This Ain't Your Grandmother's Taco - TacoGranny's Mild Sauce Tacoma

My cousin's girlfriend at the time put together a cool video from the trip, which I think does a better job than pictures can do. Some highlights:

4:34, Top of the World drone shot, really gives it perspective.
5:10, start of Hell's Gate footage.
8:49, Jeep rollover.

https://youtu.be/iJo5As4eou4

 

Nice writeup on the Moab trip! I always enjoy reading about that area and seeing pictures.

We went down there a few years ago and toured around the national parks with my mom but were kinda tired of parks by the end of the trip so rented a side by side and ran Fins and Things and Hells Revenge instead. Was funny because we put my mom in the drivers seat on Fins and she hauled ass faster than anyone else did that day. I've been itching to get back down there with the Tacoma ever since.

 

Thanks! Hopefully I'll have another more in-depth trip report to write about in 2 months when we go again, along with some more pictures. I know I read a bunch of them before our trip, nice to see what you're getting yourself into beforehand.

It seemed like it was mostly side by sides in town and on trails when we were there. They seem like a ton of fun on the trails, but I think I'd prefer my Tacoma for the A/C and staying out of the dust personally. Although with a rented side by side, I'd probably be more willing to use the skinny pedal, glad to hear your mom wasn't afraid to use it, lol.

 

(5/2022) Some minor updates to catch up.

After our Moab trip (5/2021), I suspected I had a rear shock that was blown out. I believe it happened on the way there, heading through Colorado. I had a decent amount of weight in the bed, but was well under payload, and hit some nasty bumps on the highway in the Vail, CO area that had me fully on the hard stock bump stops. A buddy on the trip commented on one of the first trail days that my rear end seemed especially bouncy, but I just dealt with it for the rest of the trip. When I got home from the trip, I took my truck in for it's 15k service and asked that they look at my rear end, citing the bounciness that I was experiencing, hoping to get the shock warrantied. What I got back was "one of the shocks appears to be leaking, but not bad enough to warranty" and that I could have it replaced for $350 (for one shock) or basically I could just deal with it until it got worse. I opted instead for a new set of 5100's for the rear, for $200 total. Upon removing the rear shocks, it was laughable how blown my driver side was, as it was able to fully compress with two hands and minimal force. So much for the dealership working on my truck anymore.

Nothing too exciting on the truck (mostly due to limited funds for a lift/bumpers/etc.) in terms of mods in the meantime as we prepare for another Moab trip in May 2022. However, a day before New Year's eve, I was driving home at night and caught a deer climbing out of the ditch with my front end.





It took about 3 weeks to get it into a body shop to get fixed. My first thought was that it was the perfect time for a new high clearance front bumper. I talked with the body shop and they were willing to play ball. However, the lead time on the bumper I've been eyeing (C4 Hybrid) was several months out, and I wasn't thrilled about driving my truck around for months like it was (after some zip ties and bungie straps had it somewhat held together) and possibly not even having a bumper before our May 2022 Moab trip. I instead opted to get the factory bumper replaced for the time being. I'd also like to do a lift prior to going for full steel bumpers so that I'm not taxing the stock front suspension anymore than it already is with the added weight of the sliders and skid plates.

A few other minor additions. I had a constant problem in the winter with ice buildup between my sliders and pinch weld in the front of my truck without front mudflaps (that had to go with the 33's). It caused a constant "clunking" as I drove over the most mild bumps on the road and got annoying pretty fast. My buddy in the white Tacoma was having similar issues and had ordered Rokblokz for his truck that seemed to solve it. They have an available cutout in the flap for the cab mount that lets it mount virtually flush with the stock wheel well, specifically for bigger tires. They were expensive for what they are, but that solved the issue. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing when I go bigger tires that will require a CMC to avoid the problem again, but that's future me's problem to deal with.

After reading (some of) crashnburn80's awesome lighting upgrade thread, I opted to swap in some Philips H9 halogen bulbs for the stock H11's. There's a tab that has to be shaved down to make the H9's fit the stock

$5 H11 harness H11 Male and Female Wire Harness

H11 harness, which was easy enough to do. (Tab shaved off was on the right of the plug).

Update: you can remove the green plastic tabs in the headlight bulb connector to run H9's without trimming the tab off the bulbs:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ctor-headlights.589465/page-300#post-28111591



Awesome upgrade for anyone looking to improve upon the stock halogens, but still want to keep halogens, in my case mostly for the de-icing properties in the winter. Took about 15 minutes total to shave the tabs off and swap out the bulbs. I would equate the lights now as being about as bright as the highbeams without the scatter. The nice stock cutoff was maintained. Should be better for avoiding future deer.

Also added some AVS in-channel rainguards. Some people love them, some hate them. I like the functionality of being able to crack the windows when it's raining to help de-fog the interior, especially when my dog is riding along.

I haven't been great with taking photos to document much, but here's a photo I found with the rainguards and mudflaps installed, and the front end all fixed up after the deer.



Found another thread about swapping my factory radio knobs for beefier Rav4 knobs. Simple, but I really like the improvement in looks/feel/usability over the stock knobs.







A few final simple mods before Moab (no pictures yet) include an anytime front/backup camera. Took a full afternoon to wire up all the harnesses, solder/heatshrink the connections and install on the truck, but I liked the idea of having at least some point of reference in front of me for Moab when I don't have a spotter, we'll see how much it actually gets used. I swapped out my manual transmission fluid for some Redline MT90 75w90, just did that last night, might be a minor improvement in shifting smoothness but too early to tell. I had it in my first gen Tacoma and loved it, my stock fluid was pretty dirty/brown so I'm glad a did it, roughly 21.6k miles on the truck at the moment. I'll also be installing Durobumps 3.5" rear bump stops tonight, to see if I can avoid blowing another set of rear shocks this year.

Heading out to Moab at the end of the week, so hopefully I'll have a bunch of photos/videos/stories from our shenanigans in a few weeks.

 

Got the bumpstops in last night, we'll see how they do on the trip.

 

Nice build thread...esp your Moab trip photos/words.

Keep it up!

 

(5/2022) Moab bound once again.

When we finished our Moab trip in 2021, we all immediately agreed to return in 2022. The group and vehicles would be largely the same as last year with a few minor changes. Realizing now that it can get a bit confusing referring to everyone as "my buddy with vehicle x", here's the roster breakdown with vehicles, drivers, typical passengers and notable mods from 2021 to 2022. Feel free to skip, or come back and use as a reference when I refer to any truck/person.

2021:
3rd gen Tacoma, Silver Sky Metallic, driven by Andrew. 35's, lifted, full armor, winch, 5.29 gears, OV tuned.
3rd gen Tacoma, Cement, driven by Taco (me), Grant (passenger). 33's, skids and sliders.
3rd gen Tacoma, White, driven by Dave, Kayla (passenger). 31's, skids and sliders.
FJ Cruiser, Silver, driven by Sam, Sue (passenger), Denise (passenger). 33's, lifted, skids and sliders, front steel bumper.
5th gen 4runner, White, driven by Jay, Courtney (passenger). 34's, lifted, skids and sliders.
5th gen 4runner, Silver, driven by Zack, Chuck (passenger). 31's, lifted, skids and sliders.
5th gen 4runner, Green, driven by Big Country. 37's, lifted, full armor, winch, 4.88 gears.

