Moab Spring Break 2017!

OVERVIEW

HELLO Outdoors Club!! It’s the best time of the year…… the 3rd Annual Moab Spring Break trip is coming up! This is relevant to you if you

(1) don’t have set in stone Spring Break plans.
(2) enjoy bona fide adventures of all the best varieties: hiking, backpacking, mountain biking (literally the best in the world), climbing, trail running, skinny dipping, and more.
(3) like friendship.

Now that I have your attention, I’ll lay out how this trip description will be structured.

– Trip overview (including activities)
– Logistics
– Getting there
– $$$$
– Attendee selection
– Driver policy

……

– DOPE LINKS TO THINGS INCLUDING LAST YEARS’ VIDEO!!!!

TRIP OVERVIEW:

The 35 of us will all head out to Utah and spend a week(ish) camping on the banks of the Colorado River and going hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, climbing, canyoneering, bouldering, dirtbagging, trail running, fire-side jamming, and assorted other gooning. Unlike other mega trips like NRGE, what goes down each day is played by ear. Trip attendees will informally join up to go do an assortment of rad things in the surrounding area. So what’s so great about Moab?? What makes these things so rad?? As Matt put it last year….

“Moab is a multi-sport paradise, with tons of amazing mountain biking, hiking, backpacking, canyoneering, paddling [not this year], fishing, and rock climbing! March in Moab is perfect adventure weather with temps in the mid-60s and plenty of sun! Being a breathtaking desert destination situated on the Colorado Plateau, it is home to hundreds of miles of beautiful canyons with delicate natural arches, massive towers, and mind-blowing views!!”

Our campsite will be a short drive from the town of Moab, and, more importantly, will be within close driving distance of Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Not to mention the zillions of beautiful areas that are not in the national parks.

Each day after everyone gets back from their shenanigans we will all reconvene at the campsite to cook dinner, enjoy a nice fire, and tell assorted tall tales. We will be staying at Group Site A of Big Bend Campground (link at the bottom)….. this is right on the Colorado River, has bouldering just across the road, and is nestled in the bottom of a spectacular canyon (which is quite fun to scramble up). Even the campsite is gorgeous.

Because the “get up and decide what to do today” nature of this trip distributes a bit of activity planning responsibility onto everyone, having some amount of experience and comfort in one of the activities offered is helpful, but not necessarily required.

LOGISTICS:

(a) GETTING THERE. To get there, as usual, WE WILL BE DRIVING. The drive is formidable, clocking in at around 28 hours. Before you get alarmed, the drive is nowhere near as bad as you might think because each car will have a rotation of drivers, the scenery for a lot of it is actually lovely (Kansas = low key incredible), it allows the trip to be really cheap, and no other road trip will ever again seem too long to undertake. I was semi-dreading this last year but ended up really loving the drive. Plus, this way we have cars while out there to get around, can bring out all the gear we want, and don’t have to drop the cheddar to get rental cars. If you really don’t want to drive, you are also welcome to fly out and rent a car and meet us. 4-5 people did that last year. This is an option, but unfortunately we cannot help you with any of those transportation costs, and you need to plan the logistics of meeting up with us independently – the cost of the trip will be significantly higher if you pursue this option.

Drivers will leave at various times on Friday, or maybe Saturday morning. Our campsite is not available for check in until Saturday 3/4 at noon, so leaving Thursday will unfortunately be a bit difficult. Similarly, cars will return at various points on the next Friday and Saturday, depending on people’s schedules. We have to be out of the campsite by noon on Saturday 3/11.

(b) FINANCES. This year the trip will cost $320 per attendee. This includes everything from gas/transportation to food to lodging, and of course, the club will have whatever gear you need available for check out. In order to compensate for the wear and tear on the vehicle, leftover funds from the trip budget (almost certain to have a lot of money remaining) will first go to reimbursing drivers, up to the full cost of the trip. After that, all non-driving attendees will receive an equal share of the remaining funds.

(c) ATTENDEE SELECTION. This was outlined in detail in an email several weeks ago, but basically if more than 35 people want to attend we will implement a weighted lottery system that gives everyone who signs up 2 entries, and then gives one additional entry for every trip someone has led this school year, and a 2x multiplier on entries if someone is in their last year of eligibility (aka 4th year, foreign exchange student, grad student in their last year). There will be discretion maintained for logistical reasons, such as a need for drivers. The lottery will be conducted some time before the New Year! Then, selected attendees will have some deadline (TBD, but some time in mid or late January) by which they need to submit payment for the trip. There will also be a wait list drawn using the lottery so that if someone doesn’t submit payment in time we can go to the next person on the list!! We hope to have a final list of trip attendees by early February so we can start getting to know each other and hammer out final details before we roll out on Friday March 3rd!

(d) DRIVER POLICY. If you have any ability to get acquire a car that can be used for the journey, consider volunteering it! We need drivers for the trip to work, and you’ll both have a better chance of getting on the trip, but will almost certainly get all your money back. The club will pay for all gas, will give you a $20 driver tip (as per normal club policy), will make your reimbursement for the trip fee the first priority with leftover funds, and will pay for a normal-priced oil change we head out. Because we are compensating for the risk with driver benefits, any mechanical failures during the trip are not to be covered with club or trip funds! So make sure it’s ready to roll for several thousand miles. If you have any questions on how driving will work, feel free to reach out and I’ll be more than happy to answer.

That should just about cover everything, but below are some relevant links for you to develop stoke for the trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t be afraid to reach out to me if you have any questions.

DOPE LINKS TO THINGS LIKE LAST YEARS’ VIDEO!!!!

Campsite:

https://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/moab/recreation/campgrounds/highway_128/Big_Bend.html

YouTube video from last year: