Kane Creek was the worst I had ever seen it. Top of the World (my Thursday trail) and Kane Creek (my Friday trail) were both rated "6", but Kane Creek was much more difficult. I have run it several times over the years, but this was by far the worst I had ever seen it. Luckily there were only seven trucks in or group on the trail, and we still got back to the dinner/raffle at 6:15, so it was a very long day. To make it even tougher, there was constant "competition" for the trail with motorcycles and ATV's (four wheel ATV's, side by sides, four seaters, etc.). As you know, us Cruisers don't move through obstacles real quickly, so there was almost always a line behind us, and as soon as we let some go ahead, the next group was piling up behind us. Some of those folks were extremely rude, with the motorcycles just blasting through the middle of our crowd on the trail at high speeds, and/or blasting through our lunch spot at high speeds.
I'm not sure how the trail gets that much worse in just a few years. The ledges were much higher and the obstacles in general were almost turning this into a buggy trail. Maybe the ATV's and motorcycles are just digging out the dirt and leaving the rocks behind. To make matters worse, I tore a sidewall in my BFG Mud Terrain KM2. Luckily it was near the end of the trail and on a relatively level spot. The folks behind me jumped in to help and we had it changed out with the spare in 15 minutes. However, that left me without a spare tire for the rest of the trip. I was scheduled to run Elephant Hill on Saturday, but that group left at 7:00 AM, an hour before the Moab tire stores open. I checked around for another tire, and could have bought another KM2 from a Moab tire shop for $370 (I declined). No one had a used tire of the same size that I could use for a spare (315/75R16). Evidently, 16 inch truck tires are hard to find these days, as most trucks are now using 17 or 18 inch wheels (or larger).
I headed home on Saturday without a spare, and made it home fine. I worked with Discount Tire, and they were able to cover me with a new tire with their replacement warranty, so that was much better than the $370 I would have spent in Moab. All in all, still a fun trip, but a bummer to miss E-Hill. I was really looking forward to that - it's one of my favorite Moab trails. The Rising Sun guys told me they used to be able to get permission to run E-Hill on two days (typically Thursday and Saturday) for a max of 20 trucks per day. Anymore the Canyonlands folks are limiting CM to only one day (Saturday) and a max of 10 trucks.
We had a good group for Top of the World on Thursday, with Ron and Larry on the trail. A lot of you know Ken Romer, and he was there (along with the "Daughters of Romer"). He was in his built 200-series (2014, I think), and the daughters each had their own trucks (a 100-series and an open diff 4Runner). So we had a lot of fun On Thursday. I helped with the morning shift of Tech Inspection on Thursday and Friday. I think most folks had no interest in getting up early enough to be there by 7:00 AM.
I've got a few pictures of Larry on an obstacle on Top of the World. I will see if I can get them posted up.
