The rigs:
Aaron’s black 93 yota truggy thingy: tubed rear, 4.88 gears, dana 44 front, yota 8’ in back, ARB lockers, dual marlin tcases, front and rear winches, and 37 in tires.
Ron’s YJ: linked front and rear, Dana60s, 5.38 gears, spooled, winch, dual transfer cases, 37 Maxxis Creepy Crawlers on Kore beadlocks
Chuck, driving the Nissan Frontier, Dana44s front and rear, ARB lockers, winch, 5.38 gears, 4:1 tcase
Nathan: driving an older body style Ford Bronco, with 4” lift and 33’ tires, open diffs.
Matt (chucks brother): stock TJ, 4’ short arm lift, 4.10 gears, 33’ tires, open diffs
Butch-Jason(Grand Junction): TJ crawler, 3? Lift, Ford 9 axles, Atlas Tcase, winch, body damage
Shon and family: 94YJ, Dana60 front, 14bolt rear, leaf spring over suspension, 37s on H2 wheels, Atlas tcase, winch

Sun: arriving in Montrose from Salt Lake City. Link up with Aaron and we drive the YJ out to find the off-road trails. This is the first time it’s been on the street since its transformation. As a reminder, over the last few months I’ve added 14’ coilovers, a 3 link front suspension, and relocated the ram assist, etc etc. ran scratch and dent at night. fun!
Monday: the yota laughed at every giant bolder and waterfall in its path. After running some trails (forgot the name damnit), we made our way to Cactus, which I’ve read is the hardest trail in Montrose. Our trail guide never showed up, so it was just Aaron and I. We debated having 2 rigs on such a hard trail, so we decided to run the Yota up first, and if we had troubles we had the YJ in reserve. That was a good call. Aaron’s rig did the whole trail, although a lot of spotting was required. It was a field of huge boulders up a narrow steep canyon, how else to explain it? Moments after getting in my YJ and starting it, the end of the power steering box blew out. There was only 1 obstacle between me and the entrance, and it took a while to move that jeep off the trail without steering Aaron towed the YJ back to our trailers.

Tuesday: by around 11 the YJ was fixed and we headed to grand junction to run billings canyon. Butch and Jason met us to be our trail guides. We ran the trail in the yota, and it quickly got fun with narrow approaches, waterfalls, and rocks aplenty. The TJ obviously knew how to run the trail. He got his rig sideways in a narrow shelf climb and still pulled out. The yota just couldn’t do the same thing. It never occurred to me that a TJ could do something the mighty black yota couldn’t do. Later the yotas rear driveshaft fell off! We scrounged enough bolts together to put it back on and it held.
Wednesday: we arrived in Moab tues night and linked up with my neighbor chuck. He drove the Nissan Frontier out from Salt Lake City. His brother joined us in his TJ, which was lifted but mostly stock. Matt, Chuck, Ron and Aaron ran Kane Creek, which was uneventful, except they had to tow the TJ through 1 spot that was particularly rocky. Chuck bends up the tire carrier on the Frontier (twice) and rips the mud flap off. (driving it like it’s stolen?) Finishing that, we move on to run Strike Ravine. I notice that my ram assist is leaking badly, so we bag it and go back to town. Luckily I was able to find some brass fittings at the local parts store and fix it at camp that evening. We drink too much to do a night run. Curious.

Thursday: my old Army pal Byron knocks on my door at O dark 30 in the morning, saying let’s go wheeling! Nathan takes the Bronco, along with Byron’s young son and father. Byron rides with me in the YJ. Chuck and his brother bring the Frontier, and Aaron is in the yota. We run strike ravine, http://www.4x4now.com/32jssr.htm and we admit that route finding is difficult. It turns out to be a fairly fun trail and we pass a dozen jeepers from Colorado. At the bottom we hit area BFE. We run the narrow wash, which quickly turns into a crazy rock crawl. Chuck rubs the entire side of my Frontier along the granite cliff face (this spot was narrow enough that only an ATV could safety pass) haha, and then he smiles about it *jerk* just kidding Then we easily clear all the boulders ahead. With careful tire placement, even Chuck gets the Fronty through without a scratch. Whew! haha
We enter area BFE, and start exploring the rock crawl course. There is one particularly nasty spot that my YJ won’t climb, so i pivot it around a big boulder and drop off the other side. Aaron tries the climb as well in his yota, and can’t make it up. But when he tries the same maneuver, the rig gets real tippy. Chuck and Matt get on, trying to keep the rig stable. But without warning, it goes over, drops 3 feet, and slams down hard on the drivers side. Matt and Chuck bail off just in time! (The mightly yota truggy thingy has 2 broken leafs in the pack, but is otherwise unhurt. We right it up and head back to camp. Luckily Aaron finds a guy in town that puts new leafs in the pack for cheapy cheap. We run Poison Spyder Mesa http://www.4x4now.com/mtpsm.htm in evening/night with Byron in rental jeep TJ, Chuck driving my YJ, and Matt driving the Yota truggy. Let’s just say that trail is fun in the day, not as much fun when punch drunk at night haha

