Well, my wife and I made it to Moab, just like she wanted. Pulled into town yesterday afternoon after a 6 hour trip up from Albuquerque, got some food and flaked out at the hotel. This morning we got up bright and early and headed for the Sand Flats Recreation Area to run Fins and Things, a 9.4 mile trail consisting of slickrock and sand. It was mostly easy going with a few places requiring a bit more skill (or simple, bloody-minded audacity). I consistently went with the audacity, although even the toughest parts were still easy enough for my LJ (35's and lockers on both ends). On the last few obstacles I didn't engage the lockers, just to see what would happen. The answer? No big deal, the "slickrock" was really grippy and the Jeep just walked right up everything I pointed it at. A few pics (one thing I noted afterward was that I took lots of pics of the Jeep and almost no scenery shots. I'll have to do better tomorrow):
Climbs and descents were almost equally easy. 4 low, 1st gear, let out the clutch and away we go. BTW, there really is a driver at the wheel in this shot...
First decent climb, maybe 15 feet up an uneven rockface. No worries, mate!
How many of you have noticed that peculiar optical illusion that makes your climbs and descents look a LOT steeper from inside the cockpit that it does to an outside observer? Yeah, got a lot of those today. On this one, all I could see in front of me was sky.
OK, this one actually looks almost as steep as it really was, with the added thrill of a hard left turn at the top to keep from falling off the other side of the fin. Still, the LJ took it all in stride and made me look like a much better driver than I really am. I'm beginning to think that my build plan is making sense, all of the different mods are working together to make things pretty easy on the idiot driver.
That's it for today, tune in tomorrow for the after action report on Hell's Revenge. After a very satisfying run today I'm looking forward to a bit more of a challenge. It ain't KOH, but it'll do for me.
Climbs and descents were almost equally easy. 4 low, 1st gear, let out the clutch and away we go. BTW, there really is a driver at the wheel in this shot...
First decent climb, maybe 15 feet up an uneven rockface. No worries, mate!
How many of you have noticed that peculiar optical illusion that makes your climbs and descents look a LOT steeper from inside the cockpit that it does to an outside observer? Yeah, got a lot of those today. On this one, all I could see in front of me was sky.
OK, this one actually looks almost as steep as it really was, with the added thrill of a hard left turn at the top to keep from falling off the other side of the fin. Still, the LJ took it all in stride and made me look like a much better driver than I really am. I'm beginning to think that my build plan is making sense, all of the different mods are working together to make things pretty easy on the idiot driver.
That's it for today, tune in tomorrow for the after action report on Hell's Revenge. After a very satisfying run today I'm looking forward to a bit more of a challenge. It ain't KOH, but it'll do for me.