the night before… Steve’s Scout had a strap all bunched around the front, and Eric’s 4Runner had body damage. Yes – Eric almost rolled it, but ended up on the passenger side. How Eric told the story was almost funny – especially how Steve was trying to pull him back on his wheels. We had hoped for bacon and eggs, but the eggs were casualties of the previous nights adventure. We had breakfast, broke camp and were ready to hit the trail.

Saturdays trail was a pretty long day… we winded our way south, and ultimately ended on the Eva Conover trail and stopped for camp near Swazey’s cabin. Eric kept it on 2-3 and 4 tires most of the trip, but needed Justin to winch him out of the mud at one point. All in all, the trail was the most fun at the end – when we were getting a little tired. We set up camp near the “Ice Box” trailhead. Jason and Eric went hunting for firewood and brought back almost an entire tree. In a short time, we had it cut up and ready for a huge campfire after finishing dinner. Stories about previous trips, the days events and just about everything else was discussed around the campfire while smores were being made. Eventually everyone was tired enough to head to their sleeping bags.

Sunday morning, another beautiful sunny sky woke us from our tents. By the time I was up, breakfast was well on the way to being finished up – and we broke camp. Sean (PokeyTJ) and Ty (Sean’s passenger) decided to head to Moab for a run, Justin pulled his front driveshaft and planned to head back on I70 with Eric following, Dirk headed home the night before – so it left Steve(Scoutabout), Jason(Morty) and his wife, Steve (SloPoke), Lyman (Sprite) and his stepson Mylee. We decided to check out some sights in the Swell on the way back towards home. We found the MK Tunnels the military dug and went exploring inside, stopped at the swinging bridge for lunch and let the dogs play in the river, checked out some of the Indian paintings along the way and finally ended up back in Castle Dale for fuel and air.

The final leg of the trip was not over yet – and was fun still.. we took the 31 turnoff from Huntington to Fairview and this time is was daylight. It was a beautiful scenic route that we made a few stops to throw snowballs. Steve’s Scout gave us a little scare when it sputtered to a stop, but it was going back in a few minutes. Another stop down the road allowed Steve, Lyman and Jason to play in the snow (and almost get stuck) when KKemp pulled up behind us. Kevin joined us on the caravan back up 89 to 6 to Spanish fork where we all split on our way back home.

It was another great trip for UOOC!

View the full photo album for the March get-together here.