ZUKIWORLD ‘ZUKFARI 2007
Moab Sunshine Never Gets Old
Story/Editor: Eric Bewley Photo: Mike Hagen, Ross, Bryan Zeigler, Jason Hutchison, Sara Bewley
MOAB, UT. ZUKIWORLD was pleased to once again be able to host the ‘Zukfari event held during the Easter Jeep Safari week. Easter Jeep Safari or EJS is the nation’s largest and most exciting congregation of 4×4 enthusiasts. Drivers, passenger, and spectators travel from all parts of the globe to enjoy Utah’s wonderful atmosphere.
This year’s loose schedule and meeting at the City Market really helped to diversify the trails that were run and the groups that went out. A good showing by the newly formed and enthusiastic zUkTAH club gave ‘Zukfari goers a good chance at a wide variety of trails to explore. Monday had groups riding on Hell’s Revenge, Poison Spider Mesa, and Moab Rim trail all at the same time!
Tuesday was the first ZUKIWORLD scheduled run of the week and we thought it would be great to start it off with a bang and explore the Rusty Nail trail. This trail has become one of our favorites due to it’s great obstacles and lower amount of usage.
We drove in on Rusty Nail and then looped out by driving out on Gold Bar Rim trail while playing for a bit on a few of the obstacles on Golden Spike trail such as “Golden Crack” and “Double Whammy.”
Mike and CJ made a great show of one of the more challenging obstacles on Rusty Nail. Others bypassed this fun spot but not to fear, there were plenty of challenging areas to play on.
On Wednesday, Mike Hagen led a group on the Hell’s Revenge trail. The Hell’s Revenge trail transverses great expanses of “Slick Rock” (sandstone) with slopes so steep you will wonder if your tires can maintain traction. The very steep climbs and descents on the slick rock are not for the faint of heart and cannot be bypassed. On this trail it is quite common to meet other groups and watch as people attempt some of the “Hot Tub” obstacles. It’s a fun group experience.
On Thursday, we decided to spice things up a bit and go on Metal Masher. This is a trail that no one in the group had scene so we thought we’d give it a try. It turned out to be a mixed blessing, some pretty fun obstacles but the drive to them is a little long.
Thursday evening came and it was time once again for the awesome, stupendous, and ever exciting ZUKIWORLD ‘Zukfari dinner and raffle. Jason Hutchison did a great job again this year gathering thousands of dollars of merchandise together from our wonderful sponsors and the generous crowd made it possible for us to raise a significant amount money for the Red Rock 4 Wheelers and Blue Ribbon Coalition OHV access groups. We were also able to hand out ‘goody’ bags with a cornucopia of decals, magazines, product information, and t-shirts to dinner and raffle goers.
Another Great year of wheeling with friends in the best weather, with the best scenery, on the best trails in the nation. If you haven’t made it to Moab Utah to go wheeling, you haven’t lived! See you next year…
