The Rooster
August 2017
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New For the 23rd year in a row we had a great trip to Coral Pink. Read about the day by day fun and check out the pictures in this month’s newsletter and on the club website.
August Havasu Trip The annual trip to Don and Shirley Ford’s in Lake Havasu is coming up on August 18-20. Make your plans to come out and visit.
Sand Show is Soon The Sand Sports Super Show, which marks the unofficial start of the dune season, is coming up in just over a month. It will be the weekend of September 15-17 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.
Coral Pink 2017 by P.J. Kastle Tuesday July 11: We set the alarm to get up at 3 AM after packing most everything in the days before. We even left the trailer on the street in front of the house so that we didn’t have to shuffle cars in the early morning. We were on the road by 4 AM, even after dealing with mice in the living room (yuck). We headed up the cajon pass and the truck did great. We stopped for fuel in Barstow, and just grabbed some muffins out of the trailer for breakfast. We kept going, and stopped again for fuel and a break in Jean, NV. This meant that we got to Las Vegas about 9:30, so we avoided most of the morning rush hour traffic. The drive was nice and uneventful, and we arrived in Mesquite before 11:00. We checked in to the RV park, and were assigned space 42 in the far back corner which was super long. After unloading AJ’s RZR (which we borrowed for the trip thanks to Mike and AJ’s generosity after realizing that there would be no other sandrails on the trip) we set up the inside of the trailer very easily and it stayed nice and cool in the 110 degree plus weather. We swam at the pool, which both kids enjoyed, and we made plans for dinner at the Cafe. In between I went and cashed in coins at the Eureka, and got almost $300 which meant we had fun money for the trip. Before dinner my Dad texted me saying that Don and Shirley’s AC wasn’t working in the motorhome, so we worked on
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Upcoming Events • August 18-20: Havasu River Trip to Don and Shirley Ford’s. • September 15-17: Sand Sports Super Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. • September 22-24: Late season river trip to Cottonwood Cove on Lake Mohave.
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caused the issue. We got it fixed and plugged in to another outlet before dinner. Dinner was nice, and we were joined by Don and Shirley’s relatives from St. George as well as everyone who would be going on the trip. We had Mike Bacon, Walt Fisher, Doug and Kris Schellinger, Jim and Nancy Kastle, Don and Shirley Ford, and the four of us including the kids. After dinner the kids headed to bed and I played in the casino for a bit with my Dad. Wednesday July 12:
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We got up and met for breakfast at the Cafe at the Casablanca at 8:00. We were all excited to head up to the park, but filled up on a nice breakfast with some good meal deals. Despite not being a buffet we were all full, and some took leftovers with them. We began the process of packing the trailer back up, and were ready to go when everyone else was about 10:00. We got on the freeway as a long caravan line of seven rigs. Just as we accelerated we figured out that Allie’s door wasn’t completely latched, and we didn’t want to stop the group. Melissa resourcefully had Allie tie a dog leash to the door, which she was able to pull on from the passenger seat to get it to latch. The trip through the Virgin River gorge was pretty and uneventful, and we continued on through Hurricane to the killer hill. We had been dreading it for a year, but we started the steep pull and the truck did fairly well. It wasn’t able to pull second gear at first, so we
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had to go 25 MPH for a while, but we made it and were on our way. We stopped for a potty and stretch break at the gas station in Apple Valley, UT which is before Hilldale / Colorado City. Then we took the cane beds rad shortcut to Coral Pink, arriving in under an hour from Apple Valley. The dirt road was in nice shape, and has had some drainage improvements made recently. We appreciated the Mohave County AZ tax dollars that went into it. At the campground not much had changed, but we did swap where our trailer and my parents go in order to fit the larger trailer in. With help from Walt and my Dad the backing in went really well, after I decided to pull around the campground loop backwards. We got all of the rigs parked, then just sat around and enjoyed being in Utah. We saw that they were doing some concrete work in some of the other campsites, so they had a state parks