Moab Easter Safari and Cruise Moab

Over the past 10 years my four wheeling trips have slowed way down. I used to head to Moab at least 6 times a year. But for some reason it has been dwindling down only heading down once or twice a year, there was probably a year or two that I did not even go.
Anyways, early this year I went down twice, once for Moab Easter Safari and once for Cruise Moab. Both trips were for four wheeling and mountain biking.
For Easter Safari we headed down on a Thursday morning April 21st and rode our mountain bikes on the Flat Pass (Steel Bender jeep trail) then headed to area BFE to set up camp.
On Friday we headed out on the Behind the Rocks trail as there would be more than enough room on the trail for other groups of vehicles.
Since we were out just in my truck we have very few pictures. Here is one shot where I wimped out.

Making it up the first step of High Dive

　
We went to see how bad High Dive had become. It is really chewed up since the last time I was there. The bottom step was 4-5 feet tall. The above photo was kind of funny as I really was just going to bump my front bumper on the rock as it was pretty much vertical and I did not expect to actually climb right up with my front tires. Since I was not even thinking I would have climbed up with the front tires I then stopped and wimped out trying to see if my rears would climb. A lot has to do to the lack of experience I have had over the last 10 years with four wheeling and some has to do with we were out all by ourselves in my truck. I would have hated to have a problem with no others to help out.
After leaving High Dive we headed on down the trail to White Knuckle Hill to check it out. It does not even look doable now unless you had some support (winch).
During this outing we ended up only seeing two other jeeps at an intersection of dirt roads. This was surprising as it is Easter Safari.
On Saturday we headed out to Hells Revenge. Again, we headed to this trail because it is so open that you can get round other groups of people. This being big Saturday there was bound to be a lot of people out there. We did run across other groups and I mostly just drove the normal Hells Revenge trail. We went and watched people at Hells Gate and the Escalator but did not try either of these obstacles.
On Sunday we were going to do another mountain bike trail but we woke to rain and even after loading up our camping gear it was still raining so we just decided to head back to Salt Lake City.

Cruise Moab

Two weeks later on Thursday May 5^th we once again headed down to Moab for Cruise Moab. We set up camp North of town off Willow Springs Road and then headed towards Klondike Bluff’s and the Baby Steps trails for mountain biking.

On Friday we headed out towards the Golden Spike trail taking the back way in from the Gold Bar Rimtrail.From Gold Bar Rim we headed to the Rusty Nail trail.

First obstacle on Rusty Nail, back in 2002

It has been years since I ran this trail and the 1^st obstacle is so dug up that they now had a bypass around it. We ended up walking the trail. Boy, it is much more difficult than my previous trips on the trail. We got to the 2^nd obstacle and looked at it for some time and I had decided that I would still give it a shot even though I would probably have winched myself up, again due to being out there just in my vehicle with no others for support. We then walked to the 3^rd obstacle and there I said no, I did not want to try.

Dropping down into the 3rd obstacle, Rusty Nail 2002

The third obstacle is no longer flat on the bottom, it now has a nice big rut down the middle and one slip could be bad.  Also, the drop to get off the obstacle is much bigger than previous trips.

So, we went back to Gold Bar Rim for the long way out to the Crack on Golden Spike.

Now, you need to know the history I have with the Crack. The first time in Moab we ran Golden Spike starting from the Poison Spider side. While trying to cross the crack I broke my steering arm. Having no spares we had to remove the arm, drive into town, find someone to weld it, drive back to the vehicle and install the arm, then drive back off the trail. I ended up breaking the arm around noon. Once we had it fixed and finally made it off the trail it was about 1am. Thank goodness for good friends willing to put up with repairs when things go wrong.

So, the next time I was at the Crack I had a spare steering arm, just in case. Well, once again, while crossing I had the steering arm break. This was a much quicker repair as I had a spare steering arm.
Since then I have not tried to cross the Crack without filling it in with tires or something. I only think I crossed it twice after breaking two steering arms, again using something to fill the crack in.
Since then, actually 8 years ago in May 2003 I updated my steering by installing a crossover steering system from Marlin Crawler, this removes the weak stock steering arm. But, due to my lack of going four wheeling, I had not been back to the crack since then, UNTIL NOW.

So, back to this year. We get out to the crack without coming across any other four wheelers. We did see some motorcycles while trying to run Rusty Nail though. At the crack it looked deeper and wider than I remember and I still had reservations on trying it, again we were out there just with my vehicle.
We decided to have lunch. While having lunch some other vehicles came along so we watched them as they crossed the crack. After they continued on and we finished lunch I decided to give it a go.

Dropping into the crack

Yea, I made it twice since I had to return back across so we could head back out Gold Bar Rim.

returning through the crack to head back out

So, after years of dreading The Crack I finally conquered it. We headed back out Gold Bar Rim and went to camp for some much needed beer.
The next day we headed to the Sovereign trail system for another mountain bike ride. After the ride we packed up the truck and headed back home.