In Part 1 , Doc wrote about the first week we spent in the San Rafael Swell in Utah. The second week I spent in Moab and this is my account. The latter part of this page, true to form for me, is plagiarized from an article written by John, who joined up for the latter half of the second week and all of the third week.

Day 7: At the end of the week, Doc and I wheeled for a little in the morning and then he went off to the San Juans for a week and I went off to Moab to set up camp. That afternoon I spent hours tightening up all sorts of loose nuts and bolts (spring u-bolts, driveshaft u-bolts, skid plate bolts, shock bolts, etc.) There was virtually no bolt underneath that wasn't loose. My only explanation is that they were not appropriately tightened to 800+ foot-pounds initially. The only bolt that wasn't loose was the steering brace bolt that had been tightened at the Swell (as documented in the last installment and much to Doc's chagrin.)

Day 8:Rusty Nail. The day was overcast but the trail made up for it. Rusty Nail is a back way in to the Golden Spike. It's not a Safari trail for good reason. There are a couple of gnarly climbs, but the big deal is coming down off a rock ledge 5 feet wide, at about a 35-40 degree downward angle, way off camber, with over a 100 foot drop off on the left (of course that's the side you lean to as you are way off camber.) The only object to help you stop as you drop the 5 or 6 feet is the small stump of a tree. The pucker factor was off the scale but it was great fun. After driving along a narrow ledge for a while, we got to the Spike and played on the Whammy and other obstacles the rest of the day. By the time we got back I was very thirsty, and not wanting to dehydrate, took Gray Fox out for beer and food. Much to my amazement, he could pack it away as well as I (the beer, that is!) You can drink at LOT of 3.2 Utah beer without much affect! It was amazing how good Jalapeno Beer tasted after a long day on the trail.

Day 10: Dome Plateau. One of the reasons for the trip was to run trails that will soon be closed forever (grumble, grumble). Dome Plateau, while not tough, is remarkably scenic so I ran that on my own. Long. Real long. Of course, getting lost on the mesa a half dozen times didn't help either. Actually, I wasn't lost, I knew where I was - I had my GPS - it was just the roads that were lost. When I got back to Moab, my 19 gallon tank took 19.2 gallons. Guess I haven't nailed the gas tank skid plate hard enough yet! I didn't want to appear to be unsociable, so when Clint and his crew from Omaha arrived and asked if I wanted to go to the Moab Brewery, I felt compelled to go. Besides that, I was dehydrated - again.

We had a great time. Clint is from Omaha and saw my web page last winter and sent me some e-mail on running some trails in Moab. This was his first time there and we agreed to run some trails together. His crew included himself, Dallas (his dad), his friends Jim and Jim and his brother-in-law-Mike. We had a great time at the Brewery and when Clint elected to pick up the tab, he learned about the inverse relationship between the amount of alcohol in the beer and the price. Thanks Clint !

Day 11: Hey Joe Canyon. This is another trail scheduled to be closed. You go down a very steep and narrow ledge to the bottom of a canyon, follow the Green River for several miles and wind up at an old mining camp. The weather looked threatening as we headed to the trailhead. I had my top down and the 40mph cross wind wasn't a whole lot of fun.

We got half way down and did a Kodak moment underneath a massive rock ledge. Dallas wasn't happy so we moved on. Once we got to the bottom, the valley ahead was obscured by a violent windstorm carrying more sand and gravel than rain. We almost bailed but when we saw a group from California head in also, we decided to continue on. (I guess there's safety in numbers.)

We finally got ahead of the slow moving group and toured the old mines. I brought my Geiger counter and we had great fun finding the layers of pitchblende and watching the needle go off the scale. We made our way back to Moab Brewery and once again were determined to find out how much Utah beer it would take to get buzzed. Never did find out. Clint, however, was much wiser this time and elected not to pick up the tab!

Day 12: Metal Masher. Clint and his crew, John (an ex-TRJC member who now lives in Salt Lake City) and his wife Debbie, and Screamin' and his family were all together on this one. This was an official Jeep Safari trail and I signed up for this since Perry Willard was leading it and he's a lot of fun. This was the first time I was able to do Rock Chucker (an optional obstacle that not a lot of people try). When I got to Widow Maker, a pretty good slickrock hill, I started bouncing all over the place. Not sure if it was the tires, the new springs, the extra torque from the Atlas II or what. But when someone told me there were pieces of metal falling out from under the Jeep while trying to climb it, I decided to take a strap (from a stock Wrangler, no less, who had made it up the hill with no trouble - how embarrassing!)

I wound up in town and determined that my transmission mount had vaporized. Found a guy that would fab a new one for me, but he was apologetic that all he had was chrome-moly stock. Damn! Two hours later I was back in business, but every time I would coast, I'd hear this click-click-click. I figured that when it stopped clicking and the Jeep wouldn't run anymore, then I'd fix it. It never broke so when I got home, I pulled the third member. It turned out that the edges of three teeth had broken off the ring gear of the Currie Hi Pinion. A gear pattern was run and based on the results it was obvious why the teeth broke. Currie's covered the gear under warranty.

Day 13: Kane Creek. Clint and his crew and John and his wife went on one of my favorites. You cross the creek about 60 times so I'm sure this will be on the greenie's hit list too one of these days. We had such a good time. We stopped for a picnic. It was the most perfect of picnic spots and the most perfect of days. Can't find the words to describe the moment. So instead, will get to the " fun " part.