work crew with trucks and tractors. There weren’t many other campers in the park, and no other duners. We didn’t ride that night, but just enjoyed the evening and went inside shortly after dark. Thursday, July 13: I got up about 6:00 with the dogs, then went back outside about 7:30 and hung out at the tables while everybody came out and talked about how great they had slept. The weather was perfect, with lows in the low 60s. We sat around and got things set up for quite a while before heading out for a ride after 10:00. Mike planed a trip through the lower dunes and then across sand dunes road to explore some new overlooks facing toward Mt Carmel. The dunes were soft but fun, and we saw cows at the meadow. We took a break at an overlook point on trail 40Q, which we had never been on before and had a view of the whole valley to the North. Then we circled back on trails 28 and then 20, winding up at sand dunes road West of camp at Elephant cove. We passed by Dixie Knoll and got back to camp about 1:00. Mike moved from space 5 in the campground to the camp host site, which was open and available for $30 a night with full hookups. It made it a $90 upgrade for him that he figured would be well worth it. We wondered if maybe he wanted to be a little further away from the group site, 3
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we can be kind of crazy. The Schellingers and Mike headed to town for some shopping and the Fords took a nap. The rest of us played outside and watched the clouds. There were some dark ones towards Kanab, and when Kris and Doug got back they said they got a lot of rain in town. It stayed dry at the dunes, but was nice and pretty. We decided to go for an afternoon ride, and Shirley rode with Mike. We ran through the lower dunes to the Sand Canyon Wash trail and took it to the lower corral. On a break there I flew my drone and got some video. Then we checked out the little slot canyon near there and found the path to access it was still too narrow for the RZRs, so we turned around and headed back to camp. We had dinner outside and sat and talked until after dark. Friday July 14: I got up and took the dogs for a walk to the overlook at 7:30. Mike was headed to Las Vegas to pick up Ashley, so we had to decide what to do for a ride on our own. Allison wanted to go for an easy ride, so we decided that I would lead and she could choose where we went. She was fine with the speed, and she picked where we went, so we wound up in the creek bed by the lower corral. We followed it until we reached a tree that had fallen and was blocking the trail. Then we turned around and headed out toward Dixie Knoll, where we saw a bunch of cows. We took a break in the shade under some trees. Then we headed back to camp so we could go to Kanab for lunch. We headed to the Junction and I had one of the best meals I have had in a long time. Melissa got some work done, and we did some shopping. We found some treasures at the pawn shop and thrift store, and then visited Honey’s grocery store before going back to camp. We sat around for a while and decorated Mike’s trailer door with camp host requests. Then we decided to go for a dune ride to the corral and to check for lake sin the upper dunes. We didn’t find any, but there were some spots of wet sand, and there were cows by Bob Jim hill. I flew the quadcopter at the corral, and we went down the Disneyland trail on our way back. Then we had a late dinner and hung out at the campsite for the rest of the night. Mike got back about 8:00, and him and Ashley came and visited for a while. By 10:30 we were all inside. Saturday July 15: We got up at 7 to the lovely smell of dog poop. Diesel had an issue on the floor in our bedroom. We got that cleaned up, and then started working on our omelet boil. The burner didn’t want to work, but we had two stock pots that we were able to put on the burners in the campsite. The water was boiling before 8:30, so we got all the ingredients out and started making the omelets. While we had everybody together we made plans for the week, deciding to go to Shirley’s cliff on Sunday, the Thunderbird on Monday, the slot canyon on Tuesday, and Thunderbird for breakfast on Wednesday. For this day, we decided to head West on Sand dunes road towards a new slot canyon the guy at the Pawn shop told us about yesterday. We headed out about 10:30 and I convinced Allie to ride with me, since Don and Shirley had loaned her a helmet that fit her better. She loved the pace of the ride, and liked looking for the pictographs. We didn’t find any great pictures, but we did ride in a new area. On the way back we took the back way into the