2022:
3rd gen 4runner, Black, driven by Andrew. 39's, SAS, 3 link front, 4 link rear, full armor, winch, 5.29's, front and rear lockers, dual transfer cases.
3rd gen Tacoma, Cement, driven by Taco (me). 33's, skids and sliders.
3rd gen Tacoma, White, driven by Dave, Kayla (passenger). 33's, lifted, skids and sliders.
FJ Cruiser, Silver, driven by Sam, Sue (passenger). 33's, lifted, skids and sliders, front steel bumper.
5th gen 4runner, White, driven by Jay, Courtney (passenger). 34's, lifted (more), skids and sliders, and a bunch of overland-y stuff including a rear tire swing out and stuff on the roof.
5th gen 4runner, Silver, driven by Zack, Chuck (passenger), Steve (passenger). 33's, lifted, skids and sliders.
5th gen 4runner, Barcelona Red, driven by Grant, Big Country (passenger). 33's, lifted, skids and sliders.

So the only difference in people making the trip was Denise didn't make it this year, and we added Steve as a passenger in Zack's 4runner.

For the vehicle change-up, there's a little more to the story.

Andrew has a long history of Toyota vehicles, including numerous 4runners, Tacomas, Toyota Pickups, MR2's, and even a Cressida. He's had a project on the backburner for several years, a 98 4runner that was destined for big tires, a solid axle swap, and a linked setup. Being a welder by trade, and with more friends in the fold that are into wheeling, he decided that this year was the year he was going to build that old 4runner into a Jeep killer. I don't know much about solid axles or linked setups so I won't butcher trying to narrate on the build too much, but here's some pictures.

Land cruiser front axle (FJ80 I believe).





Big flexing, on small tires.



Lot's of droop up front.



Front end done, back on the ground to flip around in the garage to start on the rear.



Big tires, 39" Kanati Mud Hogs, taller than the stove in the background by a good margin.



Reinforcing the frame.





New head unit to help drown out the big tires on the highway.



Checking clearance in the back with the big tires mounted.





NW Fab crawl box, almost didn't arrive in time for the trip (and it was ordered in September! Darn supply chain issues).



Rear shock hoops, new sub (to also help with drown out the highway noise).



And done (for the most part).



He started the build in December 2021, and had it essentially done in April with some minor cleanup to do before the trip. He was fortunate enough to be able to buy most of the parts at once so he didn't have to worry about supply chain issues when crunch time rolled around. He figures about 200 hours or so went into the build, and he did it all out of his garage, in the middle of winter in Wisconsin, with only a little jet heater to keep the temperatures tolerable inside when he was working. The truck also got a new engine, as the old 5vzfe with a supercharger had bit the dust years ago, so in went another 5vzfe with only 60k miles on it.

Big Country also had aspirations of a solid axle swap in his green 4runner that had made the previous trip. However, he didn't get started working on it til late January/early February. We all had our doubts about him getting it done in time, and unfortunately our doubts were confirmed when he didn't end up finishing it before the trip. To be fair, he was close, and essentially had it on the ground and driving, but something in his steering setup was off which caused constant binding, and he didn't have time to troubleshoot before our departure. So he audibled, and rode with Grant in his (new to him) Barcelona Red 4runner, which ended up working out fine.

 

Last year, Andrew and Big Country and I were supposed to leave a few days earlier than the rest of the crew to tackle the Rimrocker trail that goes from Montrose, CO to Moab, UT. I ended up bailing so that Grant could ride with me, as he couldn't afford the extra time off work and I could use a co-pilot to split gas with. So Andrew and Big Country tackled the Rimrocker and the rest of us met them in Moab.

After missing out last year, I decided I was going to make the Rimrocker trip this year no matter what. We also decided to tour Colorado a bit, so we left a week earlier than the rest of the crew on Friday, May 6th. Since Big Country hadn't finished his 4runner and nobody else could afford to take an entire 2 weeks off of work, it ended up being just me and Andrew on this leg.

Departing from northern Wisconsin. You'll notice the 4runner isn't on a trailer. Andrew wanted to drive it out there on it's own, more so to say that he did than anything. Moab was some 1,300 miles away, so it would be quite the feat. His old man Sam would be arriving in Moab with his dually Ram towing the FJ on a trailer, so Andrew had the option of trailering the 4runner back home for the return trip.



Somewhere on the highway in Nebraska.



We ended up stopping in North Platte, NE for the night.

Saturday, May 7th.

First mountain sighting in Colorado.



We ended up stopping in Manitou Springs, CO for the night, which is right next to Colorado Springs, and also near the base of Pike's Peak. We originally intended on staying in Colorado Springs, but found cheaper rooms in Manitou Springs.



Pike's Peak in the background (the one with snow on it), some 7,700 feet or so above us at the peak (which is at 14,115 feet).



I don't think we ever discussed doing Pike's Peak before the trip, but we were so close to it that we had to drive to the top. We'd save that for tomorrow.

After two long days of driving, we decided to find a local watering hole for the evening. We ended up at the Royal Tavern in Manitou Springs, which was walking distance from our motel. A few drinks later, and (what we thought was) pleasant conversation with the bartender and other locals, we were unceremoniously kicked out, as the bartender informed us that she would no longer be serving liquor to us for the evening (at 11:30 pm). This seemed odd to us, especially being from Wisconsin where the bars close at 2:30 am. We weren't drunk, belligerent, or rude in any sense, so it was a bit surprising. After we asked if we could have beers instead, and were refused, we got the hint and left (with the bar still full of other locals). Honestly, the vibe I got was that we weren't local, so we were fine to have a few drinks, but after that, we had to leave. The bartender had also been complaining to us about some rough types that had been in there a few weeks prior, so maybe she had reservations about outsiders in general (which seems like a poor business model in a tourist town). We walked back to our motel, still slightly confused about the whole situation, but had our spirits slightly lifted when we ran into some friendlier locals on the way back.



Sunday, May 8th.

Another friendly local at the breakfast diner.



Leaving Manitou Springs.



At the bottom of Pike's Peak.



And on the way up.



As we neared the top, we got to a series of tight switchbacks. I was in first gear on the corners, then had to rev it to nearly redline to shift into 2nd without bogging down, then back to 1st for the next hairpin, etc. The trucks were gasping for air.



Finally at the top. We left the bottom of the mountain in 60 degree weather, so we each had on shorts and tshirts. As soon as we stepped out of the trucks, the sweatshirts got put on (and in hindsight I should have thrown pants on too). It was about 35 degrees at the peak, with winds up to 1,000,000 mph (or so it felt like). I was literally afraid that if I dropped my phone while taking pictures, that it would be blown sideways down the mountain.



