What It Means to Be a Friend

As we go through life, I would venture to guess that the average person meets tens of thousands of people, most of those people we see on one occasion, and will never see again. A much smaller number becomes regular acquaintances, you know, people you see every so often, but don’t really “know”. An even smaller number become friends, people you see fairly regularly, and know quite a bit about. And then you have the core of what I call “good friends”, these are people who in one way or another have helped shape or direct your life (these can be family members, but I don’t think being a family member automatically puts you in this category). These are the people you can call in the middle of the night, and you know they’ll be there for you. In my opinion, these are the people who make life worth living. Acquaintances and friends come and go, but good friends are always there, even if they are thousands of miles away, or you haven’t seen each other for years, you know they’re out there, and that makes life better.

I think we often wonder what influence we have on those people who we come in contact with. Deep down I believe everyone wants to make a good impression, and be remembered for something positive. However most of the time we will never know the influence we have on people around us, even with our core of good friends, how often you really sit down and tell another person how much they mean to you. Honestly, the answer is probably, not enough.

It’s a little after midnight, Misty and I are getting ready for bed, and all of a sudden my phone beeps at me indicating I have a new email. I glanced at it, expecting it to be something silly, or something which could wait for the morning, but what I found waiting for me was the following email from my good friend, Jim Crum. With his permission I have decided to share with you, not to pat myself on the back, or toot my own horn, because frankly I think much of his praise is rather over exaggerated; but rather I share it is a testament that we often times truly really never know the influence we have on other people. After reading Jim’s email, I felt very humble, but mostly a felt appreciative, appreciative of my good friends who have blessed me by allowing me to be a part of their lives, I love you all! Maybe this email will serve as motivation for you to share with someone you care about what influence they’ve had on you and your life, I guarantee you they would love to hear it.

Below is Jim’s email in its entirety. (Please take his praises with a large grain of salt.)

 

I can’t really tell you why I started writing this other than the fact that I utterly felt compelled to do so.  I am awakened from a sound sleep from a long week in the middle of the night, yet there is no explanation.   The only thought that seems to be consuming my conscious is that I must write a story about Dave Adams.  

Who is Dave Adams and why would I need to write a story about him?  The later question I have no answer for, but the first one, well the first one I can honestly tell you he is a person that will leave a lasting impression upon you and will become a part of your life before you know it.   Dave Adams is one of the most amazing people I know.   Just a quick fact before we get started.  Dave has what is called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.  I won’t bother going into details about it, so look it up if you want, you will find a lot of good informative information about it, even though most in the US have never heard of it.  I had not until I met Dave and even then, it was literally years before I knew the name or anything about it. Why would I not know what ailment of someone that I consider such a good friend and an amazing person?   Because that IS NOT who Dave is.  That is a something that Dave has and has it he does. He owns that bitch, he does not let it own him.    Me asking Dave about it would be like asking you why your eyes are brown or blue.  It is a characteristic of Dave and it makes him who he is, it does not take away from him, it enhances his Daveness.      Yeah, I know it is not a real word, but if you met Dave, you would know exactly what I was talking about and be calling up Merriam-Websters and demanding it becomes one.  

I told you this was completely free from and I am just typing the stuff that comes into my mind.  Maybe if I do, I will be able to get some rest.     So back to Dave.    I met Dave after moving to Utah in 2006.   In fact, I met Dave the spring of 2007 in nice little place called Moab, Utah.   Moab is a place where thousands of tourists go each year.  They go to ride backs, hike the trails, climb the rocks, raft the rivers.   Oh, and if you ever get the pleasure, there maybe a jeep or two down there too. Actually, if you go there, you will see a LOT of jeeps and a few things that started out as Jeeps and have now been transformed into  “crawlers”.    Very expensive vehicles that are not really rode worthy, but can climb a vertical cliff like you were taking your grandma to the grocery store.     This is a place that as a child I would dream about going to.  I would sit and watch 4×4 shows and truck shows about Moab and be amazed at how they would drive these vehicles on the rocks and up the inclines.  

Jim and his beautiful Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon LJ.

Well I moved to Utah and I got my opportunity to go vista the Mecca of the off road community.    I took my shiny new jeep signed up for the Easter Jeep Safari and was ready to take 35,000 worth of machinery on a road that, scratch that, on a trail of sandstone and dirt that I am sure now, any good insurance policy explicitly says they exclude coverage on.    I tell you all this so I can tell you the rest of the story of how I met Dave.   Again, Moab from the description seems and is a pretty hardcore place.   So here I am, in my shiny new jeep ready to go on a treacherous trail, which a few months later, I would later laugh about because it really wasn’t anything when comparing it to things I would do later.  But regardless, I am here, I am ready and a little nervous and excited at the same time.  So we have a driver meeting and everyone in the trail group is requested over the CB to come up to the green jeep to meet the trail leader.    So here is Dave, sitting in his jeep, my first thought is that he looks like a younger Hugh Laruie.  Look it up. For those that know Dave…. you are going  yeaaahhhh I see it.  Any way back to the story.   

Jim having some fun on the Hells Revenge trail.

I along with 20 other eager newbies, I say newbies, because this really was a newbie trail.  It is fun but still a newbie. I think I did it once a year just because it was pretty and we got to see petroglyphs at the end. Right about now, most of you in the know are going…. hey…… I know what trail he is talking about.      Anyway we meet Dave and he is telling us about the trail and what it will be like and what is going on..  It is early, Dave is wearing a red jacket that I would later learn is the Red Rock Club Jacket and he was the land use officer too.    Anyway we are on the trail and Dave takes this behemoth of a green jeep roaring up some obstacles.   This thing was well loved… By Dave and the rocks of Moab.    But it was awesome. I wanted mine to be like his, but not too soon.. Like I said I had only had it for about 6 months.   Anyway, I was behind Dave and followed him up the line he took and made it. I felt a since of accomplishment and was all proud when he hollered at me and asked me to come help him. I thought what can I do to help this guy?   I am giddy over going up a 3 foot ledge.  He wanted help getting out to spot the others. That is when I learned that this man who was leading us around the backcountry of Moab couldn’t get out of his jeep due to some physical ailment.   I was extremely impressed AGAIN. Here is this dude, with a bad ass jeep, in the most bad ass part of the country I know and making his own and he was by all definitions of the word Hand…… I can’t say it and I won’t … because DAVE is NOT that word… Dave is a bad ass himself… I was like sure. So we walked together to the spot that I am sure he sat at dozens of times. It had to resemble the scene of were Yoda was sitting in the swamp telling Luke what to do…. Anyway,  that is my first meeting of Dave.   We continue the trail and get out a few more times, stop for lunch, and then finally end the trail.   At the end I talk to Dave because I am after all like a little kid in the candy store. I am in Moab for pete’s sake.    So fast forward a little bit to the next day and I am on a trail again with Dave.  This time I am on Hell’s Revenge.  Now I thought the previous trail was hard….. Within the first 100 yards of this trail you are on a knife’s edge rim driving on sandstone that is barely wide enough to keep your vehicle up. Dangerously skirting the edge of what would be certain demise if you were to go off either edge.  Well that is what it felt like.  But now, I think we have actually passed other jeeps on this “knife edge”.  

Right after I rolled, Jim realized the other guy is only there to videotape, here he comes to the rescue.

Pushing the guy who is videotaping out of the way, Jim put this head in my Jeep to make sure I’m okay.

Here is Jim single-handedly “birthing” me out of my overturned Jeep, he was the the most gentle midwife I ever had!

Finally freed from my Jeep, thanks Jim, I literally couldn’t have done it without you!

Anyway we get on the trail and it is amazing. The beauty of the rocks and I  am just amazed and in aw that I finally made it here…. So soon we are at a “Hot Tub”.  Basically it is a depression where the water has eroded the rock….  Jeeps have been driving in and out of them for a very long time you could tell by the rubber depots on the sandstone. So we stop and watch a few jeeps go in and out. Then our leader, Dave starts to go down into the hot tub.  I was like what?   This guy is insane… I like him….     So he starts and he tries it and doesn’t make it the first time. While he is backing up and getting ready for his second attempt I hear people talking about how they saw him do this before and other stuff he has done.  So people know this guy, which doesn’t surprise me now.   He has the personality to take over a room and people notice him.    So he tries to go up again and just when you think he is going to make it, he flops…. I mean HARD.  Right from the top of this bowl he plummets to the bottom.  It has to be 10 feet right on his top. So right away, this dude slides down in, and I am thinking ok, he is getting him. But this ass hat is just video taping him, not helping.  So I slide down in there because I am like really concerned because I know this guy has some issues… Don’t others?  Why aren’t they helping! And I usually act way before I think things out and sliding down a 10 foot sandstone embankment soaked in oil, gas, and rubber with standing water and jeep parts in the bottom of it is something you should probably think about doing before you do it. Well I realize that now, but anywhere I was there. Dave is hanging upside down by his waist seat belt and I ask him if he is ok. He says yea, then I say Well I am Jim and I will be birthing you from your jeep today or something like that. At least that is what we say I say now, cause its funny.  So I get him out of his jeep and slide him across my lap because like I said, there is water and crap in the bottom.  We get the jeep right side up and continue on.  

