Tackling tough rock-crawling in Moab

Although I’ve only ever missed one Moab Rally on the Rocks (ROTR) and have been on most of the trails, I haven’t had that much experience actually driving the most technical rock-crawling sections. I usually get out and shoot photos of Damon Cardone or some other expert guide clearing the most scary sections. This year Arctic Cat had a media day at the Discount Tire ROTR, and none other than Dean “Iceman” Bulloch of Wildcat Willies and D&P Performance would be guiding a group of UTV/ATV media on a day-long ride. I signed up for the ride, not knowing which slickrock trail we would be driving.

On two separate ATV press rides Arctic Cat had picked Fins ’n’ Things, a moderate trail with a great selection of terrain types, to showcase the XR and Alterra 4×4 ATVs. Although it has some slick-rock hills, it’s mostly sand and dirt, which are much better to crash onto than granite rock.

This is more my speed, as I learned to ride in the loose sand of Southern California and clay loam of Texas and Georgia. First on dirt bikes and later on ATVs, I learned to fall on soft soil, especially on motocross tracks, where the soil is diced up and watered until it’s a spongy pillow on which to land. It didn’t hurt to hit the dirt, no matter what speed I was traveling.

The desert Southwest, Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevadas and limestone Appalachias are a whole other story. Over the years I’ve done rock crawling on ATVs and in UTVs at Arrowhead and Big Bear, California, with Yamaha and Kawasaki, gaining some experience at reading the rocks and picking lines. Yamaha recently had the press out to Windrock Park in Tennessee, and we did some pretty technical trails on Grizzly and Kodiak 700s. I cleaned some technical sections on the 4x4s and was gaining confidence, until I saw Corry Weller of Weller Racing take a fall in a relatively rock-less area. It was a steep, uphill left turn with deep ruts and a few rocks littering the trail. Suddenly, she was flipping over backwards, and, luckily, she landed in the deep left-wheel rut. The quad safely flipped over her and down the hill. She had a puncture wound in the flesh between her thumb and index finger of her right hand and possible broken bones in her wrist. She super-glued the wound shut and kept riding! Corry is one tough cookie!

I was detuned for the rest of the riding at Windrock, but I got some confidence back with Kawasaki at Hatfield-McCoy and covering the King of the Hammers UTV in a Polaris RZR. Tire testing at Jawbone Canyon and Dove Springs also raised my confidence meter and lowered the fear factor. So, when the chance came to ride Wildcats at Moab with Arctic Cat, I jumped at the chance.

TRIAL BY FIRE AND ROCK
Driving the long-travel Polaris General on Moab Rim was a great warm-up for the Arctic Cat ride day, and I was stoked that it would be on Behind the Rocks, my favorite ROTR trail. Better yet, I would be driving a Wildcat 1000 X 4 with trick Elka Stage 5 suspension, Assault Industries heavy-duty tie-rods and upper radius rods, and ARS-FX high-clearance lower links. I hit the trail with Jack and Dan providing balancing ballast. The first big obstacle is literally less than a mile into the trail, and a few RZRs hit the trail ahead of our group. They made it up the zig-zag line, but it looked sketchy with a couple of threewheel teeters, even with XP 4s. Dean made it up in his trick Wildcat Sport and got out to spot and guide us editors. It took a couple of tries to make it over the first ledge, but the X 4 scooted right up on all fours.

Behind the Rocks passed by the Terracotta Warriors and was super rocky for several miles. It was a blast picking alternate lines and passing other editors on the way to High Dive. This drop-off is so steep, you can’t see your line over the hood and have to rely totally on your spotter. The X-4 came through on all fours again, and I was set to take the easy line around Upchuck, which I’ve seen cripple several modified machines over the years. Dean and Carl directed me to the base of Upchuck, which has a huge crack between two rough rock outcroppings. Twice the Bighorns slid to the left, and the right tires ended up in the crack.

On the third try I was directed more to the right and to goose the throttle more at the base to gain momentum. This time the tires slid to the right, the left tires ended up in the crack, and I ran out of talent. Both left wheels went into the crack, the Wildcat tipped to the left and over I went. Worst of all, competing media filmed and photographed my third low-speed tip-over of my UTV career. Watching the glass windshield get ripped off of the Wildcat and my world turn sideways, I thought that this would be on YouTube before I managed to unbuckle and extricate myself from the four-seater.

Everyone was asking if I was okay, but it only hurt my pride. The biggest bummer was that we didn’t get to do White Knuckle, After a great Camp Chef lunch, we took a shortcut to play in the dunes instead. Next year, Upchuck, I’m conquering you!

By Tim “Land-Use Lump” Tolleson