But the view was absolutely worth it.





There's a cog driven train that goes up and down the mountain, apparently they are needed when going up grades greater than 10% as the train would not have enough friction on the rails. You can see the tracks here. I have a video of the train itself arriving at the top with about 300 people on it, I'm also assuming that's how the employees at the new visitor center up top get to work everyday.







View from inside the visitor center. There was also a walk through museum, a huge cafe, and a merchandise store, so we spent a bit inside out of the cold and wind.



On the way back down.



We ended up stopping a few times at pull off areas to check out the scenery, which also did not disappoint.





Standing on this rock was one of the most terrifying parts of the entire trip. It doesn't look like it, but it's a long way down behind it, and it was still super windy.











One of my favorite pictures of the trip.



And back at the bottom. There's actually a guy that stops you at the base with a temperature reading gauge to check people's brakes, if they are too hot you have to pull off to the side and let them cool before he'll allow you through. We both used our gears on the way down, so we were good to go.



We had a little more time to kill, so we briefly checked out Garden of the Gods. You can see Pike's Peak in the background (again, the one with the snow).



Some cool rocks.



After that, we made our way to Salida, CO for the night. Across the street from our hotel, we found dinner at Quincy's Tavern. Their menu Sunday-Thursday is Filet Mignon dinner, and Friday-Saturday is the Prime Rib dinner. That's it. No complaints here with our Filet Mignon, which included a salad, bread, and baked potato, for something ridiculous like $20 for the 12 oz Filet Mignon and sides. Best bang for our buck meal the entire trip, and probably the best meal regardless of price anyways.

 

Monday, May 9th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

At one of our stops in Salida, we asked a local that seemed close to our age what we should check out in the area, not having much of a game plan. She suggested the Rawley Mines and the ghost town of Bonanza, CO, just south of Salida. Looking at the OnX offroad app (which was super helpful for navigating trails on the trip in general), we noticed several offroad trails that led to the mines. After deciding on County Road UU52 as our access point, we set off.







The trail itself was pretty cool. Plenty of narrow spots to gather some fresh pinstriping, awesome views, and enough technical (while not overly challenging) spots to keep it interesting. We had noticed when reading about the trails in the area that Rawley Mine wasn't the only mining structure to see, and it didn't take us too long to find our first one.





As we continued along the trail, slowly climbing in elevation, we reached our first major obstacle. A fallen tree on the trail was completely blocking our path forward.



We had been on the trail for maybe an hour at this point. We had tentatively planned on doing some trails in Colorado prior to the trip, but neither of us had thought to bring a chainsaw or axe with for this scenario. After some brief debating on whether we should turn around or not, we decided to try out the only suitable tools we had with to clear the trail: the 4runner's winch, some straps, a tree saver, and snatch block.



Thanks to the snatch block, we were able to get the 4runner in position to pull the tree in the only direction it could feasibly go. We ended up having to re-rig a few times as we underestimated how far we had to pull the tree to clear the trail.



Eventually, we had it moved far enough off the trail to get by, after some cleanup of the smaller debris left behind.



We felt like real mountain men at this point. Excited with our success, we pressed on...for another 100 yards or so.



Another group of fallen trees stopped us again. No problem for the 4runner, and in another 15 minutes or so, we had the trees pulled off the trail.



I should also note that at this point, we were somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 feet of elevation, so any physical exertion was extremely tiring. Prior to deciding to pull this group of trees, we had walked a ways up the trail beyond to see if this was going to be a regular occurrence. As much fun as pulling the first tree out of the way was, we didn't want to make an afternoon of moving trees. With nothing blocking our way in eyeshot, we continued on.

A few more minutes down the trail, we were stopped again, this time by two separate fallen trees over the trail.



While doable, neither tree looked like it had a good line to pull to, despite the snatch block. However, the woods had opened up considerably in this area, so we decided to look for a route around the fallen trees rather then move them both. Or I should say, I looked for a route around, carefully picking a line that hopefully wouldn't scratch my truck up too bad. When I figured I had a doable route selected, I heard branches snapping and the mighty roar of a 3.4. Andrew had decided to make his own path somewhat over/through the trees, rather than around them. I took my planned route around, and we both pressed on.

Sometimes, it's easier to just drive over things.



Further down the trail, we found some more old mining structures.















As we continued to climb towards 11,000 feet of elevation, the number of dead trees continued to increase, and we also started running into various spots of surprisingly deep snow in various places.



I don't recall the exact number of trees that we moved, I'm guessing 4-5 total. The deep spots of snow were also not very encouraging, as they seemed to be getting deeper the more we climbed in elevation. From what I could tell, a lot of the trees must have fallen somewhat recently, as we had followed some fresh looking tire tracks passed a few of the fallen trees suggesting that they weren't blocking the trail when that vehicle had driven through. It had also been fairly windy in the area all week, which I'm guessing is what took most of them down. At this point in the trail however, the tracks had completely stopped, so I'm guessing we were the first down the trail that far this year. After making our way through more deep snow and getting stopped by yet another tree blocking our path forward, we decided to check the OnX app to see how much further we had to go to the Rawley Mines and Bonanza. After realizing we were less than half way there and not knowing how many more trees and deep snow were between us and our destination, we made the decision to turn around and go back the way we knew was passable. Somewhat disappointing, but I believe it was the right choice given the circumstances. We had been on the trail for roughly 3 hours at this point, probably half of that was spent moving trees. It was about 3 pm and we wanted to make it to Montrose, CO that night, so we started making our way back down the trail.



At some point, we took a wrong turn on the way back, and discovered another set of buildings that we had missed on the way up. The slightly ominous "Danger, Keep Out" spray painted on the door of one of the structures had us back in our trucks and continuing down the trail in short time.

Not a bad view from the front door of one of the buildings.



Before long, we were back out into the open near the trail head.





And back at the highway.





We made our way to Montrose, CO for the night.

 

Tuesday, May 10th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

The Rimrocker trail that we had planned to do goes from Montrose, CO to Moab, UT, roughly 130 miles worth of (mostly) trails. We figured roughly 2 days would be spent on the trail (more like two half-days) so we were still a bit early to get started if our goal was to meet the rest of the group in Moab on Friday. We had discussed Telluride as a nicer one-off place to spend the night, knowing we would be spending a bit more money to do so, so we made our way south out of Montrose.

When we got to town, we stopped at a local park to browse our phones for a hotel in town.





Before long, we had located one that was somewhat reasonably priced for the area, not a bad view in site.





Just to the right of the church's roof, you can see a steep set of switchbacks of Black Bear Pass in the background. Labeled as one of the most dangerous roads in Colorado, vehicles routinely tumble down the sides of the treacherous trail. The pass wasn't on the menu this year, and there's talks of the trail being shut down permanently in the near future due to the dangerous nature of it. We'd like to do the trail, perhaps next year, before it's closed for good.



