WeBeJeepin’ Moab

A group of 7 rigs showed up at the cinema to run Top of the World. Being Memorial Day, we were thankful to our veteran trail leaders, Ber and Jim.

Top of the World trail is way out by the old Dewey Bridge off Hwy 128. Our air down spot is under some of the cables still standing from the bridge.

Top of the World is a beautiful but bumpy trail. We passed some amazing cairn markers. Some of them approaching 4″ tall.

Bill and his friends from California found our club through the web and decided to join us. I think they appreciated the view from trail’s end.

Matt and his daughter posed with their Jeep at the edge as well.

After lunch and laughs at the cliff, we began our bouncy way back down the trail.

Melissa

Trail Reports

A group of nine vehicles left out for Pritchett canyon to work on several projects associated with trail preservation. The goals for the day included:

1. Install a Carsonite marked No Vehicles at the hill before the Chewy Obstacle.
2. Repair the fence and signs at Chewy.
3. Drill additional posts and add more wire fencing at Chewy.
4. Place a second winch anchor at Chewy.
5. Inspect the lower fence at the Axle hill illegal bypass.
6. Remove the Carsonites and replace with posts and wire fence at the top of the Axle Hill illegal bypass.
7. Run the trail and have a good time.
8. Clean up trash along the trail.

Here’s a view of the colorful vehicles making the approach to the Brickyard obstacle.

A little clowning around at the first Carsonite install.

The work group posing for a photo after the Carsonite is in place. This spot was becoming a parking lot, not a bypass but since it goes left of the trail, it’s in the WSA (Wilderness Study Area) and a big NO-NO. Hopefully our sign won’t get run over too soon.

Next we went around the corner to Chewy where we found our lower fence trampled and down. This was not on the plan for a fix but we had to give it some attention.

It looked like this fence caught a couple of rigs as they came off the right side of the obstacle. There were tire tracks on the other side but they didn’t seem to be trying to go through the wash.

In fact, someone tried to rip off our little logo sign off the fence that showed it was our work project. Geez, people, we are keeping this trail open for you!

Anyway, up to the top of Chewy. We had a big-gun drill today provided to us at no cost from Grand Rental. Thanks so much to them! We were able to drill holes to place posts every 4 feet or so. We also put a double line of cable and covered it with yellow plastic so it could be clearly seen.

Also a bright green winch anchor was installed. Thanks Jeff for fabricating it from your broken Dana 44 shaft! I’ve got a few of those myself to donate in case you need more!

This truck in the photo below waited patiently for the install and took advantage. Exactly 4 minutes after the anchor went into the rock, it was used for the first time. Whoever suggested we needed to put this in was right!

Chewy is such a long obstacle, a second winch anchor gives a better angle from the bottom to get up the first ledge. Then, rigs can hook up at the top for the second part of the climb. We are “HOPING” that this anchor will spare our fencing.

 Here’s a photo to show why some prefer to winch up that first ledge. Chewy is getting mean and requires a good run to get up, no more crawling. Monte did make it after a couple of scary attempts.

After all the work at Chewy, it was time to wheel. Everyone made it up Chewy, one way or another, and we were off towards Rocker Knocker. There was a bit of a jam at this point but we finally got our turn and each got to give it a try or two.

Check out Monte helping give John a pull up Chewy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spQPceoCG6o

Melanie is a relatively new Jeeper to our club and she was out riding with me on Pritchett today. Here she is learning the more advanced skills like spotting and pulling little stock Samurais up obstacles. I think everyone had a chance to help out John today.

Next she got her spotting lesson. Something doesn’t look right here. Melanie, don’t listen to these jokers.

Oh well, Jeff don’t need no stinkin’ spotter anyway, he crawled right up!

After Rocker Knocker, it’s a short trip to the last evil part of the trail. Nothing but obstacles…..Unnamed, Axle Hill, Rock Pile, and Yellow Hill. You can look up from the first and see the top, it just takes a while to get there.

