surgeryturtle
RedRoxx
- Location
- Draper/Moab
A nice selection of Jeeps and Samurais, 7 total, showed up at the trail head to run Metal Masher. We aired down at the Gemini Bridges staging area just off 191. Then we were off.
The trail was uneventful until we reached Rock Chucker.
Here goes Jim, and yes, that is a bit of snow still out on the trail.
Here I come. Redroxx seems to struggle with this obstacle. I think because she’s so wide. But, after a couple of attempts, we made it up. I’m trying out my new rear suspension, not sure if you can see but I’ve lost the standard coils in the rear and are using the hybrid coil-overs. So far, so good and a nice ride on the trail.
Susan made it up quite easily.
Here comes Gary Lee right on up without sqealing a wheel. After we finished with all the fun on this obstacle, we worked our way up Mirror Gulch.
This narrow area of the trail then opens up and begins climbing to a beautiful overlook. Here’s Susan making her way up the switchbacks.
Some of these ledges can be tricky if you try to take the extreme left side as Jim demonstrates. By the way, Jim is leading on the first Saturday of Easter Week. Gary Lee and Jeff are his gunners.
Rick will be the trail leader on Thursday of Easter Week. He’s practicing the trail in his Jeep Rokdawg.
Jeff takes the extreme line known as Misti’s Thumb.
When we made it up to the Overlook, we found some stock land rovers evaluating the trail for an upcoming customer trip. They were doing fine, just taking their time. We were thinking of Widowmaker so decided to quickly move on.
The desert is coming back to life as you can see the Jeeps working their way over to the Widowmaker obstacle. No one decided to take the bypass but a couple elected to take a strap up. Stock length TJ’s and even LJ’s are a bit too short with the way Widowmaker is right now. Can you say dug-out? I think she’s about a foot higher than last summer and Easter week is liable to dig it out further….good luck out there folks.
Jim is the first one up. The large rock ledge just to the right of Jim’s passenger rear used to be even with the ground when I started trying Widowmaker a couple of years ago. As you can see, that rock is now halfway up the tire, a much deeper obstacle. But after a couple of tries, Jim makes it up.
Jeff climbs pretty easily, choosing a line more to the left.
Gary Lee’s winch that he uses to suck up his axle wasn’t working so he tried without it. Some interesting results…..
Yep, just like Susan did a couple of years ago, Gary Lee sits OverEZ right on his rear end, leaving him perfectly balanced.
A view from the other side. If you think this obstacle is a small wall, consider Gary Lee’s 104″ wheelbase.
Here’s the view from the top of Widowmaker. Those of us who haven’t gone yet are a bit nervous….
Now that all the photos are taken, here comes the rescue strap.
Susan decided to take a helper strap. This end had a couple of guys on it just in case. Susan didn’t need much help though, she pretty much jumped right on up.
Here's a view of me giving it a try as well. I did make it up with lots of squealing tires. Thanks all and see ya on the trail.
Melissa
