Needless to say, this year's Bash did not go as I had planned. Some last minute mods to the General backfired, and I wasn't able to get him done in time. So time for Plan B; take Dad's truck.
We worked until about 10PM Thursday night trying to get the General ready to go. I decided we just needed to quit because at this point we were going to be driving all day Friday and I needed to sleep. So I had to call in reinforcements and jms & Storm Trooper filled in to lead Friday's run on Metal Masher.
Meanwhile my family and I left home at 7AM to drive over 500mi from home to Grand Junction, down to Delta to load up Dad's truck, then back up to Junction and on to Moab. We ended up on the road for 11hrs to arrive at the BBQ at 6PM fresh off the road.
The BBQ went great. The Rotary Park was very nice. The only downside was having to cross the street to get the parking area to check out all the rigs, but all in all I think it was a great location - thanks again to Dirk for getting the park reserved and providing the grills. Offroad Design provided some excellent food include a brownie and ice cream dessert.
Last year Jeff Perkins made the Innovative Truck Trophy in honor of Jason Payne. Last year's winner, Wade Williams, brought the trophy back so it could be presented to a new person. This year's honor went to Tom Cherry. Many people wrote "as seen on TV" on their ballot for Tom; I think he is famous for running 37's on Holy Cross.
We rolled out Saturday morning to run Flat Iron Mesa. I was a little nervous about running an unfamiliar truck on an unfamiliar trail. Plus Dad's truck has a 465, and I'd never driven on a trail with 3 pedals before.
We got started on the trail at about 9AM. Flat Iron Mesa is not one of the more popular trails partially because it is not easy to navigate. There are many crisscrossing roads and trails in that area. We had to closely monitor our GPS and odometer to make sure we took all the correct turns. My wife was the navigator and she did an excellent job; we only had one major turn around where we had to back up most of the convoy.
There were a total of 14 trucks that started the trail with us. The first half of the day time wise covered only about 1/3 of the trail. The major obstacle of this part of the trail is called the Chutes.
There are 2 different ways out of the Chutes, one easy and the other extreme. 3 of the trucks in our group attempted it and only one made it without help from a winch.
The Chutes can be bypassed.
One section of slickrock before the Chutes provided some momentary excitement.
That particular slickrock section can be bypassed, also.
After we stopped for lunch, a couple of the rigs decided to head back for town so we were down to 12. The last 2/3 of the trail took just half the day time wise. However this part of the trail was highlight by three obstacles; Tilt-a-Whirl, Easter Egg Hill, and the Intimidator.
The first was Tilt-a-Whirl. It is a narrow squeeze between a rock and a hard place followed immediately by a hard right turn all on a steep decent. This was the spot that claimed the biggest heart stopper of the day.
Luckily it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Just goes to show how critical the correct line is on this particular obstacle. We were all glad that no one was hurt. There was also a bypass for the Tilt-a-Whirl.
We all motored on to the final 2 obstacles on the trail; Easter Egg Hill and the Intimidator. As with the other major obstacles, you can bypass these two obstacles but if you commit you must do both.
Easter Egg Hill is similar to Tilt-a-Whirl. It is a tight squeeze, however it is much tighter. You descend downhill through the obstacle, but there is not a sharp turn involved.
It's just a short trip down the trail to the Intimidator. This obstacle is a tight squeeze between a rock outcropping and a severe drop off the side of a cliff. I'll tell you when we first looked at it, there didn't look to be any extra room. However once we had the trucks in there, we found there was about 1-2ft of room to spare. In the video below the rocks on the left of the frame are the edge of the trail.
We rolled off the trail after 8hrs at 5PM. It was a very good day and I enjoyed wheelin' with everyone we had on the run. You are all good people and I'd wheel with you all anytime.
There are more Flat Iron Mesa pics here: http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/MrK5/Blazer Bash 08 Flat Iron Mesa/
Sunday's trail was Gold Bar Rim. It seems like this trail holds a special place for me. First in BB05 we broke the R&P in our rear axle on one of the first optional obstacles of the trail. Then at BB07 Dad and I made the run into the first major obstacle at "Jason's Corner" for the spreading of his ashes.
Dad drove his own rig with me as passenger. We had 2 other rigs with us. Seems as though we might have been the only ones making a scheduled run that day.
Gold Bar Rim has a lot of ledges. You end up going up and down all of them because the trail runs up and back on the same course. This is the 3rd trail in the popular Poison Spider-Golden Spike-Gold Bar Rim trifecta.
The first had obstacle located at what Dad and I dubbed "Jason's Corner" is a very tall ledge. Going in on the trail you must descend it. You basically have to just make a controlled descent and roll out the bottom.
We took several minutes here to clean-up the plaque Jason's family and friends installed in his honor. It was also time to reflect on how great a person Jason was and what he meant to the wheelin' community.
We rolled up several ledges to the top of the trail which ends in an awe inspiring view of Hwy191 and Arches Nat'l Park.
On the way back down the trail, Rob made the climb back up the obstacle at Jason's Corner look easy.
On the way out of the trail, I had to talk Dad into trying the obstacle the General broke on in '05. I must say that he made me wonder why we had so much trouble with it. I think it must have been the front locker.
We finished the trail at about 1:30 making it a 5hr day. Again it was another day with good people on the trail.
Thanks to everyone that helped with Blazer Bash this year. It was a great event as usual and I can't wait for next year.
