Scarlett needs a new clutch

June 19, Monday

A very windy day today!

Here's yesterday's sunset:

We set off on Scarlet after breakfast, to go find the Flaming Gorge Rock formation.

Once we got on Utah 44 the winds got really strong, to the point where a couple of times I was barely in control of the rig it seemed. Martha reports at one time the sidecar seemed to be in the air!

To top it all off, there was a series of steep uphill climbs which eventually forced me to go into second gear in order to maintain any kind of momentum forward!  I rarely have to go into second gear so this was confirming to me the clutch needed replacing soon.

After a rather rough downshift into second at one hill, I pulled over to take a look at stuff. It was at that point that we agreed that perhaps it was too windy to be riding today as well.

I had to adjust the clutch cable in order to get some working performance from the clutch. I think the clutch pads are now worn to the point where shifting requires more effort than usual.

Still, got Scarlett turned around and back down the hills, through the town of Manila and back to the campsite with no issues.  Both Martha and I complimented Scarlett on being a good girl and getting us home safe.  I got Scarlett loaded up on the trailer and secured with only minor issues.

Clutch pack has been ordered, it should be close to home by the time we are home later this week.

To calm my nerves down afterwards, I rode Yagi, my TW200 around the State Line Cove Campground area...once again checking out the rock formations.  Temperatures were in the mid-70s but it felt much warmer under the sun!

The first pic is of a couple of hilltops visible from the swim beach, it looks like a flat grassy patch of grass between the rocky hill tops.  Weird.

A very much more sedate version of the Vermillion Cliffs:

Edge on, the same rock formation as previous pic

We hung out at the VRRV the rest of the day; the strong wind gusts occasionally shaking the VRRV.

As I chipped away at a large clump of mud under the camper's left rear corner, I realized the extension rod for the gray water tank valve was gone!

A little stub of the valve's control rod remains so I can use vise grips to open the valve when dumping tanks.

All in all, we got of lucky so far from our mudfest incident.

A Short Uraling into the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area & T-Dub'ing while the Sun is out

June 17, Saturday

We spent yesterday recovering and cleaning up from Thursday's mudfest, so no pics but there was also plenty of resting and relaxation.

Lunch yesterday:

Fajita Veggies

Today, we went for a short ride to the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area to the SW of the town of Manila, UT.  The town was named in 1898 after the Battle of Manila in the Philippines.

The weather threatened rain soon after we got to the Sheep Creek Bay overlook:

As the clouds closed on us, we decided to not finish the Sheep Creek Geological Loop, choosing to take just these pics:

We did stop at an overlook close to the entrance to our campsite, the Linwood Overlook.  So named because the drowned by the reservoir's creation town of Linwood used to be nearby.  Located at the 41st Parallel, it straddled the borders of Utah and Wyoming.

Our campsite, Uma is on the left

Today's lunch was Beef Stir Fry....yum

Sunday, June 18

Got a call and text from Things 1 and 2 for Father's Day.  

Martha and I went into Manila with Scarlett so I could get some hardware to fix the damage caused by the TruckClaw on the left side duallies area.

The damage was not unexpected, the clearances were pretty tight on the VRRV's wheel wells and once mud builds up.... 

The rest of the day was spent under overcast skies waiting for the sun to make an appearance.  The temperature reached 72 degrees shortly after 5PM and the sun came out! 

I rode out with Yagi, my TW200 to capture pics of a rock formation near the State Line Cove Campground nearby.

The weekend being almost over, the local swim beach was pretty much deserted, the clouds had moved in again though:

Closer to camp, most of the campers had left which allowed me to pose Yagi by the waters of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir:

Martha had this charcuterie and a Bourbon Old Fashioned when I got back to the VRRV:

We should have heeded the Pronghorn Omen!

We left the Palisades Reservoir today, thinking to do a short day and camp at a BLM site near the Fossil Butte National Monument.

We dumped tanks, took on water and groceries in Alpine Junction and then two hour later were stopped by construction just short of the entrance to the BLM area.  I was feeling pretty good so we decided to push on instead to the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area instead.

