2010 Easter Jeep Safari
Story by HITMONEY
Coverage brought to you by 4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers
Media Jeeps brought to you by 4WP and Poly Performance!

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JKO/Poly Performance EJS Run by HITMONEY

Since my return from EJS friends and family who know just how much this trip cost not only in terms of money but in time and preparation and a 40+ hour drive each way, have all asked the same question.... "So how was your trip? Was it worth it?" They have all received the same answer.. "HELL YES!"

Most of the Florida contingent left for EJS on Friday night 3/26 and drove straight through 2,300 miles arriving in Moab beat up and exhausted on Sunday evening 3/28. I can only describe I-40, supposedly a major US highway, on par with that of a highway you might find in a third world country. Maybe even worse!

As exhausted as I was upon our arrival, a sense of excitement entered my dream like state at the sights to be found in our La Quinta parking lot... To my left was the Titanic sized Rock Krawler tow rig and trailer, the only vehicles to outnumber the trailers were the Jeeps that rode in on them and the ones that drove themselves in. There were multiple groups of people standing around sucking down suds and talking shop, the largest of which was the group that seemed to be hovering around one of the more anticipated sights; the River Raider SST conversion. Let me just say it is even more bad ass in person than it is in the pics! Take note of the license plate which reads "Ban This".

In my sleep walking state I approached Kenny from River Raider and congratulated him on getting the build done on the SST in time for EJS and offered him one of my Polar Beers which i trucked in from Miami. One problem... in this crowd of beer bellys, no one had a bottle opener! Thinking on my feet I opened a bottle with my rigs tailgate door striker but when I attempted the second bottle the reality of my not so sharp state and unwise choice of bottle openers made itself known when the bottle busted and I cut my index finger to the bone. Great, not in town 10 minutes and I am already injured! After our fellow Floridian, Luis, a firefighter and first responder, looked me over and patched me up it was time for me to relax, eat dinner and come down off my 3 day Red Bull high. It was time to try and get some sleep as the "Ass In Seat" time the next morning for the JKO/Poly Performance run to Canyonlands was at 7am!!

Monday morning we headed to the meeting spot for the run and was immediately taken back at the number of rigs and people in attendance... this was gonna be a fun day!

After getting all the introductions out of the way, 35 rigs at my count headed south out of town for the 30+ mile trip to Canyonlands National Park. That part of the trip turned into a land speed race between Lance in the Poly Performance two door and me in RubiKong.. both rigs sitting on 60's and spinning 40's. It is safe to say that no land speed records were broken.. in fact narly a speed limit was even broken but in less than 50 miles both rigs almost burned a 1/2 a tank of fuel!

After airing down, more socializing and reorganizing the group we all lined up at the bottom of Elephant Hill. During this time is when I got to talk with the great guys from Rebel Off Road and get a close up look of Bond's ridiculously sick rig.

The line started moving and being toward the back we could watch the progression of Jeeps making the climb up the loose rock hill and then half way up the rigs would have to pull out onto a jutting section of rock and do a 3 point turn and head back from whence you came and re-catch the trail to your left and continue the climb up Elephant Hill. This made Jenna a little uneasy as she volunteered to jump out and take pictures and walk up. I can't say that I blame her as the very first obstacle of our EJS experience was going to be a 3 point turn on a sheer face cliff!

We continued on up the trail to a pretty cool slot canyon which you had to drive your rig through.

Further on up the trail we hit a prairie and everyone hit it into Baja mode for a mile or so where we all then stopped to look at some Indian drawings and regroup as the large group had now splintered into 3 or 4 smaller groups.

All the while on the trails in Canyonlands, Jenna and I were almost physically taken back by the surrounding beauty, there are no words descriptive enough, no camera with enough megapixels, not an expensive enough video camera that can accurately reproduce what the human eye sees and what the brain experiences when viewing these lands.