We worked until about 10PM Thursday night trying to get the General ready to go. I decided we just needed to quit because at this point we were going to be driving all day Friday and I needed to sleep. So I had to call in reinforcements and jms & Storm Trooper filled in to lead Friday's run on Metal Masher.
Meanwhile my family and I left home at 7AM to drive over 500mi from home to Grand Junction, down to Delta to load up Dad's truck, then back up to Junction and on to Moab. We ended up on the road for 11hrs to arrive at the BBQ at 6PM fresh off the road.
The BBQ went great. The Rotary Park was very nice. The only downside was having to cross the street to get the parking area to check out all the rigs, but all in all I think it was a great location - thanks again to Dirk for getting the park reserved and providing the grills. Offroad Design provided some excellent food include a brownie and ice cream dessert.
Last year Jeff Perkins made the Innovative Truck Trophy in honor of Jason Payne. Last year's winner, Wade Williams, brought the trophy back so it could be presented to a new person. This year's honor went to Tom Cherry. Many people wrote "as seen on TV" on their ballot for Tom; I think he is famous for running 37's on Holy Cross.
We rolled out Saturday morning to run Flat Iron Mesa. I was a little nervous about running an unfamiliar truck on an unfamiliar trail. Plus Dad's truck has a 465, and I'd never driven on a trail with 3 pedals before.
We got started on the trail at about 9AM. Flat Iron Mesa is not one of the more popular trails partially because it is not easy to navigate. There are many crisscrossing roads and trails in that area. We had to closely monitor our GPS and odometer to make sure we took all the correct turns. My wife was the navigator and she did an excellent job; we only had one major turn around where we had to back up most of the convoy.
There were a total of 14 trucks that started the trail with us. The first half of the day time wise covered only about 1/3 of the trail. The major obstacle of this part of the trail is called the Chutes.
There are 2 different ways out of the Chutes, one easy and the other extreme. 3 of the trucks in our group attempted it and only one made it without help from a winch.
The Chutes can be bypassed.
One section of slickrock before the Chutes provided some momentary excitement.
That particular slickrock section can be bypassed, also.
After we stopped for lunch, a couple of the rigs decided to head back for town so we were down to 12. The last 2/3 of the trail took just half the day time wise. However this part of the trail was highlight by three obstacles; Tilt-a-Whirl, Easter Egg Hill, and the Intimidator.
The first was Tilt-a-Whirl. It is a narrow squeeze between a rock and a hard place followed immediately by a hard right turn all on a steep decent. This was the spot that claimed the biggest heart stopper of the day.
Luckily it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Just goes to show how critical the correct line is on this particular obstacle. We were all glad that no one was hurt. There was also a bypass for the Tilt-a-Whirl.
We all motored on to the final 2 obstacles on the trail; Easter Egg Hill and the Intimidator. As with the other major obstacles, you can bypass these two obstacles but if you commit you must do both.
Easter Egg Hill is similar to Tilt-a-Whirl. It is a tight squeeze, however it is much tighter. You descend downhill through the obstacle, but there is not a sharp turn involved.
It's just a short trip down the trail to the Intimidator. This obstacle is a tight squeeze between a rock outcropping and a severe drop off the side of a cliff. I'll tell you when we first looked at it, there didn't look to be any extra room. However once we had the trucks in there, we found there was about 1-2ft of room to spare. In the video below the rocks on the left of the frame are the edge of the trail.
We rolled off the trail after 8hrs at 5PM. It was a very good day and I enjoyed wheelin' with everyone we had on the run. You are all good people and I'd wheel with you all anytime.
There are more Flat Iron Mesa pics here: http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/MrK5/Blazer Bash 08 Flat Iron Mesa/
Sunday's trail was Gold Bar Rim. It seems like this trail holds a special place for me. First in BB05 we broke the R&P in our rear axle on one of the first optional obstacles of the trail. Then at BB07 Dad and I made the run into the first major obstacle at "Jason's Corner" for the spreading of his ashes.
Dad drove his own rig with me as passenger. We had 2 other rigs with us. Seems as though we might have been the only ones making a scheduled run that day.
Gold Bar Rim has a lot of ledges. You end up going up and down all of them because the trail runs up and back on the same course. This is the 3rd trail in the popular Poison Spider-Golden Spike-Gold Bar Rim trifecta.
The first had obstacle located at what Dad and I dubbed "Jason's Corner" is a very tall ledge. Going in on the trail you must descend it. You basically have to just make a controlled descent and roll out the bottom.
We took several minutes here to clean-up the plaque Jason's family and friends installed in his honor. It was also time to reflect on how great a person Jason was and what he meant to the wheelin' community.
We rolled up several ledges to the top of the trail which ends in an awe inspiring view of Hwy191 and Arches Nat'l Park.
On the way back down the trail, Rob made the climb back up the obstacle at Jason's Corner look easy.
On the way out of the trail, I had to talk Dad into trying the obstacle the General broke on in '05. I must say that he made me wonder why we had so much trouble with it. I think it must have been the front locker.
We finished the trail at about 1:30 making it a 5hr day. Again it was another day with good people on the trail.
Thanks to everyone that helped with Blazer Bash this year. It was a great event as usual and I can't wait for next year.
Thanks for stepping up this year and keeping this great tradition going.
. This was an amazing year and I am so grateful to everyone that helped keep it together 
. A first in at least 6 years
.
.
