Nothing Special's Moab trip, 2019

[Gary Lewis]

A couple things I thought to add...

During the 6 hours we were on Top of the World trail we saw 3 different groups of people. A couple dirt bikes passed us on the way up, the 4 people on ATVs caught us at the top and then passed us on the way down, and we met 2 Jeeps that were coming in as we were getting back near the trailhead. So again, very little traffic, but it wasn't like we were entirely on our own.

We also saw two different Suburbans driving down the dirt road as we drove up (it looks like there's some sort of retreat center off that road). And as we drove out on the dirt road we met a couple people on mountain bikes. That was actually briefly exciting as I came around a corner at the blistering pace of 10 mph and suddenly there was a guy on a bike coming toward me on my side of the road. I stopped easily before we got too close to hitting, but I did lock the brakes and threw some gravel in the process, which probably spooked him a bit. The bikes were struggling up a pretty steep (for a bike) hill at that point, and between that and the surprise of seeing a Bronco sliding toward him he laid it down. But he pretty much stayed on his feet as the bike went down, and there didn't seem to be any injury or damage (his buddy was a little further back and didn't have any such trouble).

Also, when we were in Moab (mid September) the temps were pretty reasonable (highs started in the upper 80s, dropping to the upper 70s by the end of the week). But it is desert, and in the summer it gets HOT there. We heard that the heat index on Labor Day this year was 119 F! And since it's desert, there's very little humidity, so the actual temp must have been close to that. The point of bringing this up is to remind people to be prepared. You might want to avoid the area during the summer. But if you do go when it's hot, or even when it's "cooler" like when we went, bring enough water. On the longer days we went through about 2 liters each. On hotter days you probably need at least a gallon per person per day.

Bob - I found a Wrangler Power Products kit for dual batteries, but it is a bit pricey at $630. I plan to upgrade to the later style battery carrier and may see if I can figure out how to use two of them side-by-side. But I'll keep the other in mind. Thanks.

Glad to know the biker wasn't hurt. (I'm remembering European Vacation right now.)

And, glad to know that it wasn't crowded but also that there were a few others - just in case.

I'd wondered about the temps at that time of year. But, having been on Powell at roughly the same time a few years ago I kinda knew. However, others might not know about the temps there, nor how dry it is. We always packed a rather large cooler for our outings in the SeaRay - and frequently found our way to Dangling Rope Marina and its ice cream.

[Nothing Special]

Bob - I found a Wrangler Power Products kit for dual batteries, but it is a bit pricey at $630. I plan to upgrade to the later style battery carrier and may see if I can figure out how to use two of them side-by-side. But I'll keep the other in mind. Thanks.

Glad to know the biker wasn't hurt. (I'm remembering European Vacation right now.)

And, glad to know that it wasn't crowded but also that there were a few others - just in case.

I'd wondered about the temps at that time of year. But, having been on Powell at roughly the same time a few years ago I kinda knew. However, others might not know about the temps there, nor how dry it is. We always packed a rather large cooler for our outings in the SeaRay - and frequently found our way to Dangling Rope Marina and its ice cream.

I'm not taking the time to look it up, but might it be possible to get just the tray and not the entire kit? If you already have a dual battery setup you probably don't need the rest. Or maybe just take the idea and see if you can make your own dual battery tray? Just suggestions...

[Gary Lewis]

I'm not taking the time to look it up, but might it be possible to get just the tray and not the entire kit? If you already have a dual battery setup you probably don't need the rest. Or maybe just take the idea and see if you can make your own dual battery tray? Just suggestions...

We are thinking alike. I'm changing to the later tray, and I think there's a chance of getting two of them in since I'll also be running a 3G alternator, which won't need a regulator on the fender. So maybe. But if not then I can contact them to see if I can get the trays themselves.

Plus, placing both batteries there would simplify the wiring as there's no need for the long yellow feed across the firewall to the relay and then forward to the battery. Put the relay by the two batteries.

[Nothing Special]

I'm not taking the time to look it up, but might it be possible to get just the tray and not the entire kit? If you already have a dual battery setup you probably don't need the rest. Or maybe just take the idea and see if you can make your own dual battery tray? Just suggestions...

