Jiggety-jig

Gopher Flats
Moab, UT
March 14-22, 2018

Home again, home again jiggety-jig.  Yep, Moab and especially Gopher Flats is our happy place.  Surrounded by friends in the neighborhood,  the red rocks of Moab Rim to the west


and the snow-capped LaSal Mountains to the east make for a beautiful, quiet setting to call home.

But the "bestest"part is Dee-time !

Spring is in the air!  We arrived just in time to see the apple trees budding...they will be blooming soon...

and see the grass green up.  Sally is waiting patiently !

WileE has a few changes since we drove it last fall. 

Jeff (owner of Dirt Squirrel, Inc...our friend and neighbor) installed an Atlas TC, lowered the body a couple of inches, worked on the coil over springs and did a few other things.

Then our friend Rory (Moab Motorsports) replaced the ball joints, installed new brake rotors, and repacked the wheel bearings.

We had two "shake down" trail runs this week.  Wednesday, we stayed close to home and drove Steelbender with Dee and Warren.  WileE did great and we can sure tell the difference in the ride from last year.  

Dee leads the way in Elliott...her very capable 4 door Rubicon on 40 inch tires with a new soft top and kick a$$ attitude. Yep, it has a Hemi!

We have missed these beautiful views.

That's Warren in the mirror in his very capable jeep buggy ! It is awesome !

Dee getting lined up to crawl down a very gnarly ledge.

Dee watches when it's Warren's turn.  

On Thursday, we followed Dee again as she led us down Backward Bill Trail to Wipe Out Hill.  Warren joined us again.  A huge thank you to both Dee and Warren for going out with us.  We made a right turn at the top of WOH and followed a very tippy section of trail Dee refers to as Eilene on 7 Mile Rim.  We didn't do the whole trail, but we did drive between the Monitor and the Merrimac rock formations and passed Uranium Arch before taking a connector trail that led us back to Wipe Out Hill and Backward Bill and to Hwy 313.   

We had never done Backward Bill Trail before.  Its quite scenic with Big Mesa, canyons and distant views of the LaSals along sandy and slick rock surfaces.   

 There was a crowd of people at Wipe Out Hill...the steep ledge (black tracks) in the center of the photo.  It was a fun climb.

Next up was tippy "Eilene" ... just follow the black tracks as they turn right on the slick rock.  It's a sidehill section that feels a lot more tippy than it looks !  

I got a nice view of the canyon below as WileE leaned passenger...insert wide-eyed emoji here ! This was the first time we had driven Eilene in this direction.  Usually it's driver side leaning and I like that better. 

Easter Jeep Safari has begun and we will enjoy the week of excitement.  We also used our Silver Sneakers card (a senior citizen benefit with our insurance that covers all costs of the gym) and joined Moab Recreation and Aquatic Center again this year.  We will make at least three early morning trips/week to the gym during the time we are here.  Life is good !    

So until next time, 

HAPPY TRAILS !