Thursday, May 30, 2013

New old places

My last time at Capitol Reef I had seen the start of the Cassidy Arch trail but decided against it because of the nearly 1000ft elevation gain. This time though, as we were deciding which hikes to do Danielle suggested we give it a shot.

The hike starts from a parking lot down the Grand Wash and heads up a steep trail over slick rock and broken rock formations. This is my favorite kind of trail because in many places there isn't a well defined trail so you can kind of pick your own way through and it feels a bit more like canyoneering. There are amazing views down into the valley as you ascend and wind your way down the trail, the views changing and opening up new angles below. There are also varied and interesting rock formations and details along the trail itself so we of course stopped for lots of pictures.

Eventually we rounded a bend and could finally see the arch itself perched out on the corner of the canyon, overlooking the road to the Grand Wash 500+ ft below. Up ahead of us was a group with climbing gear and as we got to the arch they were getting setup to rappel down into the pit below the arch. We sat and watched  a few go down and I tried to lean over the edge and see down to the bottom but I never could. We took a few final pictures and had a light snack and then headed back as it was starting to get cloudy.

After the hike we took the scenic drive down to the end of the paved section and got pictures of the various rock formations along the way. We finished our visit with a couple of root beers and a peach cobbler at the general store.

That was all just the first part of the day. On the way out of the park we stopped off to see some of the petroglyphs along Hwy24. They really do look like aliens. From there we traveled on to Hwy95 which would take us the rest of the way to Chinle, AZ. Hwy95 cuts through the Glen Canyon scenic area after a long drive across a fairly boring trek. The Glen Canyon bit was awesome though, We were able to make up a ton of time carving through the quicker bends that arced back and forth through the canyon. We emerged on the other side and traversed a forested mesa where we cruised with virtually no other traffic. Eventually we dropped down into Blanding where we had dinner at a combination gas station/convenience store/bowling alley/A&W. Really.

The last 120 miles into Chinle went by quickly and we settled in to the hotel shortly after sunset. As we were unpacking we discovered our water was brown and a call to the front desk confirmed that was pretty much just the way it was in town. Our original plan was to spend two nights in Chinle but we quickly reevaluated that and decided that spending two nights in Flagstaff would solve a couple of problems, it would get us some cleaner water and give us more time to spend in Sedona. I rebooked the hotels and we hit the bed ready to hike Canyon de Chelley in the morning.


Bonus park day

Our original plan for our last day in Zion was to hike a bit in the morning and then head to Capitol Reef with enough time to catch the sunset. Since we were both a bit worn out from The Narrows while we decided to head out of town early instead of hiking. We did get to have a bit more fun in the Mt Carmel tunnel on the way out and maybe there are a few more 5 cylinder fans out there now :-)

Since we had some extra time and since it was on the way we decided to stop at Ruby's Inn outside of Bryce for lunch and then do a quick tour of the park. Ruby's is always an interesting place to visit and they had a pretty decent buffet lunch too. The park was very crowded and the rangers were closing viewpoints as the parking lots filled up. We did manage to get in to Sunset Point and Fairyland. We hadn't figured on hiking much so just did a quick walk down the paths to get some pictures. Still though, it was nice to get back to see the Hoodoos.

Leaving Bryce we continued on Hwy12 through Escalante and the Dixie National Forest where we drove through alpine passes as the red rocks gave way to aspens. As we got closer to Torrey we ended up in a pack of sport bikes and got to play with them through the twisties for several miles on the way down Hwy12. I think they were surprised that they weren't able to pull away from us and we got several thumbs ups as we pulled in to town. It was a very entertaining end to the drive.

We checked in to the Best Western in town, again with fantastic canyon views from our balcony and then went to get food. We were using UrbanSpoon for recommendations and had picked out the Rim Rock restaurant. After heading towards town we decided we should call them and it turns out they were right across the street from the hotel, yay technology! We ate outside with views of the canyon with the early evening sun and the food was outstanding too.