Downtown, Telluride.



We had dinner that night at a local bar and grill, and ended up sitting next to a few fellow midwesterners from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. One of the guys claimed to be the son of the parents who had the construction contracts to build Kwik Trip gas stations in the midwest. If you're from the area, Kwik Trip gas stations are all the rage, with dozens popping up around our neck of the woods in the last few years. They are well known for their customer service, hot to-go food, and grocery store like atmosphere. I've spent way too much money over the years in those gas stations, affectionately earning them the nickname "Kwik Trap" amongst our friend group.

After our dinner of:
6 chicken wings
12 chicken strips
12 deep fried cheesy-something balls (that were delicious)
2 drinks apiece (4 total)
Our bill was somewhere in the $90 dollar range ($10 per drink didn't help). Welcome to Telluride I guess.

We asked the bartender if there was a good local dive bar to check out at our next stop, hoping for slightly cheaper drinks. We ended up at a basement bar called O'Bannon's Irish Pub, where drinks were slightly cheaper at $7-8. Our wallets were definitely lighter after a night with the locals.

 

Wednesday, May 11th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

After our expensive night out, we decided to head for the Rimrocker trail a day earlier than planned. I'd been watching for trail updates on the Rimrocker website for weeks, with the last update on April 20th stating that crews were still working on snow removal at elevation in the Uncompahgre National Forest just outside of Montrose. Not knowing if that portion of the trail was passable in it's current state, we opted to start the trail out of Nucla, CO. The trail opened up fully about 5 days later. If we ever go back, I'd like to complete that portion as well to be able to say that I did the full Rimrocker.

At the trailhead, we stopped to air down a little bit to smooth out our ride on the trail, and up pulled a pair of nice older diesel Land Rovers that were fully kitted out. I felt some validation in my own tire choice (33x10's) by seeing the tall skinnies on the rear Land Rover. Who needs wide tires anyways?





I missed a Kodak moment when the wife and son of one of the drivers hopped out and went to check out Andrew's truck. The kid, who must have been 2-3 years old I'm guessing, stood with his back next to the 39" tires and shouted "Mommy! Mommy! The tires are taller than me!" Which they were, lol. I felt like it would be a bit creepy to ask if I could take a picture of her kid next to the tires, but in hindsight I'm sure it would have been fine. Missed opportunity.



After chatting for a bit and admiring each other's trucks (they loved Andrew's truck, which was becoming a theme on the trip at this point), they informed us that the first river crossing on the trail was impassable, as they had learned from some locals. After thanking them and wishing them luck, the turbo diesels sputtered back to life and off they went.

We decided to check out the river for ourselves, named Tabeguache Creek, as we didn't have anything else better to do and we could afford to take our time.



Andrew debated trying the crossing for a long time, but in the end he (smartly) decided to stay dry. Like with most of the photos, I feel like they don't do it justice, as the middle part of the river was cruising. We both agreed that he probably could have made it, but my truck would have been much more questionable. Also, I was not set up very well to be of any assistance if he got in trouble, and there wasn't much to winch to in front of him. Instead, we opted to loop around to the other side of the river on the trail, which turned out to be totally worth doing as it was one of the more fun/technical sections. I must have been having too much fun driving to stop for many pictures.

4runner in the side mirror, back in the distance.



And back around to the other side of the river. This side gives a better perspective of how fast the water was moving and reaffirmed Andrew that he made the right choice.



True to it's name, the Rimrocker trail was full of stunning views on the top edge (or "rim") of huge canyons/valleys.





We spotted what looked like and old mineshaft and decided to check it out.





We weren't quite brave enough to walk all the way out to the edge.







We found a cool rock overhang a ways further down the trail, which was a good comparison of where our roof lines were at.



I was a good 3 feet from my roof to the rock, Andrew was probably a foot away with the help of a little rock.



No idea where this road would have gone before, straight off a cliff by the looks of it.









Another personal favorite picture of mine.





I should note that at this point, the winds were incredible. As I got out of my truck to take the above two photos, it was all I could do to open my door. Standing here to take a photo of the 4runner, the winds were so brutal, pebble sized rocks were pelting my legs constantly. Being on top of cliffs for much of the day certainly didn't help. It was around 6 pm at this point, and we decided that we should try to find a spot to camp for the night by 7 pm or so. We pressed onwards, eager to get some reprieve from the winds.

7 pm came and went with no signs of anywhere that might provide us some wind breaks. We ended up pushing pretty fast at this point, and didn't end up settling down til closer to 9 pm that night. Thankfully, we found a campground near the Colorado/Utah border that was in a valley and heavily wooded, which was good enough for us at that stage of the day. I'm not sure if we were supposed to pay or not at the campground as it had designated sites complete with fire pits and some common bathrooms, but with nobody around and darkness upon us, we figured we'd be alright for one night. We opted not to bring any camping gear with us, so after some hot dogs on a small portable grill for dinner, we turned in for the night in our trucks.

 

Thursday, May 12th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

The next morning, the winds had thankfully died down some, but we woke up to a cool 36 degrees. I woke up at 6 am, my feet freezing. After briefly pondering whether there was any danger in my exhaust finding it's way into Andrew's cab as he slept, I decided to fire up the truck and the heater for an hour or so while we both continued sleeping.



It wasn't long after we departed that we made it to the Colorado/Utah border.





When the forest opened up a bit, we could see the La Sal mountains fully in view. We had caught glimpses of them as we approached the border the previous day. This was cool to see, since you can see these mountains prominently from much of Moab, so it really felt like we were getting close at this point. I had seen plenty of them last year from the other side, and we would be going around them to the south, whereas I had only really seen them last year from the north side.

One of my favorite parts of the Moab area is the endless supply of different types of views.



I felt the need to take a rare selfie as we continued into Utah, temperatures still hovering around 40 degrees. I was thankful at that point that I had packed a knit hat and sherpa flannel for such an occasion.



Somewhere along this portion of the trail, we passed a mountain biker that was stopped on the side of the trail. He was facing the opposite direction from where we were headed, so we didn't plan on seeing him again. We didn't, until I glanced in my drivers side mirror as we were in a narrow section of the trail, cliff edge on one side, rock wall on the other, with maybe 5 feet of total width to spare from our vehicles. The biker was right between myself and the cliff wall, off my driver side rear tire, he couldn't have had more than 2-3 feet of width to squeeze through. As he passed my drivers side window, he shouted "hopefully I can stay ahead of you guys now!" and pedaled on down the hill. Andrew later said that he nearly ran the guy over, as he was behind me, and the guy made the same questionable decision to go around him on the narrow section, then pulled between our trucks once he got around the 4runner, which was right when I was on the brakes to slow down for some obstacle. He figures the bike was 1-2 feet off his front bumper at this point, before the bike passed me on the driver side. This guy made no attempt to make his presence known to us, chose a ridiculous place to pass us, and didn't seem to fully appreciate the danger he was in when he was in front of Andrew's truck, which was not pedestrian friendly in any sense of the word. Slightly befuddled at this guy's life choices, we pressed on, only to find out he was a part of a larger group of bikers down the trail. We took some satisfaction in passing all of them at the top of a long, steep climb, at which they had stopped at the top to catch their breath. We sped up a little as the trail opened up to create some distance between us.



