Moab, UT 2010 (Lots o pics)

[bggrnchvy]

Moab, UT 2010

The Journey To:
Early on the morning of the 4th, a small contingent of us left the bay area on a trip to Moab, UT. We gathered in Pleasant Hill and departed northeast towards Reno, NV.

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Just outside of Reno we stopped at Cabelas to get our share of fuel, food and camo wearing people. Guns, ammo and camping supplies were a pleasant sight as well.

Heading out of Reno, we headed towards our stop for the night in Wendover, NV. It's basically what Reno is to Northern CA, but to SLC, UT. We had a number of grades that Kevin would take a run at with his BBC and we would find him about here in the middle of:

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I had to man :flipoff:

We reached Wendover at dusk and settled in for a night of cocktails, buffet assaulting and rest.

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We took off the next morning across the salt flats and into Salt Lake onto I70. Shortly past SLC, we got on scenic highway 6 headed southeast to Moab.

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Finally, after a two day trip, we were close.

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We pulled into Slickrock Campground, yet again, to setup and spend the week. Other than being wheeler friendly, having cheap spots to put tow rigs, trailers and wheelers and having power/ water at some tenting sites, the view is excellent.

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[bggrnchvy]

A Week of Wheeling:

Monday
On arriving Sunday night we found Geoff, Max, Garret and Scott had run Hell's Revenge and Geoff had yet again destroyed his rear driveline on the first trail on his trip. So Monday found a group of use driving around sourcing parts to rebuild the 1330 (yes, he has a 1410 pinion joint, 1350 high angle CV and a 1330 CV at the t-case in the rear shaft apparently) CV he blew apart as well as the 1410 pinion joint he bound and broke. Geoff also dropped his rig off at Moab 4x4 Outfitters to cut and turn his axle to prevent the wrap caused bindage that was so damaging.

While waiting for the shop to do the work, a group of us decided to go visit arches and drive and hike to a few of the sites.

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[bggrnchvy]

Trifecta

Tuesday we planned to run the Trifecta which includes Gold Bar Rim, Golden Spike, and Poison Spider. It's a longer trail with a few obstacles, but for the most part it's just fun.

Unloaded at the trail head:

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From the trail head, we hit the dirt roads to the actual Gold Bar Rim.

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We got to the plaque in short order and spent some time with our friend.

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It still looks as good as the day it went up. The remnants of blue painters tape on the bottom used to seal the epoxy in still exist.

We left the plaque and headed for lunch.

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[bggrnchvy]

Following lunch we hit up the Golden Crack and noticed a distinct change in the weather.

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Even with impending rain we continued on towards Poison Spider.

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I got in an argument with a tree and while I won, it left a mark and some pieces of itself.

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It became very obvious that we would need to make camp as the clouds rolled in and the rain began to sprinkle. We found a canyon to camp atop of to stay out of any flash floods and avoid pooling water. Geoff had a truck bed full of firewood amazingly enough and tents were quickly assembled and fire was made.

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Kevin had a comical tent:

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But he made up for it with a sweet picture.

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[bggrnchvy]

I'm not going to claim credit for this show of pyrotechnics. The legalities of doing so would be less than ideal. However, somebody did toss some mortars into the canyon as a result of a failed launch tube that we were able to enjoy and photograph. The blast echoing of the walls was intense.

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The rain subsided in the middle of the evening, but lighting continued through the night. The next morning, just as we finished breaking down camp we got a twenty minute downpour which turning into mild sprinkling and eventually went away entirely.

We moved on to Poison Spider and to finish the trail.

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On the trail back, somebody forgot to mention to Geoff and myself that we shouldn't be racing each other. Apparently if I try and pass Geoff on the left, he'll cut me off in the next right turn and slam his aired down 44 on a beadlock'less 16.5 wheel into a bearm and do this:

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So after much work, a Highlift used as a jack platform for a bottle jack, a ratchet strap, a can of ether, a CO2 tank and a fire extinguisher used by half a dozen guys the bead was reseated and we were rolling again.

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With that we finished the trail and headed back to camp.

 

[bggrnchvy]

Pritchet Canyon

We ran Pritchet Canyon on Thursday. It's a more difficult trail with several obstacles that can be hairy.

We towed to the trail head with Kevin and Garret as well as the pictured suspects:

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And it began.

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As we stopped for lunch Este found the truggy had a serious problem. The driver front was cambered in, dripping gear oil from the portal box and the rotor was rubbing the casting. Off comes the tires and the hub.

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I haven't seen internal pics yet but we think a thrust bearing inside let go. In any case, we weren't getting 25 year old Unimog parts delivered anytime soon so it was buttoned back up and Este made for the trailers hoping to get out without locking the hub up.

Being it's an in an out for trailered rigs we went a little further to Rocker Knocker as if Ken and Este broke down we would catch them on the way out to help.

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Garret, Kevin and Geoff all tried the obstacle. Kevin lost the brake fluid in his master and had to back off, Geoff had spring wrap bad enough we told him to stay out of it to avoid getting out in FWD but Garret fully got it.

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He pulled it off after warming the tires up and working the wheel.

With that we headed back. Nate just about launched me across the canyon going down Chewy when he just about endoed while I was holding a strap on the rear of his truck. Luckily we both came back down after a brief moment in the air. Any longer and I would have been more alert to the fact I had left the ground. Other than that it was uneventful. We loaded up and went back to camp.

 

[bggrnchvy]

Area BFE, Green Day and Helldorado

On Friday we towed out to Area BFE to run some trails the Watsons had invited us to join them on. the majority of the morning and early afternoon was dedicated to running Green Day on the optional lines, not the bypasses. It was probably my favorite trail of the trip. Technical, but possible, with no off camber falls to your death seemingly possible. In short, it was just a solid trail.

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Kevin had an exciting moment that Este stepped in to save.

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After Green day we decided to hike Helldorado and follow the Watsons, Garret and Marv. They were trying to make a less than hour trip of it (19 minutes is what Steven and Brandon boasted IIRC) but it took us a couple hours. Trying to squeeze a fullsize through that trail now would result in a midsize I think.

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With that concluded we loaded up and towed back to camp. We went to the annual BlazerBash BBQ and raffle and then had an evening of shenanigans to round out an excellent week in Moab, UT. The route home was seemingly short and uneventful (as it should be). We stopped at a little diner in Battle Mountain, NV on Sunday for brunch that was interesting, but otherwise it was just a good 2 day 1000 mile trip home.

All pictures taken attributable to Brandi or Geoff.

 

[dirtyhick42]

Your truck and geoffs truck are what my truck hopes it can grown up to be.

 

[Sully]

NOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!