Note: Most of my time was spent in the vicinity of Scott and Mike, so I apologize in advance if this report seems to focus too much on our Jeeps.

The trip started pretty much the way it ended: with Jeep trouble for Mike. About 1 p.m. on Friday Mike called me about a leaking radiator from Golden, CO. I (blindly) referred him to a nearby shop which overcharged for a used Wrangler radiator with incompatible (we found out later) cap - so he left a trail of antifreeze where ever he went. After the repair, we met up on the outskirts of Denver and headed to Grand Junction, where we were to pick up the trip organizer, JR, who was flying in from Pennsylvania. We were a little late to Grand Junction, courtesy of the busted radiator, but so was JR's plane, so all was cool. We finally arrived in Moab around 11 pm, and checked into the Virginian Motel at 11 p.m.

We ended up with seven vehicles on the trip, from left to right: Scott and his 3 year old son Zach from Denver in a TJ with a 3 inch Mepco lift and 32 inch tires Tom and Dawn from Denver in a ZJ with 29 inch tires Eric & Jamie from Boise in a TJ with 31 inch tires Mike from Eastern Iowa in a CJ5 (with JR riding shotgun), 3 inch (5 inch) lift, 33inch tires, locked front and rear Marsha and her son Matthew from Salt Lake in a YJ with 4 inch lift, 31 inch tires and limited slip John from Denver in a stock TJ with 31 inch tires. Pat (and Max, the chocolate lab) from Denver in a CJ7 - 5 inch lift, 33 inch tires, locked front & rear.

Saturday the trail was Gold Bar Rim just outside Moab. After airing down, we wound up through red rock under crystal clear blue skies with glimpses of the snow capped La Sal mountain range at higher elevations. The trail was a 3+ (scale: 1, 2, 3, 3+, 4, 4+). There were lots of ledges and dropoffs. In the beginning, I was feeling a little cocky. The stock TJs were having to take several attempts over a few obstacles, while my longer wheelbase allowed me to creep right through without loosing traction. This lasted perhaps 10 minutes, and then my short stature and longer wheelbase seemed to put me at a disadvantage for the rest of the trails.

Scott's new lift game him a competitive advantage and he sailed over the obstacles. This is a good thing, since he routinely walked back up the trail to spot me through the rough, high spots in my lowly ZJ (thanks, Scott). Towards the middle of the trail I decided to give my skid plates a workout and got the Grand high centered on the transfer case. Although the bang of metal on slickrock was loud, I think Dawn's (my wife) screams were louder. A quick backward tow from Scott and I headed down the chicken route (after the requisite photo of the skid marks and the wheelie popped while getting off the rock).

There were lots of Kodak moments along the way, especially when we reached the end of the trail. The first two vehicles (Pat's CJ and John's TJ) had no trouble but then a crucially placed "step" rock got moved. Without this step, the other Jeeps could not traverse the rock shelf to get to the end of the trail. Despite Mike's best efforts with a hi-lift jack, he could not put the 1000 pound rock back close enough to climb the ledge. Being the trooper that he is, Mike gave several valiant attempts to scale the ledge, at times getting a front tire 2 feet off the ground. Mike finally had to admit defeat, so we parked the Jeeps and walked over to the Double Whammy.

The Double Whammy. Hmmm. Imagine 2 rock steps, the first step is 3 feet off the ground, the second step is 6 feet off the ground. Now, connect the firststep and the ground with an absolutely vertical (90 degree) wall. Connect the first step and the second step with 4 feet of rock at a 45 degree angle.

That's the Double Whammy (DW). When we get to the DW, a hugely built CJ was crawling down the steps. To control his descent his transmission was in reverse. When he made it down the steps successfully, he decided to play around and attempted to back UP the obstacle. Suddenly we heard a couple large CRACKS and the CJ was in desperate need of a couple new U joints. However, we heard that this particular CJ had actually made it up the Double Whammy before our arrival. But the obstacle is so difficult for short wheelbase Jeeps (the front tires have to climb the 2nd step at the exact same time the rear tires climb the 1st step) that Marsha still has never seen, with her own eyes, any short wheelbase Jeep accomplish the feat.

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