Moabzu 'Zu ZooII May 14-17 1999 Moab Trail Ride

Nov. 01, 2005 By ORC STAFF

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As I said last year, Moab is an excellent place for the extreme folks to play while still offering reasonable trails for stock vehicles. I'm looking forward to meeting more of the various 'wheelers I only know from the 'net, checking out their trucks in person, and wheeling with a group of Isuzus. I'm also looking forward to catching up with people from last year. I want to see these rigs work on the trail, maybe tug an Isuzu out of a tough spot, and maybe be tugged out by another Isuzu.

I realize that there are far more stock Isuzus out there than there are modified rigs, and I think it is important to involve all levels of Isuzu four wheeling enthusiasts. We'll try to do this again in Moab -- I think everybody who came last year went away glad that they had made the trip. Here's some comments from a few participants in the 1998 event:

Steve Wright drove a near-stock Honda Passport:
"For anyone considering the Moab-zu, I'd definitely encourage it. If you've never been wheeling before, you'll find yourself with an understanding group of people who can help you out and help you learn. You WON'T find yourself with a bunch of impatient people trying to talk you into taking stupid risks (which I've seen happen in other places).
Give it a shot. You haven't lived until you've driven up a 40% slick-rock slope in 4-low (though if you don't like anything that steep you can usually drive around). And the area around Moab is as immense and starkly beautiful as you'll find anywhere in the world."

Wayne Flower drove a bone-stock Trooper:
"For those of you that are wondering what the big deal is all about, let me just say that I went last year, and had a great time. It's one of the very few places that you can get a group of Isuzu owners together and share a lot of information and have a great time wheeling and seeing the sights.
Do you need a big ol' modified rig? Nope. I took my big ol' long wheel base 4 door '89 Trooper that was sitting on the stock sized 30 inch tires. open diffs and all. Sure I couldn't take the nasty obstacles like the modified Amigos, but I had just as much fun watching them, or getting the occasional ride in them. There are plenty of challenges for every vehicle type out there.
If you like to wheel your Isuzu, I would consider this the holly grail event. If you go you will have a great time."

I enjoy driving both tough trails and easy trails. Part of this hobby is challenge, but much more (to me) is camaraderie and seeing nature.

Since I'm driving all the way from California, I'll want to really spend some time out on the trails, so I apologize in advance if my 'wheeler role overlaps my event organizer role. Feel free to talk to me at any time, but please realize that I'm there primarily to have fun, and then to organize.

Maps, Directions, and Specifics

We'll be camping at the Pack Creek Campground in Moab. This is a small campground next to a creek, and should give us much better group camping that we got last year. In 1998, we ended up too spread out, and the campground just didn't understand that we wanted to camp as a group. Pack Creek allows a group fire, and has decent restroom/shower facilities. It isn't a five-star hotel with room service, but it should provide a good meeting area for all of us and a good place to stay for those of us with RV's or tents.

Pack Creek (435) 259-2982 is a bit off the beaten track, but Moab is pretty small, so it shouldn't be hard to find your way. (We'll have a map up shortly) Here's the directions (print them out and stick them in your truck!):

Drive south on Highway 191 through Moab. Find the McDonald's.

Check your odometer -- continue 3 miles south on 191 to Spanish Trail Road (at the Branding Iron Restaurant).

Turn left (East) onto Spanish Trail Road, and drive to the 4-way stop sign at the top of the hill.

Turn left (North) onto Murphy Lane, and drive aout one mile.

Pack Creek Campground is on the left (West) side of Murphy Lane, behind Pack Creek Mobile Estates.

Tent sites are $10.00/night for one tent, and $3 for each additional tent full of non-relatives (meaning that you can share sites, if you wish). Full RV hook ups are $16.50/night. There is a nice playground for the kids, clean restrooms and showers, a laundromat, a year-round creek, picnic tables, a covered patio, and shade trees. Sounds nice!

When you call to make reservations, tell them that you are with the Isuzu group and want to camp with the group. If you wish to stay at a hotel, many of the Moab hotels are listed at http://moab-utah.com/. For visitor information and other important inquiries, call 1-800-635-MOAB. These folks are loaded with information and can answer most questions or refer you to someone who can.

The specific arrival times are also yet-to-be-determined, but in May, we'll hammer them out. I'll try to be there this time early enough to shake hands with people and do introductions, instead of rolling in at 3:30AM when everyone else is asleep.