Saturday, Sep 21 - Sevenmile Rim

I had planned to take a look at Moab Rim, Metal Masher or Behind the Rocks on this last day. But Lesley wanted to do a "nice" trail that we could actually finish rather than start a harder trail and maybe get turned back again. Plus with it being our last day it would be good to finish up earlier so we could get the Bronco hooked up to be towed home. Trying one or two harder trails didn't seem like the best way to do that. So Friday evening I looked through the guidebook I referenced before and found Sevenmile Rim toward the easier end of the "difficult" classification. It had two warnings: that there was a steep off-camber pitch near the south end of the loop and that there were a lot of criss-crossing trails that made it easy to get lost. Criss-crossing trails sounded like the perfect solution to the problem of a steep off-camber pitch, so I opened up my mapping program and found a way we could do the first half of Sevenmile rim, then hop over to a "moderate" trail, Courthouse Rock. After getting the route loaded into my GPS we were ready to explore!

There was a BIG group of mostly newer Jeeps in the staging area on the west side of highway 191 about 9 miles north of town. Turns out the Red Rock Fourwheelers were having their monthly club run there. After finding out that they weren't going to be on the same trail we aired down and headed out.

It took about 10 minutes to go 2 miles up Cotter Mine Road to the trailhead. Then it took about 2 hours to go 4 miles to where we ate lunch, another hour to go 2.5 miles to where we broke off of the Sevenmile Rim trail and another hour to go the 6.5 miles back to the staging area via the Courthouse Rock trail and Cotter Mine Road.

This did end up being a nice trail. It wasn't as distinctively "Moab" as the other trails, with more white / gray rocks and not the incredible traction of slickrock all of the time. There were still stretches of that, but if you are going for a "quintessential Moab trail", this isn't it. There were a lot of sections just difficult enough to be fun, but nothing that should scare off more novice drivers. And while there were some places where you could see a long way, a lot of the time it was more the scrub pines again. While I'd say I preferred the other three trails we ran to this one, this trail was still a winner. All in all not bad for a last trail day.

Here's sort of a typical view with a fun-but-not-difficult part of the trail (and some of the less red rock)

Here's a descent that gets your attention (and back into the red rock)

Another red rock section that was difficult enough to make me scout it (no stills of this obstacle because Lesley was taking video). This was the 4th and last place I used the front locker. I wouldn't have needed to, but it was a little off-camber and it would have been a little more exciting if I had slipped the back tires and dropped to the left off those steps.

Another couple of interesting parts. The second picture below sort of shows one of the vistas.

The trail gets you to Uranium Arch, This was a really nice place for lunch, with shade and a lot of greenery to keep it cooler. There were also some petroglyphs here, but since they included the symbols "2015" I think they mostly would be categorized as graffiti . Anyway, here's the picture of Uranium Arch

Two different side-by-sides showed up while we were eating lunch. Otherwise we didn't see any other vehicles on this trail. But it's not very remote. At times we were up to a few miles off Cotter Mine Road, but it had a little traffic. And the staging area was right on highway 191. So worst case is wasn't that long of a walk for help.

After lunch the trail continued as before to where we turned off Sevenmile Rim. Then it was a pretty fast (by 'wheeling standards) sandy two-track over to the Courthouse Rock trail, which was rougher, but still went pretty quickly. And just like that our Moab vacation was over (well, after one more trip downtown and another stop at the diner for shakes!).

edit to add in December 2021: Here's the video from this day

We both really enjoyed this trip (Lesley is asking if we can go back next year!). Moab is so different from the other places we've 'wheeled! It was fun just to experience the differences. I do hope to get a chance to do some of the harder trails on future trips. That might require a few upgrades to my Bronco (new tires for sure, and probably doing something about the dropped radius arm brackets that act as grappling hooks on breakovers). And it will definitely require some more support, at least a spotter and preferably another vehicle (or more).

But now all I have of this trip is the memories (and still some red dust!). Thanks to all of you who have read my ramblings, letting me relive the trip with you!

[Gary Lewis]

Saturday, Sep 21 - Sevenmile Rim

I had planned to take a look at Moab Rim, Metal Masher or Behind the Rocks on this last day. But Lesley wanted to do a "nice" trail that we could actually finish rather than start a harder trail and maybe get turned back again. Plus with it being our last day it would be good to finish up earlier so we could get the Bronco hooked up to be towed home. Trying one or two harder trails didn't seem like the best way to do that. So Friday evening I looked through the guidebook I referenced before and found Sevenmile Rim toward the easier end of the "difficult" classification. It had two warnings: that there was a steep off-camber pitch near the south end of the loop and that there were a lot of criss-crossing trails that made it easy to get lost. Criss-crossing trails sounded like the perfect solution to the problem of a steep off-camber pitch, so I opened up my mapping program and found a way we could do the first half of Sevenmile rim, then hop over to a "moderate" trail, Courthouse Rock. After getting the route loaded into my GPS we were ready to explore!

