R4NS0M
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- Natalie
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This was our first EJS, and though @Rotsam did plenty of research, you still sort of have no idea wtf is going to happen when you show up at one of these things. I was nervous about spotters, the trails, the obstacles, our jeeps, my ability to follow directions…I mean you name it- and I spent time worrying about it. This was not our first time in Moab, and it wasn’t our first time running some of these trails, but having people watch/wait on you added an additional bit of stress onto an already stressful time, lol!
Day 1: Poison Spider
So, our first day we ran Poison Spider. I felt pretty confident on this run. We had a great trail leader (I play video games, and for some reason I keep wanting to call those guys “raid leaders“ so if I do that - just ignore me, lol.) who was suuuuper patient with everyone. This was my first time riding this particular trail and I was busy trying not to die or bust up my rig, so didnt get to see much in the way of scenery this round. Though I already posted this video, I’m going to go ahead and include it in this journal for the record.
. This is @Rotsam and I coming down some little obstacle that I can’t remember the name of. It wasn’t hard or anything, but it’s sometimes tricky catching both of us at the same time in a clip that I just wanted to share.
After whatever little fall situation that was we got to the obstacle I was most worried about, “The Wedgie”. IDK what it is that makes me so scared of this thing, but I was certain I’d fall in. As you can see, my husband zigs when he should have zagged, and then stuck his leg out in what appeared to be a bid to catch himself. Everyone is and was aghast and he’s been properly chastised about it, and I have great hope that he will keep his limbs inside the car from now on. Fun fact. I nailed The Wedgie on the way up, and then promptly fell my ass inside a little on my way back out, but no one caught it on video thank goodness.
All in all, day 1 was super fun and made me a little more confident in my driving and in my rig.
Day 2: Metal Masher
So my favorite part of metal masher was meeting a couple who ran ahead of us. I loved them so much we went and ran additional crap with them on another day. To be honest I can’t really remember anything super amazing or crazy happening on this trail. I thought it was a little spicy, but it wasn’t too bad.
Day 3: Cliffhanger/ Kane Creek Canyon
Ya’ll. This day was insane. We decided to skip out on our scheduled EJS trail, and do these extra BOH trails with our buddies Amanda and Alex. So we’ve got a group of 3 jeeps between us, 2 of which are our new ones and so we’re like- brooooooo we got thissssss.
o.O
Well, we got to cliffhanger just fine. There was a big line of jeeps and buggies, but we were patient and decided to wait until the crowd cleared out before we started moving. These drone shots do not do this trail justice. I mean, the entrance to this shit was the spiciest entrance I’ve ever seen in my life. @Rotsam went down first and I know there is footage someplace but IDK where it is at this time, so you’re stuck seeing me babystep that machine down those little cliffs.
Once I got down and recovered from my panic attack it was Alex’s turn, and he got down like a pro.
The good news was we all got down just fine. The bad news was we decided that we’d maybe gotten in a little over our head when we watched two buggies flip over right there at the entrance. Rotsam got up after 2 attempts- no problem. Alex pops up next and promptly lands himself on the rock. IDK what part was stuck where but there was a little swearing and talking before winches came out and the situation was handled.
While everyone was jacking with Alex, some dude suggests I go up the ‘bypass’. I could not get this thing up this clearly not a bypass bypass…so my husband comes to try
He also cannot get it up this ’bypass’ and so he backs it up and takes it up the regular way Just fine. When these two guys decided that we should leave and go do something else I was SOOOOO RELIEVED. (Ohhh would this thought haunt me later that night at 9PM WHEN WE LEFT THE TRAIL!).
We took off and decided to go ahead and do Kane Creek Canyon. So the guys say we started this trail sometime after 2:30. I can’t confirm the time but I thought it felt later than that. This trail was actually very fun. It was mild to start, with some paths winding down by the creek. Rotsam got stuck in the mud and we had to winch him out, and then he had to winch all of us up as well. There’s no footage of that as the path was small and i had flip flops on and didn’t want to get muddy. Judge not!
So at about 5:30 we roll up on Hamburger Hill. There’s 25 jeeps ahead of us now (we’d been on an empty trail till we arrived here) and it’s taking them about 15 minutes a pop to get over the obstacle. At 7:45 we start the obstacle. I don’t have good video of this because it was late, we were stressed out, and I was afraid a winch would pop (it’s literally a brand new vehicle) so I was kind of hiding behind another jeep to shoot this footage. Apologies to Rotsam for not getting a better shot. This does not look like a hard obstacle. Maybe rotsam will come and talk about it in depth a little more, but the truth is I didn’t even attempt to get mine over the obstacle and just had him do it for me. I hate bitching out but I was afraid I would really fuck up my equipment if shit went sideways.