Right now, the following folks are confirmed (percent surety of attendance, name, truck, email address, location):

100% Randy Burleson, black Amigo, randii@jps.net, Sacramento, CA

100% Todd Adams, white Amigo, toddgadams@classic.msn.com, Salt Lake City, UT

100% Steve Gardiner, blue Amigo, LTTLBDDY@AOL.COM, Anaheim, CA

100% Dan Houlton, red Amigo, houlster@bigfoot.com, Mesa, AZ

100% Sean Michael, Project WomBAT Trooper, muddywombat@hotmail.com, ID

100% Steve Wright, Passport, 104056.617@compuserve.com, CO

100% Dave Killey, white YJ, killey-dj@worldnet.att.net, Murray, UT

100% Keith Johnson, Amigo, amigomedic@hotmail.com, Kirkland, WA

100% JR Consejero, Trooper, James.Consejero@cheyennemountain.af.mil, CO

100% David Evans, Trooper, 8015098585@page.nextel.com, Salt Lake City, UT

100% Dar Colton, P'up, 8015098585@page.nextel.com, Salt Lake City, UT

100% Chad Hunter, Trooper, mnkpony@excite.com, Highland, UT

100% Jason Heys, Trooper, trooperII@juno.com, Middletown, OH

100% Chris Perosi, green Amigo, cperosi@aol.com, Wayne, NJ

100% Vinnie Perosi, blue TJ, vinniep@pbt.com, Little Falls, NJ

100% Mark Bolton, Rodeo, mark@206.168.116.65, Lakewood, CO

100% Doug/Dave Beck, P'up, drbeck@uswest.net

100% Gilbert Escamilla, Trooper, Trooperdude@webtv.net, Whittier, CA

100% Dale and Adrienne Hartog, green Trooper, ILIKEDUCKS@AOL.COM

100% Norman H., Krzys K., Rodeo, v2@webaccess.net, Denver, CO

100% Craig Eldredge, Trooper, craige@uidaho.edu, Moscow, ID

100% Tracey Hind, Trooper, E.HIND@M.CC.UTAH.EDU, Salt Lake City, UT

100% Chris and Heidi Small, red Trooper, csmall@wavecom.net

100% Tom Baker, Rodeo, tbaker@moltech.com, Tucson, AZ

100% Matt Fritch, Trooper, Mkfritch@aol.com, Colorado Springs, CO

100% Michael Wood, green Amigo, mjw@mjw.com, Carson City, NV

100% Mike Prociv, Trooper, Likecruzin@aol.com, Santa Fe, NM

100% Jerry Ostermiller, Jeep, www.skully@worldnet.com, Salt Lake City, UT

100% Jerry (Sr.) and John Ostermiller, Jeep, devans@sisna.com, Salt Lake City, UT

100% Doug Davis, Amigo, Dees4@webtv.net, Southern CA

100% Jim and Tim Baker, Rodeo, jbake@inconnect.com

100% Gage Hartman, 1992 Amigo or 1999 Wrangler, GHARTMANS@aol.com

100% Corbin & Deanna Cowan + 2 friends, white 98 Amigo, corbin.cowan@gwl.com, Highlands Ranch, CO

100% Wayne & Sharon Lindimore, Trooper, wlin@diac.com, Elizabeth, CO

99% Bruce Barke & Amanda, Trooper, bbarke@carlson.com, Minneapolis, MN

99% Dan Golde, Trooper, Danny4wd@aol.com, Forest Ranch, CA

99% Travis Frizzell, Rodeo, smokeater@denver.crosswinds.net, CO

98% Ian Schlueter, Trooper, ComputerCowboy@humanhighway.net, AZ

95% Bruce Anderson, bcanders@northlink.com, Prescott Valley, AZ

90% Alex and Kim Kunze, Trooper(s), alexkunze@usa.net

90% Justin Franchow, Cherokee, 8015098585@page.nextel.com, Salt Lake City, UT

75% David Grubb, green CJ, grubby@estreet.com, Denver, CO

70% Wayne Flower, Samurai, WayneF123@aol.com, CA

70% Dan Fleming, Trooper, ddffpc@home.com

?% Robin, Trooper, trooper@rdpro.com, Northern CA

?% Dar Colton, Early Bronco, 8015098585@page.nextel.com, Salt Lake City, UT

If you aren't on this list, please RSVP by email to isuzu@off-road.com.

Communication

From past experience with group camping and running trails, the biggest bugaboo is usually communications. People inevitably end up late or early, and ten different rigs in ten different places would be bad. To that end, we'll have three major means of communicating.

