P500 2021 Moab Ride

[MI-Trailblazer]

OK all, got another Moab ride in the books! Got back at 6:30 PM last night to Michigan because of a lot of traffic issues around Chicago, construction along I-80 in Nebraska and my buddy's truck having engine and transmission over-heating issues trying to get up to Eisenhower Pass.

The schedule of events was:

Leave Michigan Friday Sept 17 by noon. Made to to west of Lincoln NE before stopping for the night.

Left night stop and got to Denver at 5:00 PM, right when the sun is directed right at your truck's radiator for the start of the 5 miles of 15% grade. Had to stop 1 mile in to let trucks cool off, so waited for sun to go down behind the mountains then continued with no issue. Made the push and got to Moab at 2:00 AM. Went to the Maverik and filled the water tanks and bought ice. From there we went to our campsite deep into Kane Creek Canyon.

Sunday we met the rest of our group in town to do the permit sticker purchases, grabbed breakfast at the Moab Inn then went to camp to prep to get everyone out on the trail. We went up to Harrah Pass and onto Chicken Corners for the "break-in". We had 12 riders in our group on various machines and various skill levels. So just a taste of what was to come for the next few days.

I'll continue on with this soon. Still need to get all the pictures in one place, but mean-while, here are a couple:

This was the top of Hamburger Hill on the Kane Creek Trail

This was the damage the P500 took getting across the Golden Crack on the Golden Spike Trail.

 

[Hondasxs]

Love it.. Been twice.
Wished I could get out there more.
Too darn far. lol.

 

[crewcabrob]

That’s awesome! Makes me miss home. Kane Creek is fun if you have water running.

can’t wait to hear more.

rob

 

[hallic]

Looks like ya had a blast!

 

[Remington]

Nice trip! Taken that rout from Michigan as well, made the Colorado boarder in a day. What truck and cargo where you driving to overheat like that?

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

OK, time to continue:

Monday was time to do the Kane Creek Trail. Rode out of our camp and headed south. It has been really dry out there this year, but they had a flash-flood that did a lot of damage, but we had to go almost to Hamburger Hill before we started seeing water in the creek. The section in the low area where you cross-over the creek several times- it was not until like the 8th crossing before we saw any water in the creek.

The first notch you come to before the creek crossings:

The P500 at the start of Hamburger Hill:

Got the belly skid high-centered and right rear dangling in the air, so pull out the winch cable:

Made it to the end so stopped for lunch before going back the same way:

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Hondasxs- "too darn far" - we had 2 guys from Charleston, SC out there. But yes, long-long drive! That is one of the reasons we only go every 5 years.

Remington- "what truck and cargo did you drive that was over-heating like that?" - what went out this time was again my friend's 2008 Chevy 3500 Duramax pulling his 38-ft toy hauler with a trailer behind that with 3 quads on it and a Talon in the garage. I drove my 2001 Dodge 2500 Cummins pulling a 28-ft enclosed trailer with the P500, YXZ 1000SS, and 2 - 450R quads inside and a 900 Ace in the bed of the truck. We hit Denver about 5:00 and it was 95-degrees out. The long, gradual grade coming into Denver had the trucks hot already, then the pull up the 15% with the sun like aimed right at the radiators pegged the temp gauges quick. My friend was also battling high temp in his trans (Allison). Once the sun went down, and the trucks cooled off, the rest of the pull up to Eisenhower was easy.

I'm doing this at lunch during work, so I'll have to continue again tomorrow.