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dinosaur tracks and took a break there. Then we came back to camp and got back just after 1:00. It was hot, about 90 degrees and there were no clouds in they sky. As we ate lunch the clouds started coming in, and as we walked to the Ranger station it started to sprinkle. We checked out the shirts and Allie and I got new ones. We talked with the younger ranger who remembered us and was glad to see us on the schedule for this week. The rain had cooled it down a lot, so we all sat outside and enjoyed the afternoon. Walt’s RZR had been not running right on the way back, so we helped him take a look at the fuel pump, but after taking it apart everything seemed fine. We went for a quick test ride and it worked fine. Then we decided to go for an evening ride, and Mike led Doug, Jim and me to the corral. Once we got there Kris suggested we take our break up on top so we could get drone shots of the white cliffs in the distance. I gladly agreed, and took the drone off from the roof of AJ’s RZR. Then we headed back to camp and I got some nice still shots of the RZRs along the way. We had dinner about 7:30, then I let Marshall drive the RZR around the camp loop on my lap, which he loved. We sat and talked until after dark, and about 10:30 it started to sprinkle a little bit as I walked to the shower. Sunday July 16: After sleeping great, I got up and went out with the dogs about 6:45, which was perfect timing to see the sunrise on our walk. We timed it just right so that since we walk towards the cliff, we actually got to see the sun come up over it a couple of times. We got back to camp about 7:15 and ate breakfast at the picnic tables while typing this up. We wanted to get a nice early start for our ride, and we made it out of camp shortly before 10:00. We headed towards the corral, but at the end of the lower section Don’s RZR acted up, so we stopped and worked on it under a tree. Using a sewing kit we modified a connector, and it worked the rest of the day. We didn’t even stop at the corral, and continued up the hill towards the cliff overlooking camp. There we flew the drone and could clearly see the campground. Kris even got cell phone service. From there we continued on the trail loop, headed for trail 52 and Shirley’s waterfall. Just before we got there Jim’s RZR stopped running on the way down the hill. He got it running in short bursts and made it to where we parked to see the big drop. We let it cool while we flew the drone off the edge. I have talked about flying a drone there for at least three years, and now I finally got to do it and the results were pretty impressive. We found that the waterfall actually is undercut by a long way, and there is a mossy cavern underneath it. After landing the drone successfully, we headed back to the RZRs and Jim’s fired up, so he followed Mike and we made the steep climb out of the canyon. It ran until we got to the corral road, 5
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and stalled once on the way down and again at the corral. We checked the fuel pump, and decided that Jim would lead through the dunes. We had a smooth fast run down to the lower section, and the RZR never stumbled. It ran great at speed, but when he slowed down for the road to the campground it died again. After stalling a few more times on the way in, Mike finally towed him the last few hundred yards up the campground loop. In camp we looked at it and decided to remove a fuel programmer that he had installed, since Mike had one die before. It came out pretty easily, and Jim finished it up while we started watching the video from the day’s ride. The clouds came in and it felt like rain, but we avoided all but a few sprinkles. About 7:00 Don, Shirley, Kris, Doug, Mike and Ashley went out to take Buttons to play in the sand. We stayed in camp and finished dinner, then everyone came and watched more sprinkles about sunset while we sat around the tables and talked. Everyone went in by 9:30. Monday July 17: I got up with the dogs at 6:45 again to catch another sunrise. Today there were already a few clouds, and it was really pretty. We saw Kris and Doug out for their morning walk too. In the campground it was busier than it had been, with a few dune rigs that came in on Sunday, plus a big diesel pusher and the usual cars with tents. There were even a couple of motorcycles that were tent camping. This was our St George day, so that Melissa could get the payroll done for work. We left camp about 9:15, and the RZRs had plans to leave for Mt Carmel Junction and lunch at the Thunderbird at 10:00. We found the dirt road to be super smooth, and found out why when we caught up to the scraper at the end of the dirt road. We grabbed McDonalds breakfast in Hurricane, and then went to some Pawn shops in Washington, just outside of St. George. While Melissa worked Allie and I shopped and Marshall slept. I