Joe keeps a running log when he's in the Utah Outback.

When time permits, he sends out a colorful adventure log containing some of his favorite pictures.

Here are Joe's reports from 2001:

April 01, 2001
Hi everyone,

Here I am again in Southern Utah camping in the bottom of the infamous Comb Wash. The east face of Comb Wash is about 860 feet in vertical height, and made of orange, pink, and red sandstone. It's really a beautiful sight especially at sundown.

Here are some pictures of our camp and our (Texas Jack and Arizona Joe's) first Jeep trip into Hotel Rock, a 4 rated (where 5 is impassable) Jeep trail. What a run for the first day out of the chute!

Pic #1: Hotel Rock as we finally approach it via the fairly difficult Jeep trail.

Pic #2: Close-up of the lower cliff dwellings

Pic #3: Another close-up of the cliff dwellings at Hotel Rock.

Pic #4: The view from our first camp at sundown.

Pic #5: Rover wants down. This is a picture from an old Uranium mine very high up on a cliff!

I have reduced the resolution of the pictures to save up/down load time, so I hope they are good enough for you to enjoy.

As always, let me know if you want on/off my adventures email list, and the next time I check my email ( about once a week when possible) I will comply with your request. I don't want to bore anybody.

I will try to send an email whenever I get close to civilization. About once a week - maybe.

I am able to talk to Joyce several times a day via HAM (amateur) radio and give her my GPS coordinates - (if you never hear from me again, start looking here).

I have attached some Ozi GPS tracklogs for those of you that have this capability. Overlay them on your USGS 7-1/2 minute topo maps to see where we were.

(KC8PJ, it is really good to be able to talk to you via HAM radio every day too! Enjoy the GPS tracklogs)

April 11, 2001
Hi Gang,

Here are a few more pictures of our Jeeping adventures up here in Southern Utah. Jack and I are really enjoying ourselves, so I thought I would share some of the many pictures we are taking. As always, I have reduced the resolution to save us all up/down load time.

Pic #6: This is Atomic Rock as marked on the 7-1/2 minute USGS topo map. It was hard to find. I didn't know it, but I walked out and was standing on top of it when Jack found it looking at it from the side. It looks just like a "mushroom cloud" from an atomic bomb blast!

Pic #7: Rover wants to follow me in too. Breath deep! That's Radon gas you smell.

Pic #8: This is the famous "Chocolate Drop". Jack and I tried to drive the old mining trail to the top, but the shelf road had a hole in it the size of our Jeeps! The hole drained out from the side of the mountain 30 feet below the trail.

Pic #9: This is some of the beautiful scenery along one of the many old Jeep trails. That's part of the snow capped Henry Mountain range in the background! We will be over there several weeks from now.

Pic #10: Jack and I decided to turn around here instead of winching the boulders off of this trail! Good decision Jack.

Pic #11: BOO! I was making a steep climbing turn in Rover, and as I rolled out near the top, all I could see was blue sky and this monster. It surprised me good!

Enjoy, and have a good day no matter what you are doing.

July 19, 2001

Hi Gang,

Here is our first adventure pictures from Utah. Joyce, Rover, and I are enjoying the beauty of South Central Utah before I move camp to Colorado.

I have to take Joyce home to Phoenix (in Rover) tomorrow (Friday, 7-20-2001) to take care of her mother. I plan to return to Utah (on Sunday 7-22-2001) and then explore some more in Utah before I move camp to Colorado and try to locate my Jeeping buddy Texas Jack (KD5MBJ). (Jack is the Colorado Connection working?)

I have attached some pictures for your enjoyment. As always, the pictures are at reduced resolution to save you download time. I should be able to check my email about once a week.

We can't check Joyce's email until we get home, because there are two very large messages that were sent to her. My estimate to receive them would be about two hours of connection time, so her email is locked up until we get home to our DSL connection.

The phone lines are very slow in these small towns and it is hard to even fine a phone line that I can borrow that will pass data. In addition I tie up that business's phone line for the duration of my connection time. The business in Utah have been very helpful with loaning me a phone line to be able to send you these adventure emails.

As always, if anyone wants off my distribution list, just let me know and I will remove your name as soon as I receive your request.