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Let's see.... Oh, trail day No. 3:

We went and dropped all the machines and riders at the Poison Spyder Mesa trail head, then took the trucks and trailers to the parking area north of Moab that you normally use to get to Gemini Bridges and Metal Masher from. Drove 1 vehicle back and started the ride! We went up to Poison Spyder and got passed by guys on dirt bikes, but then we passed a group of trucks and a group of Jeeps. I quite surprised on the amount of trail traffic for a Tuesday. We went over to Little Arch off Poison Spyder through these obstacles:

We continued on from Little Arch - through Poison Spyder to the Golden Spike Trail. Tackled many obstacles to get the to rim for the views:

That's the entrance to Arches National Park down there-

Looking back at north end of Moab

We went on through more obstacles (did not get enough pic's) eventually coming to the Golden Crack obstacle:

The P500 amazed me that it did not get hung up in the crack, nor at the final "big" obstacle- The Water Fall! A couple of the quads and the YZX had to be winched-up it, but the P500 walked it! I think someone in the group has a picture of it, I just do not have a copy yet. This was a long day- we left out of the Poison Spyder trail-head at 10:00 AM and finally rolled into the north parking lot at 9:30 PM.

 

[crewcabrob]

Nice write up on your adventure. And thanks for all the great pictures.

 

[Fischer]

Let's see.... Oh, trail day No. 3:

We went and dropped all the machines and riders at the Poison Spyder Mesa trail head, then took the trucks and trailers to the parking area north of Moab that you normally use to get to Gemini Bridges and Metal Masher from. Drove 1 vehicle back and started the ride! We went up to Poison Spyder and got passed by guys on dirt bikes, but then we passed a group of trucks and a group of Jeeps. I quite surprised on the amount of trail traffic for a Tuesday. We went over to Little Arch off Poison Spyder through these obstacles:

View attachment 297676View attachment 297677View attachment 297678

We continued on from Little Arch - through Poison Spyder to the Golden Spike Trail. Tackled many obstacles to get the to rim for the views:
View attachment 297680

View attachment 297681
That's the entrance to Arches National Park down there-
View attachment 297682
Looking back at north end of Moab
View attachment 297683

We went on through more obstacles (did not get enough pic's) eventually coming to the Golden Crack obstacle:
View attachment 297684View attachment 297685

The P500 amazed me that it did not get hung up in the crack, nor at the final "big" obstacle- The Water Fall! A couple of the quads and the YZX had to be winched-up it, but the P500 walked it! I think someone in the group has a picture of it, I just do not have a copy yet. This was a long day- we left out of the Poison Spyder trail-head at 10:00 AM and finally rolled into the north parking lot at 9:30 PM.

What size tires are you running? Any spacers?

 

[gullyjumper]

You got some very good pictures there.

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Thanks for the comments folks. I'm doing this thread to hold up to the site's motto: "pictures or it didn't happen".

Fischer- I have 26" Kenda Bear Claw MTR's on stock wheels. For Moab I bought 1-1/2" spacers for all 4 corners and I'll have to say I did notice the difference in side-to-side stability.

That brings me to Wednesday in my report: after the 11 hr. day on the trail Tuesday, some of the newbees were pretty wore-out yet as well as some of the old-timer's were pretty sore- so we took the day off and went to the Arches National Park. After that we hung out in town and did souvenir shopping. This put us back at camp with plenty of time for our one buddy to work his magic with steaks over the fire. For tomorrow's plans are for Fins & Things followed by Hell's Revenge.

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Fins & Things was a first time for most of the group. I think 3 of us had done the trail previously. I was not one of them, so pretty cool to see some new real estate!

My description of that trail is it was kind of like a roller-coaster: up-and-down as well as back-and-forth for a lot of trail in a smaller area compared to the other trails we have rode.

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

When we finished up Fins & Things, we rode over the the start of Hell's Revenge. Once up the first 3 climbs, we stopped and shot a pic of Lion's Back:

We were then off to the many steep rock formations to ride over:

I was surprised again at how much traffic we had on the trail. I snapped this one because I'm a square-body fan:

Friend with the YXZ tried Hell's Gate, but did not get the right tires up on the side of the rock and dropped the right rear tire in a hole. The centrifugal clutch bit him and he could not slow-crawl out of it, so out cam the winch cable:

That was the end of Thursday. So 1 more day of trails and that would be it for the 2021 version of Moab!