Spotted some cows, who were probably thankful that the temps weren't warmer at this point, since there wasn't much for shade in the area.



The La Sal mountains, now primarily to the east.





Since we were arriving in Moab a day early, we got a hotel in town for the night, as our VRBO that we had rented for the week wouldn't be ready until the next afternoon, when everyone else was scheduled to meet us. We had dinner at Dewey's Restaurant and Bar in town, named after the old Dewey bridge that you pass at the Top of the World trailhead, where I had one of the best burgers I've ever had, dubbed the "Blackened Bleu Burger". Seriously, I've got a certain affinity for cheeseburgers (despite my nickname being Taco), and have had countless in my life, I'd firmly put the blackened bleu burger in my top 5.

After dinner, we retired to the hotel, and spent a good portion of the evening in the outdoor "hot" tub, which was more lukewarm at best. Still, we had arrived, and it felt good to be done with the extensive driving we had done in the past week.



Elsewhere, the rest of the group from Wisconsin had departed, and were running into the same crazy winds that we had dealt with yesterday as they made their way across Nebraska.





Grant and Big Country were off being patriotic somewhere. It was nice to be getting some pictures from their journey.

 

Friday, May 13th, 2022 (Moab trip continued, actually in Moab now)

Andrew and I spent Thursday night paging through my Moab trail guide book, looking for some trails to do for the day while we awaited the arrival of the rest of the crew. We settled on Box Car Loop and Kamikaze, which were right next to each other. They were both rated as "difficult" trails, but were really only moderately difficult in a few spots. We were still fully loaded with all of our gear for the week, but were also craving a bit of a challenge, so we set off. As with most trails in Moab, we were spoiled for views.



Found some more cows that had managed to find the only bit of shade around. I'm no cow expert, despite being from Wisconsin, but I had never seen horns like these ones, that looked to be about the size of traffic cones.



Getting into a bit more of the technical stuff. I mentioned earlier, but the OnX offroad app is a good tool to use, especially in conjunction with the Moab trail guide. Not every trail is clearly marked, and there's some areas that can be slightly confusing, as we found was the case on Box Car Loop. I also had the chance to try out my Clutch Start Cancel around this section of the trail for the first time offroad. I never used it last year, but I only really had troubles on Top of the World with all the step ledges going up, where I probably killed my truck 6-7 times. I found it hard to time when my tires first contacted ledges, as I needed immediate gas to keep my momentum up, without slamming into the rocks from getting on the gas too early, or too late which is when I would kill it. I've also discovered that when the truck dies in these situations, it doesn't really like to start afterwards. Last year I had to have my gas pedal to the floor when I cranked it over to get it to go. When I killed it going up some of these steeper loose rocks on Box Car Loop, I decided to try out the CSC. And...it works! After killing it, I put the truck in 1st gear (while already in 4low), hit the CSC button, and cranked the key. The starter motor moves the tires forward at an incredibly slow rate, until you get over the obstacle where you can gain some momentum, and then the truck slowly turns over and starts, now rolling in 1st. Knowing that it worked as intended but recognizing it's probably a bit hard on the starter, I stowed that piece of information for later. I've read conflicting info on here about the abuse on the starter motor. A few 1st gen guys swear by it and claim to use it all the time offroad, with no long term ill affects on the starter, so I guess I'll use it when needed. It at least somewhat solved the problem of the truck not wanting to start after killing it.



We questioned if we were at the right spot when we came across a barb wire gate on a steep uphill section, but after confirming on OnX that we were on the right path, we opened up the gate, made our way up the hill, and closed the gate behind us. I'm guessing this gate is relatively new, probably for the cows, as my 2016 version of the Moab trail book made no mention of it.



Last year, with our full group of Toyota's, trails took roughly double the amount of time that the book suggested. That was with 7 vehicles, many of them mostly stock, so there was a lot of spotting involved and slow progress overall. With only two of us, we tackled Box Car Loop in about 2 hours, the book suggested 3-4 hours total. Since we still had plenty of time before the others were due to arrive, we continued on to Kamikaze, the trail entrance conveniently located directly across a dirt road from the exit to Box Car Loop. The book claimed 40 minutes one way (the trail is a down and back) so we expected to be done in about an hour.

We ended up finding ourselves at the end of the trail in about 20 minutes, and the view was absolutely worth the trip.









The views were the closest in feel to Top of the World that I had seen so far in Moab. Swallows were diving every direction near the cliff edge. It was a long ways down, and it felt like you could see forever in every direction.

We also spotted our first lizard of the trip.



On the way back, we were mostly climbing, as the trail to the overlook was mostly downhill.





One of the few major obstacles on this short trail, dubbed "Kamikaze Hill" was intimidating on the way down as well as the way back up. This is one of those "pictures don't do it justice" photos, as I watched Andrew nearly lift a front tire going up it, even with all of his droop.



Coming down was almost scarier, as you drive over the smooth portion of rock on the right side to drop down the Kamikaze Hill. Even with my front camera, I got out and looked at it first before committing on the way down, since it feels like you're about to drive off a cliff. Also a good reminder to strap down any loose items in the cab/bed.



Right after Kamikaze Hill is another steep incline, this time with a few ledges involved. With a little momentum, it was no problem.



I was also finding that the front camera was proving to be invaluable, particularly on the stepped ledges that gave me problems last year. With the huge hood on my truck, I found that I would lose sight of these ledges a good 10 feet before my front tires got to them, so unless I was hanging out the window, I was blindly guessing when I needed a little extra gas to climb. With the camera, as soon as the ledges disappeared from my sight line behind the hood, they appeared on the camera. Once they disappeared from my camera, my front tires were touching the ledge. This all made timing the gas pedal about 1000x easier. If you wheel with a manual tranny, I'd say it's worth checking out for that help alone.

We made our way off the Kamikaze trail and started down the highway back to Moab. With a little time to spare, we gave our trucks a much needed washing in town, before making our way to our VRBO.

Home (for the week at least) at last.



Everyone started arriving to town around 4-6 pm or so. We spent the night out on the covered porch, catching up with stories of our travels, and enjoying some beverages as we Wisconsinites do best.

 

Saturday, May 14th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

Much like last year, we wanted to start on something moderate on the first day with the entire group. We decided on Dome Plateau, the trailhead being about an hour away and next to Top of the World. Hwy 128 follows the Colorado River out of Moab, and is a pretty cool drive. Along the way, we were slowed down by a big group of Jeeps heading the same direction. At least, we thought they were Jeeps, until we realized it was a large group of new Broncos. Hoping they were heading to Top of the World, we were disappointed to follow them all the way to the trailhead of Dome Plateau. We stopped in the parking lot to air down, also figuring the Broncos could put some distance between us on the trail. I decided this year to air down to about 22 psi and just leave the tires aired down all week to save messing with it at every trail. It didn't take long for us to catch up to the Broncos once we were on the trail.



