Watching the CJ trash its U joints made us all hungry for lunch, so we headed back to the Jeeps, took out our lunch and chowed down while sitting on a ledge, watching the traffic on Highway 191, 1200 feet (give or take 1000 feet) below us. Marsha wowed us with tales of Easter Safaris past. Spectacular crashes (by idiotic, drunken 4-wheelers) were described (Blazer driving off the 1200 foot cliff, hitting a small shelf 80 feet down, injuring one occupant, killing the other) along with some local history on the Moab area.

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The trip back was challenging due to Mike's engine troubles. He was having a problem with air in his fuel lines The engine would die suddenly and we would have to wait while he and JR bled the air out of the lines. While Mike fussed and fretted over his fuel lines, we played in the sand and tackled an exciting (35 degree) vertical rock for an appreciative audience in a Montero (and a not so appreciative audience - Dawn - in the passenger's seat). It was getting dark so we were out of time for the Gemini Twins (an Arch or two you could drive across). As we headed down the trail after a long day, the lights of many other Jeeps (and other makes, but they don't count ;) behind us twinkled along the trail. Due to our excellent guides we never got lost.

Tired and hungry we headed into town for food only to find most of the restaurants were either closed for the season or out of food. Imagine that,a restaurant that was out of food. How do they make any money? After trying Dos Amigos and Pasta Jay's we finally ended up at Pizza Hut. That wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but by then we were starving!! And even then, The Hut was out of certain types of pizza dough. Hmm, perhaps some industries should NOT embrace Just-In-Time supply philosophies.

Sunday's trail was Poison Spider (also a 3+ rating) and we picked up a couple Jeepers from the Slick Rock Jeep shop. These guys had pretty impressive rigs (duh, it IS their job) with huge tires, huge suspensions, huge engines, nice paint and air lockers. We were also joined by Pat's dad and uncle from Grand Junction. Our group ranged in age from 3 to 70. At the turnoff we stopped to see the dinosaurs tracks and Indian paintings on the cliffs above the river.

The trail wound up in a series of tight switchbacks above the Colorado River.

As we headed farther in there were a few patches of snow in north facing areas. On one of the vertical climbs, John got his trailer hitch dug into a hole and had to be pulled up by Scott. Then it was on to The Wedge. Imagine a V that is about 2 feet wide at the bottom, the right side of the V angles up sharply, say at a 60 degree angle. The left side of the V is much more shallow, say 35 degrees. There are two ways to traverse the Wedge. You can either straddle the V, which will eventually get your engine 3 feet off the ground, or you can attempt a 35 degree off-camber path, with all 4 tires on the left of the Wedge and your hair gently hopefully) touching the right side of the Wedge. This obstacle is NOT for the feint of heart. One misplaced wheel and you drop your Jeep 3 feet into the V - you can say goodbye to the nice factory finish and your clean underwear. I personally choose the chicken route, but Scott, Pat and Mike all made successful traverses - both on the way up the trail and on the way down. Good going, guys.