Another Moab trip
Made it out to Moab for a couple days of wheeling with a friend from Washington state - ran the rubicon with him previously. He has both a more modified 75cj5 and a more original (and newer to him) 74cj5. The plan was to take the 74 as he had family and kids along and keep the wheeling a bit more moderate, but it ate a distributor gear a few days before departure so the beat-up, but very capable 75 made the trip (on a trailer). His wife rented a nicely outfitted Gladiator and tagged along with kids swapping between their two jeeps. The rental is gps monitored and the rental agreement limits taking it on most of the known challenging trails. On day 1 we ran Klondike bluffs and section of Sevenmile Rim out to Uranium arch and back. On day two we ran Fins and then John and I ran Hells as the rental isn't allowed on HR. A few pics:
Klondike bluffs - pretty mellow trail, but has dino prints (fun for the kids) and I like the slick rock section although its pretty flat, bumpy and slow going. I also like doing the hike into the Arches NP.
I didn't get many pics from sevenmile rim...
John like this trail better, and its probably would have been better to just do this as a first moab trail next time...for whatever reason, a lot of our ecj5 members have the expectation that Moab is really tough wheeling, and its reputation is a bit overblown, so there is some hesitancy as to how hard of trails to run. I keep telling the the west coast crowd that is Rubicon etc experienced, they can start right out on the rated-5/6 trails no problem. I, on the other hand, had the opposite issue going to Rubicon, and was expecting a mellower trail, and got slammed the first time. Even taking the easiest routes on the rubicon, I would rate it equivalent 7 on the moab scale. Plus, with early cjs, clearance is an issue on the rubicon that isn't as big of an issue on the slickrock, and without traction devices, the rubicon gets really tough, whereas the slickrock provides amazing traction. But the early cjs hit their wall around 8 in moab due to the short wheelbase, short tire and inability to push up the big steps and ledges.
And the classic fins and hells pics:
Everyone's favorite drag the rear bumper spot on fins:
kennys climb I think:
The first big slickrock climb on Hells (other than the entrance fin):
Overlook on HR - we found here while parked that John's oil pan skid had caught on something (most likely his front driveshaft) and opened a decent leak in the oilpan. Some RTV seemed to take care of the issue enough to minimize concern both for engine and environment. It also gave us an excuse to keep it simple the rest of the way and bypass the big three. otherwise I think John would have tried Hells Gate in the 75. And per usual these days, there was some SxS stuck and broken down in the pothole halfway up escalator....a winching was in progress so we just kept moving.
Going around Mickey's:
Cool shot before the big descent down towards escalator.
And what the previous shot looks like from my POV:
And finally....
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James Orofino
1970 CJ5
1958 Willys Wagon