Added 22 May 2001
TREAD LIGHTLY! For more information on responsible wheeling, go HERE or HERE Ziggy at dirtroad.com says it best, "Use your 4-wheel drive to enjoy the environment, don't use the environment to enjoy your 4-wheel drive!"
| After a trip to Moab in June of 2000, WolfSoul and Smokey Steve thought it would be a great idea to get a bunch of ZR2 owners together and do a full-fledged trip. Here is the report from the very first ZafaRi2. | ||
| Jeff and I left Tucson at around 7:30 Thursday the 10th, and got a little past Flagstaff that night before stopping to camp. Jeff and I had a great time talking and carrying on, so the drive went by quickly. We woke at 6:30 the next morning and continued our journey to Moab. We arrived in Moab shortly after noon to find hordes of people milling around town. We headed immediately out to Sand Flats Recreation Area, still expecting to have our choice of camp sites. We quickly discovered that we certainly would not get our choice of camp sites. The place I remembered from last year that I wanted to camp at was taken, as were most of the camp sites in the general area. Jeff and I secured a large camp site for ourselves, which would serve as base camp for ZafaRi2001, and plunked gear down in two other camp sites to reserve them for others. Our site and one other was in Cluster H, the other was across the road in Cluster G. |
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Brian was the first to arrive after us, so I set him up in Cluster G, and moved the chair reserving his spot to the only other open spot in both camp sites. I did so just in time too. Just as I was finished placing the chair at the last open camp site, someone drove by looking for a spot. Steve Smith showed up early that evening, and Jack showed up late that night. Rich arrived early Saturday morning, so I doubled him up with Brian and we all got ready for a half-day trail run. The morning run was a trip out to Gemini Bridges, using Long Canyon to make a nice loop out of the trip before heading back to town to meet Steve and Eric at around noon before going out for an afternoon run. That was the plan anyway. The Gemini Bridges trail was great. Here is the Roll Call Shot for the Gemini Bridges trip. | |
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The obstacles were fairly tame, with a couple of optional obstacles to make life more interesting for those who had the desire to try them. |
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Not long into the trail, we stopped so that I could give my cryptobiotic crust speech, making sure that everyone knew what to look for and not to destroy it. | ||
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Basically, cryptobiotic crust is a living soil that is very fragile and takes a long time to create. Stepping, riding or driving over it completely destroys it. In short, DON'T BUST THE CRUST! Here are some pictures of what it looks like. I love cryptobiotic soil! |
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| The Gemini Bridges were great. I had never been on top of an arch before, so it was neat to see a couple from that vantage point. On our way out, the group had fun with an obstacle as some mountain bikers looked on. | |
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Right after clearing that obstacles, a woman walked up to my truck and said that there was an injured mountain biker back down towards the start of the trail. She thought that her companion had a cracked sternum, and asked if we could help. We quickly determined that we would only needed two vehicles to make the rescue but everyone agreed to help out. We quickly moved some gear around between vehicles, and headed out. We climbed back up to the main trail, were Ann was waiting for us. She got on her mountain bike and we raced after her down to her injured friend, Stephanie. We got to Stephanie a few minutes before everyone else and Jeff used his Search and Rescue training to assess the situation. It wasn't long before everyone else arrived, and we all worked to get Stephanie in my truck, shifting Jeff to Rich's Jeep, Stephanie's bike in Steve's truck, and Ann and her bike in Brian's truck. We got Stephanie as comfortable as possible, and we made our way back down the mountain, going as smoothly as possible over the rough terrain. I could tell that she was in quite a bit of pain, but tried to keep a constant conversation going to keep her mind off of it. I also made sure she stayed hydrated and continued to ask how she felt. During the course of the journey, I found out that she was a backcountry guide for a tour company, and that this was her first day of a one week vacation of sorts. Not a great way to start a vacation. As we were approaching the highway, we were able to reach Steve and Eric on the CB as they approached Moab from the north. We directed them into the dirt parking lot that we would end up in at the end of the trail and met them there. When we finally got her down to the highway, her friends with the shuttle hadn't arrived yet, so we decided to take her in to town right away instead of waiting for them. Just as we were getting ready to move, her friends arrived, so we moved her into the tour company's van, made sure everything was squared away, and headed back into town. All in all, a very exciting and rewarding first run! | ||
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After allowing Steve and Anita a chance to get settled in to their condo, we headed out to Secret Spire and Dallenbach Tunnel. Eric and Dar stayed at camp to get set up and as we were trying to get everyone else together in town to head out for the trail, Steve and Anita happened upon Randy Owens and Lara, so they joined in the afternoon run as well. After some initial confusion (Jeff and I getting lost), we wound our way to Dallenbach Tunnel, where we circled the wagons and enjoyed the first stop of the afternoon. |
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Dallenbach Tunnel is a natural tunnel that lead from one level of rock to the next, ending up on a flat plateau overlooking a beautiful deep canyon. While heading back to the tunnel, Steve Smith found a snake that immediately took to the trees. We all enjoyed watching it's effortless movements through the branches. | ||
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Our next stop was Secret Spire, inappropriately named as it is. It was a neat little spire surrounded by some great views. Neither trail was at all difficult, and there are definitely better sights to be seen in the Moab area, but the trip was worth it. It was neat to see a new area. | |
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When we got back from that trip, Rick and Maris were waiting for us at camp. It was great to see him again, and great to finally meet Maris. Rick is a lot of fun, and both are extremely nice. I had them set up in my camp, which rounded out the group. That night, most of the group made their way over to our camp to talk around the fire. Somehow the conversation turned to The Loveboat over the course of the evening, and Rick earned the nickname, Charro. (He does a great impression, which kind of scares me.) | ||
If you're in the Tucson area, drop me a line and we can go wheelin' sometime.
Speaking of which, if you own a Highrider/ZR2/BlaZeR2, or want to find out more about the best little 4X4's around, check out these great sites:
http://www.zr2.com and http://www.zr2hr.org
There is also a ZR2 discussion group, which is very fun for talking about our special trucks and in getting ideas, help, and useful information. I have learned a great deal from the list. You can join by sending an e-mail to mailto:zr2@zr2hr.org with the word "SUBSCRIBE" (without the quotes) in the subject line.
ENJOY!
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