Sunday came along. I packed my lunch and met up with PB2. I was to be a seat warmer for the next two days. We headed out to Hell's Revenge. This broke my heart. The trail was smooth slickrock for as far as the eye could see. We got to some awesome views overlooking the Colorado River. Man, I could NOT get past my aggrivation over the ZJ's issues. The hottubs, Escalator... man. I was so bugged. The trail ride was great. PB2 was a gratious host and allowed me to keep the sun from fading his right seat he swiped from a Dodge Neon. (which was quite comfy). We stopped to eat at the base of the Escalator. Only one nut tried it... Randall. With Currie 9" axles front and rear, with an laundry list of mods... it was the Jeep in out group most likely to make it. The hardest climb had some water in it that we all failed to measure... it was deep.. Randall got to about the halfway point and just could not get over the ledge. He backed down after having to deploy the "Jeep Kickstand" out the driver's window to keep the shiny parts from the slickrock. That was the most talked aobut event of our day. Randall's wife wasn't along for the ride that afternoon... but she got a look at the video later on. Boy, were her eyes opened wide. :-)

If Sunday's ride on uneventful... Monday's run on Metal Masher was something else. We netted our first real "breakage". My host and chaufer, PB2 was gettin it on for the camera and overextended his front driveshaft. That netted a chain of events, which sheared both the u-bolt straps for the front yoke. Lucky for Paul, Todd had some spares. (yay!) That was not all, folks. We trudged on around to the main obstacle on the trail. Wisow maker is impassable by anything but HEAVILY modded rigs running HUGE tires. The sand at the bottom is dug out, and there is easily 3 feet of verticle rock to traverse. A Winch is REQUIRED. We took the bypass and then opted for the way out. Our guide. Our awesome guide. Looked to me riding shotgun with my GPS in another rig ans asked if we were at the correct junction. The coordinates in the book that I was working off of did not work the same on my GPS. I had ot take a guess .... and having never been on that trail... I said it looks like it might be. Plus, in my defense, there were tire tracks going that way. SO....

.....we got "lost". We took the scenic route. It was actually nice wheeling. Nothing exceedingly hard. We got some neat views of the canyons and stuff. Our half-day ride eventually took us ALL day. Carrol and Jeff had split up and rode as passengers due to lack of parts availability for the YJ. I felt better not being the only ride-along. We helped IH8PVMNT and Longboy load up and tiedown their rig and saw them on their way back to Colorado. The rest of us lumbered in to town and had a nice, cozy dinner. We felt a bit underdressed, but the food was good.

Tuesday morning was rough. I have to say it. I was draggin my feet on the way out. I did NOT want to go, and I probably came the closest that I ever have to saying "screw it" and staying. On my first trip, Moab got to me. I only ran two trails, but the way it all worked out for me really got my blood pumping. Having gone a second time, I can't contain my fondness for the area. The scenery is friggin BEAUTIFUL. The vastness of it is wonderful. The changes in the terrain were interesting, and the ability to take other hobbies with you along the way in enticing. I almost took my kayak with me, but I'm glad I didn't. That would have taken up another 2-4 days. :-) Good thing I left my mountain bike, too. .... and my 4wheeler.