There was a BIG group of mostly newer Jeeps in the staging area on the west side of highway 191 about 9 miles north of town. Turns out the Red Rock Fourwheelers were having their monthly club run there. After finding out that they weren't going to be on the same trail we aired down and headed out.

It took about 10 minutes to go 2 miles up Cotter Mine Road to the trailhead. Then it took about 2 hours to go 4 miles to where we ate lunch, another hour to go 2.5 miles to where we broke off of the Sevenmile Rim trail and another hour to go the 6.5 miles back to the staging area via the Courthouse Rock trail and Cotter Mine Road.

This did end up being a nice trail. It wasn't as distinctively "Moab" as the other trails, with more white / gray rocks and not the incredible traction of slickrock all of the time. There were still stretches of that, but if you are going for a "quintessential Moab trail", this isn't it. There were a lot of sections just difficult enough to be fun, but nothing that should scare off more novice drivers. And while there were some places where you could see a long way, a lot of the time it was more the scrub pines again. While I'd say I preferred the other three trails we ran to this one, this trail was still a winner. All in all not bad for a last trail day.

Here's sort of a typical view with a fun-but-not-difficult part of the trail (and some of the less red rock)

Here's a descent that gets your attention (and back into the red rock)

Another red rock section that was difficult enough to make me scout it (no stills of this obstacle because Lesley was taking video). This was the 4th and last place I used the front locker. I wouldn't have needed to, but it was a little off-camber and it would have been a little more exciting if I had slipped the back tires and dropped to the left off those steps.

Another couple of interesting parts. The second picture below sort of shows one of the vistas.

The trail gets you to Uranium Arch, This was a really nice place for lunch, with shade and a lot of greenery to keep it cooler. There were also some petroglyphs here, but since they included the symbols "2015" I think they mostly would be categorized as graffiti . Anyway, here's the picture of Uranium Arch

Two different side-by-sides showed up while we were eating lunch. Otherwise we didn't see any other vehicles on this trail. But it's not very remote. At times we were up to a few miles off Cotter Mine Road, but it had a little traffic. And the staging area was right on highway 191. So worst case is wasn't that long of a walk for help.

After lunch the trail continued as before to where we turned off Sevenmile Rim. Then it was a pretty fast (by 'wheeling standards) sandy two-track over to the Courthouse Rock trail, which was rougher, but still went pretty quickly. And just like that our Moab vacation was over (well, after one more trip downtown and another stop at the diner for shakes!).

edit to add in December 2021: Here's the video from this day

We both really enjoyed this trip (Lesley is asking if we can go back next year!). Moab is so different from the other places we've 'wheeled! It was fun just to experience the differences. I do hope to get a chance to do some of the harder trails on future trips. That might require a few upgrades to my Bronco (new tires for sure, and probably doing something about the dropped radius arm brackets that act as grappling hooks on breakovers). And it will definitely require some more support, at least a spotter and preferably another vehicle (or more).

But now all I have of this trip is the memories (and still some red dust!). Thanks to all of you who have read my ramblings, letting me relive the trip with you!

What a good way to end your trip! And Lesley wants to go back next year! That says bunches.

I think this trail, or combo thereof, might be the perfect warm up to Moab. By then my son should have the manual tranny figured out, assuming he flies here and drives with me, and then both of us can get used to driving on the rough stuff, slowly.

As for the upgrades, what tires would you be considering? And how do you fix the radius arm brackets - that I see hanging down in the breeze?

[Nothing Special]

What a good way to end your trip! And Lesley wants to go back next year! That says bunches.

I think this trail, or combo thereof, might be the perfect warm up to Moab. By then my son should have the manual tranny figured out, assuming he flies here and drives with me, and then both of us can get used to driving on the rough stuff, slowly.

As for the upgrades, what tires would you be considering? And how do you fix the radius arm brackets - that I see hanging down in the breeze?

