Flat Iron Mesa 10-09-13

10 minutes South of Moab, while still on the highway, the call came over the radio that a u-joint cap just ricocheted off of their windshield..........Mike's rig was down with a trashed pinion yoke before we even hit the trailhead!

We split the group and XJess led half the rigs on Flat Iron Mesa, while the other half went back to assist Mike.

A quick call to M4O by Russ from Moab Outfitters would secure a new yoke, to be overnighted into Moab the following morning. Richard pulled the rear shaft and we stashed Mike's rig and he hopped in with me for the day.

Back to the trailhead:







We caught the other half of our group at an optional obstacle named The Chute, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I didn't witness the Bloose V-8 induced wheelstand, but hear it was impressive. Most of the rigs took a tug over the top, but a few found that getting cozy with the tree on the right allow you to climb it unassisted.

We proceeded to the Hatch Wash overlook where we stopped for a late lunch break and some photos.











I'm not sure what Richard was planning here......but we talked him off the ledge.



XJess was pressed for time so he kept going with half of the group, moving towards the Intimidator and Easter Egg Rock obstacles. I hear they had lots of fun there.....especially Bloose. Perhaps we'll see some of their photos show up here.

Our part of the group never made it that far, as Jeremy lost his steering box bolts about 10 min past our lunch stop. 1 broken bolt, 2 partially stripped holes. Between all of the spare hardware we had on hand, we came up with 1 bolt and nut that would fit, so he bolted the box on with 1 bolt/nut and 1 "kinda snug" bolt and we decided as a group to take one of the many bypass trails back to the county road. Jeremy nursed his rig back to town and scored a new steering box, we dropped Mike's rig at M4O to await the install of the new rear pinion yoke and headed for some grub.

I'm looking forward to running Flat Iron Mesa again soon, in full.

That was a great run. amazing scenery with some fun obstacles. Sorry for holding up the group with my broken steering box bolts. Guessing i overtightened the bolts stripping 2 of them. Thanks to Richard for bringing me a new box!

NP, Jeremy. All in a day's fun.

Jeff, got a link to your PSM run pics?