Linda and I left Grand Junction for Moab at about 6:15am on New Year's morning, in medium fog. The weather report said it'd be foggy all the way to Moab, so we were a little afraid that it was going to be mucky there, too. We arrived in Moab a little before 8am...tried to keep a lookout for Lloyd's red truck at the Super 8, but didn't see it. We did, however, see a nice silver 2-door at the Denny's next to Super 8, which I filed away for later. Went down to the Moab Diner and found it closed, so we stopped to top off the gas and check out the porcelain, and then headed back up Main to the Super 8.
About halfway back, we saw Lloyd and highmtndesert (hereafter referred to as ôHMDö; sorry, man...I can't remember your name at all) heading our way. I flashed my lights, turned around and we met at Moab Diner, which was still closed. How rude...to be closed for business on a major holiday! HMD's was the nice silver Raider we saw back at Denny's, which is where we opted to go back to for breakfast.
After introductions (me, Linda, Lloyd, Lloyd's fiancee(hereafter ôLFö; sorry..!), their 5 year-old daughter Chelsea, HMD, and his friend), breakfast, and a brief show-and-tell, we headed up the highway to the turnoff to go up Metal Masher. We aired-down and locked in the hubs (except for HMD, who had autohubs...not that it ever slowed him down) in two inches of snow. We started out with Lloyd in front, me in the middle, and HMD in the back, since I had open diffs and a manual transmission and would be in a position for a pull or a push if necessary.
ôMetal Masherö isn't really that bad...I was foolish to let the name spook me. If there'd been no snow, a lot of it (except for Mirror Gulch) would've been cake. There were a lot of spots that, especially because of the snow, an open-diff vehicle (like mine) had to approach straight-on and fearlessly use the gas at the right times to get over, but most of it was fairly low-drama. Incredible views no matter where you looked. I took as many pictures as I could manage, but nowhere near as many as I could have.
About halfway up Metal Masher on a gentle sandstone hill, Lloyd noticed some problems with the feel of the steering. We stopped and he rolled under the front to look. Turned out that the steering stabilizer he'd installed (a Rancho junkyard find off of, I think, a '94 he was picking off of) was rubbing hard against the front of the diff cover under medium flex and had started to spin out his drain plug...there was a fair drip started. Lloyd spent about 30 minutes removing it, and he and HMD spent another 15 or so getting his battered skid plate back on...some of the holes weren't lining up or something and they had to apply pressure in just the right spot with a bottle jack to get it on. During this time, a brief snowball fight ensued between LF and their daughter...Chelsea takes being hit with a snowball VERY personally. %)
We then continued...not very far past the Rancho-ectomy, the tracks in the snow we'd been followed stopped. Most of the major trails around Moab are clearly marked, either with the plastic BLM marker posts, or else painted stencils on the sandstone. With the snow on the ground, the painted marks were covered. We lost track of the trail as it began to cross a large and rolling expanse of sandstone, so Lloyd and I went ahead on foot to scout out the way through. Fortunately, Lloyd mostly remembered the path, and we found our way to the bottom of Mirror Gulch fairly quickly. We hoofed back to the vehicles and got underway again. This 100- or 150-yard expanse was full of rolly sandstone and sharp little eroded V-cracks in it...think Golden Crack-ish, just a lot smaller. The snow made getting up and out of these pretty slippery. I learned earlier to NOT automatically follow the line that Lloyd did through an obstacle...open diffs force you to have to think things through a bit.
Mirror Gulch is intimidating to look at from the bottom, if you've never been in REALLY rough stuff before...a square notch going up through the sandstone hill, barely wider than the vehicle. Monteros have room, but not a lot extra...maybe 18ö (tops) on either side. Perhaps my fear made it look more constrictive, I dunno. There's a series of high squared-off ledges to negotiate as you go up the Gulch, 12-24ö or so high. Lloyd went up the first ledge with no problems...just crawled right up, taking (of course) the trickier line. I was up next...I tried a number of times, stalling several times, and once I ALMOST made it. I might've made it if my front wheels hadn't started rearing up and spooking me...I let off the gas before I was all the way up. Feeling your front end lifting off the ground when you're already back at a fairly high angle is pretty startling the first time. It feels very WRONG, when you're used to having at least three of your wheels on the ground. To keep things moving, we decided to just have Lloyd pull me up with a strap...this went smoothly.