We waited our turn for a few to winch up Axle Hill (yes, we actually waited), then made our go. We had a little work to do on the illegal bypass to the right of this obstacle so we took turns driving and drilling until all the work was done.

Here’s Monte, our new club member from Washington climbing up Axle hill. He drove like a champ, no winch required. I’ve seen a couple roll-overs on this one and that hill is tricky and intimidating but there is a winch anchor for those who need it.

Now, over to the work team. Here’s that big drill from the rental company, coming in handy yet again!

Back to Axle Hill. Now it’s Monte’s turn to pull.

Back to the work site. Lookin’ good. This bypass was created during EJS and the BLM now has all the information. Hopefully the fence will keep folks off and out. Please respect our fences and signs and know that we are doing this to keep the trail open.

Now for some Rock Pile action. There was some serious breakage in the Son of Rockpile so our group decided to go up the original way. Both routes are allowed.

Here’s my Redroxx giving it a try. I eventually made it but not before it scared the hot dogs out! (the story here is, I had hot dogs on the manifold a couple weeks ago and “lost them”. They rode through Behind the Rocks and all of Pritchett before making an appearance out of the rear of my Jeep during this attempt)

Here’s David Garbs in the former Mad Cow climbing the rock pile. He had a little strap support for his leaf springs but I think he would have made it on his own.

After this, we all shot up Yellow Hill and made a run for Moab along the county road, racing the lightning and rain. We barely got back in time for our meeting!

Great trail and fantastic work day. Thanks for all involved and those who checked in on us during the day. Thanks too to those of you who keep good trail etiquette and those who love Pritchett! Help us keep it open!

Melissa

Trail Reports

A large group of 10 rigs showed up at the South Shell station to go run Behind the Rocks. We’d had rain showers all Friday night and more were threatening so off we went through the wet, muddy sand. The first rocky challenge doesn’t have a name that I’m aware of. Most days, it’s not much of a challenge but once it was covered with mud, it got pretty slippery. Everyone got successfully up and we moved on to the rocky wash area.

This is a nice drop off that prepares you for High Dive. For Jeeps with big hoods, it’s pretty much driving blindly down the hill. It feels alot worse than it looks as each ledge has you sliding a bit off-camber.

After this, it is a mixture of small ledges and climbs up and down until you get to the big combo called High Dive and Upchuck. High Dive is a complex obstacle that requires good spotting and good driving. There are a couple of places where wheel lift happens and being too quick on the brake could result in a tip over. Today was a little more slippery than usual but everyone who made the attempt made it down safely. Here’s a shot of Matt showing how it’s done.

Here’s a view from the bottom of the obstacle showing how long it is.

Next is Upchuck…..which is climbing out of the wash area opposite High Dive. There is a bypass to both of these but most folks attempted and made them both.

After this, we went out to the county road and bypassed part of the trail in order to get to Hummer Hill by lunch time.

Clark had his tire come off the bead during the Hummer hill attempt.

Monte’s rig slid down the obstacle on his first attempt but he made it on the second try.

With everyone up, we went on to White Knuckle Hill. A few elected to go down with some strap assistance and then make the try back up. Luckily there is a winch anchor (or a big Jeep handy) as White Knuckle was not friendly today.

After the climb back up White Knuckle, we made our way quickly back to the county road to race the storm back to Moab.

Yet another great day on the trail!

Trail Reports

What a day! The Pickle and Mashed Potato. Seven rigs showed up at the trail head and a nice, hot Moab spring day got us going down the dusty trail. For those of you who’ve never driven the Pickle, it is short and sweet. There are 4 obstacles within about a mile. All four are moderately difficult and follow through a drainage. The plan today was to run up the Pickle, over to Mashed Potato and then lunch at the overlook and run the whole thing in reverse. Everyone agreed to the plan and we got down to business.

