7th Annual JeepsUnlimited Moab Run

During the week of April 15th, 2007, about 40 Jeepers got together once again to enjoy the trails in Moab, Utah and visit with friends.  For some of us, it was the 7th straight year we’ve joined our friends in Moab.  For others, it was their first but hopefully not their last trip to Moab. 

Dome and Detour helped keep track of who was coming and were this year’s flag makers.  They did a great job in both departments!  Thanks guys!  The flags withstood the highway test on several occasions and held together.  Nice design too…..the talent in that family is pretty good to say the least (flag shown on a later page).

I want to take this opportunity to thank the vendors and manufacturers who donated door prizes for this year’s giveaway.  Your support is appreciated by all of us.  For those folks that haven’t attended one of our Moab runs, we usually have a pot luck dinner on Wednesday evening.  This year, in spite of the 50 MPH wind gusts, we all got together for a slightly modified potluck…..a tail gate potluck party.  Since we were quite sure the food wouldn’t stay on the picnic tables with the prevailing winds, we put a couple of rows of Jeeps together, tail gate to tail gate, and folks strolled up and down the row grazing on what ever food was sitting in the back of the Jeep.  It worked out pretty well.  Afterward the food fest, we had the drawing for the prizes. 

Here, in alphabetical order, are the names of those companies and individuals that contributed prizes for this year.  Again, a BIG thanks goes out to you for your support. 
 

12VoltGuy.com

4WD Hardware

4×4 GroupBuy.com

Alloy USA/Precision Gear

Applied Innovative Technologies

Buchanan Precision Machine

Donna Olson

JP Cooler

Kilby Enterprises

Steve Szanto (Chili’s)

stu-offroad.com

Tom Wood’s Custom Drive Shaft

Tough Stuff Products

Toys by Troy

Warn
 

I thought a few grazing pics may be applicable right about now.  I know that some of my food had a slightly gritty texture…..usually right after one of those high velocity wind gusts that brought much of the top soil that was in the nearby parking lot area.

One good thing about getting a bunch of Jeepers together with a whole lot of food….everyone enjoys the meal and Jeep is the only topic of conversation.   How can you have a better time than that?

I think we had more food this year than in past years, which was good.  We had some pretty healthy appetites as some of us had spent a goodly amount of time on the trail earlier that day.

I don’t recall what was in the back of the pickup truck (tow vehicle) but what ever it was, there were several folks interested in it.

And of course, about the time you just loaded up a big scoop of potato salad, one of those hurricane force gusts would blow in a couple cubic yards of Moab sand and dirt.  The chicken fingers I was eating just didn’t taste the same after the 3rd or 4th one of these blew threw.  But the way I look at it, if we can get a rolled TJ off of a difficult trail, what’s a little grit in your dinner, right?

7th Annual JeepsUnlimited Moab Run

The flags for this year came to us compliments of Tim and Steve…..they brought them all the way down from Washington state.  There is a story behind them……one of those situations Tim wasn’t sure if we were going to have the flags or not.  But it all worked out just fine and I for one really like the design.  Although I am not 100% certain, I think the idea came from a little guy driving a TJ across Table Top Mesa from several years ago.  He was quite the wheeler. 
 

This little fella joined Donna and myself at Moab.  His name is Smokey but I usually call him Man Dog.  He is the most recent addition to our household.  In February, Donna found this little 7 week old pup in the church parking lot in poor physical condition.  Intestinal parasites, skin fungus on about 20 % of his body, malnutrition, etc….and the outside temps were dipping below 30 degrees at that time.  At 5 months, he now is a very healthy 25 pounds and ready to take on anything Moab has to offer.  The first couple of days in the Jeep were kind of tough (motion sickness) but by week’s end, it wasn’t phasing him a bit.  He had his sea legs and was up for the challenge.

Hey….check it out.  I’m not leading this run!  (I actually dodged that bullet several times this year.)   At the head is Tom, leading us into Eagle’s Dare, an awesome trail that has an insanely steep (and long) slick rock climb.  I met Tom (and Clyde and Roy) at Troy’s earlier this year when Clyde was arranging to get some work done on his Jeep.  We kept in touch and when I got to Moab, Tom and the guys were kind enough to take us on a couple of trails, Eagle’s Dare, Pickle, and Mash Potatoes.  All of us loved the knew trails and I look forward to returning the favor later this year when they come down to the Phoenix area for some winter wheelin’.

Although I’ve missed one or two opportunities, I always enjoy going to the top of Moab Rim and wheelin’ back to the sand hill for lunch with my friends.  This year, just about everyone in Wednesday’s group had never been up to the rim….and some of these folks have been coming to the JU runs for quite a few years.  So we crawled our way to the top of Moab Rim for some good old fun.  Here is a photo of us coming down.  I had spotter duty…..that was fine with me.  Rolling up here just isn’t fun and I didn’t want to be late for the pot luck dinner either!

If memory serves me correctly, this was called Bashful Crack.  It was near the end of Mash Potatoes.  Tom spotted me through it and afterwards, I returned the favor.  Lots of opportunity to flex the suspension a bit.  A misplaced tire could result in some body damage.

A view from the lookout at Top of the World trail.  The last time I was here, we drove up in a light snow storm.  We had a few rain sprinkles this time and caught a bit of sleet further down the mountain on the way back to the highway. 

7th Annual JeepsUnlimited Moab Run

This was taken about two-thirds of the way coming down Moab Rim.  Yes, there is a parking lot down there next to the road.  This trail gives you a birds eye view of the Colorado flowing by.

I work on getting to the top of one of the waterfalls on Pickle.  Tom took us on this trail and I felt very much at home as it was much like those we run here in central Arizona

Here is one of our group at the top of the same waterfall as shown in the previous photo.  A couple of rocks at the bottom helped make the stretch to the top.  The rock on the passenger side managed to catch a couple of front fenders….if you weren’t far enough over to the driver’s side before starting the assault to the top.

An easy section of Flat Iron Mesa trail.  Smokey enjoyed this trail quite a bit based on the amount of time he spent sleeping in the back of the TJ.  He would roll around as I went up and over the rocks and ledges…..didn’t seem to mind a bit.

Donna took a few flora and fauna photos during the trip.  Most likely this is a pretty weed of some type….but none the less, it makes the somewhat bleak landscape a bit more colorful.

A view from the edge of the canyon as seen from the Flat Iron Mesa trail.  About 8 of us ran this on Friday, our last day in Moab.  Donna and I hadn’t been on this trail before.  It is rated towards the bottom of the difficult section in the Well’s book.  It was a good trail for the last day in Moab given we had to drive our TJ home the next day…..breaking something the day before heading for home is the reason we usually hit the harder trails early in the week.

I hope you enjoyed these pics from 7AJUMR.  Many thanks to all of our friends for helping make such great memories.  We look forward to next year and the chance to see you all again!