RETURN OF THE GNAR TRAIN: THE GREAT MOAB MIGRATION 2022

OVERVIEW

MOAB, UTAH 2022

ALL ABOARD THE GNAR TRAIN
May we all blossom from this snow and ice ridden East Coast of ours and emerge as sun children in the soft red sands of the Utah desert.

There is but one ODC trip worthy of such transition and namesake, and it is our annual pilgrimage the arid paradise of MOAB, UTAH. Approximately 40 of us will drive out to Moab for spring break to spend the week(ish) camping on the banks of the Colorado River and hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, climbing, canyoneering, trail running, snowshoeing, and who-knows-what-elseing our days away, then coming together each night to share a meal and regale each other with the day’s antics.

WHEN
Spring Break, March 4th (ish) -13th 2022

WHERE
This year we’ll be staying in Big Bend campsite, around 20 minutes from the town of Moab, 15 minutes from Arches National Park, and under an hour from Canyonlands National Park. We’ll be right where the martian landscape of the Mojave desert intersects with the alpine meadows of the La Sal Mountains. All of these factors make Moab a quintessential outdoor playground, a mecca for X-Treme sports, and a garden of eden for rock/dirt/tree worshippers like us. Unlike most club trips, each day’s adventures will mostly be planned the night before, with offerings limited only by our imagination and areas of ability.

ABILITY LEVEL
Because the “get up and decide what to do today” nature of the trip distributes a bit of the activity planning responsibility onto everyone, being comfortable/experienced with a few of the activities offered is beneficial, but not necessarily required. There is plenty of time to pick up a little experience before! A couple of times out mountain biking or climbing (indoors counts), or a weekend of backpacking will give you an introduction to build on once we’re out there, but there are lots of world-class challenges in Moab that require some more skills or experience, and it’s worth preparing some so that you’re able to take advantage of them. Basically, the plan is to send it pretty hard, but whether you’re a beginner or an expert you should be ready to spend some quality time pushing your comfort zone. Don’t worry, you can get yourself pretty far on nothing but a little stoke, plus we have some beginner workshops in the works for the coming weeks so stay tuned for those!

TRAVEL
To get there, we’ll be driving, which is cheaper (monetarily and environmentally) and gives us the freedom to bring more gear and access more of Moab’s offerings. It usually takes around 30 hours to get there with bathroom breaks. The plan is for each car to have 4 people, at least 3 of whom are drivers, so we’ll rotate and SEND IT all in one push. Usually a few cars leave on Thursday (3/5) and the rest on Friday (3/6) and most start the return drive the following Saturday or early Sunday. It’s also possible to stop at Breckenridge, CO on the way out to ski for a day, or swing North to hit Rocky Mountain National Park; we’ll sort this out later if it seems plausible, after the lottery.

The club will reimburse all gas, tip drivers $20, pay for a standard oil change, and any leftover money will go first to reimbursing drivers up to the full trip fee. Last year, drivers were repaid the full trip fee, and this is not unusual. The club won’t cover any mechanical failures during the trip, so make sure it’s ready to roll for several thousand miles.

GRUB
Most food will be communal. We’ll buy out the entire stock of a costco warehouse for this trip (not really, but it feels like it – last year we completely filled a large SUV with the trip’s food, and that was just the non-perishable stuff). Breakfast and lunch will be casual and on-the-go for shred-maximization, and dinner will be our time to gather together for a meal and enjoy each other’s company. We can accommodate most dietary restrictions, allergies, vegetarianism, etc that are included in the sign-up survey form thing. More details on all this good stuff to come.

FEE
This fee for this trip is $320/person; that’s super low for a trip like this. This is slightly higher than the previous year, but due to increased gas prices the $20 increase is in place to make sure we can get to the desert and back. This covers all transportation/gas, campsite, food (Sunday night dinner through Friday night dinner), and any leftover funds (usually quite a bit) will be paid back out to the attendees: first to the drivers up to their full trip fee, and then equally among the remaining attendees.

LOTTERY
There are usually more people wanting to go on this trip than can be accommodated, so we’ve devised a lottery system to keep things fair. You can read more about it in my previous email and on the announcements tab, but basically: Everyone starts with 2 entries, plus one for each trip you’ve led this school year, and doubling it all for 4th-years. The lottery will apply to everyone, but we’ll exercise discretion to ensure we have enough vehicles to get us there, enough drivers to drive them, and enough experienced people (mountain bikers/mechanics, climbing leaders, etc.) to help us access Moab’s riches. Everyone will be waitlisted until the lottery is conducted, which we plan to do on January 24th (next Monday).

SUPER IMPORTANT
You won’t be entered into the lottery unless, in addition to joining the waitlist on this trip, you fill out the form on this link!!!
https://forms.gle/4qetvnBWU64ywDuq6
DO IT NOW!

Feel free to shoot Burke, Kieran, or I an email if you have any questions! Or hit up our handy officer listserv outdoors-officers@virginia.edu!

LOVE TO YOU ALL. I literally could not be any more stoked to frolic and send and embody everything that it means to be a desert shred-ling with each one of you!!

Peace, love, and dirty desert toes,
Love from your gnar train conductors,
Elizardo, Burke, and Kieran