Pic #12: "Sundown Below the Bolder Top". Joyce took this picture with her camera (Nikon Coolpix 900) from our camp. I think she did a wonderful job. Try viewing it "full screen" in a darkened room in the evening. It was 44 degrees F at our camp the next morning.

Pic #13: One of the many Jeep trails in this beautiful country. It took all day for Joyce, Rover and I to drive this trail.

Pic #14: This is "Long Lake" near the end of another Jeep trail at over 9,000 feet of altitude.

Pic #15: Joyce was fishing nearby, and I was playing with the animals and the camera. The animals don't see many humans at these remote lakes, but they were still easily spooked. This picture took some time and patience to capture. The little guy started to trust me.

Pic #16: Joyce at her favorite Utah lake. If I told you where it was, I would have to shoot you - says Joyce.

Pic #17: Bragging Rights. It's still early in the fishing day.

July 27, 2001
Hi Gang,

I am still camped at the base of Lion Mountain in the Dixie National Forest all by myself. Tomorrow I help Bret (WX7Y) install a repeater on Ford Ridge near Price Utah.

On Monday Bret and I go to do a visual on the Henry Mountain Machine at 11,000 feet. No road the last 1500 vertical feet. It should be another adventure.

Here are some more pictures rather than words:

Pic #18: Oh! Oh! More fun for the winch. This is a really big guy! More about this one latter.

Pic #19: "Oh Oh, I've been caught tasting the wild flowers again". He is one of my three buddies at camp. This one is eating out of my hand now.

Pic #20: One of the many obstacles along the Jeep trails. It was raining hard at 10,400 feet just below timber line near Green Lake.

Pic #21: I saw this guy along one of the Jeep trails in Utah. What is he? He doesn't look like a marmot from Colorado does he?

Pic #22: This large aspen tree was blocking my Jeep trail so I decided to open the trail again by winching it out of the way. See the next picture.

Pic #23: This is the "after" shot. The trail is clear now. The tree was about 20 inches in diameter at the base and about 50 feet long with all of its limbs and sap. It was heavy!

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I have to run now to get ready for tomorrow's trip to Ford Ridge.

August 6, 2001
Hi Again Gang,

Jack (KD5MBJ) and I are camped in a really neat spot that I found while Jack was running with the "All For Fun" 4WD group last week.

I met some of the Mesa 4WD gang that I hadn't seen in a very long time. That Mesa 4WD Club is one of the nicest 4WD clubs I have ever been associated with.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. As always, I have reduced the resolution to save up/down load time, so I apologized for the lack of quality in the pictures. I hope you are able to enjoy them anyway.

Pic #24: This is one of my buddies at the Utah camp. There were four of them whose home I was privileged to visit and camp with.

They were very wild at first, but I won over their confidence and then they began to perform tricks for me like the one you see here.

Pic #25: Rover makes it to the top of the Henry Mountains and the HAM repeater site. This site is solar power and very remote at over 11,000 feet.

Bret (WX7Y) thinks Rover may be the first Jeep to be able to drive the small, narrow, and very steep ATV trail to the peak. Rover was able to idle up this trail without slipping a tire, but then Rover has had lots of experience with this kind of 4WD trail.

This is great, because now Rover will be able to carry equipment to help maintain this difficult site. Almost all of the equipment was brought in by helicopter which is too expensive for us Ham's.

The Emery County Sheriff's office radio equipment is located here and Bret maintains this equipment also.

(Bob, (KD7HLL) this is the picture that you requested. Bob, let me know if you want a CD-ROM with all of my pictures when I return to Phoenix) Bob lives in Mexican Hat, Utah, and we talk often via radio.

Pic #26: This is the view in the other direction from my remote camp here in Colorado. It is really private with great radio HAM signals.

I was even talking to Joyce from camp while she was back in Phoenix. For you HAM buffs, here is how she did it. Joyce transmitted from Phoenix to Mount Lemmon in Tucson, sent codes to connect to the IRLP, popped out in Castle Dale, Utah at Bret's (WX7Y) node on the Sinbad system.

Bret used a remote base on Bruin Peak in Northern Utah to connect to the Colorado Connection, and I was listening in my Jeep to the Salida Machine. Simple and very neat don't you think!