Message Board:: At the campsite, under the Off-Road.com banner, we'll have a message board. This is where we'll meet prior to each event, and this is where we'll post a specific schedule and changes to that, if necessary.
CB Radio:: We'll be on the air on Channel 4, Citizen's Band Radio. If you are in town, we should be able to pull you in. To this end, please, while the truck is running, keep CB channel 4 on and lend an ear to it. Secondary channel, if 4 gets too busy, will be Channel 5. If that channel gets too busy, we'll post another alternate channel on the Message Board.
Cell Phone:: I'll have my cell phone with me, turned on. The number will be posted in several upcoming emails to the group and will also be posted at the Message Board. If you get lost or separated, find a pay phone and give a holler.; Keep in mind that CB and cell phones run on radio waves, which are limited both by distance and by surroundings. Try to be on time for events, because the cliffy surroundings of Moab aren't conducive to distance broadcasting.

Events

We're purposefully trying to keep this loose, so the plan currently includes only 3 trail rides and one dinner event. If you stop by the campsite or leave a message on the message board, more can probably be arranged.

Times will be finalized as we close in on the event. They'll also be posted in the campground, under the Off-Road.com banner, on the message board. If the schedule changes, the Message Board will be the place for the most current information.

Friday, Possible Warmup Trail: Most folks will be pulling in sometime on Friday. If enough folks are there early enough, we'll set up camp first, then run up to the Sand Flats recreation area and play on some obstacles. This will be loosely planned until we find out when people plan to arrive.
Saturday, Fins and Things: This is the group run, and we'll leave the campsite at 9:00 Saturday morning. Since this is a group run, we selected a trail that works for stock vehicles but still has challenging obstacles for non-stock vehicles. Fins and Things is a fabulous trail -- it has a little of everything that Moab is famous for: views, steep slickrock, sidehills, sand, and did I mention the gorgeous views?
Saturday, Group Barbeque: This is the only officially planned meal (most of the time you'll fend for yourselves -- even if we do that in small groups), and it will likely kickoff 6:00 Saturday evening, after we get back from Saturday's trail ride. This is a group-sponsored barbecue in that I'm setting a time for it - I won't be cooking for you, so bring your own food, beverage, and charcoal. I'd love to sponsor some sort of potluck, but I think that would stretch the limits of my organizational skills. We'd wind up with a half pound of burgers and 30 gallons of Jello.
We will be having a raffle again this year, with products from CALMINI, Off-Road.com, ITOG, Planet Isuzoo, H&I Salvage, Premier Power Welder, MuddOff, and more!
Sunday, Gold Bar Rim / Golden Spike Trail: We're doing something different for Sunday's run. Last year we'd wanted to run Golden Spike, but we also wanted to provide a reasonable trail for less-modified vehicles. This year we are doing both -- and still managing to do some of it as a group. Todd Adams will be leading a group of more stock vehicles around to do Gold Bar Rim and a few sidetrip obstacles and views, and Randy Burleson will be leading a group of modified vehicles through Golden Spike. These two trails meet, and with any luck at all, everyone will be able to watch the modified group attack the last mile (the Million Dollar Mile) of the Golden Spike Trail -- where all the big obstacles are clustered. Then we'll all drive out together, back to camp. Gold Bar Rim is a moderately-difficult trail, and Golden Spike is downright difficult. Since these routes cover a lot of ground, we need to leave early on Sunday morning, at 8:00. Here's a trail report, a second trail report, and a third trail report.

The degree of difficulty depends on what the group wants, so we may have to adjust these plans when we get to Moab, based on the composition of our Isuzu group.

I know that there will be a few folks like myself, who dislike body damage, but love challenging trails. There will probably also be folks who have been off-road before and are up for a challenge, but want to stay out of body shops. Again, with the cost of Isuzu parts, who can fault them for perfect paint? There will probably also be a handful of folks who have never been off the road before. The trick will be pulling them all together in an event which is about Isuzus and the fun we have with them rather than being a testosterone-charged demolition derby. The trails around Moab should afford drivers with different skill levels whatever degree of difficulty they desire.

Things to Bring on the Trails

CB radio: We're lucky to have multiple experienced Moab folks along, and you'll enjoy the ride more if you can listen on the CB. Trail leaders use their CBs to tell you about the geography of the area and historical sites you may encounter along the way. They also use them to inform you of dangerous sections to stay away from and help to keep your trail group together. CB radios can also help if you get lost. CBs are a vital communication and safety link, so if you don't have one, get one. You can do this for well under $100.

Safe Tow Points: Everyone should also have tow points installed at either end of their vehicles. Properly installed tow hooks or receiver hitches really help, and improperly installed tow points can be catastrophic. Please do it right.

Food, Drinks, and Trash: Lunch, water, sodas, and snacks are your responsibility so make sure you bring enough for you and your passengers. You will be on most trails for 3-4 hours and some rides last longer if major breakdowns occur. A garbage sack is a must. Please leave any alcohol at the campsite; there is plenty of time after the ride to drink back at your campsite or hotel.

