Several members left on the Thursday before the Moab Easter Safari Big Saturday and took their time traveling to Green River where they stayed over Saturday, arriving in Moab on Sunday. The balance of us left Saturday morning and traveled to Cedar City, Ut. to spend the night at the downtown KOA. This is a nice spot as it had pull throughs for the motorhomes and campers with trailers. It also had cabins for the tent campers. Sunday morning we found a surprise waiting for us in the form of about 2" of snow on the ground and vehicles. It looked kewl. It has been a long time since us California folks have traveled in the snow. It sure looked nice from inside the nice warm motorhome. It pretty much snowed lightly on us all the way to Green River, Ut. By Moab, we had driven out of the bad weather into the sunshine. We passed a lot of rigs heading South on Hwy 15 that were pretty dirty and muddy. This is another time when we were really happy to see the weather man and internet wrong about the weather. The entire week in Moab had us in sunny and sometimes pretty warm weather. We all stayed at Canyonlands RV Park, downtown Moab.

Monday morning Davey, Steve Gardner, and myself did the traditional run to Milts for breakfast. Davey and I have performed this ritual for 14 years and it would not seem right to miss John’s breakfast and listen to his latest stories. After breakfast, and back at camp we decided to do Moab Rim because the weather was exceptional and we did not know how long it would last. The top of the Rim is probably one of my most favorite spots and I was anxious to show it off to the first timers. We found the trail head without any trouble and started up. There was a little excitement for a few crossing the crack at the top of the first leg of the trail. It is always interesting to cross that opening, when everyone finally sees that they were traveling up on an outcropping instead of the main part of the mountain. With this trail, always going up and slightly off camber, it was fun to listen to the excitement on the CB. We finally came to the Z steps and the obstacle just before it. I traveled up both and stopped the Jeep up the trail to walk back and see how everyone was doing. David Oh came up without much trouble and then so did Davey. Loco started up and slipped to the side and found himself between a rock and hard spot. Out came the winch and he was rolling again. After that, most folks were a little more picky with their line. I guided everyone up the Z climb without incident. A short time later, we were at Bud’s Place. The last spot on the uphill, just before the summit where there is a vertical climb of about 24". (For those of you that do not know Bud, this is where he decided to get traction with his rear tires, while his throttle stuck open and he launched it and landed on his lid. A few in our group had a little difficulty here, but we waited patiently at the top and finally had lunch. We watched some construction workers on the new lift and finally decided to head back down. At the obstacle after the Z steps, I must have taken a line too far to the right. All of a sudden it felt like the rear end was going to take over the front end. An endo was not something that I wanted on my resume so I hammered down (fortunately the Jeep was in 4 wheel drive and not 2 wheel drive low so the front Swampers could grab some traction) and down came the rear end. I had tried to steer into it, but Renie had either grabbed my arm or the steering wheel and I could not steer. Hehehe, there is never a dull moment on these trips. Thumper was right behind me and said the rig had stood almost vertical. Not a good thing. Everyone else made it down without trouble.

We finally made it to the Golden Crack. We all made it across without incident when Steve Swanson looked at Bob Bills’ right front hub and saw pieces imbedded in his pretty chrome spindle covers. The pieces were his OEM original locking hub. He pulled out of line and started getting ready for a trail fix. Beetlejuice made it across pretty easily with his 4 Runner as did Phil in his CJ8. Loco, in his flatfender, tagged his rear corner on the climb out and John B. got his back up light. The crack is tough on low hanging things or really short wheel bases. Little Buddy had his fun with it, seemed all four tires were in the air at one time or another in his Amigo. We then started the task of fixing Mr. BB. It turned out that all of his bolts had busted on the locking hub. John B. positioned his rig next to Bob and started hauling out tools. I thought I carried a bunch of stuff. Every time we asked for something, he had it, except for the left handed drills which were contributed by Ray. We made short work of the broken bolts using John B’s pneumatic drill motor and Ray’s drills. All of the studs being drilled out with ease. John B had an extra hub and on it went. This side was done in a jiffy. We had Bob turn the rig around to check out the driver’s side. 3 bolts broken and two loose. We were successful in removing one of the broken ones and was able to tap out the second, but the last one would be forever part of the hub. Just before we started this last repair, two rigs pulled up. One was an old model Bronco and the other was about a ‘75 Bronco. These two guys immediately started hauling out stuff to help. Nice guys and had a hell of a sense of humor. They had us laughing the whole time. I am sorry that I cannot remember their names. They stayed with us for the rest of the trip.