HAM radio is great, and I am never really alone anywhere in the Jeep because of all my HAM buddies that keep track of me via amateur radio and GPS.

Why the other day I was Jeeping in Utah on a fairly tough and remote place at 10,000 feet, and Kent (W7AOR) in Las Vegas gave me a call. We chatted for awhile, and then Kent took down my GPS coordinates and saved them until I returned to camp and called him on the radio to let him know I was OK.

Pic #27: A building at the Mary Murphy mine. Jack and I enjoyed the very narrow shelf Jeep trail high above this building to the top tram structure at almost 13,000 feet.

Pic #28: Another neat building along the Jeep trail to William's Pass.

Pic #29: This is the view from my remote camp here in Colorado. This is Mount Princeton (14,197 feet).

I climbed this peak several years ago. From my dinning room window in my camper, I can see both Mount Princeton and Mount Antero.

I climbed Mount Antero last week too. The view is spectacular, and there is no one around our remote campsite. Finding this campsite is really lucky, because unlike Utah, almost all of the places that I could get my camper into are fenced and posted private keep out by the local Coloradoans.

August 13, 2001
Hi Again Gang,

Jack and I are still exploring in Colorado. We are camped alone in a remote location in a small forested canyon about 15 miles South of Buena Vista.

I have some more adventure pictures for your enjoyment.

Pic #30: This is what the Jeep trail into Grizzly Lake looked like from the driver's seat. It is a fairly difficult Jeep trail with part of it on a cliff ledge with a pitch angle near 21 degrees on loose boulders.

The picture doesn't show any of this. We were too busy driving to take a picture during that section of the trail.

Pic #31: Jack had to repair a loose wheel bearing along the trail, and Rover has a broken right front U-joint. We are having more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Pic #32: This is what it looked like from Rover's driver's seat on the Bolder Mountain Jeep trail near 12,800 feet on the way back down. "Steady Boy. Easy does it!"

If you look closely in the "near field" shaded gray gravel just below Rover's left door (mirror), you can see the tiny shelf switchbacks that we still have to drive to get down.

Other, much wider, switchbacks are visible too, far below in the sun. And then still further down, you can see the Jeep trail winding through at timberline.

Pic #33: This is an "honest" view of the wind blown trees on the 4WD Hayden Pass Jeep trail. Wow, I would hate to be caught up here in a storm! Those are clouds on the steep mountain to the left. The approaching storm is closing in on us fast.

Pic #34: In this picture we are looking across the valley at the Bolder Mountain Jeep trail that we drove several days ago. The trail is not visible because it is so small from this distance, but you can see where Rover and KC7GHT were.

Thank goodness for a tiny turn-around spot at the end of the Jeep trail. I think there were twenty one switchbacks to get to the mine on Bolder Mountain (where the arrow is).

It was at least a quarter mile of cliff edge trail between each switchback, so if the trail was avalanched or otherwise impassable, we would have to back up that distance on the cliff edge.

At times there was only 6 inches from the outside of the tire to the cliff edge. Needless to say, Rover was paying attention to his footing. It was low range, low gear (80 to 1 gear ratio) at 600 rpm in these tight spots.

There were some places on the cliff edge where the roll angle reached 20 degrees. The "Pucker Factor" was high on this Bolder Mountain trail (across the valley in this picture)!

Pic #35: Rover is on another cliff edge trail enjoying himself. You can see Mount Antero 14,269 feet in the background.

This view shows just how steep it was for me to climb (on foot) the Antero peak on August 2, 2001. Walt (KC7OMZ) was talking to me by Ham Radio from Denver, while I was hiking/climbing as well as while I was on the peak.

If Joyce would have brought up the IRLP Ham link in Tucson, Arizona, she would have been able to talk to me also while I was climbing. My own IRLP node (at my home QTH) should be operational by the end of September. My node will be open to all licensed Hams.

Enjoy the pictures. I am sorry that I had to reduce the resolution of the pictures to save up/download time. The originals look much better.

August 16, 2001
Hi Again Gang,

I hope you are enjoying the pictures. If not, please let me know by email, and I will gladly remove your name from my adventure "eddress" list.