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

That brings us to the final trail day By now everyone was tired and saddle-sore, so we decided to skip Pritchett Canyon and headed out to Gemini Bridges for an easy sight-seeing trail day. We got to the bridges in about an hour and a half from the trail head, once again because of the amount of traffic out there. Of course went past the Goonie Bird:

Then onto the bridges to dangle some feet over the side:

We hit the trails and criss-crossed a bit- eventually ending up on the Metal Masher trail and came up to the Widow Maker obstacle on the top side. Looked like a good place for lunch:

After lunch we again rode a bunch of dirt trails up on the mesa where Metal Masher is, then back to the parking lot, load and back to camp where we got to catch one last sun-set in Kane Creek Canyon:

It was all over at that point, except for packing up and driving back over the next 2 days. Good Bye Moab, until next time......

 

[crewcabrob]

Thanks for a great write up and the pictures were great! Leaving Moab is always a bitter sweet moment for me. Spending time growing up there when I was younger was so cool. But honestly, going back as an adult for decades is way better. I just never know when my final day in Moab will be. I told my wife it would be on my list of places to retire to, but there are so many places that make more sense.

Fins is a great trail. I never get tired of doing the lite-wheeling like that. We now just do sightseeing trails... too old for the crazy stuff now.

By the way, did you try Hells Gate with the P500? Did you try anything but not make it? I remember you had to get the winch out on Poison Spider... anywhere else?

Rob

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Hi Rob-

Yes, always great to go to Moab and hate to leave, but my career choice and family would never work out to live there.

No, I did not try Hell's Gate with the P500 for after my buddy getting hung-up with this YXZ, there was quite the "back-up" of other SxS and Jeeps wanting to come up it. Same with Escalator- Can Am on its side in the middle of that one and about 15 waiting to go up at the bottom. I chickened-out on Launch Pad as well on Golden Spike, but did all the rest.

As for winching the P500 over obstacles- only one was on Hamburger Hill on the Kane Creek trail. Got it high-centered on a big rock and the right rear tire not touching anything along with the right front in the air. Otherwise, it was point & shoot on everything else. The one it surprised me the most on was the Waterfall on the way out of Gold Bar Rim. 5 of the 6 quads struggled up it, 2 had to be winched up by the Foreman. The the Ace and YXZ did not make it all the way and were winched. But the Talon, P500, Foreman all walked right up it. The I-4WD system on the Talon was impressive to watch all week.

 

[crewcabrob]

Hi Rob-

But the Talon, P500, Foreman all walked right up it. The I-4WD system on the Talon was impressive to watch all week.

Thats great to hear. I haven't had my P520 out to Moab yet. My relatives out there are firmly stuck in the RZR camp, and they like to go fast and hard on the trails. My wife and I go slow and see the sights.

If there was an in-between model, not a Talon and not a Pioneer, I would have thought about it. Kind of like the General for Polaris. I need the utility of the Pioneer, but would like the plush, long travel suspension of the Talon.

Thanks again for the great info on your trip. I posted up a fun little trip I took to the Nebraska National Forest. It was fun to the ride the trail, but I miss the views of Moab.

Rob

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Thanks for the comments Rob.

Yes, the P500 was slow-going for with stock suspension still, much over 12 MPH and the she was tossing side-to-side so much, it was hard to control. The rock cropping where the surface sheared-off to leave points that then were at an angle to your direction of travel were the worst for the stock suspension. A set of Elka's or Walker Evan's would probably helped a lot with that.

I saw your N.N.F. picture post- nice! Moab is great, but my group goes plenty of other places in-between the Moab trips. Next Sept. we are going back to TN and Windrock Park ORV.

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Somehow missed this pic of the P500 - first day of riding, out at the Chicken Corner's turn-around:

I've got a couple of video's as well, but do I get those on here the same way as a picture? Or does the video need to be on a hosting site and I link to it?