9 Heading Out

[This is a small, low-res, work in progress. We plan to do some narration and more editing after that. The finished product will be saved to DVD for finer viewing. If you wish to receive a copy when it's ready, let me know.]

It was inevitable. We had to start for civilization sooner than later and the weather was starting to make it look like the sooner the better.

We fussed around with the first obstacle, which was right out of camp, filling in with rock to soften the approach. The short wheel base of the Jeep definitely had its advantages in these spots, although we never had any trouble with our pickups.

We bumped along and so did the weather. It would be sunny one minute, hailing the next, snowing the next, raining the next and sunny the next. None of the things that were hard coming in were hard going out. There were different things. A steep slick rock with a little precipitation on it turned out to be actually slick. By the second try the tires were dry enough to make it up.

Cozy places to lean out of the wind were key for choosing a lunch spot. Kent was good at spotting them. We found one in a relatively sandy area against some smaller sandstone bumps.