Newfoundland Mountains November 21st and 22nd

The Newfies are a mountain range in the west desert.  As near as I can tell, they can only be (legally) accessed by vehicle from Lakeside on the west shore of the GSL.  You can get there by driving north from Delle on I70, or driving south from the TCRR on the north side of the lake.  It's an old mining district, with some ruins to check out.  It's also a great area to put holes in milk jugs if you get bored.  There's a ton of resources on ExPut, gotta be fifty different threads, so I won't link them all here.  Check them out if you're not familiar with the area.

This will be an official club run and open to members or nonmembers.  I don't expect a huge amount of technical driving, it'll be mostly dirt roads.  Stock trucks should have no trouble with this trip (even Ty's cute little minivan), barring muddy roads in which case we'll probably cancel because west desert mud SUCKS.

I think it would be fun to go out early Friday and camp that night at the Noofs, then exit north and camp Saturday night up near City of Rocks, then come back Sunday through Lucin and the Silver Island Mountains or the Pilot Range north of Wendover.

Let's talk dates, let's find one that works for as many of us as possible.  My free weekends between now and deep winter are Oct 11th, Oct 25th, Nob 8th, and Nov 22nd.

City of Rocks is quite a ways from the Newfies, and I'm not sure I can pull a multi-nighter. My Traverse won't be going anywhere near here. If my runner is not done I will be in my dads TJ. As for dates the earliest I will be available would be Nov 8 and that all depends on how far into the Playoffs Aidens football team goes. Right now they are the favorites to win it all. I am going to go out on a limb and say Oct and early Nov are not going to be good weeks to go anyhow that is usually when things are on the wetter side out there. The best time to go will be after the first freeze.

I show about 100 miles of mostly dirt from the Newfies to the Idaho border just south of City of Rocks. We can leave that for another time though, I'm easy. Less driving = more time to screw around.

I will need to research and talk to my dad,  last i remember the road between grouse creek and the Idaho border crossed private property and was gated off. We could go through the sawtooth range, but that makes for a long drive on unfamiliar roads.

That's your turf, but from Hwy 30 I'm seeing W17600 North to Dove Creek Road to Valley Lynn Road, and then a straight shot to the border and City of Rocks. I haven't looked to see if any of that crosses private property. Grouse Creek looks a lot farther south than that though.

Nope I was wrong. There is a class B county road right through Grouse creek straight to the border.

Grouse creek is right between Lucin and the Idaho border. In this pic I took a road past devils playground and avoided grouse. 5 hours from Corinne and and a decent chunk of that is on highway 30.

5 hours, pishtosh. Your route is nearly the same distance as Corinne to the south side of the Hogups and we did that and back in what, three hours? In the mud?And got lost in the process? Google and Bing maps always vastly underestimate speeds on anything that they don't show as paved.

Here, 85 miles from the tracks on the south side of the Hogups to the Idaho border. If we can't drive that in under two and half hours, we need to turn in our 4Runner cards and all get Smart cars or something.

http://goo.gl/maps/rRAlN

But it's cool though, now that I think about it I'd rather spend that time exploring the Noofies anyway.

You don't read about this one as much on expedition utah, but i would LOVE to explode the sawtooth/raft river range as well. I remember hearing as a kid about tons of mines there.

Sounds like an awesome trip, I'm in. Well, as long as it isn't too close to Thanksgiving and Christmas...that's when we travel to Vegas and Cali for the Holidays...

Andrew wrote:Sounds like an awesome trip, I'm in.  Well, as long as it isn't too close to Thanksgiving and Christmas...that's when we travel to Vegas and Cali for the Holidays...

Ty likes Nov 22nd, I like Nov 22nd, how's that grab you?

Let's pick a date soon, today if we can, and then I'll throw out an email blast to everybody registered on the board. I think I can do that from the admin panel.

Kevin wrote:Ty likes Nov 22nd, I like Nov 22nd, how's that grab you?

Works for me!

I'll put it on the calendar and plan on putting holes in milk jugs.
I'll echo Kevin's earlier statement; if there's mud, I may shy away. I saw what it did to Kevin's '86.

Did anybody check to see what weekends Brad has off?

I texted him. I'm sure he's far too busy eating donuts to bother checking in though.

Kevin wrote:I texted him.  I'm sure he's far too busy eating donuts to bother checking in though.

How dare you bring the donuts into this....and yes to the 22nd

I still need to double check, but I should be good.

Wow -_- I got super excited reading the email until I read the 22nd since I'm driving home for thanksgiving the day before.

That sucks, Sniv. I guess we'll catch you next time.

Long as you're here though, there's a long-travel thread in the 4x4 tech section that needs your attention.

This trip sounds very similar to the one I did for Black Friday last year also. I think I should be able to attend this one as well. I remember last year the temps were down in the teens so it definitely gets chilly.

IN for the 21st-22nd

My only request is, with my current rig situation I need to start from the north.  I hope to have the runner done, but if not I will take my dad's TJ.  Either way they are both in Brigham City.

So at this point are all 5 of us actually committed? + Maldito X a possible? I'm SUPER EXCITED!!!!!!!!

Are we planning on heading straight to the Noofs Friday, or are we going to check out some of the other attractions of the Box Elder West Desert? Like Spiral Jetty, Kelton, and others? Or head to camp Friday night and explore Saturday?

I think Spiral Jetty would be fun to see, but lake levels are so low right now I'm wondering if there will even be water there....depending on what time we leave at I would be okay with some exploring both days.

Like I said earlier, I need to at least start north and probably go home north too.  That being said we could hit spiral jetty either day.  

What time are we planning on leaving on Friday?  If I pick the boys up from school at 3:15 we could be in Brigham 5:30ish.  Should we try to meet at the gas station in Corinne at 6:00.  Where are we planning to camp? Hogups?