- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
As planned in the Upcoming Trips forum, @Herzog and I ran Kane Creek trail yesterday. We both planned this as a daytrip, driving down and back home, plus the trail. We met up in Moab around 10 AM as the sun was warming up the chilly Moab valley. It was busier than normal in Moab with plenty of people and vehicles running all over. We had talked about this trip being an excursion to find the mysterious Monolith that appeared in Lockhart Basin, but it had become so popular that we decided to avoid the crowds instead. Shane was in his SAS Toyota Tacoma on 35's and I was in the Gladiator on 37's. Both 4 door trucks were very similar in width, wheel base and height... but there were enough differences between the two that were obvious, as the trail progressed.
As usual for Kane Creek, the drive to get to the fun part of the trail took awhile... there were a couple pretty tight squeezes that you have to be cautious around to avoid body damage!
After the long and bumpy drive, we finally dropped down into the canyon bottom and numerous water crossings. There was ice on the edges of the creek and water was still running down stream. Working our way up the trail, some of the water crossings were actually pretty deep!
Heading up Hamburger Hill, it didn't take long to notice that it has gotten worse over time... not sure if it's from all the SxS traffic or just a long year with a lot of travel, but the main obstacles were all pretty dug out, making picking the right line even more challenging.
There was a group sitting at the turnout that was talking and as we approached the hill, one of the guys could be heard talking about the Gladiator. Voices travel in that tight canyon section, so his comments could be heard clearly. He commented on how long they were and how much the rear overhang hurt them on challenging trails like this one. That was my cue.... I turned both lockers on, manually shifted in 1st gear and carefully selected my line. There are 3 to 4 big challenges on Hamburger Hill, with a massive ledge being right in the middle of it all. Last time in my JKU trail leaders were running everyone to the outside of the ledge on the Left, around it and on the edge of the dropoff. I wanted to see how the Gladiator could do on the big ledge, so I pointed it to the far right side, knowing that I needed to keep the right side tires high to prevent getting hung up on the frame. That plan worked great and the Gladiator cruised right up the hardest part without a single issue!
Low gearing, 2 lockers and 37" tires that hooked up made it all look effortless! Shane was still at the bottom of the hill and heard the same group commenting on how the Gladiator walked right up. They were like.... 
Shane used a similar line as I took, but on his way up the rearend ended up sliding over instead of going up. He got wedged between a large rock behind him and the massive breakover angle under the Tacoma. We decided that it would be best to just give the Taco a slight tug, the driveshaft was plenty clear and the tug was just enough to bring him up the steep ledge. There were a few more minor obstacles on the hill, then we topped out!
Towards the end of the trail there are a couple more challenges, one of them has 2 lines and it has also been well dug out. I tried the line on the right, but the Gladiator didn't really like the breakover rock that was pretty dug out on the topside. I tried the other line and slid off the rock, getting hung up on the frame pretty good. The driver-front tire was off the ground, getting no traction. We decided a winch would be best, so wrapped a strap around a boulder up ahead and pulled the truck off the offending rock. Herzog took his Taco up the line on the right and walked right on up, no issue at all.
We aired back up at the highway after 4 1/2 hours on the trail and headed to the Moab Brewery for a nice dinner, then both headed home! It really was a great day on the trail, beautiful weather, scenery and good times with friends! Need to do this again, soon.
Video from the trip!
