Moab is way better than Iraq

I didn't realize it till today, but this Saturday while I was bouncing down dusty trails in Moab it was exactly one year to the day I bounced down a dusty trail into Iraq…

And this was WAYYYYYYYYYYY better!

UXOC ran down to kick off Spring 04. We split into two groups, one teach the Moab first-timers their slickrock legs, the other for the vets to push some limits. What we proved is that experience can take you further than you think, it also makes you cocky and gets you in trouble. We wanted to challenge ourselves on an already challenging trail and that lead to a few precarious moments.

The obstacle names are changed because we decided the normal names are lame, anybody who was on the obstacles will know why my names are more descriptive.

Disclaimer: Attempting these obstacles are not for the faint of heart, and there's usually a safer way up. We're just a little crazy and wanted to push the Xterra as far as we could.

Pinball Machine

You can't see it here but if you go fast right down the middle it's like being in a pinball machine.

Oil-Change

A bumpy downhill wedgy, be careful not to roll over.

TCase Remover

Actually Peter walked it, nobody suffered damage this trip.

Passenger Eject

Pull handle to release.

Slick as Snot

Slickrock has tons of traction till it's steep and is covered in sand.

Oh-Shit

It's not hard to lift a wheel going downhill, but to lift a front tire three feet in the air on an uphill is tough without a locker.
The other tough thing was pulling the seat cushion out of my crack after the front end leaped into the air.

Cooler-Drain

If your cooler lid isn't strapped down it may empty into the cargo area. If you have an amp in back it may get fried.

Fool's-Challenge (In honor of Dan Mick)

This is just the teaser, you have to use your watch the Video to see the impressive part.

As soon as I process the rest of the pics I'll post the link to the gallery.

Sweet pics Dustin!

Awesome photos

Great pics and great captions!

AWESOME CAN'T WAIT TO GO IN 05 OR 06

That's a very interesting gallery... "All The Bad Lines you can take in Moab"

Did Hustler make it up Widowmaker ?

From another angle.

I see Widowmaker has had an assload of rocks put at the bottom of it. Last year it was dug out so bad you couldn't even get the front of an Xterra on to it.

Your so damn lucky for living that close to Moab! It is 1075 miles one way for me! I was there after GOX I, and would really like to go again!

holy shit those are great!!!

Awesome photos...

Just before we went up a dirt bike made a little ramp and went up and down it a few times. So we talked Hustler into doing it and the dirt bikers helped us more the ramp to where the wheels would go up, but his stock front bumper didn't even come close to hitting the rock.

The problem was all the sand on the obstacle, and with his locker engaged the rear end was walking right into a hole that would have pinned him if he backed down.

We decided to take off and on the way out Chris wished he had kept trying, he was so close he probably could have done it; you can see in Peter's last picture that he's already breaking over the edge.
Two or three more times he would have made it.

Those are some incredible pictures!

Sweet pictures!

All of that done with 17" SC rims ?!
Hey Ian, Is this what we have to look forward to at GoneMoab?

I hope that Ian guides you guys over the tamer lines, we were just a few inches and some throttle away from rollovers.

I got off the throttle right before I launched the Xterra onto it's side. If I had been a second slower on getting off the gas I would have launched both tires in the air, bounced sideways, and rolled down the obstacle.

If I can get the Video from PitBull or Jeremy you'll see how fast the Xterra nose comes up when you're on a steep incline.

All the rest of the pictures I took look tame because our whole group had plenty of experience and we made the obstacles look easy.
I don't mean to brag but we had a good group on those trails; everybody knew what they were doing so we'd just try to see how much the Xterra could do.

I was a FUN weekend.

With the exception of the the big tub and Widowmaker, yes.

It's a bitch of an obstacle. Rondo tried it last year in his SAS Frontier, and he got to where Hustler was and it just walked side to side across the face of the rock. He spent a good 15 minutes on it and it just wouldn't quite hook up.

I tried to get on it in 2002, and the approach was so steep I could only get one tire on it before the ARB would stop forward progress.

WHoa that looks like a great time, I need to try some of that stuff.

I'll get it next time.

Damn nice and very impressive.

The Hot Tub Video is up.