John smoked his clutch on a rock climb and we had Debbie almost in tears as we spotted John 4-5 " from the edge of a 500 foot ledge (down, of course) to get him over the climb without totaling his clutch. We all made it. Then Clint and his crew found about an 8-foot waterslide on the slickrock in Kane Creek. Next thing we knew, Clint was down to his shorts sliding down the slickrock in the creek. I've seen a lot of sights out there, but this ranks right at the top of the most " memorable. " We had a great time. Thanks, Clint, for the entertainment. Once again we returned and sufficiently re-hydrated ourselves for the next day.

Day 14: Hell's Revenge. We all went on this one, led by Gray Fox. It was a great time and we didn't have any mechanical breakdowns. Hell's Gate, not a Safari obstacle was a real rush. It's several hundred feet up, straddling a notch and then at the top there is a steeper part where one (or both) front wheels come off the ground for, hopefully, a very short period of time. Toilet paper was an essential part of this obstacle. You can always tell obstacles that have the highest pucker factor - - no photos!

Clint, egged on by his " friends " , was encouraged to try the Dump Bump. " What the hell, it's our last day here, so why not? " While this doesn't capture the moment (the squealing tires, the broken glass, the painful sounds that I heard last -- oops, sorry, wrong song...), I put this in because Clint did give it a hell of a try with his Cherokee, and with more than a little tire squealing and a LOT of smoke, he made it! Impressive and a good way to end the week for the Boyz from Omaha. Great job, Clint. Great fun, guys, let's do it again next year!

From there we went to Potato Salad Hill and watched the folly: a few roll-overs, a lot of people and another great day!

Day 15: Golden Spike. [There were a number of breakdowns on the trail. One was a rollover where a guy in an unsafely lifted CJ5 rolled with his soon to be ex-girlfriend and her baby in the Jeep. There was also an older guy from Texas who lost his mechanical fuel pump and thanks to John's expertise, got him going with a replacement electronic pump. By the time we arrived, this guy was so red in the face from working on his Jeep, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. John: thanks for always being there to help someone!! - Dave]

I thought I would try Double Whammy. I let the Jeep bounce hard and put the electric fan into the radiator. Yes, I said electric. After a small trail repair, and water from Dave, we were on our way to finish the trail. We got into town before the auto parts closed and put on a mechanical fan blade to finish the trip. Met Dave back at camp to do repairs to my Jeep and weld a broken shock tower on Dave's Jeep. [John failed to mention the antics of the couple in the 4 Runner that was behind us. Ask John or Randy about it sometime! - Dave]

Day 16: Upper and Lower HellDorado. We met at the camp for lower and upper Helldorado. John, a club member from years past who lives in Salt Lake City, Screamin', Gina and the kids, Gray Fox, Dave, me and Randy, and a guy named Bashful. (By the way, if you meet Bashful, don't ask him how he is doing if you want to get started on time). By the time we got to lower Helldorado we had seven Jeeps, and about 4 or 5 people watching and taking video.

Lower Helldorado was good. It reminded me of Upper Buzzworm in South Dakota. At the end of the trail there is a short drive to upper Helldorado. We found a couple of locals starting on the first obstacle. There was a coil spring Scrambler and a 2000 TJ with 11,000 miles on it. The Scrambler made the first obstacle look easy. So did the TJ. On the second rock you had to place your left tire on a line that was only about 2 inches wide and if you missed or slid off there would be a roll into the rocks or body damage. The Scrambler had a good driver and a crew of nerf bar surfers that stopped it from a side roll. The TJ experienced its first trail damage, a crunched rear quarter from the wrong line.

Dave was next, got a little tippy but drove off ok. Gray Fox was our spotter, and when it was my turn I took the corner a little high and then tipped over the edge. The Jeep was still running, and with the help of the nerf surfers t came down to earth and on past the rocks. Screamin' , with mongo flex and the new Warn system, drove around it like a speed bump. We moved ever forward, a little hesitant of what might be next. Most of the obstacles were spaced out as to give you a breath and to let your heart beat slower. When we came up to the next to last boulder, the Scrambler was hung up hard on a Dodge pickup size rock, the surfers pushed and rocked and then the Scrambler bounced free. The word was - no winching until the end. The TJ got hung up in the same spot, then broke, (no grenaded!!) a left front axle. It was tugged off. The Boyz from Illinois, with the help from Gray Fox, got all of us over the rock without incident.

The last big obstacle was a 20' waterfall, at least a 45-degree angle, that was a winch only. You hooked your cable to the Jeep ahead of you so your cable was up the waterfall to get hooked next. Someone had put winch anchors in the rocks to pull you up.

Day 17: Pritchett Canyon. We met up with Gary to do Pritchett Canyon. Dave led, followed by Randy and me, with Doc tail gunning. As we started the trail, Dave's Jeep gave a loud bang over a waterfall. After looking, he broke a heim joint and mount on his traction bars. I got out the welder and found a heim joint, and 10 minutes later we were rolling. Next up was Rocker Knocker. Doc gave it 3 or 4 tries before finding the right line and went up. Next I gave it a couple tries and got lucky. Early in the trip we stopped Dave a couple of times thinking he had a U-Joint squeak, but we didn't find it. Well, trying Rocker Knocker the squeak was worse. Dave stopped where we winched him up and put in a rear U-Joint. He had replaced it 3 days earlier. Utah really put a strain on parts. We finished the rest of the trail to start the long dusty ride back to town.