Gravy's Easter Jeep Safari Report

[Gravy]

On a bike!

I drove down Friday morning.
After a late start fooling around with my street legal bike stuff, I stopped for lunch with Paul in Price.
Awesome food, mushroom burger and clam chowder at Grogg's. Good company too. I like that town.

Rolling into Moab about 3pm and after some confusion from Jeeper, I rode up from the Gemini Bridges parking lot on the North end of town trying to catch him and his crew,
I never found them and ended up riding Metal Masher by myself.



I did it in 1 hour flat. I've got some decent video once I find my GoPro.

Then I rode over to Gemini Bridges and did the hike down to the bridges. I was surprised at all the work the Moab Friends for Four Wheeling have done with the parking areas.








I heard from some tourists that they had seen a group matching my description, so I hoped back on the bike to catch them.
About 100 yards back on the trail I went for the front brake and..... nothing!
Somehow the bottom caliper bolt on the front brake had wobbled out and allowed the caliper to pivot up off the rotor.

So with a pocket knife, I pried the brake pads apart and slid the caliper back over the rotor and secured it with a zip tie in the bottom bolt hole.
So I wasn't able to catch them while riding with no front brake.

My favorite formation and good luck charm: Goonie Bird Rock

 

[Gravy]

I buzzed into town and hit up Carquest for some new caliper bolts and loc-tite!
Then over to City Market to grab some grub.

I found out later that Jeeper and those guys where worried they wouldn't be able to do Metal Masher with the time they had and did Gold Bar Rim instead.
Metal Masher was pretty challenging, but so fun. The Rekluse really shined and made it easier.

I buzzed out and set up camp with all the racers out at Area BFE and tried to get some sleep.
I got to see all the RME race crew and spectator friends and enjoyed the campfire.

Saturday morning we woke to find it had rained during the night, a welcome sign for the racers to keep the dust down.

I got the opportunity to do media during the UTV race and it was awesome.


We had a great race support crew for both Robbie and Rawlin and also got to cheer on Tyler and James who all did really well

 

[Gravy]

The UTV race was awesome. Out of 12 entrants, there were only 3 finishers.
And spending time shooting with the pro photogs out on course was a fantastic opportunity to learn.







You can see my UTV race album here.
http://s170.photobucket.com/user/gravesdiggerxj/library/EJS 2014/Dirt Riot 4-19-2014
Please contact me for full resolution images

 

[Gravy]

The main race saw the stock class run 1 lap. CaptainRob Racing pulled to the front of the pack within the first 20 minutes and lead 80% of the race until a blown rear tire slowed them down.
Still leading they lost a front tire and the strain of pushing 2 flats was too much for the little 22re (the same motor which carried them 16 races to the overall points lead last season).
And the motor overheated. They limped into pit where they deployed the "helicopter water dump," format for cooling the engine. This worked enough to get it started.
Still in first place with 95% of the race complete, they soldiered on. When the motor finally gave up and quit with a wicked rod knock.




During recovery though the radiator was refilled and, miracle of miracles, the motor restarted and ran long enough to get Robbie and his Green Zebra Paint Shaker off course, but it died soon after and was towed back to camp.

 

[Gravy]

WeRock Race results here:
http://www.werocklive.com/2014/dirt-riot-mountain-round-1-moab-ut/

Clay Gilstrap won the 4400 class and young 17 year old Bailey Campell with coodriver Shannon finished 3rd.
RME local, Dusty Sexton Finished 10th and broke his teams latest streak of bad luck.

In the 4500 class Jeff Rector won.

The Unlimited Trail class saw another RME member, Rawlin McGhie Racing, finish 30 seconds behind the race leader, however it was discovered the 1st physical finisher had an illegal shock configuration. (This class allows 1 shock per corner and the physical leader was running coilovers and bypasses), and Mr. McGhie was awarded a well deserved 1st place!

The Modified Trail Class saw two additional RME'rs on the podium. James Blackburn and his co-driver and fiance Maddie with 1st place and Tyler Harper with 3rd place (both in their debut Dirt Riot race no less!)

Tacoma White announced the race and Johansen and other locals were on course with the trail crew making sure everyone stayed safe.

That night we rolled into town for showers and a party at Zak's pizza!

Then back to camp to celebrate the race results and a birthday party!

 

[Gravy]

Sunday saw camp cleanup and we rolled out of town.
I drove up to Pritchett Canyon to drop off a friend at his truck and decided to do another trail solo.

So I started Moab Rim.






It might have been the best weather I've ever experienced in Moab. Not too hot not too cool.
I didn't get many photos on trail but I stopped to observe a silver TJ with that had rolled coming down Z bend.





at the top of the plateau




and the overlook

 

[Gravy]

At the end of the trail I caught up with a group of JK owners from Washington.



With the luxury of being by myself and no timing challenges, I got to explore all the extra routes and fingers of the whole trail.
I had never seen this under-hang near the sand wash area.









I zipped back down to the bottom and had a chat with the owners of the rolled Jeep and luckily they survived with only a bent windshield frame and broken windshield and some fluid loss.
They had a good addition on the factory cage.

I thought I had spent a long time on the trail, but low and behold it had only been 2 hours.

Oh well, I loaded up and headed out of town.
So long Moab, See you soon!

 

[anderson750]

You left out the part about the awesome lunch you had Friday afternoon on your way to Moab

 

[Gravy]

The drive back was graciously un-eventful, but I wasn't ready to go home yet...

So I took a little detour. Coming down Spanish Fork Canyon I drove out to Diamond Fork and took a little ride with some handy directions from a friend.










There was a good bit of snow and mud but it made the technical trail even more technical.





I startled a Golden Eagle on the trail who was tearing apart a big crow. The tree's were too thick for him to initially fly off so he kind of hopped up the hill into a clearing where he glared at me for a minute while I fumbled with my phone to get a shot.
I missed the shot.. but it was pretty amazing!



I ran out of time at the first big waterfall


and had to turn around to meet my wife for an Easter party in Spanish Fork... Which I was late too... but extending my EJS trip just a little while longer was sooooo worth it!

 

[Gravy]

Fixed it Paul. Funny even before I saw you posted. Man that was a good lunch!

 

[anderson750]

Fixed it Paul. Funny even before I saw you posted. Man that was a good lunch!

I was just joking because you were in heaven eating that burger and I was for sure it would make your trip report. The company at lunch can only be listed as marginal unless you are talking about my wife coming over and harassing you.

 

[193kyle]

Looks like a fun trip! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Tonkaman]

Sorry we missed you down there. Looks like you had quite the adventurous weekend though

 

[jeeper]

Thy last trail you did Sunday looks like a blast! Let's go ride it again.

We saved you a seat for diner Friday night.. But you never came

 

[Gravy]

Thy last trail you did Sunday looks like a blast! Let's go ride it again.

We saved you a seat for diner Friday night.. But you never came

Sorry! I had to bail so I could find my friend's camp and wouldn't have to set up camp in the dark.