We headed into the park and eventually found the Sunset Point trail I had been to last time and settled in to take pictures. Even after the sun had slipped below the horizon we were still able to get some pictures on the way back to the car. We capped off the day with a return trip to the Rim Rock for some apple pie desserts.




Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Wall Street

For our final full day in Zion we knew we had to do the Narrows hike. We stopped at the Zion Adventure Company to get some waterproof footwear and walking sticks and then we were back on the bus. The park was much more crowded today since it was Memorial Day weekend so it took longer to get a shuttle out of the visitor center. Once we were on our way we noticed that everyone seemed to be staying on the bus. The Narrows hike is at the last stop and that's where everyone was headed.


First though you need to walk down the river walk which is an easy mile hike. Once at the end you just hop in the river and keep going! The water was a surprisingly warm 58 and it only got as high as waist deep a couple of times. The rest of the hike was just knee deep and the current was fairly weak too. We hiked the two miles up canyon to the Orderville fork which is really where Wall Street, the narrowest part of the canyon, begins. When I hiked here last time I turned back before this section so it was nice to make it this time. We continued on through Wall Street where the canyon is only about 20ft wide all the way to where it begins to open back up. At that point we had been hiking for about 3hrs and we were both having knee issues so we decided we should turn back since we had to hike all the way back out. It was nice being much further into the canyon since the crowds had thinned out considerably.

The hike back out went much faster since we were taking fewer pictures and we didn't have to fight the current. Then it was just the last mile of the river walk to get back to the shuttle.

We went to Oscar's for dinner since they were rumored to have good burgers and we were not disappointed. These were life changing good burgers :-) Danielle's had pastrami and mine was loaded with bacon, cheese and all the usual fixings. Since we ate late we thought we had just missed the last shuttle in town so we started walking back to the hotel. It turns out there was one more shuttle so we could have gotten a ride but after about 8 miles of hiking the walk through town was pretty easy. We both crashed pretty quickly with plans for an easier day.

Trading horsepower for mulepower

We were staying at the Driftwood Inn just outside of the park and our room balcony overlooked the canyon walls so that seemed like a good place to plan the activities for the day. We got all of the gear together and headed out to the shuttle stop for the ride into the park. It wasn't very crowded yet as we went through the visitor center.

We had noticed a very short trail from the visitor center up to an archaeology site and decided to check that out first. It turns out that there used to be a few buildings at the site but those have been buried or torn down. Since that wasn't very interesting we hopped on the park shuttle and headed to the Emerald Pools trailhead at the lodge. As we were crossing the river we saw the corral and booked a trail ride for the afternoon, that would give us enough time to hike the Pools and grab a snack for lunch.

The Emerald Pool trail is usually pretty crowded since it's a relatively short hike but as we got to the second and on to the upper pools the crowds thinned out. There was still a good amount of water in the pools so we got some good pictures of the water cascading down to the lower pool.

Back at the lodge we grabbed a light snack and then went back to the corral for our ride. There was one other couple with us and we got our trusty steeds assigned. Danielle was on a horse named Nava-joe and I got a tall mule named Leggs, I was assured that I would have a great view. It was nice to sit after the morning hike and Leggs seemed to know the way so I could relax and enjoy the scenery. This was a fun outing though and provided a different perspective of the park.

We still had most of the afternoon left so took the shuttle to Weeping Rock, one of the other short trails in the park. I tried to convince Danielle to continue on to the Hidden Canyon trail but she said no :) Weeping Rock is at the end of the canyon so you get fantastic views of the cliff faces on both sides.

With just a bit more time before we needed to go back to town for dinner we decided to make a final stop at the lodge and grabbed ice cream cones to eat on the lawn under the shade of the big tree.
The group dinner was back at the Majestic View hotel and we had a pretty good buffet dinner before retiring to the hospitality suite to cap off the day.

