Trip Report By: Vicky

Well, it was requested of someone who went to Moab to put a few words down on paper about the experience. The best word that I can come up with is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a four wheelers heaven. The vehicles came from all over, including Venezuela, Alaska, Kansas, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Idaho, Washington, Nevada etc etc. I am sure you get the idea. Everything from FJ40’s, FJ45’S, BJ’S, FJ60’S, FJ62’S, FJ80’S, FJ100’S, regular size and bobbed mini’s and bobbed 4-runners. They ranged from almost stock to completely lifted with air suspension. From pretty and painted (which ended up being no so pretty and painted by the end of the 3 days) to not having one square inch of non dented sheet metal. I am ready to pack my bags and go back for good. I could see living there for a while. The scenery was spectacular. How can some place so barren be so beautiful? If you haven’t been there, the different shades of reds and greens is nothing short of amazing. It is really hard to explain. Now the campground on the other hand is a whole different story. If it weren’t May, you would have sworn it was snowing. The campground was surrounded by cottonwoods and was shedding up a storm. While Andy, Mike and I, Norm and Jerry were toughing it out in tents, David, Kristin and Travis had it made in a little cabin with air conditioning. Talk about "roughing" it. The rest of us were a bit jealous to say the least.

Now, down to the trails. We all did Pritchett Canyon first. "We all", meaning, Mike and me, David, Kristin and Travis, Andy and Norm. They rank that one as the hardest trail in Moab. Go figure huh. We left the meeting site at 9:00. We went 4.4 miles on this trail and got back in camp at 8:30 p.m. Gives you a bit of an idea of what this trail was like. To say the least, they don’t believe in bypasses on this trail. Most people had to be winched over the major obstacles. (Even Mike’s purple beast.) I think Norm is the only one that made it over Rocker Knocker on his own. Rocker Knocker is an off camber ledge climb with a big nasty boulder to the left that will take out your rocker panel if not approached or winched over correctly. Way to go Norm. Next came the Rock Pile. I guess it got its name due to the big pile of rocks at the base to maybe make it easier to get to the top. I don’t know how much that really helped though. This is also another straight up ledge to try to climb. Quite the challenge. This whole trail was actually a big challenge. Somewhere in between one obstacle and another is a place called the Bathtub. Most people made it through that, but we did have one gentleman that had to spend the night in it because he broke a rear axle and nobody had any spare parts for that one. Then there was the Can Opener. The obstacle that is "guaranteed" body damage if you go through. Of course, Mike, Norm and another guy in a white FJ40 walked pretty much through it. It is amazing how much easier it got when someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t go through it saw 3 people in a row do it without a hitch. Anyway…. On to the next day.

Once again we left the meeting place at 9:00. We did the trail called Behind the Rocks. It also is a 4+ trail. Not anywhere near as nasty as Pritchett Canyon but a challenge all of its own. I actually got to do a bit of driving on this one. I am not real sure if I liked it or not. I got my first experience with looking at the ground from the drivers seat. We had a few rocky ledges we had to drop down and they were pretty steep. Norm was on the radio saying he couldn’t turn right very well and thought something was wrong. Then we had a short mellow stretch where one person whose nickname was White Cloud, due to the fact at every steep downhill grade, he would start puffing out so much white smoke you couldn’t even see, kind of sheared off 5 out of 6 wheel studs and had his wheel fall off. That was interesting. During that repair, Norm was tearing apart his right front axle. He has officially joined the Broken Birfield Bar club. The rest of the team kept going down the trail while these two repairs were being made. We are finally back on the road when Andy gets on the radio wanting Mike’s expertise. Seems like while trying to conquer Up Chuck and High Dive he broke a buggy spring and needed some welding done. We get to the before mentioned obstacles and of course Mike and Norm have to play first. Down High Dive and up Up Chuck they went. Mike went around the by pass going back down Up Chuck to try to climb High Dive. He made it about 2/3 of the way when the front end decided that it wanted to go over the rear end. Norm jumped on the front of it and pulled the front wheels down a bit while the trail leader (Who was driving a Bronco I might add) hooked a winch to the Cruiser to secure it while he backed back down. He quit after that and went to help Andy weld his spring back into place. Then we had the Dome climb. Ask Norm about rabbit hopping. A few more obstacles down the road and we come to White Knuckle Hill, which is very appropriately named. Straight down some steep boulders to a drop off of about 6 feet. We only had about 5 people try that one, David including. Going down everybody made it. Going up was a different story. Nobody could get over that ledge without a winch. Then comes David in his FJ-80. Showed everybody what an 80 is capable of. He made it without a hitch. Way to go David! We got back into town around 5:30 that night, no less tired than the previous night though. Had enough time to get a shower and off to dinner and the raffle we went. It is sad to say that CLC didn’t clean house on this raffle. None of us won anything. Boo Hoo.

Ok, on to Hells Revenge, still a 4+ trail, but after the first 2 days, it was a cakewalk. This consisted mostly of a lot of steep slick rock climbing and descending. The trail is marked with yellow painted flames along the way so you don’t get lost or off track. Not a whole lot to say about this one. You mostly needed a lot of power, extremely good traction and real low gears to accomplish this trail. The first obstacle is called Dump Bump. It is a 6’, 75 to 80 degree vertical climb. Most had to take the 65 to 70 degree by-pass to get up to start the run. I would say the major obstacle on this one is called Hells Gate. They had 4 vehicles roll on this one the day before. The trail leader showed us where it was and said we were free to try but he wouldn’t spot because he didn’t want to be responsible for tip overs. Once again Mike had to prove his driving abilities and show his trust in his spotters, Norm and Andy. Another difficult climb made to look like a piece of cake. Next came the Bathtub. It was nothing but a deep hole in the rock that a landcruiser would fit in the very bottom with the top still below the rim. Drive in, see the broken parts and then drive out. To bad I missed the picture of the Cruiser having to pull out the Jeep. It went in, started coming out and went completely vertical. Thank goodness for spare tire carries that hold jerry cans. It kept him from landing on his top. Then there was Tip Over Challenge. It is a rock ledge climb that is very off camber. After seeing everybody climb it, with no casualties, I understand the name. Very appropriate I might add. The end of the trail was the trickiest I believe. It is narrow and VERY tippy. David had the worst of it because of size, but thanks to good spotters and good driving, no damage. It was a very short day. We finished the trail by about 2:30. Then we went shopping.

Well, that was the Moab adventure. It was exciting and beautiful. I can’t wait until next year.