Episode 965 – How to Find Trails
Easter Jeep Safari 2024
Saturday, March 23 – Sunday, March 31, 2024
The Easter Jeep Safari consists of trail rides, mostly day-long trips, departing from Moab Utah throughout the 9-day-long event. Full information about the Safari is available in a colorful magazine. The official event is hosted by the Red Rock 4-Wheelers Inc. one of the local four-wheel drive clubs of Moab.
Participants provide their own four-wheel drive vehicle and take care of their own food and non-alcoholic beverages for the trip. Suggested essentials, beyond plenty of water, include sun protection, and layered clothing in case of changing weather circumstances that are always a possibility during the spring in southeastern Utah.
Easter Jeep Safari consists of trail rides, mostly day-long trips, departing from Moab Utah throughout the 9-day long event. The official event is hosted by the Red Rock 4-Wheelers, the oldest four-wheel drive club in Moab. Participants provide their own four-wheel drive vehicle and take care of their own food and non-alcoholic beverages for the trip. Suggested essentials, beyond plenty of water, include sun protection, and layered clothing in case of changing weather circumstances that are always a possibility during the spring in southeastern Utah.
Safari is $75.00 per vehicle per trail day for Easter Safari, the trails usually take the better part of a day. Labor Day is $300 for a day weekend, which includes camping fees, three breakfasts, and Saturday night dinner.
Hydrogen Fuel
I think most people have heard of fuel cells, hydrogen, and oxygen and you get electricity and water. Used on the Space Shuttle and I believe on the ISS. This isn’t what we’re talking about tonight. We’re talking about a standard internal combustion engine that instead of gasoline uses hydrogen.
Hydrogen gas has a very similar energy release as gas, so you get close to the same horsepower and torque.
The emissions from hydrogen ICE are ZERO, water. Sounds great, I can start doing this today, right? Well, the issue is storage. If you could use the gasoline fuel tank to store hydrogen gas at 10,000 psi and you were easy on the petal, you’d get about 50 miles of range from a tank. Hydrogen would cost about $15 a gallon.
To get the magical 300 miles from a tank of fuel, you would need to drive a massive vehicle, or tow a trailer to carry enough Hydrogen with you.
You can get 75% more hydrogen if you use it in its liquid form, but the temp it would have to be to liquefy is -253 degrees Celsius. Your heavily insulated hydrogen tank would have to start venting hydrogen after 17 hours and the liquid heated up. After 12 to 17 days all your fuel would be gone. And don’t park your hydrogen-powered ICE vehicle in an enclosed area, because that vented hydrogen would make a nice bomb.
Fuel cells, which also use Hydrogen would require much less hydrogen to be stored and would generate electricity, just like the EVs do now. Batteries currently have the best size-to-performance ratio, other than gasoline or diesel, which are best.
Zero emissions and fuel literally covering 75% of the planet are nice (water) but do you want to fill up your tank after 50 miles? That would be like charging an EV every night for a 25-mile one-way commute.
You can get this information yourself by watching this video from Engineering Explained.
Newbie Nuggets with Wendy
How to get out on the trail
How do you find the trails when you are starting out? You got your new jeep and unless you know where the trails are, how do you find them? When we started we had no idea the names of the trails, clubs, or events to search for. I spent hours on Google trying to find the right words to use in searches just to find events. There isn’t one list of ALL the events in the country – that would be awesome, but it doesn’t exist that I am aware of.
Here is a list of suggestions on how to get out on the trail;
1) Go with a buddy who knows an area. Use their knowledge to learn trails, routes, etc. This is the easiest and quickest way to learn about trails, BUT one day you may want to venture outside your comfort zone and try new areas.
2) Forest maps/Trail maps – Pick up local OHV and Trail maps for your area. Our forestry department has maps of designated trails that include color-coded difficulty levels. BTW Maps should be on board at all times – add it to your jeep gear.
3) Google local events. Use search words like “jeep event” or “off-road event” or use your city or area like “Big Bear jeep” and see what comes up. This should give you some leads to follow. Use Facebook to search as well
4) Look up event organizers in your area, like CORVA (Calif Off-Road Vehicle Assoc. https://corva.org) in California. They work to keep our trails open to off-roading. Their events can be 1 or 2 days and you can choose the trail you want to try based on your jeep set-up and experience. NOTE: these “events” will have a checklist of basic equipment that you need to participate
5) Look up jeep clubs – search using your city and “jeep clubs”, or “4×4 clubs”. Most clubs have some requirements to join but it’s only to make sure the members get out on trails and use their jeeps. NOTE: most of the clubs allow non-members to join on runs – that’s how they can get new members. Clubs do offer valuable resources and information and we will be discussing it in a future episode. Today clubs are very different – meeting at a trailhead and not “required meetings”
6) Look for out–of–state for runs. This might include a camping trip with your jeep (or camper, or hotel) but it could be an option if your area doesn’t have great trails. Living here in Big Bear we are so fortunate to have destination trails we don’t need to go anywhere else, however, we do find ourselves exploring other areas off the mountain and it offers a change in scenery and obstacles too.
Get out and venture with your Jeep and find your favorite place to wheel- make new life-long friends- I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met and now know through Jeeping. It’s amazing!
(https://www.youtube.com/user/backcountrydriver)
Trails 411: https://www.jeep4x4school.com/
News story(s) Hydrogen-powered ICE vehicle
Newbie Nuggets Wendy shares how to find trails
Fabricating Frenzy {are you super duty}
And Our must have STUFF for your Jeep! Heated Steering Wheel for $50?
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