The Broncos turned out to be some promotional thing for new Bronco owners, where they could come drive rented Broncos on the trails with expert spotters. This made for some long waits while each individual Bronco was slowly guided through (mild) terrain. They were also doing a lot of filming/photography, with cameras strategically set up along the trail to capture the flex action over obstacles. They also seemed to be in no hurry, and didn't really make any attempt to let us go around them, and a group of Jeeps were also stuck behind us waiting.



We did our best to stay patient. We typically had pretty good luck with little to no traffic on trails last year, but also consciously tried to avoid popular trails on the weekend.

Doug the Pug (or maybe it's Archie the Pug, Jay and Courtney have two of them) was giving us all a lesson in patience. All chill.



Meanwhile, Grant was dialing in his communication skills. We all had handheld walkie talkies in the trucks, but he was finding it tough to hear his, or possibly he just didn't want to listen to Big Country chirp at him about his driving skills, constantly egging him on to take the harder lines, so out came his headset. All business.



We eventually got around the Broncos when the trail opened up a bit. Hopefully they got some good photos of our trucks going by their motion cameras.







Since we didn't get rolling super early in the morning (which would become a theme for the week) and with the hour drive to the trailhead, we were already well into lunch time. However, with the temperatures climbing, we searched for some shade where we could eat our sandwiches and rehydrate. We ended up finding the perfect spot to stop.





The parking area at this stop was a small tight circle with only one narrow access trail, and before long we once again ran into the group of Broncos, trying to squeeze in to the limited parking spots. They quickly realized there was not enough room for all of them with our trucks already parked, so they left to look elsewhere for a suitable lunch spot. It worked out in the end, as after we got back on the trail, we ran into them again, at a more appropriate sized spot for their group. I also nearly backed into Zack's 4runner as we were trying to maneuver our way out of the parking area, as I accidentally had my front camera switched on as I started to back up, then slammed on the brakes as Zack yelled "STOP!" over the radio. Probably stopped an inch or so away from him. A good reminder to keep your head on a swivel, I think we both preferred to keep truck damage limited to trail vs. truck only, and not truck vs. truck.





This was another nice spot to stop to get some reprieve from the heat, so we took a little walk. The caves turned out to mostly go nowhere, but if you stay to the left side and climb the big hill, you end up in a cool circular/dome shaped room that is almost completely pitch black.

Inside the room, looking back towards the entrance.



Turning on flash helped to see better inside.



We talked with some of the Bronco guys, mainly the head guy leading the group, as they were grilling lunch. The stock tires (not sure what they run) on the Broncos were getting all chewed up with the amount of offroading they were doing so he was curious how the Kanati's that a few of our trucks were running held up. He was also interested in our rock sliders (almost entirely made by Andrew) as they were looking into sliders for the Broncos at the time. Nice guy.



Found an old building.





Another personal favorite picture of mine from the trip, taken by somebody with a much better camera than my 5+ year old phone has.



After a long hot day, we made our way back to Moab. It would turn out to be the only day of the trip that we had all 7 trucks on the same trail, for various reasons.



Back at the house, Andrew decided to tackle his front axle seal that had a minor leak. He ended up doing both of them just for piece of mind. It was a lot nicer to have a nice place to work on trucks at the house, it would have been a pain to do any of this at the KOA that we stayed at last year.



I have long suspected that my stock rear leaf springs were junk after our trip last year, but they weren't too bad for my daily driver since I'm unloaded 95% of the time, but I was still on my stock bump stops more often than I should have been for a stock truck. I figured I'd be getting a new leaf pack when I do a lift so I put off doing anything about it, besides putting the durobumps bump stops on before we departed this year. The stock bump stops measure 2.5", and the durobumps were 3.5", so I was slightly worried that, fully loaded, I might be in an annoying zone where every bump would tap the bump stops. I had about 1.5" of clearance between top of durobump and frame unloaded, and to my surprise, I was resting on the bump stops full time with no more than 200 lbs or so in the bed (I had significantly lightened my load from last year, when I brought way too many tools, and also had all of my camping gear).

Dave stopped by my house the night before I left for the trip as I was finishing packing, and floated the idea of grabbing his stock leaf springs to swap in my truck (he's on Icon's RXT leaf pack currently). I didn't have time to swap the leaf springs that night, but Dave offered to bring them with to Moab so I could swap them out if my rear end was as clapped out and unbearable to drive that I suspected it might be. The durobumps were basically acting as secondary springs my entire journey out to Moab fully loaded, and held up surprisingly well. There was the occasional hard thump from the back end as I fully compressed the bump stops over some of the bigger bumps on the highway, but all in all it wasn't too bad.

Even though Dave brought his old stock leaf springs on the trip, I didn't end up swapping them out while we were out there, partially out of laziness, and partially out of not wanting to ruin another set of leaf springs out wheeling. I probably owe him a few bucks to pay for the extra gas he burned hauling those things out there for nothing, lol. I'm thinking I'll swap them in this weekend (June 2022, post Moab trip) and I'll be curious to see if how bad mine are compared to Dave's stock take offs. Hoping sometime before another possible trip next year to get a lift if I can save up the money to hopefully do it right the first time.

 

Sunday, May 15th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

Andrew was itching to test out his truck on some harder trails, but was somewhat limited this year since we didn't have Big Country's 4runner to run trails with him. Sam was always down to try harder trails, but his FJ being on 33's was somewhat limited as well on the really rough stuff. When asked if I wanted to run Steel Bender with them, I opted to leave my truck back at the house and hopped in the passenger seat of Andrew's truck. To my (somewhat) surprise, Zack decided to tag along in his 4runner.





The trail drops into a valley by Mill Creek at the start, and it once again felt like we were in a different world. When we finally met Mill Creek, we were faced with our first obstacle of the day.

Can't tell from this angle, but Zack's got his rear driver side tire way in the air on this line. He teetered between that and his front passenger tire being suspended for a good minute or so before we convinced him that it would settle down once his front came down.



The far left side of the photo was about the line of Andrew's passenger side when we came down the same way. It's deceiving, but probably a good 4 foot vertical drop. Andrew's side looked much more doable from the driver seat, so when he asked me how my side looked and I saw the drop (underestimating it a bit), knowing that Andrew wanted to wheel hard I said "looks good over here". We came down hard on the front (steel) bumper but otherwise came out of it ok. "I thought you said we were good!" After reminding Andrew that I got Big Country hung up on Poison Spider last year, and that maybe I wasn't the best passenger seat spotter, we continued on.

After crossing Mill Creek, we started climbing a bit out of the valley.



