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Easter Jeep Safari 2007 ion Moab Utah. Did we spend the whole
week? Heck no, in fact, we only spent 26 hours there.
When Tom Clark from Crawl
Magazine sent an invite to run with them for a day down in Moab for Easter
Jeep Safari I couldn't turn it down. The problem was, with two weeks to go, my
rig was all over the garage, I didn't have much vacation time, and basically, I
wasn't ready. Two weeks later and a rebuilt transmission, installed Doubler,
built Cross member, completely new exhaust, and a triple stick for the doubler,
we were ready! It would also be a great time to see how my new tow rig was going
to do. I had just traded in my old tired '92 GMC 454 rig for a 2002 Ford 7.3
Diesel 350 with an Edge programmer and aftermarket intake and exhaust and I
was actually looking forward to the drive.
Since I didn't have much time the plan was to run down the day
before, do some warm up that night, run the trails the next day and drive home
that night. Andrew Paulson came along and we took off on Tuesday for Moab. The
tow rig worked great! With my old rig, I would be in third gear floored holding
50mph up all the passes and the MPG was about 6 to 7 on average for the entire
trip. The new rig pulled all the passes as fast as I wanted with ease and we
made some serious time. I was able to shave off about 2 hours from my normal
drive time.
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Anyway, we got down there and checked into the campground and
pitched the tent for the night. We ended up parking next to Matt Hodges from
West Texas Off-Road, home of the Redneck Ram. Also with him was the group the
owned and operated the Katemcy Rocks
in Texas. Great guys to be
around. After grabbing some dinner from Eddie McStiff's, the Texas guys told us
that Area BFE was holding a night party. So off we went, sounded like a great
time. Up at Area BFE, they had a live band, food, plenty of parking and they had
the whole competition area lit up with these huge floodlights. We paid the
entrance fee plus some extra as they are trying their best to set up a sweet
park (and doing it well) and unloaded the rig. Now it was pretty early in the
week and there wasn't too many people out there. In fact, we had the entire
place to ourselves for at least an hour! It was great playing around on the
ledges and I used the time getting the hang of the doubler and learning the
front and rear burns. I don't see how I wheeled without it.
Check out
the Area BFE Pics
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The next Morning we headed to the meeting spot at the
Airport. We later learned that Crawl Mag was expecting 10 to 20 rigs. Well,
they got a lot more then that! There was at least 80 rigs there and about 15
bailed out and headed elsewhere. I really wanted to run the Mashed Potato
and the Pickle so we hung on through the chaos. It seemed like anybody who
was everybody was there. Names and rigs that I only read about where now
parked next to me so I could drool even better. Everybody was way cool and
after a bit, we headed out to the trail.
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The mashed Potato has its name because it looks like you
are driving along the top of a giant plate of mashed potatoes. I really
liked this trail as you could make it as hard as you wanted to. Almost
stockers could get this trails and there were plenty of play areas to
make it real interesting. It makes a big loop and dumps you back at the
trail head after running across some flats and going over one ridge. It
was pretty slow moving with all of the rigs posing for the camera and
all but the weather was nice and it was a good time. After a bit a group
of us got together and split area and headed over the run the Pickle.
Check out the
Mashed Potatoe Pics |
| The Pickle is a real short trail with about three or
four obstacles depending on what you do. There is one narrow section
that could rip the body off of a full-size but other then that, its
pretty wide. There is a stair step ledge at the beginning, and if you
can make that, you are good to go. One rig with us spit out the third
member in his rear axle. I had never seen that before. The entire pinion
and part of the housing was on the ground! We were able to make good
time and we were out of there in the early afternoon.
Check out the
Pickle Pics |
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We headed home that same night and got home late. It was a
bit of a marathon but well worth it. I got to run two trails that I havnt
seen before and met a lot of great people. Moab is always a good time and
I'm looking forward to getting back.
Planet 4x4
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