Day 5: Moab – tastes like more.
Being so close to the main highway, our campsite was pretty noisy overnight, but I slept pretty good overall. The goal this morning was to first find a way to recharge my coilover and then explore some of Moab.
I called Donahoe/Icon first and asked for their recommendation. They honestly did what they could to help and directed me to the local Polaris dealer to get a refill. Unfortunately the local dealership only opened for business this past week and didn't have any tools yet. After trying the only local 4wd shop with no success, I called Icon again. They confirmed that I won't break anything with an empty coilover and if anything happened they would take care of me. Good enough – we hit the trails.
Thanks to KC's great last minute directions, we chose Shaffer trail as our first route. As we neared the Island in the Sky visitors center, the skies opened up yet again. After the park staff member at the gate warned us about the potential for flash floods, we started down the trail to the canyon floor. Some of the turns were slick and the view was reduced, but the trail is simply spectacular. All you need is a decent stock 4wd and I highly recommend it for anyone in the area. The view is amazing and the cliffs are enough to get the blood pumping. My wife even enjoyed driving a few miles of the trail. After reaching the floor, we took Potash Road all the way back to Moab.
In the afternoon, we decided to take a second trail. We chose “Fins and Things” in Slickrock Park. Again, about 10 minutes into the trail it started raining. We even had a few minutes of light hail! Here I fell in love with the area. The trail was challenging, but well within the range of the Tacoma without breaking anything. There was one section in particular (which I am going to regret for years that my wife didn't snap a pic of) where the truck in a similar position as when Scott and Pasquale took it years earlier. The truck was near vertical and the sand scraped my fairlead as I reached the bottom of the rock. The back bumper did scrape a bit on the rock... badge of honor. After looking at the map, it turns out we didn't actually run the entire trail. We ran the south side (which I personally found more challenging) and then about half of the north side, exiting on Porcupine trail right when the sun started to peek through the clouds.
Moab reminds me of most touristy towns like Banff, Jasper and Waterton. But I must say, it's a candyshop for amazing rigs. I was drooling of a group of Land Rovers that included a 90 series and two fully kitted Discos. I'll be back.
Tonight I'm going to try and hook-up with Willman, Moody and a few others to at least finally meet in person since they will be in the area later. Tomorrow morning we're off and heading in the direction of Northern California.