We had no other trouble past the Golden Stairs, until we heard Mr. BB yell out that his other hub was toast. Thumper hauled out the strap to help where necessary. Good thing we were almost out of the fun stuff. Well, as we made Double Wammy, we found the folks from Indio. Steve, the TJ guy, had just righted his rig from a pretty sensational roll over. I watched the video his son had to show me. He had almost made it up when the rig started moving to the left, caught traction, lifted the passenger side and up and over it went on it’s side, then on to it’s top over the edge and back down to the base of the climb. He was ok. His rig on the other hand was pretty badly damaged. The windshield was of course gone, the soft top pretty well mangled, the hood and both fenders pretty badly damaged. One or two tires flat. The fan had made it thru at least one core of the radiator. He needed help in figuring out how to repair the radiator, as I had done damage to mine a few years ago, we were all experts, so we showed him how and left him with coolant, water, alum-a-seal, and oil. He was in pretty good shape now and his friends were very capable, so we proceeded down the trail. We made good time and just about 20 minutes from the end of the trail, at the road, David Oh called out he was broke. By the time I made it back to his rig, he had the hood up and was staring at his steering rod. He had replaced it with the new Borgeson telescoping rod just before the trip. It had somehow slipped from the upper splines. (We found out later how). We fixed it and were off. David was damn lucky at this point ‘cause only a few feet further along this mountainous road was a 90° left hand curve. On the right was air, for about 500' down. (shiver, shiver)

Some of the group decided to go sight-seeing, while 5 of us went looking for Helldorado. I have been looking forward to doing this trail since I first heard of it. Andi Vogt had romanced it so I had to do it. We headed out for Strike Raven, about 11 miles south of town. We had some GPS coordinates and finally located the way down into a wash. We were following written directions and GPS, when we came across a road heading to the left. This looked right so we were off. Well, we missed the trail. We discovered some fantastic canyons, and finally ended up in another wash, several miles from our start point. On the way back, Renie yelled for me to stop and said that according to the GPS, we were at the trail head. We got out of the rigs and peered down into the same wash that we had started in. We found another left hand turn about 40 yards further from where we turned. This was the most sought after trail head for the lower Helldorado. John B. and Loco decided to pass and just help myself, Paul, and David Oh over the trail. The trail is only about 0.4 miles long and it was already 4pm. We started. This trail put us in our own element. Rocks, big rocks, tight turns, technical climbs; nice, really nice. We finished the trail without incident by about 6pm. Too Late to do Upper Helldorado, thank goodness.

The Rock Pile is one of those climbs, that when you hit it right, you go right up. But most folks don’t make it. I tried and didn’t. There is another spot around the corner that I have tried and made but it was not to be this time. So, out came the winch. As I positioned myself to pull David up the Rock Pile, someone yelled, why not have him try it first. That devil came right up it. No one else did. David was hot today. Well, we were off to the last challenge, Yellow Hill. This is a climb where there are well rounded large rocks, but with little traction, something that is unusual in Moab. I climbed it without too much trouble, with Thumper right behind me. He had a heck of a time and finally realized that this was a climb that took power. Seeing all of his tires turning, trying to grab traction, it would not have surprised me to hear the dreaded "crack". But up he went finally. As did most everyone else. The strap was only hauled out for a couple of rigs.