The next thing we know it’s dark, and I actually get to use all those obnoxious lights so many of us have. I never would have guessed we’d actually use them, but I did.
Day 4: Steel Bender
So ya’ll have already seen my Steel Bender video, but I’m going to include it here for giggles. I did not know about my tire waving in the wind, but everyone can tell I’m absolutely TERRIFIED as I’m going down that obstacle. I had too many people spotting me, which was a little confusing but it all worked out.
Day 5: Wipeout Hill
I got absolutely no video or photos of this run. I did get a badge of honor tho. This was a super easy little run, but we chose not to actually do the obstacle which would have made the run much harder.
Day 6: D2700 Lost World
Easy trail, was a temporary badge of honor so we decided to go ahead and run it. There wasn’t anything spicy on this imo. I didn’t even get any photos cuz I’m terrible, and our drone operator was taking the morning off.
Day 7: Hell’s Revenge
Guys. GUYS. I hate this trail. I HATE THIS TRAIL. From the moment you leave the parking lot you’re just constantly on the f’ing verge of death. Everywhere you look is death. Death behind you. Death before you. Death beside you. Death all the hell over the place. I also was absolutely stuck driving cuz we were in a group and I couldn’t bitch out and whine to my husband that the obstacles were too hard. He would have had to drive the obstacle in his own jeep then run to me and do mine. Pass. If I’m going to ave the toys, I have to be able to use them… So, everything is mainly fine till we get to Hell’s Gate. We pull over and everyone goes over to look, but i don’t recognize the area we are in… I’ve never actually parked in that zone. So when carsstarted moving… including my husband— I followed them. I followed them down the freaking entrance to Hell’s Gate. I had not decided for sure if i was going to do the obstacle….and then I followed him down the entrance.
He makes it up in 1 min and 17 seconds
I somehow made it down without killing myself or others and without destroying my machine. I made it back up but it takes me almost two minutes to do it.
I also survived the rest of the trail (we skipped escalator and mickey’s) but was stressed out the entire time. That trail to me is just HARD. It’s harder than the other ones I did this week and I feel like I did hard shit, lol.
A few notes:
Have a bahn mi and a pho cup (fun to eat, fun to say) at 98 Center
Go to the food truck court over by the Hoodoo and eat a quesadilla at Quesadilla Mobilla. Get a plain cheese with pork if you’re picky and dont like weird shit in your food.
Get a milkshake at Chill n Shake. (Do this. Get the milkshake— doesn’t matter the flavor)
I had a great time and we will FOR SURE go again to this and other events like this. I’ll answer any questions unless they are hard and then I’ll make Rotsam answer them for you!
Day 1: Poison Spider
So, our first day we ran Poison Spider. I felt pretty confident on this run. We had a great trail leader (I play video games, and for some reason I keep wanting to call those guys “raid leaders“ so if I do that - just ignore me, lol.) who was suuuuper patient with everyone. This was my first time riding this particular trail and I was busy trying not to die or bust up my rig, so didnt get to see much in the way of scenery this round. Though I already posted this video, I’m going to go ahead and include it in this journal for the record.
. This is @Rotsam and I coming down some little obstacle that I can’t remember the name of. It wasn’t hard or anything, but it’s sometimes tricky catching both of us at the same time in a clip that I just wanted to share.After whatever little fall situation that was we got to the obstacle I was most worried about, “The Wedgie”. IDK what it is that makes me so scared of this thing, but I was certain I’d fall in. As you can see, my husband zigs when he should have zagged, and then stuck his leg out in what appeared to be a bid to catch himself. Everyone is and was aghast and he’s been properly chastised about it, and I have great hope that he will keep his limbs inside the car from now on. Fun fact. I nailed The Wedgie on the way up, and then promptly fell my ass inside a little on my way back out, but no one caught it on video thank goodness.
All in all, day 1 was super fun and made me a little more confident in my driving and in my rig.
Day 2: Metal Masher
So my favorite part of metal masher was meeting a couple who ran ahead of us. I loved them so much we went and ran additional crap with them on another day. To be honest I can’t really remember anything super amazing or crazy happening on this trail. I thought it was a little spicy, but it wasn’t too bad.
Day 3: Cliffhanger/ Kane Creek Canyon
Ya’ll. This day was insane. We decided to skip out on our scheduled EJS trail, and do these extra BOH trails with our buddies Amanda and Alex. So we’ve got a group of 3 jeeps between us, 2 of which are our new ones and so we’re like- brooooooo we got thissssss.
o.O
Well, we got to cliffhanger just fine. There was a big line of jeeps and buggies, but we were patient and decided to wait until the crowd cleared out before we started moving. These drone shots do not do this trail justice. I mean, the entrance to this shit was the spiciest entrance I’ve ever seen in my life. @Rotsam went down first and I know there is footage someplace but IDK where it is at this time, so you’re stuck seeing me babystep that machine down those little cliffs.