The first obstacle is a decent hop up a rocky wall. Gary Lee shows us how it’s done.  Click the link to the YouTube Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAgAbS3phis

 After everyone was safely up the first obstacle, it was onto the twist (obstacle 2). This off camber ride through the narrow spot is loads of fun. Jim usually gets a decent wheel lift and a couple folks got stuck, at least temporarily.

After the twist and another hop up obstacle #3, it was onto the Pickle itself. Here’s a video of Jim making it look easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLRRiPztf8A

Rick shows everyone just how tough it really is. Hopping in this slot is not unusual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdGDpZyslbg

After the Pickle, we went up to Mashed Potato. This trail is one that Jim has known about for years. Investigation showed that it was designated as a motorcycle route. After some route marking, GPS’ing, and an application submission to the BLM, it is now open to Jeeps. Thanks Jim, Ber, and others who made this happen!

This route is named Mashed Potato because of the light colored sandstone lumps that look like it. We drove up and over several of the “lumpy” parts.

We came to the main obstacle of this trail which had to this point been called “a hot tub”. But today, with the brown sandy mud in the bottom, we couldn’t resist dubbing it “the Gravy Bowl”.

Here’s a video of Scott (from Nebraska) driving up it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_erquZZJb60

Now it’s Rick’s turn…..well, Rick gave it a good try but there was a lot of mud on the rocks by now and he just couldn’t quite get it.

In the meantime though, while getting strapped out, he lost a hammer and glove down in the gravy.

Luckily for him, Jim jumped down and retrieved them. Of course, he needed a strap out. This is something you don’t see everyday, Jim needing a strap??

Then after a stop at the overlook for lunch, it was time to turn around and come down both Mashed Potato and the Pickle.

Here’s a video of Jim driving down the Pickle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsP7uRW-gvY

Next Rick drives down…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN5xl4QJyRc

 

Here’s Gary going down the 3rd obstacle. (I guess it would be the 2nd when you’re going down.)

Here we all are coming down the first (or in this case last) obstacle.

After coming down and out of the Pickle, Jim decided to take us back to the highway via an alternative route. We ended up at the Tusher tunnel, a passageway between cliffs that is very cave like. The walk through the passage was very cool and comfortable on such a warm day.

On the way back, I captured this picture of the “monster of Moab”. See it’s two eyes shining in the darkness of Tusher?? SCARY!

After Tusher, it was a sandy drive back to 191. Another wonderful trail day in Moab, UT.

See ya on the trail.

Melissa

Trail Reports

A small but brave group, made up of Ber & Rick set off for Fisher Mesa. They had harsh weather conditions which were sunny and warm……I would have been there except for business sent me to Tulsa, OK instead!

So, here is the report per Ber. We spent the day running the 10 mile trail out to the end of Fisher Mesa. The road starts at just above 8,000 ft. elevation and descends with the mesa to a little under 7,000 ft., crossing some canyons a few hundred feet deep. The road might challenge stock SUVs a bit, but is mainly bumpy, hence slow. The scenery is outstanding.

Traffic was less than the trail on Saturday. In fact, it was ZERO! Some ATV tracks that were not very old but the last couple of miles had not been used in a long time. A few bike tracks were seen on the way out but nary a soul was spotted.

Ber, sounds like a great day!

Trail Reports

A group of 6 rigs set off from the Cinema to conquer Rose Garden Hill and drive up the rarely explored Pinto Mesa. Ber provided each of us a map with the proposed route outlined and off we went.

We turned off on the Onion Creek county road. This is a scenic and easy 2WD dirt track with lots of creek crossings and lots of traffic. We passed two Budget moving vans if you can believe it.

After passing many packed backcountry camp sites, we made our way to the turn off for Rose Garden Hill. At the start of the trail, we ran into a Moab traffic jam comprised of nearly every Jeep that Farabee’s had to rent, a YJ, a few ATVs, and a couple of dirt bikes to round out the mix. We were concerned that our group might spend the majority of the day behind these folks so we quickly passed them and in spite of needing a 10-100, we kept trucking until we met with a biker who had lost his water bottle.