found a DeWalt cordless impact and battery and a few Craftsman tools. Allie found some DVDs and quarter gumballs. Then we checked out the Cal Ranch store, and once Melissa was done we headed to Costco. We found a replacement vacuum for the trailer and Allie enjoyed getting some samples. Then we had lunch at Freddy’s Steakburgers, and then went to the thrift store, kids consignment store, another Pawn shop, and finally Target. While the RZRs were at the Thunderbird they called me and had me send pictures of a wiring plug that seemed to be malfunctioning on Don’s RZR. I did some online research and couldn’t find a Napa part number for it, but I hoped they would have better luck in Kanab, where they headed after getting back from the Thunderbird. Apparently on the way back Jim’s RZR died again, and Mike wound up towing him back from Elephant Butte, a few miles from camp. We stopped at another pawn shop in Hurricane, and Melissa found a nice necklace she liked and we got a deal on it. Then we had dessert at the new DQ in town. We left there about 6:15 and got back to camp about an hour later. Then I helped work on Jim’s RZR for a while, and came to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t a wiring issue because it wasn’t throwing any code. I still suspected the fuel pump, so we decided to look for one in town tomorrow. Melissa figured out that we could switch our plans for 6
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Tuesday and Wednesday, and head to the Thunderbird on Tuesday and then continue up to Duck Creek Village where there is a Polaris dealer that might carry parts. Don didn’t have any better luck at Napa, so he could look for his connector there as well. After sitting around the tables together everyone headed in about 9:30, since we had plans to leave camp at 9:00 in the morning to head to breakfast. Tuesday July 18: I got up at 6:40 with the dogs, since now they seem to have a routine. It was nice watching the sunrise, and I played with taking some HDR pictures with my camera. We left camp by 9:05, and headed to the Thunderbird in three trucks. Breakfast was great, and afterwards my parents, Don, and Walt followed us to Duck Creek village to look for RZR parts. We pulled up to the Polaris dealer / gas station and convenience store just as it started to rain. The lady at the cash register said to go back to the shop and ask for Lincoln. Back there we saw a few cluttered garages with a couple of RZRs in different stages of disrepair. A 1000 was plugged into a laptop and giving a bunch of error codes. We met Lincoln, who walked off without a word to go find Don’s electrical connector. He found it up in the rafters, but warned us that it was about $100. Then we found fuel pumps for both Jim and Walt, and it turned out they were the same pump. They were aftermarket pumps, but were $130 out the door. As we walked back to the store it was hailing ¼ inch or bigger hail. We paid for the parts and stood around with the locals who came in from the rain. After that they headed back to camp, and we continued on to Cedar City. We got there about 1:00, then did some Pawn shopping and visited Cal Ranch stores, which has become a tradition. We had lunch at DQ, then I found another DeWalt drill at a Pawn Shop, then we found some books and toys at the newly relocated Deseret thrift store. Then we went to Hurricane to visit the antique stores before they closed at 6:00. After grabbing some dinner at Arby’s we headed back to camp, and found that they had Jim’s RZR almost back together after performing surgery to install the fuel pump. They had gotten a lot of rain in camp, and another storm rolled in so we covered up the RZR before finishing it. The rain let up after a while, then we finished the RZR and it started up fine, which was the best we could hope for. We sat around and watched a beautiful sunset. Wednesday July 19: I got up with the dogs at 6:15, when it was still sprinkling after raining most of the night. We walked around the campground loop and up to the dunes overlook. As the rain stopped it turned into a beautiful morning. It was still cloudy, so we questioned the trip to the slot canyon, but decided to go for it anyway. We left camp just after 10:00, and with the now very wet dunes the RZRs were a lot of fun, since we could go anywhere and slide all over the place. I seemed to take more advantage of that than the rest. We took a quick break at the corral then headed up the corral road, across Hancock rd, and eventually over to Highway 89, which we crossed before taking a break at the Peek a boo trail head. Mike and Doug took care of