Toiletries: Our campground has full facilities, and Moab is a booming town, so you can find a place to take care of your busines pretty easily - they even have flush toilets . All these signs of civilization vanish when you drive very far away from town. Moab is surrounded by near-wilderness, so you need to plan ahead and be prepared. There aren't that many places to bury anything, especially with all the slick rock, and burying is questionable in terms of environmental responsibility. Please take care of your business prior to the trail, and plan ahead so that you can pack out what you pack in.

Other: This isn't the place to itemize everything you may need. Use good sense and bring what you will likely required. Extra drinks, toilet paper, and sunscreen are mandatory, and items like a tow strap, a spare tire, a high-lift jack, a first aid kit, and a fire extinguisher are also pretty important. Keep in mind that we will be traveling in a group, so we can share some things, but self sufficiency is a guarantee that you'll have what you need. You can go way overboard here and drag along two tons of stuff, of end up stranded wishing you'd thought to bring duct tape. Try to find a happy medium in between where you feel comfortable. There's an excellent article with suggestions on what another ORC Editor takes with him into the Mojave at: http://www.off-road.com/4x4web/travels/provisions.html

Body Damage!?!?

You risk body damage when you park in your grocer's lot. My truck's black paint can lure errant shopping carts from blocks away. Parking in that grocer's lot is an assumed-risk activity. If the shopping cart dings your door, you don't sue the grocer. Four-wheeling is a similar assumed-risk activity - but the shopping carts on the trail take the form of boulders and trees, and can be a good bit meaner to your paint job.

We've selected several trails that bone-stock vehicles can survive, with cautious spotting. For the folks who completely unwilling to take body damage (and that's completely understandable with 30K rigs!), odds are we can find passenger seats in other rigs. I'm not out trying to scuff my rig, in fact, I try damn hard to avoid that outcome. In '98, the only damage I received was a fender dent -- from a fender-bender, not an obstacle! If it happens, though, I get over it. Dents add character, right?

Before we lock our hubs, I'll be asking everyone to sign Off-Road.com's waiver. I know this isn't much fun, but please read it and make sure that you can sign it when you get to the trailhead. Drivers need to assume responsibility for themselves and the occupants of their vehicles.

Weather

Moab's weather is known for its unpredictability. Late spring temperatures can range from 50 to 80, and rainstorms, even snowstorms can suddenly appear and disappear. Dress in layers and bring a blanket just in case you end up stranded. Just because it is not raining on you doesn't mean the storm you see in the distance won't effect your trail. This is the desert and you are on slickrock. The rain has to go somewhere. Many of the ravines will fill up with 2-4 feet of water and mud after a 1-hour storm.

Easter Jeep Safari

Todd adds:

"Those folks interested in a bigger taste of red rock are invited to join the Easter Jeep Safari.
Now is a very good time to get on the Red Rock 4-Wheelers mailing list for the Easter Safari paper. Last year it was 56 pages of very good info including trail descriptions of all the trails that are run. The paper is free for the asking. The club can be reached in one of two ways: 1.) A letter asking to be put on the mailing list sent to Red Rock 4-Wheelers, Inc. P.O. Box 1471 Moab Utah, 84532-1471 or 2.) calling 1-435-801-259-ROCK ( 7625 in numbers ).
There is a type of lottery that one must go through in the registration process. The trails are limited by the B.L.M. as to vehicle numbers. Once you get the registration paper it will explain this process but there is a limited time to register. The papers are mailed out in January and to get into the lottery you must send your registration back six to eight weeks before Easter. I don't know the exact dates this year. The fees this year are $35.00 for registration and your first trail, with $15.00 for each additional trail. There has been some grumbling about this, but if you have never been to Moab and want a guided tour, it is cheap. It is also less expensive than some of the other events around the country. No one makes any money off this, as we are all volunteers. For people not familiar with this event, it is the largest gathering of four wheel drive enthusiasts in the world, with over 1600 vehicles going out on 27 trails on the Saturday before Easter, with trails being run for nine days.
Even though it is billed as a "Jeep Safari", it is open for all makes of true high clearance four wheel drive vehicles. This includes Isuzus but I don't see enough of them at the Safari. The 31 trails that are run range in difficulty from hardly needing to put it in five wheel drive, (2 1/2 rated Chicken Corners) to hard core extreme (4+ Pritchett Canyon).There is even one of the 4+ trails (Behind The Rocks) done in reverse direction one day which makes it insane. There is a predominance of 3 and 3 1/2 rated trails that are able to be driven in stock vehicles by skillful drivers. So there is something for everybody at the Moab Easter Jeep Safari."