Wednesday:
Left at 10pm from Chino Valley, AZ (we started late due to a wierd trailer light plug we had to purchase from the local Walmart). Crashed in the cab of the F250 outside of the Holiday Inn in Flagstaff (this is where Robzilla, Hossbaby, FWP, and MarvSPringer were staying the night).
Thurs:
FWP had trouble with his 6.2 starter, replaced it in the parking lot and left about 10am from Flagstaff... arrived in Moab around 7ish.
Friday:
Started a little late and went to run Pritchett. This was a first for me and the new suspension on the blazer. We encountered pretty wet conditions and this added to the difficulty of many of the obstacles. Robzilla broke his fiber winch line while winching out of a stairstep section (his tires were caked with mud and he was pretty wedged). They tied it off and winched out easily. We arrived at Rockpile and I was the second to try it. Marv was denied and wisely backed down. Then it was my turn... I tried to keep the tires dry and got a little off camber. While trying to back off I was in reverse and my blazer went over. The blazer rolled onto its roof and took out the windshield and frame. We had an interesting recovery and drag session and my truck was righted and we made it to the BBQ early /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Carnage... windshield and windshield frame, broken winch line
Sat:
We (the AZ crew) didn't want to be stuck out past dark because of numbers of rigs so we hit up Moab Rim trail. Talk about "pucker factor"! We played around in the "offroad park" on the top and headed to Behind the rocks so we could eat lunch and Marv could hit the sand. This was a great time! By the way, if anyone gets a chance ask Marv for a ride in the funbuggy. It's the E-ticket ride of the year.
Carnage: everyone was sandy /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Sunday:
Our same group planned on wheeling Upper Helldorado but we started late and would have ended up with a pretty huge group on that trail. We decided to run Hell's Revenge. We headed over to Potato salad Hill and ran that first.
To my suprise I crawled it... twice!
Marv made it look easy
SeanDeigo throttled it over the top
FWP and Robzilla both found awesome lines!
a couple jeeps and a Scout actually came pretty close to rolling over.
Then we headed to Hells Revenge to run Escalator, Hot tubs, Hells Gate, Tip Over challenge etc. and Dump Bump.
Marv and I both made it up Dump Bump... Springer later went on to attempt some pretty awesome climbs out of the big hot tub. I almost made it out but seriously wussed out near the top (too many photos of rollovers played in my mind). Robzilla flopped it while trying to back out of the water hole.
Quick extrication and we were on our way to Escalator. This obstacle was pretty cool. I got it on its side and Rob did also. It was interesting to see winch lines actually have worn lines into the rock at the top of Escalator. After tip over challenge we went to the go fast dirt area near the exit of Hells Revenge. It was a blast also. /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif
On a note of constructive criticism:
Smaller groups on the trails would be great. There should be mandatory equipment relegations for some trails (similar to EJS). Having a means to get more of the inexperienced guys on trails led by people who have run them before is also a good idea. Perhaps even a late start set of trails /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif
