Moab Jeep Jamboree:Fins and Things - Day #2

Day #Two of the Moab Jeep Jamboree! We made lots of friends yesterday and are excited about the adventures to come today - the obstacles can't be much worse than yesterday - right?

Just want to thank everyone again for trading pictures with me - all of these photos are a combined effort of Ingrid, Mike, Len, Scott & myself.

After a short drivers meeting we were on the trail - for those of you who know Moab we went right by slickrock on the way to the start...
Shawn, the trail boss told us that the obstacles at the beginning of the trail are pretty easy compared to at the end of the trail...about 1/2 mile into the trail I was starting to get pretty nervous about what the day would bring!

This is David - he brought up the rear all day. I will always remember him for "gotta go, gotta go!!!" He was also the one who told us he desperately wanted to help us get our first dent...(didn't happen - better luck next time David!)

Up and down...and it's early in the day...

This is Mike's Jeep - I love how Shawn is down below bending the way he wants him to go...I don't think he realizes he does that...

Here comes Len the toymaker - his cherokee did almost everything our rubicon did - we were pretty impressed. He did comment that he was ready to go buy a rubicon though - so we all needed to go out and buy his toys so he could afford it! (in the morning he was asking about Anchorage - one of the first things he's asked was if it had a ToysRUs - when I said yes he said "good - that's all I need" - at the time I thought it was a bit strange but now I understand Len!! :)

Where are we going next?
Down...

And up...

The views were spectacular...

From the top this hill looked like it was straight down!

We drove through a little bit of everything...rock, dirt, water, up, down...

We got lots of mud stuck in our tow hitches on this downhill!

Had to include a picture of the Liberty - I think there was only one hill he didn't attempt to go up? It was actually pretty funny - all of us Rubicon owners would stand at the finish of a hill very proud of our purchase (and ourselves)...and then along came the Liberty finishing the same hill...some of the folks jokingly said we shouldn't take pictures of them because it didn't make us look good. :)

I don't remember the name of this hill - the vehicles without axle locks didn't go up it. This is Mike - he got stuck and had to use his winch to get up and over it (the funny thing was he won a winch at dinner that night!)

Len bouncing up the hill...I wish I would have been videotaping this one...

And here is Scott high centered...it's tough to see but his right front tire is up in the air. They had him back off and then go off to the left a bit. It was at this point I realized we really do need a lift kit - knowing that Scott will just want to try bigger obstacles). Bruce came up next (he has the same jeep as us) and he didn't have any problems because the spotters now knew which path to take him up...after that we told him it was his turn to be in front!

Here is David in his jeep - he walked up the same hill...he was commenting about how he didn't even need 4wd...

Lunchtime! This is Mike - he's from Rio Rancho, New Mexico and is a retired Marine Corp Captain. He is also a great photographer and we had a great time getting to know him.

Here is Len from Chicago - aka the toy maker...okay the toy designer. I'm guessing he doesn't really work at all - he just plays with toys all day long.

The girls of the trail!

The group - can you say "jeep"?

Bruce and Ingrid from Reno, Nevada...he's a retired firefighter and she's a nurse (best of all they own an RV!).

Here is their jeep...

lunch is over...time to go down...

and down some more...

And up...for a new jeeper some of these rock crawls were a bit intimidating - you had to watch the trail (it's marked with white dots) and hope you didn't get too much to one side or another.

Such beautiful country!

I think by this point Len's brakes were screaching!

Patti always had a smile on her face!!

For those of you who know Scott, David asked him once why he wasn't smiling...wasn't he having a good time? I just laughed and suggested Sean guess what Scott used to do for a living...

All the jeeps lining up for the next big obstacle...

Jeeps to the front of us...

And jeeps to the rear. I think there were 15 jeeps total on this trip...

75 jeeps in the jamboree with 170 people - if I remember right there were 6 trails the jeeps were split up on?

Some of these ledges were sooo narrow!

I was trying to get the snow in the background but it didn't come up very well. We were just happy it was way over there and not near us...

Ingrid is such a good photographer!

I know I got these out of order - it was kind of hard to pick one rock from the next after 500 photos...

Another up and down...

See Patti in the center coming back for another round? :)

notice the sun...

notice the hail? o-well - it didn't start up until the afternoon so we can't compain!

A very pretty rainbow at the end of the trail!

Notice how much more mud is on the jeep today? We took the mudflaps off last night because we didn't think about the possibility of them breaking off on the trail. Scott is putting air back in the tires - we put them at 15-20 for the trail (they are normally 37 psi). After that we headed to the car wash to clean off the underside of the jeep...