On Saturday I rode with Doug Bogart whose wife no longer cares to travel on 4 rated roads. I had ridden with Doug two years ago when we went on three trails of similar difficulty. Two days before this run while he was on a another difficult run in Canyonlands, he welded a broken part on another Jeep which got it through the rest of the run. On our run he figured out how to straighten a bent suspension part so the Jeep could be driven back to town. He’s a handy guy to have on a run like this.
Although two parts of this run travel on a county road, the other two parts of it are very rocky with many extra challenges. I would not have wanted to drive our Jeep on just the first half mile of it!
Our trail leader, Tony, in the white muscle shirt, did a great job in leading the 16 Jeeps in the group. Two were fully equipped Grand Cherokees, a few were 4 door Wranglers, and the rest were 2 door Wranglers.
Ladies made the first stop more interesting by offering everyone peanuts!
This obstacle is nothing out of the ordinary for this trail.
Success!
The Chute was an early challenge. Yes, the dark marks on the rock at the right mark the trail.
The second of two grand Cherokees was driven by a young man with his wife in the front seat and infant in a car seat in the back seat! Nothing like starting them early!
This obstacle is part of Tilt-A-Wheel. Our group went down this rocky place, requiring a right turn at the bottom. The road then made a loop and drivers came back up this.
The angle between the front axel and the front bumper is called articulation. It helps a lot in places like this. Behind the Jeep is a bypass to avoid coming up this one. Bypasses of obstacles occasionally are found on difficult trails.
Our trail leader can be seen in his white shirt in the upper right available as a spotter in the tough place on the lower part of the road. Here a 4 door Wrangler approaches the first part of the upper obstacle. After climbing the first ledge, he must turn left to make it up the second part.
Success!
We had our lunch stop at Tilt-A-Whirl while the drivers slowly were overcoming the challenges.
Here is the committee at work analyzing how to fix the bent suspension member.
My host’s 1999 Jeep Sport is equipped with about every conceivable accessory – lockers, winch, large tires bolted to the wheels, and others in the suspension and running gear whose names I do not know. The engine is a stock 4.0 liter 6 and the automatic transmission is original.
We enjoyed many great views such as this of upper Hatch Canyon. I took lots of pictures of the scenery and reluctantly omitted them from this blog which really is about challenging 4 wheeling. Seeing great scenery is a welcome byproduct of 4 wheeling for me.
Here are the his and hers Jeeps of our trail leader ands his wife after making it through Easter Egg.
This tough spot is named Easter Egg. Driving over rocks on the upper side tilt the Jeeps toward the rock on the left ready to damage the passenger door. Our trial leader is acting as a spotter to help avoid a bad result.
Narrower 2 door Wranglers have less trouble with this spot.
This is the last named obstacle on our run, the Intimidator. In avoiding the tall rock at the right in the picture, the driver is forced to drive close to the edge next to a dropoff.
On our run, the only damage to a vehicle was the bent suspension part at Tilt-A-Whirl. No one had to use their winches.
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