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business with cell service and we checked out the picnic tables and map kiosk. Then we headed in, and enjoyed the sandy trails on the way to the slot canyon. When we got there, we all hiked in to check it out. It was just as we remembered, and the overnight rain had clearly washed through it but it wasn’t too bad. One spot had about a 4 foot vertical climb with a puddle at the bottom, which I was able to go up but Jim decided to wait to see if it was worth it. I walked the 150 yards or so through the final section of canyon, and I heard a crackling sound at the end. I took some pictures and went back to the group, which was gathered at the rock. They debated going on, then Shirley said “I can do it”, and climbed right up while everybody watched. Then Don followed, and so did Jim, Mike, and Walt. We returned to the end of the canyon and still heard the same noise, but decided it probably wasn’t something that would eat us. Then we took more pictures on the way out (I took 132 pictures in the canyon) and went back to the RZRs to get the drone. I did one flight from where we were parked, then went up the canyon to do a second flight. I had the drone camera recording as I went through the canyon, which gave a nice view of how pretty it really was. Before we left a tour guide leading a couple in a RZR arrived, and he talked about how earlier in the morning four guides had worked to make the trail passable after the rain. Then we headed for camp, with brief stops at the trailhead and corral on the way. We played some more in the dines, and I was still amazed at the RZR’s sliding ability. We made it back to camp just before 3:00, making it a long but super fun ride. Then we headed in to Kanab since I had only been in once this trip, and my parents joined us for dinner, which wound up being at the Junction since Nedra’s was closed. It rained a bit in camp while we were gone, but Walt and Don covered up our seats. We spent the rest of the evening in camp watching videos and chatting, but were inside before 10:00. Thursday July 20:
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The dogs compromised and let me sleep till 6:30, but then were up and ready to go. I took them on our usual walk, and went out into the dunes a little bit to get some pictures with Melissa’s camera. Today was her birthday, and our last full day in the park, but we wanted to make sure she still had a nice day. Everyone was pretty slow getting up. Melissa made breakfast burritos, which were great. A German family talked to Walt about wanting to get a ride in an off road vehicle, so we went looking for them to offer a short ride in the RZRs. They weren’t in their camp, but we heard a V8 down by the dunes entrance. We walked down there and saw the same V8 powered mini car that we had seen at Thanksgiving and wrote about in the January 2017 newsletter. It turns out the kid and his Dad who built it were starting out on a dune tour trip to celebrate his graduation from high school. They spent one night at Coral Pink and then were headed to Idaho, then over to Oregon. We chatted for quite a while and saw the upgrades he has done to the car since Thanksgiving, including new stronger spindles and a trussed rear end. We gave them information about the club and hope to see them at Glamis sometime. For our ride, Mike, Jim, Walt, and I just went out to play in the lower dunes about 11:30. We stopped and flew the drone in the middle of the lower section and got some great shots. Then we took the sand canyon wash trail to the lower corral, and took another break and flew there. Then we explored some trails between there and Dixie Knoll before heading back to camp. There we ate lunch and just hung out in camp for the afternoon. I flew all of the drones that I brought, which included the Phantom, my hexacopter, two other quadcopters, and two mini quadcopters. They are like dune toys or potato chips, you can’t have just one… We walked to the ranger station, and then cooked dinner. All week Allie and Grandma Nancy had been planning and preparing for Melissa’s birthday party, which we held at 7:30 in the group site. They decorated with streamers and balloons, and Allie put on quite a show, and even had everybody acting out different types of animals. It was a lot of fun. We had cake and ice cream and Melissa opened her presents. Despite being away from home it was a nice birthday. About 8:30 Shirley and Ashley took Buttons out to the big dune in the RZR, and I took Allie out to play in the soft sand. We had fun and even rolled down the hill. Then we headed back to camp and Marshall helped us drive the trash to the dumpster. It was a perfect last ride of the trip. We sat 9
