Category: Easter Jeep Safari 2022

This was my first Easter Jeep Safari, and it lived up to expectation. Met so many people, saw so many new trails, and somehow survived it with a busted steering stabilizer. See y’all next year!

I loved this trail. It has four sections. Hard, easy, hard, and easy. This hard sections are worthy of a 7. I’m not sure how I got over some of those big boulders without hitting metal. I must be getting better at finding the best lines. The easy sections are maybe a 4, where a stock vehicle can get through it if careful. Here is a video of the route. I’m also attaching images.

Had to pass on Kane Creek Canyon since it includes Hamburger Hill and no bypass. That’s a big no without 37s and a bigger lift. 🙂

Did Fins N Things on my own today. One of the easiest yet one of the most awesome trails in Moab. And it’s the one most folks start out with. So I kind of goofed around, at one point on the trail I tried all three descent options at a triple fork. I always tried the 2nd/3rd options, but never the first because it’s so damned steep! Finally did it, and it wasn’t bad.

Today EJS is having their raffle give aways. If I’m lucky, I’ll be driving home in a 2022 JLUR 4xe. Ha…at least I’ll finally pick up my registration packet. I picked up a free Tailgater Magnet bar. I also met Brittany and Kevin Williams of Lite Brite fame.

We to the Friday evening raffle. Didn’t win the Jeep 4xe. Didn’t in anything else. But had fun watching $210K of stuff be given away. Next year I’ll buy twice as many Teraflex tickets. 🙂

Overslept so I missed the Golden Spike group this morning. Unfortunately the route to Golden Spike is closed off at the Poison Spider entrance. so I took the day off today to rest up for the three remaining days of trails.

I visited the petroglyphs on the side of the road by the river. Hard to believe rock climbers are crawling up so close to these precious artifacts. I know Utah is serious about conservation.

The local Red Rock Crawlers scheduled their annual Hell’s Revenge night ride, so I joined them. It was exciting and scary. The best part was watching a couple dozen Jeeps send it on Hell’s Gate without any spotters! They climbed fast and didn’t make any mistakes. Definitely a great event!

Moab Rim is a sleeper. Never really heard of it. In fact there’s weren’t many hints that the trail is even used much. Apparently it’s a dangerous trail that has claimed lives, and therefore isn’t really discussed much. I mean, really, who ever even heard of Devil’s Crack?!

The first section of the trail seemed like a mix of Pritchett Canyon and Rubicon Trail. It’s rated 7 of 10, which makes it a hard trail. At the drivers meeting we were told “There’ll be some scraping.” Myea, I should be so lucky. #imawuss

Let’s talk spotters. Suffice it to say, with an experienced spotter, carnage can be minimized. With someone’s passenger trying to spot, not so much. The best intentions is no substitute for experience and capability. It didn’t take long to realize who not to allow to spot you. At the end of the day you’re responsible, accountable, and liable. So don’t be a wuss, just pick your spotters wisely. 🙂

I may have had the smallest tires (35s) and lift (2”), but I think I did well. There are no bypasses on Moab Rim. Dana (sponsor) was there with two Jeeps sporting Hemi engines, Dana60/80 axles, 40” tires, and what appeared to be dial reservoir shocks (etc.). It wasn’t a walk in the park for them either.

If you look at my Jeep you can’t tell it bounced off boulders today. I plan to get it on a lift and survey the damage when I get back, and likely upgrade the diff covers since I’m pretty sure they took a beating. Four more days of trails left. Having a blast.

It was a little windy (10-15) so I parked the Jeep so the iKamper shell is against the wind, and I attached the two hydronic strut brackets to brace the hard top against the wind.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, got a flash warning of 30-40 mph winds with gusts up to 60 lasting all night. Already feeling and hearing the wind. The tent seems to be handling it well.

Not worried about the tent failing, but iKamper rated their tents up to 23mph winds so not taking chances. I try to get out of the tent and there’s no ladder.

I mean the ladder is there. But the foot end of the folding platform of the tent was lifted by the wind, resulting in the foot of the latter swinging in towards the car.

I ended up crawling out the side window, very scary. I packed the iKamper to went to sleep in the Jeep.

By morning I saw it was snowing, so far a couple inches. Well I won’t go wheeling in the snow, too risky. Guess I’m going to Moab Diner for breakfast and find other things to do today.

Today’s ride is Metal Masher!

It’s not the first time here. But when I did it last year, in took all the bypasses. Every. Last. One. I promised myself I would not take any bypasses this year. I’m proud to say I only took one. At the end. Because I don’t have the courage to creep down a 48” high 45 degree wall. Nuh uh!

The trail reminded me of Texas. Lots of dust, lots of challenging stretches. And a significant number of walls to climb over. I made it a point to follow a JLUR that is equipped like mine. 35” tires and 2” lift. I followed his line and found myself in trouble a few times. Nothing terrible but some metal was mashed. Apparently a winch mount bolt came off. Ruh roh!

I decided to follow a different Jeep. A two door TJ with 33” tires and a 4” lift. Close enough. I followed his line every time we got to a wall. Absolutely no issues. It’s amazing what a Jeep can go over if you take the right line, and go slowly. I followed that Jeep until the last wall. He went over it but slammed down pretty hard.

That’s when I radioed the tour leads asking about the bypass. “The bypass is in the left but not sure what shape it’s in.” I hightailed to the bypass and so did a dozen others. I guess I’m used to being the squeaky wheel.

Some pictures…

Metal Masher was loads of fun, more so than last year. But who am I kidding? The ESJ spotters were awesome! Tomorrow is Good Bar Rim.