I haven't decided on tires for sure yet. It'll be some sort of mud-terrain, possibly BFG KM3, or maybe Nitto Grappler, or maybe.... And in something like a 35/12.50 size. I want tires that stick out a little past the sheetmetal to provide a little protection. One problem is that it's hard to find load range C tires, and I don't really want to go with Es on a Bronco.

Not sure about the radius arms yet either. The simplest would be to get some long arms, cut off the dropped mounts and put some "normal" mounts farther back on the frame. But a link suspension would be cool...

Also you can see in some of the side views that the radius arms are protecting my transfer case, so if I raise them I really should clock the transfer case up higher. But there's no room for that between the frame rails, so I'd need to notch the frame (and all the reinforcing that would require). Plus the U-joint at my front diff is at about the max angle it can be at now, so if I clock the transfer case up I'll need to turn my axle to raise the pinion and get that angle down. But that means cutting the knuckles off so I can rotate them back to keep my caster where it belongs...

This is what they call "scope creep." I'm sure it's nothing you've ever had to deal with

[Gary Lewis]

I haven't decided on tires for sure yet. It'll be some sort of mud-terrain, possibly BFG KM3, or maybe Nitto Grappler, or maybe.... And in something like a 35/12.50 size. I want tires that stick out a little past the sheetmetal to provide a little protection. One problem is that it's hard to find load range C tires, and I don't really want to go with Es on a Bronco.

Not sure about the radius arms yet either. The simplest would be to get some long arms, cut off the dropped mounts and put some "normal" mounts farther back on the frame. But a link suspension would be cool...

Also you can see in some of the side views that the radius arms are protecting my transfer case, so if I raise them I really should clock the transfer case up higher. But there's no room for that between the frame rails, so I'd need to notch the frame (and all the reinforcing that would require). Plus the U-joint at my front diff is at about the max angle it can be at now, so if I clock the transfer case up I'll need to turn my axle to raise the pinion and get that angle down. But that means cutting the knuckles off so I can rotate them back to keep my caster where it belongs...

This is what they call "scope creep." I'm sure it's nothing you've ever had to deal with

Me? Scope creep? Where would I be without it? Done maybe?

[Nothing Special]

Me? Scope creep? Where would I be without it? Done maybe?

If you like videos, here's a recently posted one of Top of the World. NotaRubicon Productions is a mix of very well built Jeeps with very experienced drivers and closer to stock Jeeps with less experienced drivers, so they have good videos for showing how you might do a trail and how others might take some of the harder lines!

In this video the hardest ledge is from 2:00 - 4:00 where the more stock Jeeps took the easier right side that I took on the way down. From 4:00 to about 6:30 a couple other Jeeps make it up the harder left route that I took up (at 5:00 the first one is driving up the place where I had to winch).

They also have a video of Hell's revenge. This one doesn't do as good a job of showing how "real people" do the trail. From about 5:30 on they really only show optional harder lines and obstacles. But the first 5:30 pretty much show you what you can expect (with a couple hard lines thrown in).

[Gary Lewis]

If you like videos, here's a recently posted one of Top of the World. NotaRubicon Productions is a mix of very well built Jeeps with very experienced drivers and closer to stock Jeeps with less experienced drivers, so they have good videos for showing how you might do a trail and how others might take some of the harder lines!

In this video the hardest ledge is from 2:00 - 4:00 where the more stock Jeeps took the easier right side that I took on the way down. From 4:00 to about 6:30 a couple other Jeeps make it up the harder left route that I took up (at 5:00 the first one is driving up the place where I had to winch).

They also have a video of Hell's revenge. This one doesn't do as good a job of showing how "real people" do the trail. From about 5:30 on they really only show optional harder lines and obstacles. But the first 5:30 pretty much show you what you can expect (with a couple hard lines thrown in).

The Top Of The World one is interesting. I see the two routes you are talking about, and why you winched when you did. But I think I'd take the easy road.

But the one on Hell's Revenge is scary. No way I'm going to get into that kind of climb - in anything. That rollover was awful to watch. And his position didn't seem that bad until it rolled. So the others may have been close to rolling as well.

[Nothing Special]

.... But the one on Hell's Revenge is scary. No way I'm going to get into that kind of climb - in anything. That rollover was awful to watch. And his position didn't seem that bad until it rolled. So the others may have been close to rolling as well.

Did I miss something? I don't recall a rollover in the

video I linked. And I just scanned through it again and didn't see a rollover. At what point in the video did you see it? Or are you thinking back to the "

" video I linked earlier?