While some stopped to assist, the rest took the opportunity to take care of business. Gary wanted this photo to point out that this fellow is on a Gary Fisher bike. 

Now, with everyone refreshed, it was time to tackle Rose Garden Hill. I’ve never driven up this long, rocky, gravelly hill but after watching Ber’s attempt, I was a bit nervous whether the Moab TJ could make it.

With a cloud of dust and a hearty, “Hi-ho Silver”, Ber & Charlotte slid up and over the hill. Get out of the way Jim!

I caught this photo of Jim right after Ber’s wild ride. What could he be thinking? (Yes, I know I use this angle alot in my blog but if you guys keep laughing, I’ll keep working it)

a. Was this a timed event? If so, we have a new world record.

b. What the hell was that? Ber Bunny on speed?

c. My whole life just flashed before me. I almost remember where I hid my H-O cars.

d. It’s a good thing I’m wearing brown shorts!

 Undaunted, the rest of us proceeded up, just a little more slowly…….

Even a couple from the large group behind us came on up. It’s hard to see the huge group in this photo but it reminded me of EJS. Melanie, see the wheel lift on the JK? He didn’t know about the electronic sway bar disconnect.

After we were all at the top, it was off through a confusing number of turn-offs. Sometimes we were on the Kokopelli trail and sometimes we were on the “No Sagwagon” route.

The scenery was really nice. I love these little traveled roads. After Rose Garden, we hardly saw anyone until we were near the Top of the World trail.

 Here’s the shelf road going up to Pinto Mesa.

Here’s the track on the top of Pinto Mesa. The way was dusty but I was shocked in the amount of flowers up there. Whole fields of Sego Lillies, Indian paintbrush, and others I couldn’t identify.

We explored another possible way off the mesa but found that it narrowed down to an ATV track that followed the cliff edge. Since it was getting late, we decided to go down the regular route.

Soon, we were down by the Dolores river. In the fall, when water levels are low, you can cross this river in a couple of places. Not in the spring time though. So, we traveled back up to the country road and out to the river road by Dewey bridge. Then, back to Moab.

Thanks for a great trail day Ber! Keep checking our schedule for some great trails coming up.

Hope to see ya on the trail!

Melissa

Trail Reports

Well, it sure did last Saturday when a group from WeBeJeepin went out to run Hell’s Revenge. You wouldn’t know that it was raining though as it was Cruise Moab weekend and every Toyota Land Cruiser ever produced was out exploring the trails around Moab.

We had a Moab traffic jam as we waited for a group of Toyotas to tip toe up the large sandstone fin. First one would creep to the top while the next waited patiently at the bottom until the first was out of sight. Gene, our trail leader for the day, quickly put us on the alternate route and the traffic opened up, allowing us to speed down to the overlook and Hell’s Gate.

Luckily, the rain eased up, allowing the photo takers to stay dry while a few of us made the attempt. Just for the record, this obstacle still makes me nervous. Gene did a great job spotting however and soon all of us were safely at the top with nary a tire lift.

After the Gate, we went up and over the sandstone fins and checked out the various hot tubs. I think everyone gave the Car Wash a go. Surprisingly, there was very little water at the bottom. We all passed on Mickey’s and decided to have lunch out of the wind at the bottom of the Dragon’s tail. Gene inquired about doing the Escalator and a few of us said we’d like to give it a try.

Here’s Rick trying. This is one tough obstacle.

Gary Lee tried and tried. It just wasn’t his day. Right after we got all 4 vehicles through, either under their own power or with a little stapping help, the heavens let loose with a huge thunderstorm. Lightening, driving rain, and some hail had us all running for our rigs.

The decision was made to take the short path for home. It was a great day though and although rainy and busy, I think everyone had a good time.

See ya on the trail!

Trail Reports