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around and talked and worked on putting pictures together for the Rangers, and did a little packing. We went inside about 10:00 to enjoy one last night of sleeping at the dunes. Friday July 21: I slept in a bit and didn’t go out with the dogs until about 7:30. Then we walked through the campground loop and saw Doug on the way back. He was disturbed that the kid in the restroom called him “sir”. Kris was back outside after being in the motorhome all day the day before. I worked on catching up with the trip report, and did some more packing before quiet hours ended. Once we could make noise, the race was on to get packed up. I finished up outside, then woke up Melissa and the kids so we could get the inside ready. We were ready to hook up just as Don moved the motorhome, which couldn’t have been timed better. I pulled forward and then loaded up the RZR and the rest of our junk with my Dad’s help before heading to the dump station. After dumping we went to the Ranger station to drop off pictures and newsletters. Then Jim headed to the day use area to hook up to the RZR trailer and we were on our way. We stopped at the end of the dirt road, then it was on to Mesquite, where we arrived a little after 1:00. Mike and Ashley continued on to Las Vegas, so we said our goodbyes on the radios. We got checked in, parked, and then headed to the pool about 2:15. We set the time for dinner at 6:00, again at the Cafe. After dinner we played some more, and didn’t have any great luck but had a good time. Saturday July 22: We got up and allot for breakfast at the buffet at 8:00, since it is only open on weekends. Kris and Doug headed out early, but we had breakfast with Don, Shirley, Walt, and my parents. Then Don and Shirley headed out since they were packed and ready. We took a little while packing up, but made it out before too late and ran with Walt and my parents until Moapa, where we stopped for fuel. They continued on to Arizona, and we headed South on the 15. It was so nice not to have the usual Sunday Vegas traffic. The truck did well, but we had to back off a couple of times for engine heat. That’s not bad though considering it was 111 degrees when we stopped in Baker for lunch. Then we made the last part of the drive home, arriving back in Riverside just after 6:00 PM. It was a great trip for everybody, and for the first time we could recall nobody had any tire issues.
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Coral Pink Crossword 2017 Answers
Across 4. ___ Staircase is a nearby National Monument and ____ Canyon is a nearby National Park.
Down 1. Disposable cooking container for omelete ingredients.
5. With nearly 4.3 million visitors in 2016, this National Park was the most visited in Utah.
2. Name of the road that forms a shortcut between Sand Dunes Rd. and Highway 89.
7. Coral Pink has one ___ site, which we reserve 11 months in advance.
3. Mascot of Kanab High school, a bovine caretaker. 6. The ___ Butte backcountry byway added something new to the 2016 trip. 8. Ho-Made desserts from the Thunderbird Restaurant.
10. Common name for predatory social wasps, and a picnic site near the dunes. 11. Plant named town we meet at in Nevada on our way to the dunes.
9. Establishment in Kanab supported by the local thrift store and hopefully avoided by dune visitors.
15. Utah town West of Zion that's home to the Majestic View Lodge which we've visited for lunch.
12. Pachyderm name for a Cove trailhead on the North side of Sand Dunes Road.
18. The ___ Canyon Dam forms Lake Powell. 19. Manufacturer of all of the OHVs planning on attending the 2017 trip. 21. Arizona town located South of Kanab UT. Hail ____!
13. River we cross en route to the dunes and between camp and Zion. 14. Those who make the trip great, or part of name of nearby animal sanctuary.
22. The ____ Mountain Wilderness Study area includes the land East of the dunes where we often ride.
16. Name of mountain lake and town North of Zion and West of Bryce near Cedar Breaks.
23. The ___ A Boo Trailhead leads to a beautiful Slot Canyon East of Highway 89.
17. Mount ___ Junction is the home of the Thunderbird and the Eastern gateway to Zion, not a candy.
24. Sand ___ is the newest Utah State Park, and the closest to Coral Pink.
20. Canyon North of Kanab with ATV trail system. Mmm bacon...
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More Coral Pink 2017 Pictures:
This month we’d like to thank everyone who has joined in on 23 years of great Coral Pink trips. We are already looking forward to number 24. We’d also like to again thank A.J. and Mike Bacon for the use of the RZR. For the rest of the summer, we are still looking for newsletter content, so let us know what all you have been up to. We will publish what content we have and a calendar of upcoming events in next month’s newsletter, which is traditionally light on content so we can use whatever you’ve got. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall. 12