WeBeJeepin’ Moab

Ahhhh yes, I do believe that springtime has arrived, both officially on March 20th but unofficially as well. It sure is nice here in Moab. Yes, a little bit brisk and in the need of a sweatshirt but after this horrible winter, I am so ready for a snow free trail.

We got to run 2 today. Some of the ladies in the club will be running the Cliffhanger trail next Saturday for Safari so a group went out yesterday (Sunday) to pre-run it.

Melanie will be gunning for the first time this Easter Week so she was put in the lead position, flying her official flag. I will have to say she was a bit nervous dropping over the first series of ledges. Don’t tell anybody!

But she picked a good line and everyone followed.

Soon her confidence returned and she took out out across the Amasa back, dodging bikes, dogs, hikers, runners, ATVs, you name it. We had a Moab traffic jam kinda day. Everyone was trying to get rid of the cabin fever.

So beautiful to see all the redrock again. New grass is growing in and soon we’ll start to see the first flowers….

A picture of my other Jeep, Moab TJ. It was a long winter for my little Jeep and it needed to stretch and prepare for Easter week as I will be using it 2-3 times. Gotta have a pocket Jeep! Right Gene?

Speaking of a back up rig, Gary Lee started having problems with his Samurai back firing. After a brief assessment, it turned out to be a bad spark plug wire. All in all a very minor fix and we were soon back underway. Although stopping here wasn’t bad, a very beautiful scene.

After making our way to the overlook, it was back down the trail. Coming up the cliffhanger obstacle is always interesting. Here’s Susan showing the way….and yes, the obstacle is getting bad again. Hurrah!

Here’s some of the traffic scene. It might be hard to see the bikers and dogs mixed in with the rigs. We had bikes watching us from the other side as well.

Dropping back down. There’s Larry out in the redrock.

Everyone is working their way back up the ledges, the last difficult 100 yards of trail……

Next the group decided to work up to the top of Moab Rim. Jim was needing to evaluate some fencing spots and repairs for later in the season so we all decided to go along. Why not? As I said, it’s been a long winter and we haven’t been up the rim in 2010.

Above the Devil’s Crack and working our way up the Z-turn.

Yes, the scenery is spectacular….if you can take your eyes off the trail to appreciate it. This is a difficult ledge and a nice spot to catch a photo with the Colorado river down below.

Here’s Larry working his truck over the same ledge.

Finally to the top of the rim. It has to be 60 degrees and sitting in the sun feels great!

But wait! What’s this?

Oh no! What could Jim possibly be thinking?

a. I wonder how many more trails until I break another leaf spring?

b. When will Easter safari ever get here? I can’t wait to take those 25 rigs through Pritchett….twice!

c. How come you all are sitting on the rocks? It’s time for a beer!

d. Did all you Friends for Wheeling members pay your 2010 dues? PAY UP SLACKERS!

This time I can say with a smile, it was another fantastic day on the trails of Moab. Hopefully we’ll see you out here soon!

See ya on the trail!

Melissa

Trail Reports

As many of you know, Moab has been in the evil clutches of winter for several weeks now. In fact, the snowfall has been the worst in 40-50 years. This has been really bad news for the hard core group that loves and requires Jeep trails regularly. The snow has shut down many…..including one of the most favorite trails…..Pritchett canyon.

Moab has been slowly thawing and a group of 4 rigs decided to investigate Pritchett to see how far we could get. There was some snow initally but it was dry when we got to the first optional wash obstacle.

Snow is still on the trail. This is between the wash obstacle and the Brickyard…..before Chewy.

We made it to the Brickyard. No snow, just a little mud.

We made it to Chewy as well. We were disappointed to find our fence destroyed so spent some time trying to at least reattach the cable. (This is the fence at the bottom of the obstacle preventing rigs from exploring the dead end wash.) I am hoping Pritchett will not see additional damage during Easter Safari. Those of you reading this, please help us keep it clean and stay on the trail.

Anyway, Chewy was fun.

Here’s Jim coming up without a front locker…..(he forgot to turn it on)

Then over to the optional area to the right just before Rocker Knocker.

After we negotiated the muddy waterfall, we got to Rocker Knocker. Ever seen it look like this? We wondered at this point what to do but decided to at least knock the snow off and who knows, we might be able to drive it.

Only one of us made it. Jim in the Bad Cat had just the right wheelbase today.

The rest of us were too long and just slid around too much. We had to use the bypass which was also snow covered but was negotiable.

The second part of Rocker Knocker was also challenging. The ledgy portion getting up to the shelf road was super slippery. After finally finding the right amount of skinny pedal, we were all to the top just in time for lunch. Next the last difficult .5 mile of trail.

The Broken Step obstacle was clean and easily driveable.

Axle Hill was interesting……a small amount of snow and wet tires goes a long way here.

But, we all made it.

Jim was last and got the polished rock. It took a couple of tries but he made it.

The rock pile was clean but wet muddy tires made this one impossible for us…..today.

Bad Cat managed the Son of Rockpile which looked much worse to me with all the snow. After a scary wheel lift and a bit of rock stacking, he was up.

And he helped all of us who hesitate to try Son of Rockpile. After a quick tug, we were all up Rock Pile.

The right side of Yellow Hill was not an option today. Imagine sliding down this one? We took the easier (and cleaner) left line up.

Finally the photo at the top of Pritchett. We made it and I’m guessing that with all the virgin snow I drove through, we might be the first through in 2010. At least for a while as the snow only had a couple sets of footprints, no tracks.

Now for the county road. Just as we unlocked the hubs, we hit deep, unmarked snow. We had to get out and switch back into 4 high, even a couple of times into 4 low.

We finally made it back to 191 and well…….look here.

What could Jim possibly be thinking? Possible answers include…..

a. Why did the groundhog see his shadow? 6 more weeks of winter is for the birds.

b. Why am I building a new rig when the Bad Cat did so well today? Maybe I should keep both of them!

c. Looks like I might be early for church!

d. How in the world did I get SO much mud on my Samurai?

Another great trail day! Get out there and start running, the thaw has begun!

Melissa

Trail Reports