After letting a gaggle of side by sides (SXS) go around us, we made our way to "The Wall" only to find the side by sides having lunch. Apparently one of them flipped over on to it's roof going up the wall, a small pile of potato chips on the ground being the only evidence of the rollover. The only damage to the SXS was a broken axle, and nobody was hurt thankfully. Andrew didn't hesitate to go for it himself, despite this information.

Note: I'm realizing now that I have too many videos to not add any to this thread, as a lot of situations, like this one, I only took videos and no photos. It seems like there isn't a way to directly upload the videos to Tacomaworld and they instead have to be uploaded to Youtube and then embedded. Looks like I'll be spending an evening soon uploading some videos to Youtube so I can add them to the trip report, if I get real ambitious I'll see what I have for videos from last year's trip as well to supplement those posts.

My only photo of "The Wall" with a kid trying out his RC rock crawler on it.



There was an optional bypass to the left (that still ended up being challenging) that Sam and Zack used to get around.

More Steel Bender to follow...

 

thank you for this, other than the 4runner pics.

 

Sunday, May 15th, 2022 (Moab trip, Steel Bender continued)

It's been awhile, so I figured I'd continue the Moab trip report. I still haven't gotten the videos uploaded, but if I wait too much longer to finish this thing, the details will start getting fuzzy.

We made our way passed "the wall," continuing on the loop portion of the trail. We came across an optional slickrock fin that was very similar to Fins and Things and portions of Hell's Revenge. Mild, but always fun to drive on.


We came across a small lizard with a big personality, determined to stand his ground on top of a ledge that we were heading towards. Even the mighty roar of the 3.4 didn't deter him, and he waited until the 40's of the 4runner were just about on top of him before he bolted off the trail. Big props, little dude.



Some scenery.



And some more scenery. I believe we are facing the city of Moab in this picture, some buildings barely visible over the horizon before the giant ridge in the background (Moab is basically in a big valley).



I forgot to mention during "the wall" portion, we were asked by a guy in his new Jeep Gladiator if we could give him a spot. I believe he was on 37's so the main line was doable for him, but he was wheeling alone and so we gladly guided him up the obstacle. He decided he was better off tagging along with us (which, agreed, it's always smarter to wheel with others than solo).


At this point, we were coming to the end of the loop portion (actually, I believe "Steel Bender Loop Route" is technically a separate trail from "Steel Bender Flat Pass" or something similar, probably butchering the name without my guide book in front of me). Shortly after the start of the "flat pass" portion, the book made a somewhat chilling claim of "Caution! Extreme Ledge!" Undeterred, we pressed on to see what this "Extreme Ledge" was all about.

We started our way down a large wide open hill section (so much for "flat").



There were SXS's everywhere as we continued our descent.



Finally, we came to the "Extreme Ledge" portion. It was at this point that I decided that I was glad I made the decision to hop in the 4runner and leave my truck back at the house.



We thought for sure Zack was turning around at this point in his 4runner, but there looked to be a way around to the right side of the main ledge.



We sent Andrew down first on the easier line to the right so we didn't have a repeat of the river ledge incident, and he made it down without a problem. Zack, however, took a little more finagling.





We ended up hooking up a winch line to Zack's rear hitch to ease him down the obstacle. It was done more out of precaution than worry, but I'm sure he felt better about it. After this obstacle there's a 90 degree turn at the bottom, down another set of large ledges. Andrew, being Andrew, had not waited for a spotter and already made his way down this portion in his truck. I had yet to look down that direction since I was focused on Zack's situation. As soon as I did, and noticed that it was significantly harder, I yelled up to Zack to stop, suggesting he come check it out to see if he thought it was doable before he came down the first ledges. He decided he was committed at this point, and made it down the rest of the way safely.

The next set of ledges had a similar but slightly smaller main ledge than the first one, which was the route Andrew took down. However, the "easy" line was much more difficult than what Zack had just come down, winch assisted, and had 2-3 large boulders basically right in the way of the alternate line. After a lot of head scratching and game planning, we decided that this was a good point to turn around, being about 3 pm. Even if Zack made it, the FJ still had to make it, as well as our new Jeep buddy. We figured the time it would take to get all the rigs down (with likely "steel bending" body damage) wasn't worth it. Sorry, no pictures of the next section, just picture it being much tougher than the previous.

With that decision made, Zack flipped around to head back up the ledge he just came down, and Andrew roared back up the ledge he had just went down. We hooked Zack back up to the winch to help him up.



Steve being Steve, hiding in the 4runner's shade and, doing what I can only assume was blowing over the top of his water bottle to make that hollow sound.



And back up top.



Knowing Andrew had been eyeing that ledge to the left the entire time, I hopped in the passenger seat so we could ride or die together. Steve was by the passenger window, and I noticed a small spherical object on the ground by him and told him to pick it up. Turned out to be a greasy ball bearing.



To the left of the ledge was a big drop down into a ravine. We briefly discussed our emergency plan if we started to tip/roll, since we didn't want to tumble down the ravine, as it would be a long time before we stopped. I put my seat belt on and we hit it. Another point here where I have a video that's better than any pictures that I'll try and add later, but this was my perspective when we were going up, right after both front wheels came well off the ground. Andrew was quick reacting thankfully, and clutched in to bring the tires back down before we came to a rest.





We had a somewhat questionable line (thanks to our Jeep friend spotter) that I think made it tougher on us than it needed to be. He wanted our passenger tire on the big ledge portion to the right of the "main line," where we wanted to be more square to the main line, if that makes sense. Still, he saved us with his winch, so no harm done.

Before long, we were back at the river crossing near where we started.



Elsewhere, the remainder of the crew had done Hurrah Pass and Chicken Corners, both pretty popular and easier trails, but it made for some good pictures.









More to follow...

 

(Moab Trip continued in next post)

Saturday, August 6th, 2022

Took a trip back up to the Iron Range Off Road Park in Gilbert, MN last weekend. Ended up just hopping in with Andrew in his 4runner, with our buddy Grant riding shotgun. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't take my truck. As far as I can tell, there are no difficulty ratings on the trails besides a basic "easy, moderate, difficult." On my one previous trip to Gilbert back in 2020 right after I got my truck, I'm pretty sure we stuck to the easy trails, since most of us were pretty stock. A few of the guys in the group had been back once or twice when I had conflicts in my schedule, and they stuck to mostly easy/moderate trails, with the bigger trucks tackling maybe one "difficult" trail. I know this is TacomaWorld, and this post will only feature a 4runner, but I'm using this more than anything to document our wheeling related shenanigans, more for my own terrible memory than anything.

Started out on the flex ramp at the trailhead.



I had to google after the fact on what the calculations on the side of the ramp meant. "Directions: (Distance traveled up ramp/wheel base) x 1000." Turns out it's a measurement called "ramp travel index." I believe you go as far up the ramp as possible before another wheel (in our case, the rear drivers side) lifts off the ground. We were definitely close to that point, as it felt like it was just about to lift from in the back seat, hence me leaning out the window. We ended up at (90"/112") x 1000 = 803. As far as I can tell from my limited reading on the subject, that's decent.