I don’t know exactly when I started to know Dave to the point where I would call him my friend. Like I said at the beginning he sort of becomes part of your life without you realizing it.   I would go down to Moab and see him the Moab Brewery or on the trail, we would talk and started doing trails.  Then I started meeting people he knew. The next thing I knew I was sleeping on the guys couch when I would go do to Moab.  But I will admit, delivering a guy from his Jeep starts you down the friendship path pretty quick.     So now I am starting to meet a lot of people through Dave and what is funny is I know more people in Moab and because of Moab than I do in the town I live in now.   I have not had a jeep for 5 years, but we all keep in touch still and I consider Dave and everyone I met because of Dave my very good friends.   I mean like I will go pick you up at the airport type of friends. Not these… I will say Hi to you every other year friends.  We may not see each other regularly, well I don’t see them, regularly, the rest still have their jeeps and go play. Not that I am bitter or care that they remind me about it often. (Jeremy, Jonny)  But we all still talk and communicate to each other.    We have some good memories and stories; Set it on fire,  the Penguins are complaining,  just to name a few.  

After delivering me from my Jeep, Jim didn’t step back and let others help out, rather he stayed right in the middle of it helping out a gimpy guy who he barely knew. Thanks Jim!

Anyway, I know this seem to get off the topic of who Dave Adams is, but it didn’t really. What you just read IS Dave Adams. He is the Coach, the Chief of the APC  (Adams Pit Crew).  You see he is the center of a very tight universe that feeds off of kindness and friendship and love.  Dave has not had the easiest life, but he is NEVER a victim.   He is the guy yelling at you from his chair telling you that you didn’t tighten the bolt on the transfer case enough when he can’t even see the thing.  He is the guy telling you that you need to go faster and hurry up and fix his jeep so that he can go out in the morning. But he is also the guy that would do anything in the word for anyone.   He and his wonderful wife Misty open their lives and home up to anyone that needs a place to stay. Whether for a night, a week or a year, I know you are welcome there.    And they accept you quickly into their lives and you accept them into yours.  I have stopped and talked to people that I met though Dave and Misty on my way to other locations.   Why?  Because we share a common trait that makes us all better people. That trait is having Dave in our lives.   I know that I may catch some grief over this from people who may read it and you can tease me all you want. But you look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel the same way.   So I started this out by asking the question, “Who is Dave Adams?”  Well you know, I realize that now, with a few tears in my eyes.. (why ???? I don’t know…)  that who is not the right question. The better question is “What is Dave Adams?”

He is a good that you don’t usually find, he attracts good, and he makes you feel good.  We are all better for knowing him.  What do I mean he attracts good?   Well his wife Misty is one example.  She is the sweetest person you will ever meet.  Kind and generous and willing to do whatever she can to help you.  And Dave and Misty have a circle of friends and family that surround them. They are the core because I truly believe that people at attracted to that kind of pure goodness / Daveness  and they want to be part of it.   We are all better people for it and I am glad to say that Dave Adams is my friend. I admire him.     

 I realize this was a long road that seemed to take a few detours, but I have pretty much been typing my thoughts.   So we started with a question and finished with an answer.    The other question we didn’t answer is why I am writing this?  I don’t know, but I feel better by writing it. Maybe Dave and Misty needed to hear these things.  Maybe someone who may see this needed it.  I don’t know. I don’t pretend to know all the answers when it comes to stuff like this, but I do know that this has been sort of an emotional roller coaster for me for some reason. But I wrote it and I am going to send it to you Dave and Misty. I love you guys and I hope everything is well with you. God Bless.

Here is the video of me rolling in Mickey’s Hot Tub. Watch closely, towards the end and you can even see Jim sliding in to come rescue me. Now that’s a good friend!

Labor Day Campout, 2013

Labor Day Campout 2013 definitely will go down as a huge success! While a little bit on the hot side, for the most part the weather was quite nice, the vast majority of the Jeeps ran well, and great company was enjoyed!

Mike, Dave, and Tyler at the overlook on Porcupine Rim, with Castle Valley in the background

My weekend started a day early with several out of town friends wanting to go do a warm-up run on Porcupine Rim trail. One of the things that I love so much about the Red Rock 4 Wheelers events, is the huge following they have from all over. Just on our impromptu trail ride Friday, we had Dave who drives out annually from Pennsylvania, Dan who comes out several times a year from Nebraska, and Mike who typically makes at least one trip down here each year from Alberta, Canada, plus our live-in college student Tyler (who just got back from being home for the summer).

Me at the overlook on Porcupine Rim, with the La Sal’s in the background

Porcupine Rim often gets a bad rap as a boring, and very bumpy trail, so many people avoid it. Personally I’ve only done the trail a few times, but each time I’ve done it, I’ve enjoyed it. Yes, it’s pretty bumpy and bouncy, but the views along the way, and especially the views at the end overlooking Castle Valley are without a doubt worth the trip. The 5 of us took our time, and enjoyed the day, even taking the time to pose for some poser shots out on the cliff edge overlooking Castle Valley. One surprise of the day was to find out that the County Road Department had come in and done a lot of work on the really tippy ledge right there below the water tanks, making that obstacle much easier, and way less sketchy feeling.

The aftermath following the rollover in which Misty’s hand was injured. Huge thanks to everyone involved for all of their help!

The actual Labor Day Campout kicked off Saturday morning. I had chosen to lead Metal Masher and was looking forward to the day. It is weird to think that Misty’s accident on Metal Masher was 4 years ago this Labor Day (if you don’t know what happened, feel free to check out the story about her scary accident here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/misty-adams/what-happened-some-thank-yous-and-some-pics-if-youre-brave/134438983455). Thankfully Misty is doing wonderful today, with almost full use of her hand, and without looking closely, most people would never notice her injury.

Going up Rock Chucker

I started the trail with only a small group, I believe there were 12 vehicles, and things went very smoothly. We quickly got through the first part of the trail and arrived at Rock Chucker not too long after 11:00. Of the 12 vehicles with us, 10 of them went up Rock Chucker; this is by far the highest percentages of vehicles I’ve had go up this intimidating looking obstacle. Most made it up pretty smooth, a couple needed to have a few guys pulling on a tow strap to get them up, but ultimately, everyone made it under their own power. Next up was Mirror Gulch, which has a series of ledges to drive up, culminating in the last one which we call Misty’s Thumb, as this was the site of the roll over incident where Misty’s thumb was almost amputated. Thankfully there were no rollovers, or injuries today. This was the site of the only breakdown of the day however; we had a full size Cherokee Chief with us, while coming up the top section of Mirror Gulch he managed to break both of his driveshafts. Definitely not a good situation to be in, from that point on he would have to be towed the rest of the way off the trail.

We stopped for lunch at the overlook, which happens to be one of my favorite spots in the entire area. While stopped, one of the group, who had an onboard welder, attempted to fix the front driveshaft of the broken vehicle, but unfortunately it re-broke on the first obstacle after the lunch stop. By time we arrived at the spot where you can take the shortcut back to be Gemini Ridges Road, it was approaching 3:00, and a decision had to be made whether or not we wanted to finish the rest of the trail, including trying the extremely difficult Widow Maker obstacle, or if we wanted to call it a day and head back to town to be sure that we were not late for the provided dinner back at the campground, which started at 6:00. The group decided that they had had enough fun for one day, so we headed back to town, with the broken down Cherokee Chief in tow.

Finishing dinner, and waiting for the raffle to start

Dinner was provided to all of the participants by one of our sponsors for the weekend. It was very tasty, and we were glad to have it. Following dinner was the raffle, and I am happy to say that everybody who attended the raffle won some type of prize. We really had some cool prizes this year, including one free skydiving trip, a one hour scenic flight over Canyonlands National Park, a 20 minute helicopter tour for 3 people, a 2 night stay at the Red Cliffs Lodge resort, some free labor from a couple of the local repair shops, numerous gift certificates for local restaurants, as well as numerous hats, T-shirts, and even some very nicely made local jewelry. I believe everybody was happy with the prizes which were given out.

Coming up Hells Gate with the rest of the group behind me

Sunday morning we were given a breakfast provided by Malt-o-Meal. I was scheduled to lead Hells Revenge, and again ended up with a fairly small group of 13 vehicles. Because of our small group size, we made excellent time, and ended up getting to the Colorado River overlook, our traditional lunch spot, at 10:45. Instead of eating at such an early hour, I decided that I would give everybody who was interested in a chance to run the infamous Hells Gate obstacle a chance to do that. Besides myself, I had 6 other vehicles who decided to try the obstacle. After I went up Hells Gate, I had Tyler come up next, when he got up, I had him come over and piggyback me over to a place where I could spot the rest of the people coming up. In the last 2 years, there have been 2 rollovers on Hells Gate while I have been on the trail, however, neither time with I spotting. As the vehicles came up, a few of them lifted a tire, and had to back down to reposition, but eventually everybody made it up under their own power, and unscathed. At this point it was still only 11:30, so the decision was made to continue on and have lunch later.

Tyler coming out of Mickey’s Hot Tub (unfortunately we don’t have any pictures of his tremendous wheel stand)

I decided that we would stop for lunch after we got everybody through the Car Wash, the easiest of the 3 hot tubs to drive through. It ended up being a great place to eat, as we were rewarded with a 360° view of the surrounding area and the trail, both what we already traversed, and what was still ahead of us. After lunch we headed on down the hill towards Mickey’s Hot Tub. Tyler and I were the only ones who tried it; which might be due to the remarkable wheel stand up which Tyler did, where he only prevented himself from rolling over backwards with extremely quick acting by getting his Jeep in reverse, and quickly backing down out of the wheel stand. On his next try, Tyler made it out of the Hot Tub, but we found that his motor now had a weird ticking sound coming out of it. It was suggested that maybe he had starved the motor for oil, and had messed up one of his lifters. Whatever was wrong, the Jeep was still drivable, and couldn’t be fixed on the trail anyway, so Tyler drove the rest of the way, without any additional problems.

As there were no takers to try The Escalator, we continued on to Tip over Challenge, which the majority of the vehicles took, only a few going around on the bypass. From there we headed on to do Rubble Trouble, which due to some confusion had been closed during Jeep Safari. We reached the pavement right about 3:00, with no breakdowns, and no real issues. After getting home and looking over Tyler’s Jeep more closely, it was determined that when he hit reverse and backed down out of his wheel stand, he had come down so hard that he had completely bottomed out his bump stops and the truss on his front axle had hit his oil pan, making it so that his crankshaft was hitting his newly dented oil pan. Thankfully a fairly quick and easy fix.

Jonny getting a little bit of air under his front tires at the last obstacle before the cliff on Moab Rim

Monday I decided to go along on the Moab Rim trail. I’ve always enjoyed this trail, and hadn’t done it for a while, plus it was Johnny’s first time on the trail, and I was happy to be there with him. This trail has a pretty unwarranted bad rap, in my opinion, so many people hate it because of a very few off camber spots. Many times I’ve heard, “You’re going to roll off the cliff and die!” Whereas realistically, except right at the very beginning, you are never very close to the cliff edge, and you could never conceivably roll off the cliff unless you intentionally tried. Moab Rim really is only 2 major obstacles, The Devil’s Crack, and the Z-Turn. Neither of these obstacles it’s particularly difficult, but rather it is just very important that you take the right line. I have seen rollovers on both of the obstacles, but that is because the driver was not on the right line. For our group, everybody went up correctly, thanks to good spotting a by our officials, Rick and Glen.

Me, Tyler, and Jonny at the overlook at the end of the Moab Rim trail. Downtown Moab is directly behind us

Once reaching the top of the Rim, many people choose to turn around and go back down, missing the whole top section of the trail. I believe this is a mistake, while granted there are no real difficult obstacles on the top portion, the views and terrain are most definitely worth the trip. My personal favorite spot is at the lunch overlook, from which I can literally see my house. Another fun part of the top section is getting the opportunity to play on the sand hill. That is always an interesting experience, because depending upon the amount of recent moisture we’ve received, the sand hill can either be easily driven up, if it is a little bit wet, and therefore stickier, or it is virtually impossible if it has been really dry. I gave it a full throttled try, and even with my V8, low gearing, and 42” tires, I only made it up about half way, completely covering Tyler, my passenger for the day, and myself in sand in the attempt. I felt better than nobody else made it up either, although I was cursed by a couple other people who tried because of the deep trenches I dug in the sand.

The rest of the trail went great, and by not long after 2:30 we were again on the pavement. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we really had a great weekend, the weather was a little hot, with highs in the upper 90s, but most days there was enough of a breeze to help make it feel cooler. Misty and I have now been on the Labor Day Committee for 4 years now, and we have really grown to love this event. With its smaller trail sizes, you feel like you get to know the people you are out with better, which in turn creates a tighter knit group. If you’ve tried Jeep Safari, and are turned off by the large numbers of participants, I would definitely recommend that you give the Labor Day Campout a try.

In the comments feel free to tell me if you have been to the Labor Day Campout before, and what your experience was. If you haven’t been, what‘s keeping you?

An Old School Beat Down, Day Two

Pumped, and ready for day 2

After a disappointing day one (you can read about it here http://moabdave.com/2013/06/06/an-old-school-beat-down-day-one/ ) I was determined to make day 2 of the Old School Rock Crawl more successful. I didn’t have a plan for how I was going to accomplish this, but in my head I hoped it would be true. After timing out on 3 obstacles, and rolling over on one, how could it possibly get any worse, right? That’s not a question I should ever ask myself, nor would I recommend that you do this to yourself, trust me it has bad consequences!

Jeremy giving it all that he’s got to get my big, fat Jeep up and over the rock

I started the day on obstacle 5, which really didn’t look too bad. Up and over one big rock, then climb a steep hill, descendent down the back, and you’re good to go. What I didn’t count on, was how big that first rock really was, and how difficult it proved to be to try to get over it. With the way he placed the cones, Craig made it so that to get over the rock you had to drive both driver side tires up on the rock, causing you to severely lean to the passenger side. Then, at least in theory, your front passenger tire should climb up over the rock and line you up for the steep climb over the hill. I say in theory, because for me that never happened. I just couldn’t get

The rock didn’t look so big before I went through the starting gate

my front tires to grab and pull me up and over. It just wasn’t happening for me. So after what seemed like a very quick 10 minutes, I timed out. So much for starting the day on a good note!

On the positive side, after a long night, and early morning of wrenching, Jeremy had gotten his Jeep put back together. After removing the oil pan, which turned out to be quite a chore, because when he pushed the rock into his oil pan, it also pulled the top of his transmission away from the engine, bending a couple of bolts which held the two together. All of this caused the

Jeremy doing some last-minute wrenching on his crawler

oil pan to be pinched, and even with all the bolts removed, it still wouldn’t come off. After fighting with it extensively, they finally got everything lined back up where it was supposed to be, the oil pan was released from its hold. Luckily there was a welding booth set up for competitors to use, and Jeremy was able to get the hole in his pan welded closed. All of this was done in time, barely, but in time for him to start the competition Saturday morning.

Attempt number one, almost, but not quite

Obstacle 6 made me a little nervous, it is shaped like a fin; skinny, tall, and long. And lucky me, I got to drive up and across it and down the backside. For this one, Misty insisted that I wear my 4 point shoulder harnesses; normally I just wear the lap belt portion, which despite numerous rollovers, has always done a good job of keeping my butt in the seat. Well, I figured I got them for the Rock Crawl, so I might as well use them. My time begins, and I positioned myself in front of this steep climb. I tried it once, to see if I could crawl it. That wasn’t going to work, I was definitely going to need

Ummm, this doesn’t feel right!

some momentum to carry me up and over. So, up I go again, this time using a little bit more of this skinny pedal. Things started out smoothly, but just before my front tires got to the top, my rear driver tire slid into a hole in the rock, this caused the front of my Jeep to slide to the driver side; and that quickly I was in trouble, big trouble. Soon after this series of events started, my front passenger tire came off the ground, I desperately slammed the transmission into reverse, but I knew deep down inside that it was to no avail, I was too late. Things quickly went downhill from there, both literally and

First point of impact, see how the corner of my roll cage is actually sunk into the rock

figuratively speaking. I’m pretty sure the first part of my Jeep to touch the ground was the top front left-hand corner of my roll cage, not only did it hit the ground, but it shattered the concrete where it impacted. I felt the hit, and it was a hard hit, and although they were jarred, my shoulders and hips were held securely by my racing harness.

I came to rest on my passenger side, and after being checked on by Jeremy, Misty, Bear, and I think just about everybody else that I’ve ever known, who all deemed that I was unhurt and unscathed. Before I

On 3, everybody push!

knew it I was being pushed back over onto my tires by a mass of testosterone driven men. After gathering up a few loose articles which I had in my Jeep before the roll, but were now strewn across the ground, including the key for my ignition; and after a quick check to make sure I wasn’t leaking fluids again, I fired up the Jeep, and submissively drove my Jeep off the course. 2 rollovers in 2 days, things definitely weren’t going as planned; although I am told that I put on a good show, so maybe that’s worth something!

Here’s the video of my dramatic rollover.

Jeremy and Bear conspiring against me, err…uhhh, I mean scoping out their next course

Jeremy made me look even more foolish than I already felt, as he summarily finished off obstacles 5 and 6, achieving respectable scores on both of them. Maybe he was using all of his skill on driving, and didn’t have any left for spotting; or maybe he was just taking lessons in the Bear School of Spotting (just kidding Bear, please don’t hurt me!). Honestly, Jeremy did wonderful driving, especially for his first time, and in a vehicle he has minimal experience in.

Looking at obstacle 7, I hoped, desperately hoped, I would do well on it. There were no V-notches to catch

Boulders, now this is my kind of wheeling!

me, and no gaping holes for me to fall in causing me to roll. In fact it was just a bunch of large boulders, very reminiscent of Coyote Canyon, one of my favorite Moab area trails (here is my blog about the last adventure I had in Coyote Canyon: http://moabdave.com/2012/06/13/coyote-canyon/ ). The obstacle started with a long trench filled with big rocks, and large logs, and remarkably I made it through fairly easily, and completely unscathed. The next section was a large pile of rocks, and after getting hung up once, and needing Jeremy to stack a couple rocks for me, I again made it through without too much difficulty. In fact, not only did I complete the course, I did so with a perfect score! It was a great feeling, and a much-needed boost to my waning confidence.

Once again, Jeremy doing his best to help get me through a tight spot, and interestingly enough, this is about 2 seconds before the spotter rope broke and Jeremy went flying

My last obstacle of the day, and in fact of the weekend, was obstacle 8. This obstacle was newly built last year, so I had not seen it or had the opportunity to drive it before, so after passing through the starting gate, and coming around the corner to see a huge V-notch didn’t make me real excited. I started up cleanly, but just is my front tires crested the top, my rear passenger tire fell in the notch (why is it always my passenger side, is it just me or have you noticed a pattern also?). This definitely felt, and I’m sure looked way too familiar. As I struggled to climb out of my current stuck situation, all of a sudden the spotter strap, which Jeremy had vigorously been pulling on trying to help give me out of the wedge I was

New paint job, what new paint job? Let’s be honest, at this point who cares right?

in, flew over the top of my Jeep. I thought this weird but not too concerning, until the judge told the timekeeper to stop time. This I thought was very strange, as I’ve never seen that happen before. Looking around I see Jeremy walking towards me rubbing the back of his head, dragging what I later realized was the other half of the spotter strap behind him. As I said, I was really wedged in this hole, and Jeremy was doing his best to help pull me through, when all of a sudden the spotter strap broke, and Jeremy went flying, apparently landing head first about 5 feet behind where he had been standing. No doubt, he was a little shaken up, but considering, he was fairly unscathed (meaning no blood); although he reported his back being quite sore for the next couple of days. After verifying Jeremy was okay to go on, I continued my desperate attempt to extract myself from yet another wedged-in situation. But to no avail, for all too soon I was once again out of time. And with that ended my weekend of competing.

To recap, the weekend consisted of 8 separate obstacles, I completed one of them, rolled on 2 of them, and timed out on the remaining 5. Definitely not the performance I had been hoping for. On the positive side, I didn’t break anything on my Jeep, my first time competing that that hasn’t happened, so I was happy about that. I definitely do want to wholeheartedly and sincerely thank both Bear and Jeremy for spotting for me; with all joking aside, without

Even in the middle of competing on an obstacle, Jeremy has time to ham it up for the camera

them I definitely would’ve done much, much worse. Jeremy no doubt busted his butt for me, one spectator even commented that he was the hardest working spotter out there. I completely agree. As a driver, he also did quite well, completing all of his obstacles on Saturday, and ending up with an overall decent score for the weekend despite not being able to do 2 obstacles on Friday. All in all, I wish I had done better; yes, I rolled my Jeep twice, yes, I banged, dented, and scratched the crap out of my new paint, but that didn’t stop me from having an absolute blast! I’m already looking forward to Old School Rock Crawl 2014, make your plans now, I promise you won’t want to miss it!

Thank you to Jackie Serra for this great sequence of photos of my rollover!

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An Old School Beat Down, Day One

The poster for this year’s Rock Crawl

I’ve been a Jeeper for a long time, I’ve participated in numerous organized events, I’ve guided groups all over Moab, I’ve introduced people to the sport of 4 wheeling, and taught them how to drive off-road, and yet through all of this there is one thing I look forward to more each year than any other, and that is the Old School Rock Crawl. This year marked the 6^th year Craig Stumph has been putting on this event, and my 3^rd year competing in it (to read about my experience from the last time, check out my 2^nd ever blog: http://moabdave.com/2011/08/15/osrc/). I unfortunately wasn’t able to compete last year due to all the difficulties we were having getting my Jeep to run consistently, so I’ve been looking forward to this event for 2 years now.

With my Jeep newly repainted, and probably looking better than it ever has before, we headed out to Delta, Utah to spend Memorial Day testing our mettle against Craig’s vicious man-made course. After fighting a brutal headwind almost the entire way there, we arrived in Delta Thursday night where we met up Jeremy Pool, would once again be performing spotting duties for me, his father and son, and the Dirt Hedz Off-Road Club, presided over by Bear Taylor. The Dirt Hedz took us under their wing, and became our surrogate club for the weekend, they really are a great group of people, and we enjoyed getting to know them better.

Jeremy and I getting ready to start the day.

Festivities got started Friday morning, starting with tech inspections to determine which class the various vehicles would be in. Due to my extended wheelbase, and 40” tires, I would be competing in the Legends class. With Jeremy’s new acquired crawler (details about his Jeep here: http://moabdave.com/2012/12/20/jeremys-new-toy/ ), he decided that in addition to spotting for me, he would also be competing in the Stock class. The competition is set up so that there are 8 obstacles, and each competitor drives 4 obstacles each of the 2 days of the competition. As luck would have it, Jeremy and I, in

Travis dragging Jeremy off course 1, after he lost the u-joint in his rear driveshaft

addition to follow Dirt Hedz member Travis Olsen, started with obstacle 1. I have an interesting history with this obstacle, while although the specific routes which we must follow change from year to year, the position of the obstacles themselves don’t change; my first year on this obstacle, I timed out, after not being able to get up and over one very large rock, during my 2^nd time competing, this is the obstacle that put a hole in my transmission pan.

Jeremy was the 3^rd competitor in line in our group, and after watching the first competitor, who was competing

Jeremy stacking some rocks to try to help get me out the hole I was stuck in

in the Unlimited class, do a brutal backflip off the newly created “Vortex of Doom” (Misty caught the entire rollover in a great series of photos which you can see here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4747095555631.1073741826.1242309986&type=3); with Bear spotting for him, Jeremy began the obstacle, but unfortunately he lost the caps off the axle side of his rear driveshaft, he has had this problem before due to the extreme axle wrap the gets on his rear axle. After watching him be physically drug off the course, due to his disconnected driveshaft, it was soon enough my turn. I made it easily through the first section of the

There goes my nice, new paint job!

course, and deftly avoided the rock which took out my transmission pan last time. Unfortunately, the spot where I got stuck my first year caught me again. I just could not get up and over this one very large rock, and I eventually timed out, using all of my 10 minute allotted time.

Obstacle 2 kicked both mine, and my Jeep’s butts, thoroughly. With Bear spotting me while Jeremy fixed his Jeep, I had to go through this gnarly V-notch, and after my passenger side fell down into the hole, grinding my

Jeremy’s YJ spilling its blood upon the rocks

body against the rocks, I could not get up and out of the notch again. Going back and forth trying to allow my tires to get purchase on the rocks only succeeded in cheese grating much of my passenger side, removing large chunks of fresh paint, and severely denting my hood, fender, and body: it was not pretty! Obstacle 2 was not nice for Jeremy either; after doing great on the whole obstacle, he got caught up on a large rock right before the exit gates, and ended up punching a hole in his oil pan. And this was after he busted his butt to get his U-joint fixed so he could compete in the obstacle. So unfortunately Jeremy was out for the rest of the day.

Here’s a video of me floundering around futilely on obstacle 2, while removing large amounts of new paint, and successfully reshaping my sheet metal.

I guess I really wasn’t “okay”

Looking at obstacle 3, it really didn’t look too bad. No Jeep eating V-notches, just some large rocks surrounded by some large holes. Off I go, again with Bear assuming spotting responsibilities as Jeremy desperately tried to fix his broken down YJ. Things started out smoothly, but quickly got interesting as my driver side tires climbed a very large rock causing me to lean severely towards the passenger side. Bear asked me if I felt okay, or if I wanted him to put on a spotter strap, I replied that I felt okay; famous last words, because literally about 5 seconds later I flopped over onto my passenger side. I definitely wasn’t “okay”. After being lifted back up onto my tires by the “Crane of Shame”, I restarted the Jeep and was greeted by a huge cloud of white smoke. I was burning oil, and judging by the amount of smoke, a lot of

Burning some oil after being put back on all 4 tires

oil. I pulled into the makeshift Dirt Hedz pit area and with the help of Jonny Cobia, and a couple other Dirt Hedz members, they found that while on my side my crank case overflow had leaked some oil into my air intake system, which caused the white smoke. Luckily no big deal, it just took a little while to get the excess oil cleaned out of the oil filter and air intake lines. After adding 2 quarts of fresh oil, I was good to go.

Video of me not being okay.

Bumper, meet rock!

Next up was obstacle 4, this one started with a small V-notch, then after that you had to make an immediate left and then climb a very steep hill. I struggled right at the end of the V-notch because my front bumper was running into the rock before my tires could climb it. Eventually I made it over the ledge, and up the steep climb but 15 feet before I completed the course, I ran out of time. I simply took too long getting my tires to connect with the rock, and fighting my bumper the whole time. This was the closest that I got to finishing an obstacle on day one. As they say, “Close, but no cigar.”

Finally getting out of the hole; see all the new scratches on my bumper, those just happened.

The day definitely didn’t go as I had hoped and envisioned, not completing a single course was really quite frustrating. Basically I blame Bear Taylor, because it was while he was my spotter that I mangled the side of my Jeep, then rolled, then timed out on an obstacle I should’ve been able to finish! Actually, I’m totally kidding, Bear did a great job, I just had to give him a hard time because he was so apologetic for messing up my new paint job. I appreciate him stepping in as my spotter, and am grateful for the love and fellowship he and his club showed us all weekend. The Dirt Hedz really showed a prime example of what a good four-wheel drive club can be!

Jeep Safari 2013, part IV

Looking down the aisles of some of the outside vendor displays

Thursday, being probably the most adventure filled day of week in terms of trail carnage, was also my last day off-road during this year’s Jeep Safari. Friday has been my traditional day off for years, and even though I’m not on the trail, I still have a very full day, with plenty of excitement. As most of you know, Thursday and Friday of Jeep Safari is the much heralded Vendor Show. As far as I know, the Jeep Safari Vendor Show is the largest four-wheel drive specific show/expo in the world. This year, with the addition of a 40,000 square-foot tent, we had a record number of vendors with 167 companies displaying their wares.

Dynatrac, one of our Vendors who donate a Pro Rock Dana 60 axle for the raffle

This year I had the privilege of perusing the Show with my good friend from Israel, Amit. As I mentioned in a previous blog, Amit is the owner of the Israeli magazine/website/Jeep club, www.Wrangler-Life.com. It is the Israeli equivalent of JP Magazine, and like JP Magazine it is a Jeep specific organization. For the last 3 years Amit has come over to the United States from Israel to experience and document Jeep Safari for his company back home. Because of this, Amit has made a lot of friends, and connections with numerous off-road vendors. At that to the fact that I am quite recognizable cruising around the Vendor Show in my electric scooter, neither Amit nor I could go very far before one of us would run into somebody whom we knew. It made me really proud that with all of the people that he knew, Amit chose to stay with us for the week in our humble home, which was constantly full of people, and random craziness.

Maxxis, another vendor at the Vendor Show makes a line of incredible off-road tires

The Vendor Show was as exciting as expected, and we enjoyed the day going around and seeing all of the new vehicles and products, as well as running into many old friends. We took our time looking around, but with so much to see, and so many people whom we stopped and talked to, even though we were out at the Vendor Show all day, we only made it around the entire area one time. With the vendors spread out between the indoor arena, the new outside tent, and the vendors set up in the parking lot, they cover a very large area, and it takes quite a bit of time to see everything there is to see.

Looking at this stage of all of the raffle prizes for the Grand Giveaway

Friday night is one of the most anticipated events of Jeep Safari, the Grand Giveaway. It is a raffle at the Red Rock 4 Wheelers hold giving away products which have been donated by the various vendors. This year we gave away over $200,000 worth of off-road products; everything from winches to tires to lift kits to remote-controlled Jeeps, basically if it could be bolted onto a Jeep, or used for offroading it was given away. This year was my 9^th year attending the Grand Giveaway, and it was my 9^th year to not win anything. In fact, nobody in our group of 11 people who were all sitting together won anything; but I guess when they give out almost 2000 tickets, the chance of winning is fairly slim. Oh well, I’ll keep going if for no other reason than it’s fun to be there with friends, and maybe one of these years I might actually win something.

Watching some of the over 900 Jeeps drive through town on Big Saturday

Saturday morning, also known as Big Saturday, is the biggest day for Jeep Safari, when we have almost 30 trails leave from downtown Moab at the same time. It is quite the site to see with Jeeps as far as the eye can see. Lineup start at 8:00, and at 9 the Moab Police Department shuts down Main Street, and let’s all of the Jeeps head out, one trail after another. It is very well organized, and orchestrated and all of the Jeeps, all 900+ of them, have driven through downtown in less than 20 minutes.

Right after one of the Unlimited class buggies rolled right in front of us

After grabbing a quick breakfast at the Moab Diner, Amit and I, joined by the Cobia’s, and Tyler all went out to Area BFE to watch the Dirt Riot Endurance Race put on by W.E. ROCK. This is the 2^nd year they have held their race Area BFE. Last year I had REALLY thought about competing in it, but with my Jeep not running correctly it was not an option (I was so convinced I was going to race that I had a metal roof installed on the CJ, as was required by the Dirt Riot rules). Even though my Jeep was running great this year, and I was capable of racing,, I had made the decision that my Jeep is really good at a lot of things, but going fast off-road is not one of them. Plus I knew if I broke, I probably couldn’t afford to fix it. So, I just enjoyed being a spectator.

Watching the sheer madness of be UTV Dirt Riot Race (the UTV on the top right is about to drive across the front of the UTV in front of it)

As expected, the race was a ton of fun to watch, with everything from mildly built Jeeps in the “stock class” to the more extreme vehicles in the “trail mod class” to the full-blown tube buggies, which can often reach $100,000 in value, in the “unlimited class”. The racing is incredible, and it’s amazing to see how fast vehicles can go over such a rough, bumpy, rocky terrain, especially the buggies. We were at a good vantage point, overlooking one of the more difficult ledgy climbs, and as a result we had front row seats to several vehicles breaking, and one of the buggies rolling over! They also had a UTV race which was very exciting with numerous breaks, and at one point a father literally driving over the front of his sons UTV to try to take the lead. It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the 70s, and we all had a wonderful time watching the race.

Saturday night Misty decided that we would host a barbecue at our house, and we had 20 people over, which was fairly crowded in our house, but we made it work. The food was wonderful, and I’m sure everybody had a great time! A big thank you to Misty for getting the house ready, cooking all day, and making sure everything went smoothly.

I realize Jeep Safari goes through Easter Sunday, and I will talk about our activities on Sunday in the future, but realistically this felt like the end of Safari to me. And I must say it was a great one, in fact it may be the best Jeep Safari I’ve ever had! Except for little bit of cold weather at the beginning of the week, Mother Nature cooperated wonderfully and we didn’t have any precipitation, and most days were sunny. My Jeep ran absolutely flawlessly, and performed as expected all week. I was also very blessed in the fact that some of my favorite people in the entire world were here, and I was able to spend a good amount of time with them. Realistically, I’m not sure I could’ve asked for much of a better week!

Here is the video which Amit took of the send off on Big Saturday.

http://youtu.be/RlvllYIecEY

Misty’s Green Day

For the 3 1/2 years that Misty and I have been together, she has only ridden in my CJ a handful of times, and has never driven it.  She has always said it is too much for her, and that driving it would be too scary for her; and finally, after a long time trying, I convinced her to drive the CJ on Fins & Things over Labor Day weekend, but because my driveshaft was broken that unfortunately didn’t happen.  Misty was still willing to drive the Jeep, so the following weekend we made plans to go out to Area BFE where Misty would drive the CJ for the first time.

She was excited, but definitely had some reservations, in her own words this is why.

The Jeep Misty was in, she was in the back seat, driver side

“In September of 2009, I was involved in a roll over on Metal Masher trail (Read about it here).  The fact that I was in a roll over in a Jeep was not surprising.  As a matter of fact, it’s expected in our sport at some point or another.  The surprising thing was that I didn’t drive off the trail that day; I took a very expensive helicopter ride to the airport and a more expensive jet ride to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake where I spent 5 days in the ICU and a total of 8 days in the hospital while they put my hand back together.  The doctors told us that I was very lucky to keep my hand at all (I didn’t actually get to keep all of it; I still miss the tip of my little

Carrying Misty to the helicopter

pinky).  Without going into a lot of detail, I will just say I haven’t driven any trail harder than a 3 and have refused to ride on many other trails because I was afraid of being hurt again.  Fast forward three years and here we are.  My hand is much better (about 80%).  I have been driving my little Grand Cherokee out on easy trails but, I have turned down wheeling with David because of my fear of Jeeping the harder trails.  Until now that is!  I made the decision it was time to get over my fear and get back out on the trails.

I would love to tell you all about how great I did out there.  I’m just not experienced enough to know.  It was the first time I drove the CJ and, the hardest wheeling I have EVER done and, I can say that I had a great time, I didn’t roll, and I now love the CJ and might be kicking David out of his driver seat more often.  So on that note, I’ll let David tell you the rest….”

Tara getting some serious air time

Sunday morning came and Tara and kids, Tyler with Josey riding passenger, and Misty and I were joined by good friend Jeff Stevens in the BFE parking lot.  Our plan for the day was to run a loop I’m very familiar with, and greatly enjoy: go through the Gatekeeper to Upper Helldorado, then turn and go up Minor Threat, finishing by going up Green Day.

Tara went first, to give Misty an idea of what to expect.  Due to an unknowingly unlocked front hub, Tara had some difficulties but eventually got the right line and made it through the obstacle, pulling a very nice wheel lift.  Misty went next, and was understandably nervous.

Jeff giving Misty a slight suggestion!

With Jeff spotting her, she dropped in to the V-shaped notch and was doing great until her rear passenger tire fell into the notch.  Like Tara, Misty also had a great wheel lift because the passenger side of the Jeep was actually leaned up against the rock.  Unfortunately this also put a lot of strain on my already loosened rock slider, and it became detached from my vehicle, literally ripping the bolts out through the sheet metal, ooops!  Finally she made it out, and was very excited to complete such a challenging obstacle.

Unfortunately from this point on we have very few pictures of Misty driving the rest of the trail, but I’m

“Excuse me, but I think that’s supposed to be attached!”

happy to report that is because she drove so flawlessly that our photographer never had a chance to catch up to her before she drove up the obstacles.  Minor Threat, she made with no difficulties at all.  Green Day was also a breeze for her, even choosing most of the optional obstacles.  The V-notch obstacle is a very difficult obstacle to negotiate with very few people making it up their first try, in fact I’ve seen numerous experienced drivers in well-built rigs end up on their side in this obstacle.  Misty however, drove through in one shot making it flawlessly!  Even the tricky obstacles above the V-notch, were I’ve oftentimes struggled, Misty went through smoothly with no hangups.

Misty coming out the top of the V-notch

After Green Day we decided to head home, Misty had enough excitement for one day, and we decided to leave more fun for a different time.  I can’t begin to describe how proud I am of how well she did, and it just beside myself at how easy she made everything look.  I’m excited she did as well if she did, but worried that my time in the driver seat may be limited from here on out!

More pictures of our day at Area BFE, HERE

Thanks again Area BFE!

Murphy and His Stupid Law

Well I’m back, after a couple month sabbatical I’m back to blogging.  The last couple months saw too many 110° days to do much wheeling, plus I’m still working the final bugs out of the CJ (more on that next week).  Today I’m going to talk about a night wheeling trip from last weekend; while I’m not a huge fan of four wheeling at night, I occasionally will ride along and this trip proved to be very, very memorable.

Matt’s beautiful WJ

A good friend of ours, Matt, was down visiting for the weekend with his very built 2000 WJ (that’s a Grand Cherokee for those of you not in the know, the same thing we use as our daily driver except ours is a ‘99).  Misty is quite jealous of Matt’s Jeep and has often threatened to buy it, trade for it, or even steal it from him; and with its 6 inches of lift, long arm suspension, 35 inch tires, and rear locker who could blame her!  Misty would love for our Grand Cherokee to look and perform as well as Matt’s does; hopefully someday it will.

Anyway, Friday night Tara and Matt decide they want to do a night run up the Moab Rim, and I was invited to come ride with Matt as he’s never done the trail before.  Tara had a couple friends in town and they rode with her (the husband having never been 4 wheeling before), in addition to my niece Josey, who is now living with us full-time.  We left the house around 9 o’clock, about the time it’s getting full dark.  After Tara unloads the Bronco from the trailer we headed up the trail with her in the lead, and us in the rear.

The Moab Rim definitely earns its 7 out of 10 rating difficulty, and is usually very intimidating to people their first time up it.  Whether good or bad, Matt didn’t have much idea what to expect as the darkness hid most of the intimidating aspects of the trail.  The first obstacle, the Devil’s Crack gave Matt a little bit of a problem as he was still running highway pressure in his tires.  Using his Staun deflators, which have a preset pressure shut off, he aired down to about 9 psi, quite low for a tire not mounted on a beadlock rim.

We start up the obstacle again and just as his rear began climbing the ledge I hear this very strange noise comp from the front of Matt’s Jeep.  “What was that?” I asked.  “Oh, just my coil spring falling out.”  Was the response I got.  With his sway bar disconnected, the WJ had so much flex that his front driver’s-side coil literally fell out.  The retaining clip which is supposed to hold the coil in place unfortunately wasn’t doing its job.  After about 30 minutes of humming and hawing, quite a few liberal whacks with a big hammer, much coil wrangling, and a few choice words, the coil was back seated in its place.

Gratefully the coil stayed put as we finally made it over the Devil’s Crack.  Unfortunately, about 20 feet farther up the trail we went up another ledge, and out comes the coil again.  The previously mentioned coil reinsertion process was again successful and after only about 15 minutes we were again on our way.  Until 5 feet later when once again we heard the distinctive sound of the coil hitting the ground.  At this point many non-child approved words were spoken as Matt’s frustration was extremely evident.  Again the coil was re-seated, and the decision was made to reconnect the sway bar thereby limiting his suspension movement and would therefore keep the coil in place.

The rest of the journey up the trail was fairly uneventful with the expected nervousness, apprehension, fear, and loathing which is typical for the first time someone drives up the Moab Rim.  We stopped at the first overlook at the top, and took in the beautiful view of the lit up city of Moab.  Shortly after midnight we decided it was time to make our journey back down the trail.

The trip down was going smoothly until right above the Z-turn, Matt made a sharp left turn while his front passenger tire was up tight against a rock; this, in addition to the extremely low tire pressure, caused the tire to break away from the rim, flattening the tire.  Luckily he had a full size spare tire with him, but unfortunately he only had a small bottle jack with which to use to jack up the vehicle.  A rescue call went out to Tara’s husband, Chris, to please bring us a hi-lift jack.  Tara decided she would drive down to the parking lot and meet him, then drive back up with the much-needed jack.  A grand idea we all thought, as this would save Chris having to carry the heavy jack up the trail by hand.

Proof everyone survived the roll over

Not long after Tara begins her dissent down the trail, I hear a loud scream followed quickly by huge crashing sounds, and as we watch we see the Bronco roll off the final ledge of the Z-turn!  Matt runs down the hill to check on everybody while I nervously wait for word (my balance is bad during the day, at night and on uneven terrain, I didn’t stand a chance of making it down there).  Blessedly everyone is okay with only a few minor bumps and bruises.  Excluding Tara, everyone was wearing their 4-point harness, because she wasn’t her upper thighs were pretty heavily bruised where they made contact with the steering wheel.

Tara with her ‘girl’

From my perch in the Jeep, I couldn’t quite tell what exactly had happened, all I can tell is that the Bronco’s headlights were now shining back up the hill towards me.  Later that night, and after using some visual aids, we concluded that Tara’s front tire slid down a very tall, steep ledge causing the Bronco to roll onto the driver’s-side, it then cart wheeled across the nose of the vehicle before coming to rest on the passenger side pointing back uphill.  It happened very quick, and was quite violent; we truly were very lucky no one was seriously injured.

At this point we’re going to need more than a jack to save us.  Gratefully we had barely enough cell phone service to get in touch with Teralin and ask her to come help us out.  It’s so comforting to have good friends you can count on to help you out when you find yourself in a bad situation like this.  Teralin arrived about 2:30, and with her truck was able to pull the Bronco back onto its tires.  No real damage seemed to have happened to the vehicle, so we turned our attention to changing the tire on the Jeep.

A nice dent in the 1 3/4″ DOM from where the cage first impacted the rock

With the spare tire on, the Bronco back on its tires and facing downhill we were ready to go, or so we thought.  The Bronco ran only long enough to get it turned around and facing in the right direction, and then died, and would not restart.  Chris verified the fuel pump was working, but thought that with all the shaking around that maybe the fuel filter had gotten clogged, that ended up not being the problem either.  After messing with one thing after another, Matt suggested that may be a fuel line was pinched, and after some checking, he was right.  Releasing the pinched fuel line allowed the Bronco to start and run just fine.  Our little caravan made it to the rest of the way down the trail without any issues although, Tara and her friends decided to walk down letting Chris drive the Bronco.

It ended up being quite the night, to say the very least!  We’re extremely grateful that everybody was okay.  Matt definitely had quite the introduction to the Moab Rim, and Tara’s friend had quite the introduction to 4 wheeling!  It was a heck of a night, and I was very grateful to finally crawl into my bed about 5 a.m.

Cliffhanger

With Jeep Safari rapidly approaching, I have been spending a lot of my time recently thinking about it, and I eagerly anticipate this year’s event; especially with my newly redone CJ, which I hope to get back here very soon.  As I have most years, this year I’m again leading three trails, Poison Spider Mesa on the first Sunday, Steel Bender on Tuesday, and for the first time during Jeep Safari I am leading Cliffhanger which will be on Thursday.

Looking back at the “Cliffhanger” portion of the trail. Do you see the Jeeps?

Cliffhanger is an interesting trail, it seems to me that most people either love it or hate it.  If you don’t like cliffs, or driving within five feet of a 1000 foot drop, then it’s probably not for you.  Cliffhanger is also one of the harder trails in Moab with a rating of 7 out of 10.  The trail is full of ledges some only a few inches tall, to several which are a couple feet or more tall.  This is a wonderful trail in which to practice the famous “Moab bump,” this is an effective way to get up ledges in the Moab area.  You ease up to a ledge, allowing your front tires to climb the ledge, then when you’re a tires are about a foot to 2 feet away from the ledge you give it a

There’s the Jeeps!

little bit of gas and your momentum should care you up and over the ledge with minimal trouble; at least that’s the theory, but it usually works.

I have done the Cliffhanger trail numerous times, but I often reflect back on my first time doing the whole trail.  It was in 2004, during my second Jeep Safari.  I was down here with one of my best friends, Big Dave, and we had a day off where we weren’t doing a registered Jeep Safari trail, so we decided to give Cliffhanger a try.  At that time my CJ was getting a complete frame off rebuild, so I brought down my 1968 Jeepster Comando, which I had just recently purchased.  It was fairly well built with a fuel injected Chevy 4.3L V6, 700r4 automatic transmission, 241 transfer case, Dana 44 axles front and rear with 4.88 gears, and a Detroit locker in the rear, on 33″ tires.

Big Dave, Gunner and I at the overlook

Big Dave brought his dog, Gunner, with us; a dog who just a few months later Big Dave would give to me, and who I still own.  We had a great time on the trail with no issues, and greatly enjoyed the beautiful scenery, especially from the Overlook on the end of the trail, where you can look out into Canyonlands National Park as you stand 1500 feet above the Colorado River.

Around 2005 the trail changed considerably, because the Moab Potash Mine had to do some maintenance to a gas pipeline which ran across the top of the mesa which the trail crosses.  In order to facilitate that maintenance they had to drive a full size pickup truck with an 18 foot trailer up to the pipeline, this resulted in them bulldozing smooth most of the ledges to allow passage of the truck and trailer.  We in the off-road community were not very happy about this, but they had permission from the BLM, so we had no choice.  Luckily within a few years the trail began to get difficult again, and now you would never know work was ever done on it.  In fact there are several ledges on the trail we had to go in to repair to make them more safe for vehicles to pass.

Rolling for Charles Wells

What’s funny about this trail, is the hardest part of it is getting out the last hundred yards or so, that part is that a series of gravel strewn ledges which is very slippery and make traction difficult.  Another part of the trail which has become much harder over the years is right after the creek crossing; there is a larger rock ledge which you must crawl over, the farther to the right you are the taller the ledge, about 4 feet.  A few years ago, Charles Wells, who is famous for writing off road guidebooks around the country, was in town and doing a new Moab guidebook.  I was with him the day he ran Cliffhanger.  When I got to the ledge after the creek, I wanted to show off a little for him so I tried to do the tallest part of the wall.  Well let’s just say it didn’t go as planned, and I ended up laying my Jeep over on the driver side.  Charles was taking pictures, and after the roll he said to me, “Dave, don’t you know I don’t put pictures of rollovers in my book?”  To which I said, “Oh sure, now you tell me!”

One of the numerous ledges on the trail

This will be the hardest trail I’ve led during Jeep Safari, it will be interesting to see how it goes, especially if I’d end up with 30 or 40 vehicles.  Luckily I have three great gunners who will be helping me throughout the day with spotting duties.  With my disability, it’s hard for me to walk around on the trail to help spot people up obstacles, which is why I usually avoid leading the really hard trails during Safari, this is why it’s so important that I good gunners with me who can help out.

I look forward to the trail, and hope it all goes smoothly.  I’ll be sure to tell you all about it after the fact, you’ll just have to stay tuned and be patient.  But don’t worry, Safari starts in 23 days, so you won’t have to wait too long!

Dropkicked

As most of the country has, Moab has been blessed with a very mild winter this year, this is fine with me because it gives us more opportunities to go out 4 Wheeling.  Taking advantage of the nice weather, a couple weeks ago we went out to Area BFE to drive one of the newly created trails, Dropkick.

At the trailhead

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Area BFE, it is a section of privately owned land about 10 miles south of Moab.  Here is how it is described at areabfe.com.

“Area BFE is a 320 acre recreational park for many different outdoor activities. The park had been a dream of ours and in April 2004 that dream became a reality for a group of guys who had a vision; “Create a place where people could go without the threat of being kicked-off of a fun little playground and insure that people will always have a place to recreate!” Since then, we have been working to make trails, camping areas and many other fun destination points on the property.  This project has reassured our faith in the OHV community and the values these people hold close to their hearts.”

Since the creation of our 4-wheel drive club, the Moab Friends for Wheelin’, we have been very supportive of Area BFE.  And several years ago we were asked to create a new trail out there, so with the majority of work coming from Jeff Stevens and Jim Molter, the trail Lockjaw was created.  It was a successful endeavor, and now thousands of people a year use that trail.  Just recently the owners of Area BFE contacted us again about creating some new trails again, so Jeff and Jim went back to work and created not one, but three new trails (with an additional super extreme trail being created by the Grand Mesa Jeep Club).  The three new trails are Dropkick, a loop called S&M (named for Stevens and Molter), a short connecting trail named Blackout, and the extreme trail Smashing Pumpkins.

