Flat Iron Mesa - Moab - Oct 2012

[PassRunnerZJ]

Tom Z, myself and my brother-in-law ran Flat Iron Mesa to take a look at it for possible inclusion in the 2013 GSW line-up. This was the second day wheeling in a three day trip to Moab in October. The weather was perfect for wheeling, but then there almost isn't bad weather for wheeling in Moab. Maybe a little hot sometime or cold/snowy other times...

We met at the prescribed meeting place Saturday morning and were Tom started discussing that we should run the trail one way and then try and run it the opposite direction later that day. Upon looking at the map, there was even a shortcut that would take some of the county road out of it to catch most of the trail to run the other way. Tom was working on Bob to bring his mostly stock Tacoma on this trip as he did on the Friday Dome Plateau to Behind the Arch’s trip we did on Friday. Since the Tacoma is Bob's only four wheel vehicle he stayed with his original intention to leave it in camp and ride with us.

After running a little past the turn off--Well's book has the waypoint correct--and getting turned around and to the trailhead we aired down and watched as three Wranglers found the turn off also and started airing down. The start of the trail is a little strange as there is a gate and rough road to get in on the side of the wash/canyon. If the start was any indication, this trail would be a good one as the road down the wash had a few ledges/drops and then a ledge climb up out of the wash.

If you run this trail, follow the book and the odometer settings really close. There are some steep sandstone climbs as well as descents in addition to the chute, which we missed the turn for, but walked back to look at and for GSW this will be a fun climb. There is a waterfall climb at the top if someone has a buggy... All the other notable obstacles live up to their billing and after walking and watching some other vehicles that caught up with us and had spotters that had done them before we did them. Tilt-a-whirl got some air time for Tom's rear wheel and I went down the second set of ledges w/o issue with Tom spotting me down.

Easter Egg Hill looked pretty straight forward and doable in the book, but upon arriving at the start it became apparent that there wasn't going to be much wiggle room on the line choice. The set of wheelers that caught up to us on Tilt-a-Whirl caught up to us again and we watched them work the variety of rigs around Easter Egg Rock and down the hill of other rocks. Tom spotted me down with only a little touch of body plastic to a rock. Tom thought about it and contemplated and finally decided to take the bypass on this one and the upcoming Intimidator obstacle. We decided that it would be best to see a few more GC's worked around the rock for the best line before he takes his WK down it.

The Intimidator will test your mental ability with some off-camber leaning towards the canyon drop as you approach the main part of the obstacle. The next part puts your vehicle and life in the hands of your spotter. You have to inch around a rock outcropping higher than your rig in a left-hand turn with a rock on the passenger side that the wheels climb. The hardest part is not turning too soon and putting your rear tire and quarter panel against/into the rock.

One around this the rest of the trip out is straight forward with a few small ledges, that is unless you are on a quad and wheelie out going up the ledge and fall off your quad, but as luck would have it the guy just fell on his butt and his quad rode the wheelie and didn't come back on him. We all laughed and gave him a score of 10 for his grace and luck as well as being glad that we didn't have to do any First Aid.

Sorry, no pictures of the last two obstacles as we were focusing on getting my grand through. Oh yea the views are spectacular from the trail and at the overlooks of the canyons. You get to see Hatch Canyon and Kane Creek as well as others that intersect.

Pictures

We believe that this will definately be a great trail for GSW and will propose putting it up.

[Z]

Todd,

Good writeup, but your panorama shot looks like crap. You really need an IPhone 5!

[PassRunnerZJ]

Yea, I'll put the new phone request in front of the budget committee. There is so much more on the trail, but I didn't want to write a novel. I have to get pictures from the other days' trails up too, but the Canon is set to save in CR2 format so I have to convert them.

[lostagain]

I seen your ZJ down there. i was there at the same time in my (sort of) XJ. after all it was an event for NAXJA so i left the ZJ at home. but looks like a good setup you got there.

And flat iron is one of my "must do" favorite trails down there, next to the pickle, mashed potato, rusty nail and metal masher.

[PassRunnerZJ]

Thanks. We saw a NAXJA group going to ToW apparently when we were getting ready for Dome Plateau to Behind he Arches. It was a great weekend for wheeling and it looks like you guys had a good event. You should join us w/your ZJ for GSW as well.

[lostagain]

I would gladly join you for GSW except it falls on the same dates as my annual "wheel somewhere in cali for a week" trip Or else i would have made it awhile ago, taking the ZJ down to moab for a few days would be much much cheaper than the XJ