HMD came up next...this man disgusts me. He only has a rear LSD and no lift AND YET got through everything we went through with far less drama than even Lloyd. I'd watch him in the rearview mirror just bopping through the stuff that I'd struggled through and had just watched Lloyd go through with some slipping around...HMD managed to make it all look far easier than it should have. All of the ledges on Mirror Gulch were NOTHING to him...he just did it.
There was another ledge further up that Lloyd had to strap me up...again, no problems. At the very top was a snowy two-foot ledge that caused Lloyd a fair amount of trouble...a certain amount of rock stacking was necessary. Once Lloyd managed to keep his front end from sliding sharply to the right, he got up...a tire-width notch in the rock that he'd previously been avoiding helped with this. HMD and his copilot restacked the rocks, and it was my turn...after my first failure, we decided to go ahead and strap to save time. As Lloyd was uncoiling the strap from around his spare, I tried again, if only to get my frontend up where Lloyd could easily hook the strap. Something happened, dunno what...but we suddenly found ourselves on top of the ledge. The tires must've hooked up just right...I recall hearing cheers, but it might've only been in my mind. HMD, of course, hopped right up the ledge after a quick restack. I seethed with bitter envy. He COULD have done the Noble Thing and made it look like he was really STRIVING for those ledges, but noooooooo...
After a long stretch of snowy sandstone hills and a few small ledges (nothing really), we arrived at the Top...I'll have to consult a map to see just where we were and what it was called, but it was the top of the cliff on the west side of the canyon that Hwy. 191 goes through on the way into Moab. We were looking down on the highway, a very long ways down. From here, Lloyd pointed out just how far you could see...the Wasatch to the north, the Uncompaghre Plateau and some extremely distant Divide peaks to the east, some mountains whose name I can't recall to the southwest, and all the canyons and other landmarks in the area. We ate lunch there...sitting in the vehicles, since the wind was strong and bitterly cold up there. I took a bunch of pics up here, including a couple that highlight the difference between a stock Montero and Lloyd's. The ravens on that cliff are obviously used to scrounging food from the jeepers, but they were smart enough to be leery...Lloyd threw them bread, but they wouldn't go near it. They almost certainly did after we'd left.
We then headed towards Widowmaker...Lloyd seemed keen on going all the way up to it, but the rest of us had reservations, especially after seeing the steep and snowy hill we'd have to climb to get to it. We went back to the easier bypass around Widowmaker, and got lost for about an 1-1/2 hours. We had a rough idea of where we were, but we couldn't be sure we were on the right trail...there's a web of unmarked and ambiguously-marked trails all around there. After a while, Lloyd got sorted, and we made our way to Gemini Bridges.
Above Gemini Bridges, Lloyd made a sharp right off the trail, and sat there at the top of a high dropoff...Linda and I looked at each other, and we agreed that No, we were NOT following. HMD went around and down the trail, below the ledge that Lloyd was eyeing, to take pictures. The ledge was about 3-1/2 feet high, sharp and square. Lloyd slowly inched off of the lip and eventually made it down...I couldn't believe it. Didn't even scrape his bumper. There's pictures.
We parked atop the wider of the two Gemini Bridges for pictures...by this time it was starting to get dark. The bridges are quite impressive, and mildly scary for the person afraid of heights.
After that, we headed out and down...little to tell. Went back into town to Denny's for dinner (atrocious, but just about the only thing open on New Year's), and then we came back home. Got back at about 815pm, to the delight of the dogs.
Raining on and off all day here in Grand Junction. Typically, winter weather is similar in Moab. This evening (01/02/04) it's been snowing pretty heavily, so Lloyd and HMD may not have a lot to do on Saturday, and may not have gotten a lot done today (Friday).
I'll post some pictures as soon as I've had some time to sort through them. That's one of the problems with digital cameras...you can take a LOT of pictures! I have 176 pics to sort through, and it's way too late to do it tonight.