I apologize for the low resolution pictures, but the phone lines are really slow and hard to find in these small towns. The full resolution, original camera pictures, are much sharper at 2048 by 1536 pixels, but maybe you can enjoy the pictures anyway.

Pic #36: Rover is sitting on the "Top Of the World". Check out the inset picture above the arrow to see where Rover was perched.

"Rover maybe we should stop here. One more step could ruin our whole day".

This was a great view through Rover's windshield. I had to make sure that Rover understood that I wanted to back up after we took the picture.

Rover has been asking for flying lessons since I left Phoenix, but I try to keep a tight rein on him. If there ever was a place to learn to fly, this would be it.

Pic #37: Jack "Are we having fun yet"? These next three pictures show the fun we had along the trail yesterday ( Wednesday, 8-15-2001).

The trail was a little steep and we had to block the Jeep with rocks. We jacked the tire up on a "hi-lift" jack to find the problem, since the tire wouldn't hold any air with the compressor running for over five minutes. Something was wrong.

Pic #38: I found the leak with my "Liquid Ivory" soap that I carry for all such occasions.

Pic #39: Jack bought me lunch for repairing his tire. It took nine plugs. These are the orange "worms" that you see "crawling" out of his tire. It is still holding several days and Jeep trails latter.

Pic #40: Slickrock (KC7GHT) is feeding his buddies again. They found me at the very end of a remote Jeep trail just below timberline.

I took the picture with my right hand while holding and feeding my buddy with my left hand. The wild animals in these remote locations seem tame, probably because they haven't seen many humans.

Or maybe it is just that I am an easy touch for my panhandling friends, and they spotted an easy "mark".

Pic #41: This is one of the wider spots along the famous "Red Cone" jeep trail. Yes, that is Rover's driver's side mirror, and that is the Webster Pass Jeep trail far below.

There is not much room to step out side the Jeep. Joyce knows, she has been here with me in the past.

Take a break from your busy schedule and enjoy the adventure pictures. Maybe I will see you on one of these Jeep trails someday.

PS: I occasionally take passengers!

August 28, 2001
Hi Again Gang,

This is the final adventure email from Colorado. Jack leaves today for Denver and Dove hunting, and I leave for home tomorrow.

I have some more pictures that I thought you might like to enjoy with me. They look much better at high resolution, but the up/down load time would be too long.

I have been able to borrow a phone line at the Salida, Colorado Chamber of Commerce whenever I get to town for gasoline.

Enjoy the pictures.

Pic #42: I discovered this mushroom along the famous Red Cone Jeep trail just below timberline about 10,500 feet. The mushrooms were very scarce this year.

Pic #43: Lama 101. Pay attention now girls, Rover is going to show you how it is done.

Pic #44: Another view out Rover's windshield. These aspens were beautiful. Just imagine how they will look in the middle of September when they change their costume.

Pic #45: This was our last Jeep trip. Notice the lower right inset picture of Rover's Global Positioning System (GPS).

Pic #46: What is the name of this flower? Dig out your flower books and let us know. I found this growing at 14,200 feet on the top of Mount Bross.

Pic #47: Another view out of Rover's cockpit windshield. This is really how it looks to drive on some of these long forgotten Jeep trails. It is nearly 2000 vertical feet to the bottom of the beautiful basin far below!

The altitude that Rover is at is 14,200 feet above sea level! That's Mount Democrat 14,148 "down" below us. KC7GHT climbed that peak on 8-12-1998, and met the "mooching" dog Brutus with a Maricopa County (Phoenix, Arizona) dog tag.

I gave him my lunch and my water on the top of Mount Democrat. Some of you may remember the story. Brutus sure had me fooled.

I hope you have enjoyed these adventure emails. The fun is over for now, and I have to return to Phoenix by September 1, 2001.

Ham radio is great, and so is Utah Jeeping.

Keep at least two wheels on the Slickrock!

Keep all of the old Jeep trails OPEN!

Re-open closed Jeep trails!

Stay ON the trails!

Joe Ruby
KC7GHT
(Kilo Charlie 7 Going High Tech)
IRLP Node 3820, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Uplink DTMF 3820, Downlink DTMF 73
http://irlp.wb7tjd.org/