The Great Western Loop: Miles, Smiles and Issues

Each year I try and plan one large overlanding trip for my son and I. For 2022 I was planning our largest trip to date: Colorado to Tuktoyaktuk Canada on the Arctic Ocean. I had been planning that trip for over a year, but as the first few months of 2022 came and went it was becoming clearer and clearer that the trip might not happen. The new 2022 Power Wagon that I had ordered had arrived in February, but the RSI SmartCap the build was going to be centered around had an unknown delivery date. Then the gas prices started rise and no one knew just how high they were going to go. With questions surrounding the timeline of the build and fuel cost estimates for the Tuk trip surpassing $3,500, it was time to come up with a new plan. I placed a quick call to my Dad to see if he could join us if we did a two week trip here in the States and he was immediately in.

I am constantly examining satellite imagery and maps of different areas for possible future trips and all those hours invested in years past finally paid off. I was able to string together what I am calling the Great Western Loop (GWL for short) out of several of those pre-scouted routes. The GWL would take us through Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado in the span of 14 days. To say that it was an ambitious plan is an understatement!

As with most of my overlanding trips, the first day was to be a long one that consisted mostly of putting down miles on the dreaded black stuff: pavement.

Unlike all my previous trips, this one got off to a rough start as we had barely gone 20 miles before the first issue popped up. While stopping at a light in Colorado Springs early that morning I smelt overheated brakes. Since there was no one else on the road, I knew it had to be from us. We pulled off into a parking lot and it did not take long to figure out that the smell was coming form the trailer brakes. Not being able to see anything wrong with the trailer, I figured it was probably in the brake controller. I had of course tested and adjusted the brake controller after I got the Power Wagon, but I had done that with the trailer unloaded and on the dirt roads around my house. I figured that the extra weight in the trailer and being on pavement was causing the trailer brakes to overheat. I dialed back the amount of brake input via the controller and that solved the issue.

After a couple of hundred more miles the next issue reared its ugly head. The Power Wagon has a camera screen for the rearview “mirror” and I have a camera mounted to the top rear of the trailer that plugs into the truck to be displayed on that “mirror”. Whenever we would hit a decent sized bump in the road, the “mirror” would black out for a second or so and then come back on. It would do this for a while and then the “mirror” would go gray and display an error message about the camera. Stopping again we were able to determine that there was a loose connection somewhere in the truck side wiring. Unable to fix it on this trip, I had to unplug the trailer camera and view the front of my trailer in the mirror like a Neanderthal.

As we drove further north, rain started moving in. At this point I started to wonder if this first day was going to be an indication for the trip to come. Issues and weather aside, there was plenty of great views and some cool sights to see that helped break up the 14 hours of driving that first day. And of course the time spend with both my dad and my son was worth every mile driven.

By the time we got to our first stretch of dirt leading to the campsite, the clouds had moved in fully and a few drops of rain had fallen. The trail to the campsite was dry enough so we continued on as the trail got tighter and tighter.

After getting the truck and trailer positioned just a few feet away from the river for the night, we decided to cook a quick dinner of brats and chips in order to beat the rain. With dinner wrapped up and still no rain, I thought it would be a good idea to get a detailed weather update via my Garmin InReach. While I was waiting on the update to come in, I decided to fly the drone down the river a bit.

When the weather report finally came in, it was not looking very good. They were calling for a chance of heavy rain. Being at the very end of a tight trail and right next to the river, we decided that it was better to not take the chance of getting stuck down there. Less than an hour after getting to our camping spot we were working our way back up the trail to higher ground for the night.

That was the third blow to the first day of the trip, but unbeknownst to us at the time, it would turn out to be a good thing.