The first fall fling, anyone remember it?

[Vince]

Is there anyone still here that remembers the first fall fling and what the format of the week was?

[CharlesS]

It was the first event that I took my son to when he was 10 years old...

The FIRST formal Fall Fling was in Telluride, Colorado back in Jul/Aug 1999.
We all stayed in a Campground outside of Ouray and spent the week doing a lot of trails in higher elevations in Silverton, Telluride, Ouray and Oak City....
Lots of SNOW up there... along with quite a few water crossings....

After the event was over... I stopped off in Moab for several days....

Almost all the members that attended that event no longer post....

[Goatman]

I remember the first Moab Fall Fling, I organized it. We had a get acquainted hamburger feed on Wed evening at Slickrock, kept it simple. Did registration, gave out shirts, sold raffle tickets. Sat night we did a dinner and raffle also at Slickrock. Other than that we ran trails. The official event was Wed to Sun, the only organized run on Sun was up Moab Rim, which for a number of years became the traditional Sun run. Any runs on Mon and Tues, for those who were there the whole week, were informal and organized by those who were there...folks just ran what they wanted.

The event was focused around the weekend, though plenty were there for the whole week. Quite a few people came in on Thurs and Friday nights and ran the weekend. We had 42 rigs/families signed up that year.

[CharlesS]

The '99 Colorado event was when NAXJA was in its infancy....
The first Moab FF was in 2000 IIRC....
Those were the days of small events....

[Goatman]

Actually, I think the CO event was called Forum Fest. Moab was called the Fall Fling. Other than the two anniversary events, they have stayed close to the same size. The first Fall Fling had 42 rigs, it's been 40-50 ever since other than the two big ones.

It was a lot of fun back then because we were all getting to know each other at first, and meeting people we'd been interacting online. Plus many of us had never been to Moab. Good times.

[CharlesS]

Forum Fest.....
Yeah... That was the name of that event....
Those were the days.... :cheers:

[old_man]

Our first official ColoradoFest was in Ouray/Ridgeway then on to Buena Vista. Very loosely orchestrated but one heck of a lot of fun. We had probably about 35% almost totally stockers and a ton of first time offroaders. It was really fun to see them stretch their legs. Some of them got pretty wobbly on Black Bear and Imogene.

[CharlesS]

Met a lot members for the first time at that event... such as Mil Thornton, Steve Ward, Tom from Utah, Fred, Scot Mac, Keith and Shelley Orr and many others whom I can not remember their names....

[Tom R.]

I'm still here, but don't post much.

A group of us from the XJ Forum arranged a Moab get-together in 1998 where the idea of NAXJA was born. '99 was the first official NAXJA Forum Fest (base camp in Ouray, CO) and '00 was the first offical NAXJA Fall Fling in Moab.

[CharlesS]

We certainly had a good time at the Colorado event.... The Ouray and Telluride areas have alot of trails to explore.... plus some really beautiful scenery.... Good memories....

[JohnJohn]

...still here

[JohnJohn]

I'm still here, but don't post much.

A group of us from the XJ Forum arranged a Moab get-together in 1998 where the idea of NAXJA was born. '99 was the first official NAXJA Forum Fest (base camp in Ouray, CO) and '00 was the first offical NAXJA Fall Fling in Moab.


'99 that's the year you broke your clutch cable right?
http://photos.johnpaulsen.com/photos/278092663_B8ARc-M.jpg





'00 The year Turner got my plate...just before this picture was taken.
http://photos.johnpaulsen.com/photos/278093778_XvN5C-M.jpg

[Tom R.]

'99 that's the year you broke your clutch cable right?
The clutch pedal rod broke while on Metal Masher. Speed-shifted into town and had it welded up. If I'm not mistaken, that occurred in the Spring of '99. My XJ developed brake issues in Colorado and Bones strapped his rig to mine and helped me down from the mountain top. I think we were around 13,000+ feet, so it was a long drive down.

[MJR]

Actually, I think the CO event was called Forum Fest. Moab was called the Fall Fling.

Charles is showing his age. LOL

Wow strolling down memory lane.