Once I got down and recovered from my panic attack it was Alex’s turn, and he got down like a pro.
The good news was we all got down just fine. The bad news was we decided that we’d maybe gotten in a little over our head when we watched two buggies flip over right there at the entrance. Rotsam got up after 2 attempts- no problem. Alex pops up next and promptly lands himself on the rock. IDK what part was stuck where but there was a little swearing and talking before winches came out and the situation was handled.
While everyone was jacking with Alex, some dude suggests I go up the ‘bypass’. I could not get this thing up this clearly not a bypass bypass…so my husband comes to try
He also cannot get it up this ’bypass’ and so he backs it up and takes it up the regular way Just fine. When these two guys decided that we should leave and go do something else I was SOOOOO RELIEVED. (Ohhh would this thought haunt me later that night at 9PM WHEN WE LEFT THE TRAIL!).
We took off and decided to go ahead and do Kane Creek Canyon. So the guys say we started this trail sometime after 2:30. I can’t confirm the time but I thought it felt later than that. This trail was actually very fun. It was mild to start, with some paths winding down by the creek. Rotsam got stuck in the mud and we had to winch him out, and then he had to winch all of us up as well. There’s no footage of that as the path was small and i had flip flops on and didn’t want to get muddy. Judge not!
So at about 5:30 we roll up on Hamburger Hill. There’s 25 jeeps ahead of us now (we’d been on an empty trail till we arrived here) and it’s taking them about 15 minutes a pop to get over the obstacle. At 7:45 we start the obstacle. I don’t have good video of this because it was late, we were stressed out, and I was afraid a winch would pop (it’s literally a brand new vehicle) so I was kind of hiding behind another jeep to shoot this footage. Apologies to Rotsam for not getting a better shot. This does not look like a hard obstacle. Maybe rotsam will come and talk about it in depth a little more, but the truth is I didn’t even attempt to get mine over the obstacle and just had him do it for me. I hate bitching out but I was afraid I would really fuck up my equipment if shit went sideways.
The next thing we know it’s dark, and I actually get to use all those obnoxious lights so many of us have. I never would have guessed we’d actually use them, but I did.
Day 4: Steel Bender
So ya’ll have already seen my Steel Bender video, but I’m going to include it here for giggles. I did not know about my tire waving in the wind, but everyone can tell I’m absolutely TERRIFIED as I’m going down that obstacle. I had too many people spotting me, which was a little confusing but it all worked out.
Day 5: Wipeout Hill
I got absolutely no video or photos of this run. I did get a badge of honor tho. This was a super easy little run, but we chose not to actually do the obstacle which would have made the run much harder.
Day 6: D2700 Lost World
Easy trail, was a temporary badge of honor so we decided to go ahead and run it. There wasn’t anything spicy on this imo. I didn’t even get any photos cuz I’m terrible, and our drone operator was taking the morning off.
Day 7: Hell’s Revenge
Guys. GUYS. I hate this trail. I HATE THIS TRAIL. From the moment you leave the parking lot you’re just constantly on the f’ing verge of death. Everywhere you look is death. Death behind you. Death before you. Death beside you. Death all the hell over the place. I also was absolutely stuck driving cuz we were in a group and I couldn’t bitch out and whine to my husband that the obstacles were too hard. He would have had to drive the obstacle in his own jeep then run to me and do mine. Pass. If I’m going to ave the toys, I have to be able to use them… So, everything is mainly fine till we get to Hell’s Gate. We pull over and everyone goes over to look, but i don’t recognize the area we are in… I’ve never actually parked in that zone. So when carsstarted moving… including my husband— I followed them. I followed them down the freaking entrance to Hell’s Gate. I had not decided for sure if i was going to do the obstacle….and then I followed him down the entrance.
He makes it up in 1 min and 17 seconds
I somehow made it down without killing myself or others and without destroying my machine. I made it back up but it takes me almost two minutes to do it.
I also survived the rest of the trail (we skipped escalator and mickey’s) but was stressed out the entire time. That trail to me is just HARD. It’s harder than the other ones I did this week and I feel like I did hard shit, lol.
A few notes:
Have a bahn mi and a pho cup (fun to eat, fun to say) at 98 Center
Go to the food truck court over by the Hoodoo and eat a quesadilla at Quesadilla Mobilla. Get a plain cheese with pork if you’re picky and dont like weird shit in your food.
Get a milkshake at Chill n Shake. (Do this. Get the milkshake— doesn’t matter the flavor)
I had a great time and we will FOR SURE go again to this and other events like this. I’ll answer any questions unless they are hard and then I’ll make Rotsam answer them for you!
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