Friday: Byron and Nathan are not up to running Pritchett http://www.4x4now.com/33jspc.htm with us (who can blame them) so we suggest they run something fun, and the rest of us will be back by lunch (our first mistake). Aaron’s Yota and my YJ with me and Chuck enter Pritchett at 10:00 A.M. By 10:40 we are almost to rocker knocker when the high steer arm on Aarons yota busts in half. (hmm, same as last year as I recall) back in my YJ to the entrance to get the spare arm. When we get back to the Yota Chuck has everything apart. The bolts are dirty though and it’s noon before we get the yota moving. We get to rocker knocker and my YJ conquers it readily (read hahahahahaah) and the yota can’t make it (read hahahahaahah) Yota takes the bypass. Later we get to the big obstacle, which blows my mind that there is no name for it. It’s the one right before the rock pile. It’s a vertical climb, which is very slick, has a grooved shelf in the middle, and at the top you must turn sharp right off camber to complete the run. With careful spotting, the YJ climbed straight up this. At the top I was visiting with a large group of jeepers from New Mexico, that noted only 3 in their group was able to do it. The Yota was not so lucky. It started sliding left, and before we could back it off the obstacle it was hung up on the boulder below. That put us in the precarious position of having to go UP! Using winches we carefully moved it to the top and across the face to safety. Moving across the top of the obstacle takes balls of stainless steel because it’s so off camber. One wrong move and the roll to the bottom is what, over 20 feet down? In years past I’ve driven the obstacle this way actually, attacking it from the side instead of the vertical climb and driving across the top. But Pritchett has changed a lot, and this obstacle Is MUCH harder than I remember it a few years ago.

At the rock pile my YJ lifts both tires vertically. I considered winching the front end down to the axle, and realize I forgot my winch gun!! Agh! We are all about to run the canyon in reverse and go back to town (something that we’ve done in the past, as the trail is fun to run backwards) but Aaron says he forgot the tow strap. Without a way to strap his yota down, which is front heavy and rear light, we decide it’s too risky to go down the vertical face. We bypass the rock pile successfully, with some rock stacking and head out. We then run behind the rocks backwards!! http://www.4x4now.com/32jsbtr.htm That was a real treat. But when we get to high dive we bag it and go home. I don’t see being able to drive up the high dive, do you? Hehe Needless to say it’s dark before we get back to camp, and Byron and friends have long departed Moab. I’m sure they are still wondering where we were!

Saturday: the families show up, kids, etc so we run Kane Creek again as a relief from the hot sun. that trail never gets old!

Sunday: Shon and I want to run rusty nail, but the women folk balk so we run flat iron mesa since we have kids along http://www.4x4now.com/fim.htm I’ve never done this trail and it turns out to be pretty fun!! Shon is trail leader and knows the run very well, thankfully! He shows us pretty much the right line on every obstacle. Nothing is too hard for the Frontier, my YJ, Yota, or Shon’s YJ. The only scary spot is near the end, on the cliff face, which is hundreds of feet to the canyon floor below. I was fine as driver until I looked past my wife and kid and saw the drop off. *gulp* after that I went back to spot the Yota through since he didn’t have a co-driver. I suspect Aaron was grateful

Monday: by this time everyone was worn out, except for Shon who wanted to run more trails. We woke up to find Nissan rigs piling up on our doorstep. The GONE event had begun. I talked to the patrol owner, and drooled over his 1960 something patrol. That made me want one for sure! I wish I had more vacation, so as to spend another week with the Nissan guys, but next to AZ run, the GONE event is just no fun!

See ya all next year!
***disclaimer*** I make no guarantees as to the accuracy of the above statements, except to point out that there is a grain of truth in everything said. I’m not good with names, spellings, vehicles, places, trails, or memberin’ things over 24 hours old.

Fun week. I worked.