Right to Left Coast Tour, June 2010.

First off, to say I'm amped for this trip would be a huge understatement.

A few buddies and I will be going cross country June 5th-27th (maybe longer?). We'll be taking two rigs; mine, and ktmracer419's XJ. I started a thread over on ExPo but it hasn't seen much action so I figured I'd post it over here as well.

We plan on pretty much winging it, obviously we wanna hit spots in Colorado like the Alpine Loop, run trails at Moab, hit parts of the Rubicon, etc. Nothing too crazy, if the sam (locked/locked 35s) is having trouble we're getting too hardcore. I'm not sure how they rate trails out west but high blues, low blacks at PAP or RC would be my rating for highest of what we'd want, occasionally we'd prob hit a harder trail. Breakage is something we do not want, and you can break something stupid even on the easy stuff as we've found out many times before. We've all been wheeling/building for a while, and we're gonna have plenty of tools from air tools to a 120v welder on the trip. I'm confident my 170k drivetrain will make it but equally as confident to be able to swap out the motor in a couple hours just in case it goes sometime during the trip *knock on wood*.

The goal of the trip is to just have an awesome time on a trip we may not ever have the chance of doing again.

We'd be starting from the Tri-State area (I'm from Long Island, NY; other guys are from CT & RI) probably taking I70 out, then 15 through Vegas for a night just because (hehehehehe) then once we make it out to California we'll figure out how we'd drive back.

Here's a potential route we have:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=new+york,+ny&daddr=grand+junction+co+to:moab+utah+tooint+Imperial,+North+Rim,+Coconino,+Arizona+86052+to:las+vegas+nv+to:long+beach+ca+to:south+lake+tahoe+ca+to:yellowstone+national+park&geocode=&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=37.857507,-97.734375&sspn=33.166113,67.148437&ie=UTF8&ll=43.961191,-93.251953&spn=30.376566,67.148438&z=4

I know a lot of you guys have plenty of trail time out there (I'm talking to you Randy! Your pics have been causing me endless pain for the past four years lol) You guys have any input?

June is too early for the upper elevations out west. Most of the trails around Silverton Colorado will still be buried in snow.

ha. that is terrible.

Well, you could always swing up here to Idaho and run with us this weekend.
http://www.ride-rally.idaho4x4.com/

The Alpine Loop might be open then.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/sanjuan/conditions/roads/passes.shtml

I could turn you on to a couple nice cabins in Montana.. whats your plans in that area?

Also, i see you running 80 from NE PA, it's a long boring ride. 70 all the way to Denver is the better ride in my opinion.

IGOCOMMANDO said:

Well, you could always swing up here to Idaho and run with us this weekend.
http://www.ride-rally.idaho4x4.com/

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hmmmm we dont know how we're heading back at this point, or how we're getting there.. its still up in the air at this point. we're not sold on one specific route.

Fred said:

The Alpine Loop might be open then.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/sanjuan/conditions/roads/passes.shtml

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awesome thanks for the link. i'll be sure to call when we're in the area as well.

OverlandXJ said:

I could turn you on to a couple nice cabins in Montana.. whats your plans in that area?

Also, i see you running 80 from NE PA, it's a long boring ride. 70 all the way to Denver is the better ride in my opinion.

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like i said, no idea if we're going up north, south, or hell even both! but sounds good, thanks for the tip!

OverlandXJ said:

I could turn you on to a couple nice cabins in Montana.. whats your plans in that area?

Also, i see you running 80 from NE PA, it's a long boring ride. 70 all the way to Denver is the better ride in my opinion.

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True Dat.

In step 63 you'll be a few blocks from my house. Let me know when you get aroound that area and maybe we can hit something local. I am also planning a trip to Pismo Beach....Sand dunes open for camping and driving right on the beach. It will be sometime in that time frame, and I can show you the way around.

that would be awesome, i'll def let you know!

we're gonna set up some sort of blog thing once we get on the road

Forgot to provide this earlier. I stayed at Horse Prairie back in 07... great cabin in Dillon district.

http://fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsint...101&ttype=activity&pname=Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest - Cabin Rentals

Check ou the NF home page and you can find stuff in each state..

awesome link, thanks a lot!

If you head towards Dillon,MT you have to run Sweetwater Road...

Keep heading north and see Glacier NP, then east through Custer, Mt Rushmore, Badlands NP..

you guys would be crazy not to drive up the pacific coast highway! amazing! Oregon and washington are worth the detour.

we're def doing the PCH, probably southbound.

as of now, it looks like we'll run up california through death valley, and up 395 possibly through all the parks/forests until we hit the rubicon. run some parts of that, then head to san fran, and run down the PCH, then head into arizona/NM as much as we can, maybe take I40 back up and run through the smokey mountains.

we talked about it over the weekend with like 20 or so road and trail maps in front of us and decided (regretfully) that heading far up north isn't going to be a possibility.

It's too bad you guys aren't going in July or you could hit Sierrafest over July 21-25 and Coloradofest over July 26-31.

If you post in the chapter forums I bet you could get some interest for some trails.

JohnX said:

In step 63 you'll be a few blocks from my house. Let me know when you get aroound that area and maybe we can hit something local. I am also planning a trip to Pismo Beach....Sand dunes open for camping and driving right on the beach. It will be sometime in that time frame, and I can show you the way around.

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pismo sounds excellent

Phil said:

If you post in the chapter forums I bet you could get some interest for some trails.

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thats the plan once the time draws closer

so is there anything we should know about running these trails and camping as far as permits go? this legal trail running on state maintained land and roads is a new thing for us east coasters :laugh2:

I don't know anything about the PCH in northern CA, but I once drove it from Malibu to Newport Beach .... sucked! Nothing but redlights, traffic, strip malls, and some of the areas were lock-the-doors scary.

MrSimon said:

I don't know anything about the PCH in northern CA, but I once drove it from Malibu to Newport Beach .... sucked! Nothing but redlights, traffic, strip malls, and some of the areas were lock-the-doors scary.

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i figured much of it would be like that. or you get stuck behind some family in a station wagon doing 20 mph.

anyway the route has somewhat changed since this thread was first made.

way west:

81 south from pa to knoxville
40 west to amarillo texas
route 60 to 70 to get to roswell
south on 285 to carlsbad caverns
82 to white sands
then 25 north to I-40 again
cutting off to canyon de chelly
back on I-40
cutting off to the grand canyon
back on I-40 into socal where we will relax for a few days, pismo beach, some of the pch.

heading back east:
hop on 15 through vegas to zion until we hit 70.
next stop moab until we hit colorado

then some stuff happens in colorado, we still need to figure out our route through there and make sure the trails are open. but ultimately we will end up back on 70 and take that home.