Top Of The World has been on my list for a while, but it’s 30 miles from Moab, and is rated closer to Hard than Moderate, so I never tried it. Well that changed today. 🙂

With a total of 60 miles spent on the road, and a not very scenic but demanding trail to the top, not much to take pictures of. The goal today was to drive to edge of a cliff and have my picture taken. #gulp

Now I always wondered how the photo thing worked. I mean I’m on the edge of a cliff. Who is taking the picture and HOW?! Is a drone used? Is someone on another mountain with a really big lens?

Well as it turned out, there is a landing about 50 feet from the cliff, but just a little lower. You can hand someone your iPhone or camera and hope they don’t drop it (or fall off) while they photograph you from the landing. Or you can luck out and a commercial photographer is there to take your picture. Luck was on my side.

Steven Talley, of Expedition Builds (who is also a commercial photographer) was there taking everyone’s picture. All in all, another great day. I’m really digging Easter Jeep Safari 2022!

38 vehicles, all but one (?) a Jeep. Aired down to 14 psi. CB mic check. GoPro mounted and ready. Freedom panels stowed and sunblock applied.

After two years of missed opportunities, I finally conquered the optional Hell’s Gate climb at Hell’sRevenge. The best way to describe the climb is think of a gigantic System Of A Down vinyl record groove at a 45 degree incline.

When I asked the tour guides for a spot, one of them, a professional spotter, bet me a doughnut that if I followed his instructions, I wouldn’t spin a wheel. Boy was he spot on. He led me through the perfect line. I’m down a doughnut!

The Staircase and The Car Wash were two more options we got today. I got a video of Staircase, but I dropped the ball on The Car Wash.

Tired and hungry, once I publish this blog I’m gonna shower and crash. Tomorrow is Top Of The World.

Today was my rest day. I took a couple hours to clean and reorganize the cargo area. This included finally installing D-rings to the hard top mounting bolts so I could add a few more straps to keep stuff from bouncing around. And finally mounting the RAM Tough-Rack onto my dash so I can get the GoPro and Garmin Overlander mounted for tomorrow’s Hell’s Revenge ride (using C size ball mount).

I tried to get the Garmin DC35 camera mounted so I can see down in front while I’m climbing Hell’s Gate but that’s not a priority since I’ll be getting spotted. You read that right, after two years of trying and getting detailed, with luck I’ll finally get to do it this year! So yeah, GoPro is a must, front facing trail camera not so much.

Ok work is done, time for a rest day dinner. At tomorrow’s starting point.

Wait, scratch that, one more thing to do.

I woke up when the sun came up, loving the moonroof on this roof top tent. 35 degrees, but no wind so wasn’t bat. It’s going up to 65 today. After five days of driving, and two days to goof around, I had a well earned breakfast at the Moab Diner.

Stopped at GearHead Outdoors Store to get a 10L Specter water container (left the 20L behind since I’ll be with a group every day and camping at KOA nightly), a blanket (since my sleeping bag is way too warm) , and a laundry bag (because I forgot). My new favorite Moab store, they have free unlimited filtered water.

I decided to give Hell’s Revenge a go, wince I was getting bored. I love how Relive now offers 3D videos! The last mile or so is more eroded than last year, so I had to get out a bunch of times to minimize scraping.

Today was supposed to be the final leg of the trip from PA to UT. #shakesfistatmothernature

Made up for lost time. 610 miles, 14.8 mpg. Got to camp just before 1900. It took 1 min to set up the roof top tent. #pffffff Yeah right. Stole that from every iKamper video on YouTube. More like 5 min when you consider the wiring I need to set up.

• The Dometic hard wire kit that I was afraid to have permanently mounted in the tent, well, I wish it was permanently mounted in the tent.
• The strip light plugs into an accessory port, and mister genius is regretting swapping out both accessory ports for PD/QC (USBC/USBA) ports on the hard wire kit.
• Who would have thought I’d need an extension cord. Yea, to power my laptop, from the inverter to the laptop. A 15’ is perfect.

All three cables need to run into the roof top tent through a 1/2” opening in the rear passenger window, making sure the wires droop to prevent water from going into the Jeep if it rains. The roof top tent extends out over the rear passenger door, but ya never know. Torrential storms and all. #tongueincheek

Next mod is Main Line Overland hard wiring things into the tent. iKamper warranty be damned. I mean the iKamper base is rated to hold 900 pounds. So how would a little 2” hole hurt? These guys build, modify, and support the most incredible overland vehicles. Can’t wait to have that done, so I’ll be ready for my August vacation.

Well today was a wash. Got a little over 200 miles in before Kansas’ infamous high winds derailed the rest of today’s trip. After seeing a truck nearly overturn, I decided to pull into the local Pilot and wait for the winds to die down.

I remember a few trucks got rag-dolled last year. Not interested in seeing that again. The roof top tent increases risk in this kind of weather. Not taking chances. Tomorrow I’ll need to make up for lost time.

I plan my long trips with the longest days at the beginning, and the shortest days at the end. The first and second days were 500 miles each. Then I crossed a time zone.

Today is the third day on the road. I drove 419 miles at an average of 16.8mpg. Mostly flat roads once I got to Kansas. There was a stretch of 10 miles of controlled burns. Happy to confirm my Jeep’s closed vents worked perfectly.

Lots of trickers along I-70, and they were all on their CBs. The reception was good but it was hard to tell what the heck they were talking about. A lot of chatter about bears and pigs. Whatever.

500 miles, 16.9mpg average. Most boring part of the trip. Highways need work. And the least appealing. Graffiti all over bridges and dividers. It’s like NYC in the 80s all over again.

Got a shot of the arch. From far away.