After seeing the Indian drawings we headed out again, making our way up some more scenic trails, and a couple small climbs. We stopped again for lunch and to give Drew from Poly Performance a chance to give away Poly gift bags to everyone which included cool swag and a Poly Performance shirt specifically made for this run! Poly also gave away some cool gifts in a impromptu raffle.. Thank You Poly Performance!

Our trail guide, Kevin Hawkins, (who was awesome BTW) asked if any of us were interested in going on a short hike to see some cool slot canyons and caves.. Oh hell yea! So a few of us hikes out about a 1/2 mile and what we were shown was probably the coolest thing we saw the entire week we were in Moab.

The walk through slot canyons were immense in size and were hard to believe that they existed naturally.. we explored a little bit until we came to what I don't even call a slot.. this was more like a crack! In I went sucking in my breath to make it through while the fatties were taking pictures of the skinny people in the crack.

Oh yea, I was calling Lance a fatty and making fun how he couldnt make it through.. blah blah blah. Well, it was the fatties who had the last laugh at me because the exit to this crack 100 yards up was twice as small as the entrance!

I didn't think I was going to make it out and started to freak out a lil after my 4th failed exit attempt. The whole time Lance the fatty was busting my balls about how I couldn't get out. It was Kevin who told me to relax and breathe out and calmed me enough so that i could make it out... and just like that I popped out like a newborn!

We hiked back to the rigs and took off down the trail back out through the prairie and Baja'ed it beyond to the other side of the park where once again we hiked out to a gorgeous overlook very reminiscent of a view you might find at the Grand Cayon.

From here we headed back and up and then back down Elephant Hill which was a whole new different experience doing it in reverse.

Looking back on my week in Moab I have to say the best day was this Canyonlands ride. It's not that difficult of a trail, but the combination of its unmatched scenery, hiking spots, and the company I was with couldn't be matched.

This being my first Easter Jeep Safari it will go down as one of the best memories of my life and also gave me the opportunity to scratch one more thing off my bucket list.

During the course of EJS week I got to hang out with Lance and Camo, go on a ride with all the big wigs from 4WheelParts, Pro Comp and Smitty Bilt.. be spotted up the Escalator by the man who designed my Pro Comp Long Arm Lift, spend a day wheeling with Mustard Dog and his 4WheelParts buggy who walked just about every obstacle in Moab along with JT Taylor and his totally nasty LS2 Tube Shark Buggy.

Got to go on a invitation only Off Road Evolution run in a snow storm where I also met and wheeled with 4Wheel & Off Road's Feature Editor Ali Mansour in his JK. I talked to Rick Pewe Editor-in-Chief of the same mag about what he thought of the Ford Raptor he was driving and flat towing a flat fender behind. Having dinner with Larry and Cheri McRae of Poison Spyder, talking with David from Currie Enterprises at the Currie Car Wash, the pleasure of meeting John the sPOD guy, Lance King owner of King Shocks, Ricky Artes a fellow Floridian and owner of Jeepers Den, the crew from Rock Krawler..

Meeting Steve Houtman from the Mopar Underground who was staying at my hotel and whom I drank a beer with before I realized who he was, Jarrett from HD Customs tracked me down in the Brewery Parking lot to say hi, bumped into the cats from MBRP at the auto parts store, the marketing peeps from Nitto Tires, Mel Wade owner of Off Road Evolution who was fixing my snapped brake line when he should have been at the Vendor's Party, losing $20 by betting on Lance in Fooseball. The list of cool stuff and people goes on and on.

The best part of EJS isn't the Jeeps and Buggies or even the trails.. its the people... especially my friends from Florida... Moose, Smokey, Luis, Rambo, Enrique who not only shared the Moab experience with me but the 4,600 mile round trip journey as well which is another whole story in itself!

And no way can I leave out my better half, Jenna, who for sure now not only has the Jeep bug but the bug to move out west as well!

If you ever have the chance to make it to EJS... Do It! Make this memory.. you will not live to regret it!

See you at Jeep Beach!
HITMONEY

Be sure to check out all the photos in the photo gallery.