Two more hours later, under rainy conditions, we'd found a site near the Lucerne USFS Campground.  We actually spotted a Pronghorn just hanging out at what we ended up calling "plan B" in case the next site proved not suitable.  

We headed to the site labeled "Riverside" on iOverlander trying for a better spot but instead we found trouble.

The way into the site wasn't covered in gravel like the previous site by Lucerne.  It was getting squiggly when we came almost abreast of a white pickup truck that had been left off the trail.  The trail ahead looked muddy but I didn't really see any options for turning around, so I tried charging ahead.

Of course, we got stuck.

2-3 lovely hours later, we managed to unhook the trailer after unloading Scarlett, then using Scarlett to pull the trailer out from behind the VRRV.  Once the way back was clear, and using the  TruckClaws traction devices and sand tracks, I was able to back the VRRV clear of the softer mud.

Some more work with the shovel and sand tracks, and I was able to get the VRRV to claw its way out on TruckClaws, eventually ending up on less muddy ground and free!

Then it was time to hook Scarlett up to the trailer to drag it towards the now-freed Umarang.  I broke two tie-down straps in the process, finally switching to a tow strap I'd bought for the Samurai.  The strap did the trick though I fear I took a year's worth of life from Scarlett's clutch muscling the trailer out of the mud and onto firm enough ground where Uma, the VRRV could take over pulling duties.

Uma pulled the trailer all the way to the cattle guard and graveled area and I finished hooking up the trailer back onto Uma, the VRRV.  Then I walked back to Scarlett and rode her back towards the trailer, got her loaded and strapped down using a combination of old straps and new ones that really aren't rated for her weight.  I'll have to get beefier straps to replace the ones that broke soon.

One of the two TruckClaws that were so key in allowing Uma to get free of the mud, broke in terms of me not being able to release it.  I had to cut it off.  I hope the manufacturer will warranty it but if not, we're still way ahead financially on what a tow truck would have cost!

Sorry, no pics taken while all the above was going on!  Martha did take pics of Scarlett once she was back on the trailer, the smell of burnt clutch pad material hanging heavily in the air.  Should give you an idea of the gumbo like consistency of the mud we encountered.

While all this fun was going on, two separate groups of fifth wheel trailers and tow vehicles had shown up, we warned them.  The first group turned around after reconning the mud with an ATV, the second group we left after warning them....they said they'd check it out.  

We drove towards the USFS Lucerne campground, but found it full according to one of their maintenance guys.  So we ended up returning to the site we called "Plan B"!

Once again, probably thinking to itself that we should have minded the omen, we found the Pronghorn sitting by what would end up being our site tonight!

Some shots of whiskey and dinner later, we had us a good sunset.  

Quite the adventure day today.  But, we self-recovered, no fights, no injuries and relatively little in the way of damage so far to equipment.  I call it a win!

A pano from Martha:

Now Boondocking by the waters of the Palisades Reservoir, ID

A bit over 3 hours of driving led us from Clark Canyon Reservoir in Montana to Palisades Reservoir, Idaho.  The reservoir actually spans the border between Idaho and Wyoming (barely).

So yes, we're continuing to make slow progress towards Colorado.

It was raining when we got to the previously planned destination of Alpine North Loop Campground run by the USFS.  Though we did find a spot, it was designated a "two RV spot" and they wanted $40 for basically dry camping.  Nope.  Also, it had crappy speeds for cellular internet access.

We continued onto a spot listed on iOverlander and found ourselves a nice spot close to the waters of the Palisades Reservoir next to an existing fire ring.  While I'm pretty sure the water levels won't be suddenly rising in this age of declining water levels everywhere; I'll be keeping a close eye on the water level as we're pretty close to it.

We're basically on a small spit of land, on which part of the small airport near Alpine Junction is located.  There's good cellular internet here and not too many other campers.

Bonus: Apparently, this is a popular area for American White Pelicans, as there's lots of them nearby and in the air around us:

The rain stopped as we selected the site and the sun would occasionally peek through the mostly cloudy skies throughout the afternoon.

Here's a video of the pelicans s flying about the area, sorry for the dust spots on the telephoto lens.

We had a pretty good sunset tonight: