Alright...all rested up after a good nights sleep. I was glad to meet all the people up in Moab. Now I can put Faces to the names of a lot of people here and on the 4xWire. Had a great experience. Biju forgot to tell you all about the blisters on his fingers from the steering wheel "Death Grip" after his first wheeling experience! I had nothing but good experiences the whole week. No pictures can do justice to the trails, obstacles and pure beauty of the Moab area. Photo opportunities lie in every direction you look no matter where you are. I started off with the VX run. Todd Adams led the way with 11 VXs and 1 Amigo tagging along. Todd took us to first view some native ruins. From there we slowly made our way across a few tough obstacles. Thanks to Andy's (Swordy) expert spotting I walked right up the hardest making it look easy. Andy's son Marshal was along as the photo journalist and took about 500 pictures! Can't wait to see them all (be sure to let us know when and where they get posted...especially the videos). We reached our destination which was another finely preserved native ruins. Day two got a little tougher. The choice of the day was Metal Masher! I was joined by Grandpa Bob as the only two VX's to run this trail. Grandpa Bob was a ton of fun to be around. Thanks Bob for showing me the best lines to take and some times which one NOT to take. For those who have not been around Bob, he has his own style of driving that at times involves a lot of skinny pedal! If there was some one showing off Bob was always there to show them a VX was as capable as their well built rigs! Got through with nothing more than a few new battle scars in the skid plates. Watching the big boys play at widow maker and rock chucker was pretty cool. Also got a little to much tire air on one obstacle almost laying the VX on her side. Day three had 30-40 water crossings as I tackled Kane Creek. Once again I was joined by Granpa Bob. The deepest crossing put water mid way up on the VX's grill! The VX can swim (as long as theres no mud to foul the alternater). The trail seemed pretty easy for a 4 rated trail. We soon found out why it was a 4. On the way out there is this nice little ledge to climb with not much room for error. Grampa Bob Went up t in tipical GB fashion. I wasn't so lucky. After 4-5 gallant attempts I had to be winched over it. The ledge sloped in a way that it would cause you to slide hard to the left...towards the cliff! Short wheel base and no locker=winch up
. Next up was a nice little water fall with wet tires after crossing the creek. A little advice from Dan, our trail leader, and I cruised right up it. Some of the better built vehicles had troubly getting up it. GB put on a show and I think didn't touch the ground after launching off the first ledge until he landed at the top
. Day 4 was Gold Bar Rim. This time I was joined by Larry and once again GB. Lots of big ledges and a nice little "bump". Once at the top there was 360 degrees of views. We then walked down and watched the Golden Spike crew as they hit the "Crack", some BIG ledges and "Double Wammy". I hitched a ride across the crack wit Todd adams in his comp jeep. We took a special route into the crack, strattled it and drove up it before exiting it at the top...then we went and did it the traditional way. Marshal (Andy's son) took a great video of this from in the crack as we drove over him! I then got a seat with Andy as we drove up all the big ledges. Amazing what a front and rear locked VX with 33's will do
. Even cruised right up an obstacle that an H1 had just been winched out of. Then it was back the way we came...same obstacles backwards! Day 5 was "unofficial" runs with small groups due to the BLMs huge increase in insurance$$$. I took a quick trip to the first section of Poison Spider. We went up to the wedge and played on all the obstacles up to that point. Our leader, Jeff, was a great spotter and walked me right up and down the wedge. Sustained my only damage on the way down. Caught the drivers side turn signal on a rock outcropping that was invisible! Or at least I didn't see it
. After wards I took a nice drive through Arches National Park. Ammazing. Then it was back to Portal for the games. I learned that I sucked at "Dead Duck". A game that involved stopping as close to a duck in forward and reverse in your vehicle. Next up was the spotters challenge. This involved driving blindfolded through a tough course set up in the grass. My wife was my spotter and got me through the course with only two hit cones. Wasn't fast or pretty but I thought we did quite well and had fun. Andy took home the dreaded "cone" award for taking out the most cones. The day ended with food, awards, great give aways (everyone there won something, some of you who left early missed out) and a video show of the event.
More pics will come as soon as I upload them to my server (it take a while with dial up). Tone, PM me your snail addy and I'll shoot you a disc of my pics (it would take me too long to email them).
