Uraling at Arches National Park, Tusher Wash and in Moab, UT

25APR14

Some sunrise shots for your viewing enjoyment (hopefully)

Above shots were taken at Arches National Park

The Uralisti who were joining the group ride gathered near Dana's cabin starting about 9:00, and I think we were on the road by 9:30AM.  We left Arch View Resort Campground and headed north on UT191 for a short bit, turning onto dirt roads paralleling the highway soon after.

The road was pretty easy for the most part, most dirt/gravel and one had to take it easy on the curves but nothing major.  The way soon turned to loose deep sandy spots called "whoop dee doos" because that's what one wants to shout out as the rig is slewn about on the loose sand.  There were roller coaster sections of sand as well, parts with high banked sides which made life interesting while traversing them.

To all this fun, there's the added attraction of slick rocky stretches which test the limits of a rig's shock absorbers and one's knees ability to take repeated shocks; and as a bonus, I believe we were following a small creek bed with small little water crossings.  What more could you ask, right?

Well, it turns out you get more fun.

Dana led us to this sandy area, with a nearby hill climbing steeply perhaps 100 feet.  He and his rig roared up the hill, sand flying everywhere but he made it up there!

Next came Walt and Spat, but neither of them made it to the top.  Enthusiasm amongst the rest of us waned at this point for our tries for the top.  However, there we were, Scarlett and I, a new 2014 rig with the EFI, there was no turning back.

 Above is Dana's run up the hill
photo courtesy of Spat

Yours truly, powering up to the top.....the EFI and rig did great, much

commentary ensued amongst the peanut gallery.  As Scarlett was sporting

street tires you see, not knobbies.

photo courtesy of Spat

Very Temporary King of the Hill?

photo courtesy of Spat

Sand Hill play done with, we motored on, enjoying the sandy spots, not really enjoying the rocky spots with small ledges that had to be negotiated carefully.  We spent a lot of time in 2WD, especially in the sand portions but had to get back to 1WD on the rocky portions as steering became quite important.

I learned this after I was unable to dodge a big rock and a large bush while climbing a particularly steep rocky set of flat rocks.  The left side muffler became dislodged from the catalyst converter and Scarlett's engine sounded much louder at this point.  I reversed Scarlett out of the bush obstacle and made it to to the top of the trail, broke out the tools and hammered the muffer back onto the catalyst converter pipe.

 Scheduled break near Determination Towers

 Several rocky ledges, sandy trails and a few more whoop dee doos later,

a short respite before the "nasty spot"

We were now in the area of the Monitor and Merrimac Stone monuments.  Large rock formations poised opposite each others as their namesakes were back in the Civil War.  There was a spot, where we had to have a monkey hanging off the side of the tub, as the route was on slick rock that was deeply slopping off to the left.  Dana did demonstrate it could be done without one but no one decided to try it alone, and actually Dana made it mandatory so no face was lost by anyone.

 Yours truly being Paul's monkey for his transit of the "nasty spot"

photo courtesy of Spat

 Dana demonstrates proper monkey "hanging off" as Milo drives

his rig through the steep spot.

photo courtesy of Spat

Switching roles, Paul is now the monkey as I pilot Scarlett

photo courtesy of Spat

Everyone rig made it through the steeply sloping spot just fine, no problem with a monkey hanging off the side.  I sure wouldn't try it by myself.

To kind of underline the above point, though quite unitentionally, Paul rig's got into a badly sloping spot just a bit further up the trail and overturned!  Paul jumped clear and the rig fell onto its left side, not completely rolling over due to the metal windshield the rig had mounted.

photo courtesy Paul S.

Several of us parked our rigs, rushed over to help Paul.  Pictures were taken of course, and then we righted his rig and examined the damage.  Thankfully, Paul was fine.  The windshield's metal frame was bowed in but not creased.  The clutch lever was broken off, and the rear left turn signal was crushed and bent.  All in all, not too bad.

Some Jeepers came along and one of them, Darren, helped Paul and others pull the rig back onto flat rocky ground to do repairs.  

 Temporary spot for repairs to the clutch lever on Paul's rig

 Sights during lunch, as repairs were done on Paul's rig

Much head scratching and trial and error later, Mr Cob aka Dave, with Paul's tire irons and my vise grip and a bunch of wire ties produced this:

Truly a WWID moment.

The repairs done, we were able to move as a group to a large flat rock section to regroup.  We didn't have much faith that the temporary repairs would make it the roughly 12  kilometers of rough trail back to pavement.  So, most of the group went back to camp, following Scott who'd gone to get his FJ Cruiser truck and a trailer.

Mr Cob and I stayed with Paul for the couple of hours it took for the rescue vehicle to return for Paul's rig.  The weather was nice and warm if a bit windy at times.  I took the time to re-align my muffler from it's earlier disconnection, Mr Cob re-aligned his on his 2014 rig which he'd knocked off three times the day before.

Paul's rescue trailer arrived a bit before 3:00 PM and by 3:10PM we were set for the long, slow and somewhat perilous ride back to camp.  Kudos to Scott and his driving of the FJ Cruiser, with a dinky trailer with a large URAL mounted on top.

 Near where we waited for rescue.

 Check out that really small trailer, the rig barely fit ....

 Monitor and Merrimac?

 The rescue FJ, near the end of the perilous tow out of the badlands

 This shot should give you an idea of some of the slick rock 

ledges we had to deal with...

Scarlett's view of the pavement as the above shot of the FJ was done.

Around 4:00 PM, the pavement was in sight, I broke off from the rescue crew and too the Seven Mile Road back to camp.

Back at camp, everyone got cleaned up and the plan now was a formation ride through downtown Moab where folks were beginning to line main street to view the hotrods and classic cars that were scheduled to cruise the street in the evening.

Dana led us to a food truck in a parking lot where Quesadillas were being sold, good food by the way.  

 Our rigs at the Food Truck

 We also got UDF'ed by the local police

 Here's Dana talking one of the food truck employees about a sidecar ride.

photo courtesy of Spat

 There were three ladies there, two who worked in the food truck and one

who worked in the Pagan Mountaineering shop next door; all got taken out for sidecar rides.

photo courtesy of Spat

 Rusell took the boss lady out

photo courtesy of Spat

 Here's Dana, flying the chair upon his return with his "monkey", 

much to her delight.

photo courtesy of Spat

Here's Scott, with the lady who works at Pagan Mountaineering.

Looks like they had fun doesn't it?

photo courtesy of Spat

Paul, managed to hook up with the owner of a local moto-shop and he scored a replacement clutch lever so he is good to go for his ride back to Wyoming; I even got my vise grip back from him.  :)

A great day of riding, all rigs came home, no one got hurt, much fun was had.

Here's a link to the writeup and pics done by Tim L. on Sovietsteeds.com, good stuff, it was all the riding and events that happened before I arrived in Moab: LINK

Update: The next day was windy and rainy, not good for riding in Moab, ended up hanging at the campground, swapping stories and lies with what few remaining riders were there.

Pictures from this blog posting made it to the 

May 2014 Edition of the Irbit Informer.

Click the logo above.

An excellent video made by one of the riders at Moab: Mundo Bravo