Another one has come and gone. Always get that wistful feeling on the drive home. That little bit of sadness that it's all over and you'll never have another Blazer Bash quite the same again.
Way back in 2007 a friend of ours turned us on to Moab Rim Campark. We had such good luck there that we spread the word to others too. Well this year we waited too long to make reservations and missed out on our usual cabin accommodations. This also meant we missed out on getting a cabin for our buddy B_to_C. So we ended up splitting the cost on rental of a vacation condo. Now that was the way to stay. Split 2 ways it wasn't much more than a hotel room and we had all the amenities of home. Downside was we did feel a little cutoff from everyone else.
Less than a year ago we purchased an 89 2wd crewcab. By the time real work started we had about 7 months to be ready for the Bash. In my naiveté I thought that was plenty of time to get the basics done and get in several shakedown runs on local trails. As it worked out BB13 was the shakedown run. We wound up driving a total of 1000 miles with only minor issues like a couple of loose shackle bolts and power steering fittings. Feels good to have things go as smooth as they did.
Day 1 was a drive from Grand Junction to Moab thru Gateway, CO and on into the LaSal mountains. Unfortunately in my rush to get the crewcab ready I didn't get well prepared for the route we were to take. I thought I got lucky when Google Maps was able to give us a route. However that didn't work as well because many of the roads it tried to put us on had been closed to public access. We wound up having to skirt around the South of the mountains rather than going thru them. We're hoping to try and succeed at the same run next year.
We spent that first evening in Moab getting door prizes ready and putting the finishing touches on the goody bags. This included 50lbs of goods overnighted to Moab by Slime (as is tire Slime). They sent us a lot of items.
Friday morning we headed out to AreaBFE. There we got to play on the RTI ramp ktmoutfront had just built and hauled all the way to Moab. One of the owners of AreaBFE paid us a visit and gave away some goodies after telling us a little about the Park. The grand prize was a gold edition Hi-Lift jack.
Following that many people hit the trails around BFE. r3ddog led a group on a "newby" run to Fins n Things to give newcomers to Moab a taste of what to expect. B_to_C and I tagged along in the Sledgehammer. r3ddog led everyone thru without a hitch and he also did a great job explaining the precautions to take with cryptobiotic soil found frequently along the sides of trails around the Moab area. And also how to properly execute the "Moab bump". (If you have to ask what that is you need to come to blazer bash.)
Friday evening was spent at the Old City Park enjoying a great meal prepared by the Offroad Design crew. Thanks to the efforts of B_to_C there was a great selection of prizes for the raffle. A new winner of the Jason Payne Memorial Trophy was chosen after a very close tally of the votes cast by the participants. I'll have to see if I can find the winner's username. We also got our first look at this year's shirts. They looked great and thanks to kgblazer5 for taking care of getting the shirts printed this year and getting them to their rightful owners at the BBQ.
Saturday we took our crewcab on its maiden trail run when we led a group on a trail called Backwards Bill. This trail combines the last half of Wipe-Out Hill trail with the first half of Seven Mile Rim all run in the opposite direction than normally taken, hence the name (or at least half the name). We all tried to climb up Wipe-Out Hill but only Tom in his longbed pickup was successful. He winched the rest of us up. Not long after Wipe-Out Hill we expended the thrill of a step climb and off-camber crossing of a high slickrock ridge. Then it was thru a feature called the Toaster and driving up I thought there was no way the crewcab would fit. However we slipped thru without a scratch. The rest of the trail went smoothly with everyone finishing successfully. It was a good outing and first trail run for the crewcab. We had fun running the tall with some people we've known for several years but never shared a trail with.
Saturday night we enjoyed pizza at Zax in the company of a bunch of fellow Blazer Bashers. Always fun to sit and tell stories about the previous day's trails.
Way back in 2007 a friend of ours turned us on to Moab Rim Campark. We had such good luck there that we spread the word to others too. Well this year we waited too long to make reservations and missed out on our usual cabin accommodations. This also meant we missed out on getting a cabin for our buddy B_to_C. So we ended up splitting the cost on rental of a vacation condo. Now that was the way to stay. Split 2 ways it wasn't much more than a hotel room and we had all the amenities of home. Downside was we did feel a little cutoff from everyone else.
Less than a year ago we purchased an 89 2wd crewcab. By the time real work started we had about 7 months to be ready for the Bash. In my naiveté I thought that was plenty of time to get the basics done and get in several shakedown runs on local trails. As it worked out BB13 was the shakedown run. We wound up driving a total of 1000 miles with only minor issues like a couple of loose shackle bolts and power steering fittings. Feels good to have things go as smooth as they did.
Day 1 was a drive from Grand Junction to Moab thru Gateway, CO and on into the LaSal mountains. Unfortunately in my rush to get the crewcab ready I didn't get well prepared for the route we were to take. I thought I got lucky when Google Maps was able to give us a route. However that didn't work as well because many of the roads it tried to put us on had been closed to public access. We wound up having to skirt around the South of the mountains rather than going thru them. We're hoping to try and succeed at the same run next year.
We spent that first evening in Moab getting door prizes ready and putting the finishing touches on the goody bags. This included 50lbs of goods overnighted to Moab by Slime (as is tire Slime). They sent us a lot of items.
Friday morning we headed out to AreaBFE. There we got to play on the RTI ramp ktmoutfront had just built and hauled all the way to Moab. One of the owners of AreaBFE paid us a visit and gave away some goodies after telling us a little about the Park. The grand prize was a gold edition Hi-Lift jack.
Following that many people hit the trails around BFE. r3ddog led a group on a "newby" run to Fins n Things to give newcomers to Moab a taste of what to expect. B_to_C and I tagged along in the Sledgehammer. r3ddog led everyone thru without a hitch and he also did a great job explaining the precautions to take with cryptobiotic soil found frequently along the sides of trails around the Moab area. And also how to properly execute the "Moab bump". (If you have to ask what that is you need to come to blazer bash.)
Friday evening was spent at the Old City Park enjoying a great meal prepared by the Offroad Design crew. Thanks to the efforts of B_to_C there was a great selection of prizes for the raffle. A new winner of the Jason Payne Memorial Trophy was chosen after a very close tally of the votes cast by the participants. I'll have to see if I can find the winner's username. We also got our first look at this year's shirts. They looked great and thanks to kgblazer5 for taking care of getting the shirts printed this year and getting them to their rightful owners at the BBQ.
Saturday we took our crewcab on its maiden trail run when we led a group on a trail called Backwards Bill. This trail combines the last half of Wipe-Out Hill trail with the first half of Seven Mile Rim all run in the opposite direction than normally taken, hence the name (or at least half the name). We all tried to climb up Wipe-Out Hill but only Tom in his longbed pickup was successful. He winched the rest of us up. Not long after Wipe-Out Hill we expended the thrill of a step climb and off-camber crossing of a high slickrock ridge. Then it was thru a feature called the Toaster and driving up I thought there was no way the crewcab would fit. However we slipped thru without a scratch. The rest of the trail went smoothly with everyone finishing successfully. It was a good outing and first trail run for the crewcab. We had fun running the tall with some people we've known for several years but never shared a trail with.
Saturday night we enjoyed pizza at Zax in the company of a bunch of fellow Blazer Bashers. Always fun to sit and tell stories about the previous day's trails.