Playing catch up

We were up early for the driver meeting ahead of the group drive from Page to the Grand Canyon but since we had missed Antelope Canyon the day before we decided to start there and meet up with the group later.
We were able to head out on the first tour of the morning and the ride in the back of the pickup truck down the wash was as terrifying as I remembered :) Our tour guide showed us where all of the beautiful pictures were and told us many tales of snakes, spiders and floods. It was already quite windy too so there were several sand showers as we hiked through the canyon.
Back at the parking lot we were leaving Page about 2hours after the main group. Luckily we had very little traffic in transit to the Grand Canyon and we were able to run at our own pace through the twisty highways from Kanab to the park. We did stop off for lunch in Jakob's Lake for lunch and fuel too. When we arrived at the park the rest of the group was just about to head on to Springdale so we were able to make up about an hour.
This was my first visit to the north rim and it is so very different from the south rim. The initial drive in feels much more like driving into Yellowstone, except for the lack of buffalo. There are much fewer viewpoints at the north rim too but we did hike out to the Bright Angel Trail which gives you views down the length of the canyon. It was very, very windy along the exposed trail which made things more interesting but we still got a lot of great shots before heading back to the car. We were still about an hour behind the main group so we were thinking we could possibly catch them at their planned fuel stop in Kanab.
We had another fun drive back out of the park with very little traffic but we couldn't quite catch the group. We did have a very nice drive through the east section of Zion on the way to Springdale, Danielle's first time into the park too. We got into a bit too much traffic to play too much in the Mt Carmel tunnel but I'm sure the cars around us have a new found appreciation for five cylinder engines :)
As it turns out we only missed the main group by a couple of minutes after all, but we did have fun trying. We crashed pretty early after dinner with plans to get an early start in the morning.


Monday, May 27, 2013

Our second day would take us from Provo to Page where we would sync up with the TT-West group coming in from Cortez. This was a relatively short drive day split between interstates and more scenic highways. We did get our first taste of high speed cruising on I-15 where there are a couple of autobahn-like 80mph zones. We spent most of the remaining miles on Hwy89 which we would retrace a couple more times over the coming days.
We arrived in Page early so headed straight down to the Horseshoe Bend overlook just south of town. I remembered there being an uphill hike through sand but I had forgotten that the first hill wasn't the actual viewpoint but instead you needed to hike out pretty far across a sandy slope to the edge of the cliff. This was also our first exposure to wind blown sand that would be a recurring theme for the trip. Eventually we did make it to the overlook and it was as good as I had remembered. We got lucky and made it to the viewpoint between large groups so we could enjoy the view and had our pick of photo spots.
We headed to the hotel where we planned to check in and unload the car so that we could do a late afternoon tour of Antelope Canyon. Unfortunately there was a delay getting in to our room so our schedule got a bit messed up. By the time we made it out to the canyon the tours had ended for the day. We made our way back to the hotel for dinner and an evening on the patio with the TT-West group.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

sabbatical redux

6 years ago I took an extended road trip that went from Portland, OR to Portland, ME and eventually made my way to the national parks of the southwest. This week Danielle and I set off to revisit some of these same locations, well revisit for me but all new to her. We started with a long first day from Portland to Provo, about 12 hours and 800+ miles. This is the first long trip in the RS too and I have to say it's a fantastic cruiser, even better than the mk1. I wouldn't say I felt ready to keep driving when we reached Provo but I felt much less fatigued than on other trips.
Getting to the hotel in Provo was rather interesting too. I had checked the location on Google prior to leaving and noted that it was at exit 265. Well after getting off the freeway at that exit there were no hotels to be found. Checking Google again, yay iPhones,we realized it was on highway 265 which was really exit 269. Really just dumb luck that we landed that close to it at all! Then, once we found the hotel there was the matter of actually getting in the parking lot. We eventually checked in and crashed around midnight local time.
The other thing we had issues with was the gopro. I had planned to have it setup on the windshield taking pictures every 30 seconds so that I could make time lapse videos of the entire drive. Unfortunately, it kept overheating and discharging the battey so that didn't work out so well. We did manage to get most of the first day though.
Provo is really our only long haul travel day so it should be more interesting from here.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Fuel door replacement + protective rubber bib