Squeezing through one of the tight spots on Dropkick

Dropkick is a lot of fun, with several challenging obstacles, including crawling over large boulders, fitting through some tight rock squeezes, hugging the edge of a 10 foot drop off, and one nice steep rock wall to climb.  It is also now one of the longest trails in Area BFE.

Our group consisted of Chris and Tara Bolos and clan, Ben and Kamille Billingsley, and Tyler Jones, plus myself; and since my CJ still isn’t back I was bumming a ride in the Bronco again.  Since Dropkick is so new, I’d bet we were one of the first 10 or so vehicles to drive it.  There is a lot of loose dirt on this trail, and many of the rocks break very easily, so it will be interesting to see how this trail changes as it is used more frequently; and in several spots that trail changed just from our passing.

The first part of the trail went well, with a few good, fun obstacles.  We then stopped for lunch, and had our obligatory lunchtime fire where cheesy weenies were grilled and eaten.  I however had lime

Cheesy weenies or lime spritzed shrimp, you choose

spritzed shrimp and vinegared cucumbers; Misty and I are on a diet to try to lose some weight, so I’m restricted to only 500 calories per day, thus my interesting trail lunch.  After lunch we finished Dropkick, and decided to run the S&M loop.  About half way down we ran into Jeff and Jim who had been out doing work on the trail.  Jeff, who was just about to start Blackout (a 100 yard trail which connects S&M to Dropkick) but his Suzuki wouldn’t start because of some kind of electrical issue.  So we decided to give Blackout a try.

Ben on the first obstacle of Blackout

Tara went in first, with me riding passenger.  The first obstacle is a huge rock you must put your passenger side tires up on tipping you heavily towards the driver side; she got through that okay, but the second obstacle, where you put your driver side tires on then must make a hard left turn, hung her up.  Chris jumped in to try to get the Bronco unstuck, after flailing around for several minutes, the Bronco all of a sudden died and wouldn’t restart.  After spending nearly an hour trying to get the Bronco running again, we decided it was a useless cause and we need to winch the Bronco out, then take her back to the trailer and home where she could more easily be worked on.  Sounds simple right?  Unfortunately it wasn’t so.  Ben came around top and hooked up a winch line, but because of the angle we were at, and the fact that we had a large rock on our driver side, when Ben started winching instead of going forward we were pulled sideways, up on two wheels, then over on our side.  As Chris called it, we experienced a “winch induced role.”

Trying to work around the second obstacle on Blackout

The recovery was interesting, necessitating the use of both Ben’s winch, and Tyler’s.  Eventually the Bronco was righted and as the sun was disappearing over the horizon, the Bronco was slowly but steadily winched the remaining 50 yards up the trail.  After reaching the top of Blackout we were back to the relative safety of Dropkick.  By this time it was full dark, and it was decided that rather than trying to drag the dead Bronco the mile or two back to the trailer, it would be easier to leave it overnight and return the following day.  This was a bitter pill for Chris and Tara to swallow as they had never left their beloved Bronco on the trail overnight alone before; as Chris said, “I’d rather leave Bjorn (their 13-year-old son) out here than the Bronco!”

Extracting my gimpy self from our, “winch induced role”

Long story short, although it may be too late, the Bronco was left, but Chris, Ben, and Tyler returned early the next morning, and after some fiddling with wires under the dash, the Bronco fired up and was driven back to the trailer.  Chris definitely agrees that a little bit of a rewiring is desperately needed in the relative near future.

All in all, we had a great day, with good friends, good food, good wheeling, and we got to experience a brand-new trail.  In my opinion, you can’t ask for much more than that from a Saturday in February!

My First Safari

It’s getting to be that time of year again, what time of year you may ask, well the Red Rock 4-Wheelers annual Easter Jeep Safari of course!  With the arrival of the 2012 EJS paper last week, my mind has been returning to my first Jeep Safari.  It was 1999, and at that point I was mostly ignorant in the ways of Moab, Jeep Safari, and pretty much Jeeping in general.

My first trip to Moab was over Presidents’ Day weekend in 1999, less than a month after buying my CJ-7; it was an exciting trip for me, and one of these days I’ll blog about it.  As a result of that first trip I fell in love with Moab and promised myself to come back as often as I could.  My next opportunity was two months later at an event called Easter Jeep Safari, I knew virtually nothing about the event but was excited to again get back to Moab.  I received my Jeep Safari newspaper, and I poured over it like a little kid does a Toys ‘R’ Us catalog prior to Christmas!  I was excited to find out that Safari was a nine-day event featuring over 30 trails you could choose from; forget Christmas, this must be heaven!

At the mine at the end of Hey Joe Canyon

I meticulously chose my trails, after reading the detailed descriptions of them contained in the newspaper, and sent in my registration form.  That first year I signed up for four trails, Thursday through Sunday.  I wrangled up a group of friends (Big Dave, Clark, Jessica, and Jake), and come the first weekend of April off we headed to Moab.  Thursday we did Hey Joe Canyon, a fairly simple trail along the Green River, but very scenic.  Big Dave, Clark, and I all three took turns driving and had a great time!  That night Jessica and Jake arrived and since we all five couldn’t fit in my CJ we decided that Friday we would go out and play around on our own, with some of us in my Jeep, and some in Big Dave’s 4-Runner; again much fun was had by all!

By the Determination Towers on Wipe-out Hill

Big Saturday, a day when almost all of the 30 trails leave from downtown Moab at the same time, was quite an experience for me my first year with the sheer number of Jeeps in one place together at one time blowing me away.  My trail was Wipeout Hill, which presented more of a challenge than Hey Joe Canyon did, which I truly enjoyed.  Because there were five of us, we had to have Clark ride with one of the trail officials which gave him a unique opportunity to see how a trail was run.  The actual obstacle, Wipeout Hill, was pretty intimidating for me my first time, being one of the harder obstacles I had done up to that point.  It was an absolutely wonderful day, and not at all a bad way at all to spend my 23rd birthday!

Sunday was daylight savings time, and so my alarm went off an hour later than it should’ve so I missed my official trail, but Jessica, Jake and I decided to go out anyway (Big Dave and Clark had to go home).  I knew very few trails to go on, so we decided to go out to one trail I knew I couldn’t get lost on, and that was Poison Spider Mesa, the first trail in Moab I had ever done.  We had a great day putting around by ourselves, so great in fact we decided to spend another night.

Ooops

Monday turned out to be an interesting day.  We headed out to Hells Revenge, another trail I have done in February, so was somewhat familiar with.  Now understand, this was before the days of Hells Revenge receives the huge amount of traffic as it does today, meaning there was no major black marks to follow on the rocks as there is now.  Which is why I got lost that day, and made a wrong turn trying to get back to what I thought was a trail.  My wanderings lead me up a very steep slick rock climb, and as I went up the rock my front end slid several feet to the driver side which caused me to flop my Jeep on its side.  Luckily there were other vehicles in the area who were willing to help out a newbie such as myself.  With their help, and the help of a passing scout troop, we pushed my Jeep back up onto its tires.

Tipping my CJ-7 back over

The other two vehicles agreed to follow me out to make sure I made it safely back to town, lucky for me because after going up a large hill, I started down the backside only to find out that I had lost all of my brake fluid and therefore couldn’t stop my Jeep!  I had a Jeep directly in front to me and I began yelling for them to move as I couldn’t stop, luckily they heard me and got out of my way.  This scared me much more than the flop did; the flop was quick, but this hill seemed to go on forever with me having no ability to stop my vehicle.  I had to swallow several times to get my heart back in its rightful place, and a change of underwear probably would’ve been in order.

One of the other vehicles went back to town and got me some brake fluid, and we bled my brakes right there in the middle of the trail.  We eventually made it back to town, and everything was okay.  My Jeep did receive some body damage, but all three of us were okay, which is of course, the most important thing.

After an experience like this, I believe many people would not be so excited about Moab and four wheeling, but for me the opposite was my experience.  Yes, my new to me Jeep was banged up, and yes, I had gotten lost, but man was it fun!  I was hooked!  Now, here it is 13 years later, and I believe I’m just as excited about this EJS as I was back in ‘99!