Missed seeing ya out there Andrew! Too bad our schedules didn't mesh. Several of us had a blast during the first part of the week.
Got to Slick Rock CG Sunday afternoon and found Danno. He brought a friend with a CJ who had twisted a rear driveshaft. Several of us helped him salvage the end yoke by grinding and air hammering the thing off the twisted tube. Kejtar provided a stock XJ front driveshaft and Monday morning Danno and friend went to Moab 4X4 Outfitters to have the shaft cut and CJ yolk welded in place. Worked out well from what I hear.
Monday, I led a group of about 12 on Cliff Hanger. Everyone had nicely equipped rigs and the trail provided some fun 'wheeling. I was surprised that no one in the group had ever run this trail before. Was fun having so many newbies! No breakage and only a couple of "oops" with off camber obstacles. Beautiful weather and views!
Tuesday, I led a group of 11 on Steel Bender. Again, a nice group of well equipped rigs. One guy had a fully open rig, but really did a great job of chosing his lines. I don't think he had to take a strap at all. Nice group shots were taken on the sandstone fin. Got some good "white knuckle" reactions at the big drop off near the cattle gate. Rabbit (Jay) had a left front axle joint crap out and had to swap it below the 3-way playground, but other than that, no issues. Great time and the weather toyed with raining on us but never poured.
Wednesday, I led a group of about 13 on Hell's Revenge. Beautiful weather and a nice assortment of different rigs. We were very pleased to see that Hell's Gate was open and marked as part of the trail! I think 8 guys decided to run this part of the trail. After I ran it, I spotted the rest down. The climb up the other side provided some great wheel stands! Matt (Scrappy) slipped into a notch in the middle and layed the pass. side onto the wall, but suffered no damage. Rick Graham took some "interesting" lines all the way up and decided to punctuate his run by flopping over at the top, onto his driver's side. A mashed bumper end cap and some scrapes to his mirror were all that was evident after getting him rubber-side-down again. The hot tubs had some water in them from the earlier rains, but the easy tub made a fun challenge - everyone in the group gave in and drove it! Everyone made it easily! We then moved down to Micky's Hot Tub. The bottom was dry, but there was alot of oil spread around. After spreading some sand over the oil, Rabbit, Michael LeClair and I decided to give it a try. Dunno what message the XJ gods were trying to send, but as Rabbit and I drove around to get into position to enter the tub, we BOTH had right front axle joints go bad! There should be some pics surfacing soon showing both of us positioned at the edge of the Tub swapping out the shafts. After the repairs, Rabbit and I made our attempts, but couldn't get traction. Michael hammered the go-pedal and pulled out of the Tub! We all stopped to look at "Escalator", but no one wanted to attempt it (don't blame 'em) and then everyone handled Tip Over Challenge with little effort. We all off the trail pretty early and there was a suggestion to check out "Potato Salad Hill", so off we went. "Kid4Lyf", Michale LeClair and I gave it a try - we all succeeded! Although, I think Michael was trying to launch his rig to the moon! Hit the top hard and fast.
That was a great trip!