A few months back I managed to narf the aluminum trim on the fuel door while getting gas. I figured that rather than risking this happening again (since it is an expensive part) that I'd better add some protection. I've seen rubber bibs like this before, I think Griots used to sell one, and my local modding expert has thrown a few of these on his cars as well. So after getting the replacement door from Genuinue Audi Parts and a section of rubber from Ace Hardware (4" x 8" x 1/16") it was time to perform surgery.

Here was  the original damage... This is available for sale if someone wants a spare door to paint, powdercoat, or wrap.


Removal of the door is trickier than I thought it would be. I had done the same replacement on my mk1 and that was a bit easier to deal with.
I prepped the area first to protect the paint and the fuel door, using 3M painters tape and a couple of Griots fender cover blankets.


There are three 3mm allen bolts holding the door to the body, three tabs that hold it down flush with the body and some of the famous black German body glue. The glue doesn't really do too much but one of the tabs needs to be retracted to release the cap.

Start with the three 3mm allen bolts first. These come out relatively easily, you may need to remove the gas cap to get the right angle on the top bolt. These were a bit rusty from exposure to fuel, even with just 18k miles on the car.


I was able to get a small pry tool in to start to lift the door but it was obviously held in place on both ends and wouldn't just lift out. To the front of the car is the tab that needs to be retracted and at the back is the release cable assembly. Here are the small rear tabs, if you open the door they are basically in line with the plastic inner trim, at about the 8 and 11 o'clock positions.



These along with the catch mechanism mean that the front edge has to come out first. To do that the retractable tab needs to be retracted :) If you look at the base of the hinge you can see the end of the tab that you pull on. It's designed to have a small hook tool inserted to pull it outwards which pulls the tab in away from the body. Here's a view looking down at the top, the tab does not stick out very far but there's really no way to force this out around the body.


I tried to pull the catch mechanism with a hook and that seemed to work ok but I ended up cutting a small allen key down to make something that was closer to the tool shown in the manual. On my first attempt I thought I had it pulled all the way out but the cap still wasn't free. I pushed it all the way back in and then pulled it back out and it released on the second try. Here you can see the catch from below.


Some gentle prying should lift the cap out now and you'll get a trail of the glue, it's pretty easy to clean up though.



The next challenge is the cable release mechanism. On the mk1 the cable pulled out far enough to allow you to undo the screws holding it to the fuel door, on the mk2 not so much. You have two choices here... Open the trunk liner and undo the cable or take the screws out. We opted to take the screws out and after trying a couple of 90^ screwdrivers ended up just working them out with some vise grips... brute force but it worked :)



That should allow you to completely remove the fuel door. If you're just replacing it just follow the reverse steps to re-install. We were installing the protective bib though so on to the second part. As I mentioned above, we sourced some rubber sheet from Ace Hardware, about 4" x 8" x 1/16". The fuel filler neck is about 2" in diameter so you'll have to cut a hole in the rubber to fit it snugly around the neck. The top will need to be trimmed to clear the inside of the fuel neck too as it's a bit tight at the top. Take your time and trim the rubber so that you get sufficient protection but also so that it can still fold up and tuck under the door. Also, we needed to trim the tabs on the gascap that are used to hang the cap on the door. I don't really like hanging the cap on the door anyway since there's a chance it can scratch the door or slide off and hit the paint. Not a big loss to dremel those down.


Finally, here's a test fit with the bib in place snug around the fuel filler neck, it still needed to be trimmed a bit for length and width in order to tuck under the door at this point.


And with it folded up with room for the door to close.