Added 27 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!"
| Since we were only doing a single trail on Thursday, we decided we could sleep in, and didn't meet up with Dave and Julie until 9:30. Early on, Steel Bender showed that it was going to be a great trail. It started out following beautiful Mill Creek, with several water crossings. | 
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| Once the trail climbed out of Mill Creek for the final time (until the end of the trail), the going got serious. Overall, I would rate Steel Bender as a more difficult trail that Fins and Things, especially since some of the more difficult obstacles don't have by-passes. Steel bender is a very ledgy trail, with many steep steps to negotiate. | ||
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| My biggest problem was definitely my break-over angle. One obstacle posed a problem with my front differential (skid plate) clearance as well. I also drug a frame rail once, but that was because I chose a more difficult line than I needed to just to see what the results would be. THE BEAST did well though, and I only opted for one go-around, which was still fairly difficult. |
| Towards the end of the trail, we saw a couple of really cool irridescent green lizards. We believe that they were collared lizareds. |
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| After we left our reptillic friends, we dropped down and crossed Mill creek one more time, and stopped for lunch just on the other side after taking some time to enjoy some petroglyphs on the canyon wall. After we ate, we talked for a while then eventually wandered back down to Mill Creek for a bit before heading back to Moab. We left Dave and Julie in town and stopped off on Main Street to take a look in the shops. I wanted to find some gifts for Shannon, and managed to find some pretty nice stuff. We bumped in to Dave and Julie a couple of times while there, and played some window message tag as well. | |
| Eric and Dar (who had gone to Arches National Park on Thursday) left Friday morning, and said good-bye on their way out as they headed for the Maze district with another friend, Edward. That left just Jeff and I in Moab, as Dave and Julie left that morning as well, and everyone else had left the previous morning. I took advantage of the solo day by relaxing, reading, and writing. I scarcely left camp all day. It was a welcome treat. |
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I will carry many fond memories with me from this trip. Making new friends, helping an injured mountain biker, getting up Exhaust Bender Rock, Top of the World, Onion Creek, Musselman Arch, the sunset that night on the White Rim Trail, the ruins, Mill Creek, and the overall great weather for the trip.
And finally, I want to thank everyone who attended ZafaRi2001 for making it a great event! | ||
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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