2001 "Easter Jeep Safari"
April 7, 2001
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Larry Harvey and I departed Fortuna about 1
PM and headed to Sacramento pulling the Jeep and trailer with my Dodge Dakota.
We spent the night at my son’s house in Cameron Park
April 8
We left Sacramento about 8AM and headed
down I-5 to Lost Hills, where we turned off the Interstate and headed for
Barstow, where we spent the night. Nice weather all day. We stopped and visited
the Korean war memorial.
Korean War Memorial
April
9
Left Barstow about 8 AM and went out of
California through the corner of Nevada, Arizona and into Utah. Weather not to
bad so far! We continued up the road to Beaver and spent the night there.
April 10
Got up to an icy morning and hit the
road. After leaving Richfield and
heading up the summits toward Green River, it started snowing!
Road wasn’t too bad, but a few vehicles had skidded off the road.
The Highway Patrol stopped traffic ahead and had us wait for the
snowplows to clear the road (about an hour wait) I thought we would have a
bigger problem with trucks trying to start off on the hill, but they had no
problems. About 30 miles out of Moab, we hit a snowstorm that created almost zero
visibility, but 15 miles from Moab, the road was dry with some blue sky.
We checked into the Apache Motel (where John Wayne stayed!) unloaded the
Jeep and cruised town. We got some supplies for the next day and called it a day.
Snow Bound
NOTE:
Click on thumbnails for large picture!
April 11
Our scheduled run today was "Fins and
Things" which is a 3.5 rated trail. We had 21 rigs for this run.
In front of me was a TJ with 3 girls from New Mexico and behind me was
another TJ with Mark and Wendy Bulechek from Iowa.
Mark and I have since traded club links!
The run was scenic, but uneventful until we got to “Ken’s Climb”
and “Frenchie’s Fin”. Action
Photo’s, out of Moab, had their camera crew there and filmed a Scout rolling
over on it’s side, after taking a bad line on a slight downhill section.
No one was hurt and it was quickly winched upright by a couple in a Jeep
with a “Just Married” sign on the door.
The rest of the run went smoothly with just one busted U-joint by
someone.
Whoops
Kens Climb or Frenchie's Fin?
Mirror Gulch
April 12
Our run today was “Metal Masher”, which
is a 4 rated trail. We had 42 rigs
for this run, so we lined up early enough to get in the front part of the group.
This is a fairly easy run for the most part, but it does have a few
spots, such as Mirror Gulch, which could cause some damage to a bigger rig.
Rock Chucker is an optional 4+ playground that we spent an hour on. A Jeep rolled over on it’s side
around Mirror Gulch. It was
toward the back and I never got to see that. Then comes Widowmaker Hill, which
is almost impassable at the top part (BIG step) due to the ground being dug out
at the bottom of the rock. The
trail leader (with a Bronco) busted a hub, 2 other rigs tried and failed, then a
Blazer with a 454 engine broke a drive shaft, u-joints, ball joints and I
don’t know what else, and was hung up on the rocks as it was starting to snow!
The trail leader decided to take the group back to Moab as it was getting
late. Some of the guy’s friends
stayed with him and the trail leader said he would come back.
I hope they got him off the hill that day!
Seems this 4 rated trail lived up to it’s rating.
Rock Chucker
Rock Chucker
Busted!
Busted!
Top part of Widowmaker
April 13
We checked out of the
Motel, visited the Convention Center (Spanish Arena) and Action Photo’s,
loaded the Jeep on the trailer and headed back to California (Hope the lights
are on!). The weather was beautiful
in Moab today and looks as if they will have nice weather for Big Saturday.
We had a great
time, although it seemed as if there were more rollovers this year than usual.
Jim Boyett
