April 19th-21st, 2003

Easter Jeep Safari
Moab, Utah

Day 1

On Saturday we ran Kane Creek Canyon on a official EJS trail ride. This trail was rated a 3.5. It is pretty easy with 30+ creek crossings. Only two semi-difficult climbs give the trail it's 3.5 rating. The EJS run is limited to 50 vehicles.

The day started bad, the RC wouldn't start. It had no spark. I pulled out the spares and changed the ECU, still no spark. Threw the old ECU back on and changed the coil, it fired! We packed the tools and parts back up and cruised into town to line up. We still managed to line up in 10th or 12th place.

The trail ride went smooth. The only problem was on the way back to camp. About 1 or 2 miles from camp, a heater hose mysteriously sprung a very small tear/leak. It made it to camp just fine. A hose repair, and 3 gallons of water and antifreeze, later it was fixed.

Day 2

Golden Spike (includes some Poison Spider Mesa and Gold Bar Rim)

I hooked back up with the group I came to Moab with and we decided to run Golden Spike.

The trail was a lot of fun, and is very scenic. Unfortunately, on basically the last obstacle of the trail, the Body Snatcher, I got a bad bounce climbing out and broke the front u-joint in the rear driveshaft. I had spare u-joints, but the broken joint also broke the yoke on the driveshaft and the yoke on the rear of the transfercase.

We found a fairly flat bypass for Body Snatcher, and I had to drive out in 2wd on the front. There were a couple hard climbs after that however, Troy in the Blazer strapped me up them.

Day 3

We never planned to do run any major trail on the third day, which was good as the RC was resting peacefully on the trailer. We decided to go check out the Proving Grounds. None of us tried it, we just hiked the trail instead. I took pics of the best obstacles.