Here's a couple of guys back when they drove "real" XJ's, LOL. Richard and Paul.

http://www.fototime.com/E8AA29D84D4B63E/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/093E7276CE6B1AF/standard.jpg

Bones in Mickey's Hot Tub.

http://www.fototime.com/87789B046F26216/standard.jpg

Mil showing off on Hell's Gate.

http://www.fototime.com/1D79D7735F46095/standard.jpg

Mike G.

http://www.fototime.com/0260DF081B8FEA4/standard.jpg

Jeff V.

http://www.fototime.com/95383E41CAB5E6E/standard.jpg

Charles.

http://www.fototime.com/113516BFFC1CC93/standard.jpg

Rags on the Golden Crack.

http://www.fototime.com/36214B7649A44DA/standard.jpg

Me on Gold Bar Rim.

http://www.fototime.com/DB50E04A7779CDD/standard.jpg

Hagen posing with Jeff's rig.

http://www.fototime.com/7B926A35BE6F5CD/standard.jpg

Hinkley.

http://www.fototime.com/0BF16A49F6F3D0A/standard.jpg

Ray P.

http://www.fototime.com/E9B715A4E1232F0/standard.jpg

Bob L.

http://www.fototime.com/7E7E177CE185BBA/standard.jpg

More here. http://www.fototime.com/inv/FDC82C58CFE9281

[CharlesS]

Charles is showing his age. LOL





Mike,

Just testing your memory....
You passed...
BARELY..... :roflmao:

[Handlebars]

Did Hagen live in the USA back then or has he always commuted from Germany?

[CharlesS]

As far as I know... he always lived in Germany and taught Off Roading classes there....
He would fly in to visit relatives and friends in Colorado IIRC.

The first time I met Hagen was in Colorado during the Forum Fest of '99.

[MJR]

Did Hagen live in the USA back then or has he always commuted from Germany?

Pretty much what Charles said. I've got photos of him doing all kinds of stuff in a stock yellow rental TJ from one of the years. :D

[MJR]

Here's the article that was published on the first Fall Fling.

http://www.fototime.com/32D74DAF1F32B1C/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/91CF4D2F33EFE9E/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/53FEBB28A82D758/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/E2A080A05051E2F/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/C137193AA7ADAB7/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/DEB53C6CD827501/orig.jpg

[Exxon Valdez Jeep]

Thats pretty cool.

[Handlebars]

Thanks for posting the magazine it brings back the memories. A lot of those guys have faded away from NAXJA. :(
Pretty much what Charles said. I've got photos of him doing all kinds of stuff in a stock yellow rental TJ from one of the years. :D
What's going on here? :D
http://www.fototime.com/2DDC520855AF634/orig.jpg

For that matter, what the heck is going on here?
http://www.fototime.com/772FEA6E2280887/orig.jpg

[MJR]

A lot of those guys have faded away from NAXJA. :(

What's going on here?

For that matter, what the heck is going on here?

Yah it kinda makes me sad missing my old wheeling buddies but one of the great things about NAXJA is getting to meet and go wheeling with new buddies I don't know yet! One of the Jeeps photographed in that article but without the name is Jesse May who is very active with Cal 4 Wheel and I do see him once a year at Cal 4 Wheel's High Desert Roundup.

Mil of course is the best wheeling buddy anyone could ever have and we had a lot of great times over the years, I miss him.

Bones might have stopped coming because he was always working on his Jeep in Moab. :D I remember one year going out for the day and when I came back he had torn the cylinder head off his new stroker in the Slickrock campground, lol.

Richard we know is still active in NAXJA but he no longer drives a "real" XJ, lol

Ray Pili I think is too busy surfing and being the casino shuttle driver for all his inlaws to do much wheeling these days, lol.

Uh we are just checking everything is tight on the rental Jeep suspension.:rolleyes:

I'm not sure but I'd keep an eye on those two guys they look like they are up to no good. :D

[XJEEPER]

Right Tom,
NAXJA was born from the 1998 meeting in Moab, where a small group of XJers from all over the US, shared their enthusiasm for the sport of offroad exploration and the desire to compile the best XJ Tech resource on the Web.

One year later, Forum Fest 99 was held in Ouray as the first organized NAXJA event. Met great people there and formed lasting friendships.

Fall Fling 00 was a memorable event as well......gonna have to dig thru the picture archives to come up with a few shots from 10yrs ago.

I remember leading about 40 rigs on Hell's Revenge.....what a group! Wish I was gonna make the 2009 event, but it's not in the cards.....have a great time folks and post up lots of photos.

[XJEEPER]

'00 The year Turner got my plate...just before this picture was taken.
http://photos.johnpaulsen.com/photos/278093778_XvN5C-M.jpg


Wrong!!! Your plate "fell off" your rig in 2004, luckily for you I happened to pick it up.......wonder where that thing is now?

[JohnJohn]

Wrong!!! Your plate "fell off" your rig in 2004, luckily for you I happened to pick it up.......wonder where that thing is now?

Maybe that pic was '04...I don't remember now...it was the year the kid from Texas(Don't Mess with Texas) lead us through Pritchet.

I'm not making 2009 either...:( It was either Moab or SEMA. I've never been to SEMA so I choose that.