Satisfied, we carried on.



In keeping with a common theme of the build thread, here's some nature. This frog was maybe 3/4" long, and we must have seen hundreds of them going through some of the wetter areas.



Without much direction and me trying to navigate based on some pictures of trail maps that we had driven by, we made our way to "the view."



This was the reason I was glad I didn't take my truck. Obviously we were gunning for "difficult" trails with the 4runner, but most of the trails we ended up on seemed like they would have been impassable in anything less than our setup. I'm not sure if they are more meant for buggies, modded jeeps, etc., but they were not messing around on the "difficult" rating. There were several times where I thought to myself, "if we break down right here, there's no way anybody is towing us out."





Testing out some more flex.



As it got later in the afternoon, I started looking for a route back to the trailhead. I ended up choosing the most direct route, which turned out to be a flooded trail with water up to the sliders at some points. Without being able to see the terrain below the water, the 4runner plodded through slowly but surely. If we would have taken that trail in my truck, I would have never made it out. It was a hot day, so after running around and taking some videos and photos of the earlier parts of the day, I opted to ride in the back for a lot of the rough stuff. No A/C in the 4runner currently, but the little bit of shade was welcomed. Hence no pictures for some of the harder stuff, but I said to myself more than once, even knowing the capabilities of Andrew's truck, "there's no way we're making it through that." Sure enough, we made it through everything the trails could throw at us, with relatively minimal damage. The trails were honestly more technical than anything we had done in Moab, besides maybe "the escalator" that Andrew tried in his 4runner (a bit of foreshadowing for the rest of the Moab trip report).

After what felt like a mile of driving through a muddy, rocky riverbed, we made it to dry land and made our way to the trailhead. I'm pretty sure we ended up with rock rash on every wheel, and bent the sliders up enough on the driver side where the rear door started to gently touch the top of the slider when opening. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday with a few of your buds.

 

thank you for this!

 

Monday, May 16th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

The one trail that we all decided was a must to do again was Top of the World. It was everybody's favorite trail in terms of the payoff of the view at the top when we were in Moab in 2021. It was one of my least favorite trails (in terms of driving on) due to the constant ledges that were tricky with my manual transmission last year, but I was feeling slightly better about round 2 with my front camera and recently field tested clutch start cancel. We were hoping that since it was no longer the weekend that we wouldn't see much traffic on the trail. Eager to get to the top, we set off.

Saw some local wildlife before we even got to the actual start of the trail.



There's a bit of a drive through easier terrain before you really get into the technical trail portion of Top of the World, which is mostly a big loop, with the top being halfway through the loop. You'll know when you get into the fun stuff, the first obstacle is a fun challenge. Last year, there seemed to be three distinct lines here. A tight switchback bypass was on the far left, but this year had been blocked off, presumably as it wasn't a designated route. Zack took some door damage on a sharp rock on that route last year. There also used to be a sort of middle bypass that skipped the first few rocks to climb, but I didn't notice that route visibly this year. We all decided on taking the main line, and I was first up.

Lifting a tire on the way up, which turned out to become a theme for me on the trail this year.





Sam, looking stylish in the FJ.





You can tell between these two pictures that someone else had a much better camera than me.







Going up the stepped ledges was way easier this time around with the front camera. I think I only killed my truck maybe twice this year, vs. 6-7 times last year. I used the clutch start cancel both of the times I killed it, and it worked as advertised.

Finally, made it to the top, one of my favorite views in the world.





Grant in his red 4runner was the only one in the group that decided not to tag along for Top of the World. He was more in a scenic (and easier trail) mood, which was fine, so he did his own thing for a couple days of the trip. He ended up doing Onion Creek when we did Top of the World, which actually runs down in the valley below us somewhere. Had we known ahead of time, we probably would have spent some time looking to see if we could spot him from our vantage point.



A few of our group had decided that in many situations, I look pretty majestic, so there seems to be quite a few candid shots of me taking in the scenery throughout the trip. I'd argue that Steve and Andrew clearly take the cake though.









My cousin Jay had his drone with again, so we got some pretty cool shots for perspective.







I volunteered to help spot Jay as he pulled up to the cliff edge. The look on his face as I laid on the ground, spotting his front tires, trying to get him to get that last 2-3 feet closer for the best photo was priceless. In the drivers seat, it's terrifying pulling up to the edge, you can't see anything but sky.

After Jay, I spotted Sam in the same fashion, convinced I could get him closer. Around the same spot, he was giving me the same look as Jay was: "No way, that's close enough."



Totally worth it though.







Everyone else took their turns getting the money shot, although with different spotters that I felt were a little less daring in their vehicle positioning.













Could have gotten way closer, just saying...











After we had our fill of photos and a quick lunch, a gaggle of SxS's showed up. Some guy decided to squeeze in between the middle of our entire parked group, where we were pulled off to the side, nearly hitting two of our trucks as he tried to maneuver between us all (there were plenty of other places to turn around). We decided that was enough of that, and started our trek back down the loop.

Side bar: if you can't tell at this point, I have no love for SxS's. From my experience, they drive like assholes, are incredibly impatient, ruin trails, and can generally go get bent. They are a plague on the Moab area, and they have no respect for the area or anyone else around them. I genuinely do not understand the appeal of a $20k+ (and much more, I know) glorified 4wheeler just so you can eat dust all day, when $10k would get you an old pickup with A/C that you could wheel, and actually drive on the highway. One guy (on a future trail) actually sat there staring at us as we were playing on some obstacles (of which there were plenty of bypasses to go around, so it's not like we were blocking him) and asked "why are they not just going down the trail" before he sped off as fast as possible, like he couldn't grasp the concept of "fun" but only saw his mission as going down every trail at Mach 3. I hope they all roll over.

Sorry for the rant.

On the way back down.











Kinda cool, but this looks to be about the exact same moment from two angles.





The way down definitely seems harder than the way up, as it's harder to spot yourself, and for Tacoma's, the rear departure angle of the truck means you're at risk for taking out your rear bumper corners a lot as you drop down the step ledges. Fortunately, mine survived (this trail at least).

Dave, showing some flex.



The group had decided that they liked the pace that I set, so I led the way on the majority of the trail. This often meant I had no spotter, so I ended up just hoping for the best on some of the obstacles. It made for some good photos.





On this one, Dave was behind me, and quickly yelled "STOP!" on the radio. I knew I was going to lift a rear tire from the angle I took at the step-down ledge, but when he told me to stop, the entire truck teetered up and down like a see-saw, with front passenger and rear driver tires not touching anything. Confident I would be fine once my front tire touched down, I continued on.













My one regret on the trail this year was leaving my mud flaps on. Last year I had removed all of my OEM mudguards when we got to Moab, but with my upgraded RokBlokz this year that had some flexibility, I opted to leave them on. Dumb decision in hindsight, as I ripped one off and totally mangled the rest of them. Live and learn, I guess.



Apparently I reached the post limit on this one, so a few more of Top of the World to follow.