I got the 'or BUST' part right :)

So the first dune in the sand and I high centered. I knew what high centering was. I even felt relatively confident that I knew how to avoid it. But when it comes down to it, with 12 other drivers careening and criss crossing open terrain at will and whim, it is a bit nerve-wracking to ascend a dune blindly without knowing what's on the other side. At the last second, I backed off the throttle in the event I needed to avert a collision. And that hesitation was all it took.

One of the guys here was itching to use his new winch; I gave him his first viable opportunity.

The day only got worse from there. My A/T tires just don't tackle the sand well. An Xterra running stock tires was having similar difficulties, but he was a bit more experienced and prepared to self-extricate having anticipated his limitations. I, for instance, only had one plank of wood intended for providing a base to my Farmer's Jack (for high lifting). I did make one successful self-extraction with that. Other times, I had to have my dumb @ss pulled out of tough spots, generally by folks rocking S/T tires. I thought airing down would be sufficient, but the aggressive treads on the S/T tires clearly was making a difference in their competent mobility in deeper sand. The relative weight of my vehicle probably also didn't help things. Lesson learned. Sort of.

So another lesson is that some things belong on the street and some things belong off-road. This 'ornamental' bull bar doesn't really belong here. So...I did learn not to be so timid on taking the dunes. I probably still needed to learn that one ought to check out what's on the other side before careening over. So I powered intrepidly over another dune at full speed, caught a little air, and nose-dived into a very large, deep walled bowl. Another guy followed me in. He, too, was running stock tires and was the guy who had winched me out of the first jam. Only this time, both of us were trapped. Mind you, we had both gotten trapped on another dune. He went speeding up and I was maybe 5-6 car lengths behind building up momentum to take the hill. Well, he abruptly stopped, and then became lodged. I veered away, hoping to careen off of the dune and rebound down into more densely packed sand. Instead I kinda wedged myself deep and sideways into the thing like a big dumb lawn dart. Worst was that he was able to self extricate by backing down...only my landing had blocked his escape. So I had to get pulled out of the way so he could back down.

The two of us still hadn't learned our lesson. He at least had his dad there to help back him up. I was solo, but there was no shortage of folks willing to help. The really cool thing was that no one was like, "Give up kid, we are tired of bailing you out". They were actually encouraging me to try to keep going after it. And I did. Until the bowl. At that point, I knew it was time to throw in the towel. I just wasn't set up for the sand, and that's ok. But I had to get out of the bowl. Bobby, a cool cat from Arkansas running 33" STT..(not sure what the extra T is for...others had the same brand and similar name, but were only ST). Maybe the extra T is for Terrific. This guy just threw my recovery strap onto the back of his Xterra and dragged me through the same sand that I couldn't power through solo. Do you follow me? I couldn't power one vehicle through this sand, and here he was effectively pulling two. I mean, I did throttle some to help, but he was getting tremendous power transfer to the sand.

Alright, so I'm unlodged, but he very well can't also pull me up a dune. The first time, he didn't build enough momentum and kinda stalled. But then he had no problem throwing it in reverse, backing it up the opposing dune, and then throwing that thing wide open and flying clear off the dune. Chris and his Dad were going to try gearing up to take the other side. I had already failed in that direction and was not looking for a repeat. Bobby had pulled me out when I then had tried a lower wall but longer route through some loose, sloping sand. So I surmise the only way out was the same way we had ambled in. And the same way that Bobby had demonstrated could be cleared if you are enough of a bad @ss to take it. So I backed up as far as I could up the opposing side of the bowl. And that wasn't really far. I almost got stuck. I rolled back down, got to a good packed area, and then floored it as far back up in reverse up the opposite bowl. Bobby gave me the all clear, and I unleashed everything Veronica could muster. And boy did she muster, right into (not onto...INTO) the damn dune.

BOOM! Huge cloud of sand and the clanging of metal. Kept hard on the throttle, she bucked, almost rearing up on the rear wheels. And I swear I must have done a wheelie half way up that dune, dropped the front two tires and took some sick air up and over that thing.

I knew something was caved in. I just didn't know how much.

None of the stock components were damaged, at all. That was great. But the 'skid plate' for the bull bar was absolutely toast. I had compromised it already by taking the Dremel to it in order to cut and opening to accommodate the hitch. But now, it is officially DUNZO.

We did hit some muddy spots.I've got the mud to prove it. That was fun at least. And to be honest, there were spots in the flats wheeling on sand that were fun. It almost felt like a hovercraft when you got up to speed in the flats. I like that sort of sand wheeling. I'll need different tires for anything else though.

One more close look at the carnage. My license plate totally got OWNED along with the skid. Definitely went BUST.

All in all, it had me second-guessing whether or not I was going to wheel tomorrow. The ante gets upped again tomorrow. This was supposed to be a very easy day of open terrain. I definitely added some unintended difficulty. I wasn't the only one...just the most consistently in trouble. One guy lost 4WD capability. Still not sure how it got resolved. But he was able to get out of there. And then Chris did continually get stuck as well. Maybe only one time fewer than I did. But he was able to get free more competently, and with less carnage than my last episode. I proceeded back to 'base' after that.

I was going to see just about riding shotgun in someone else's rig. I don't have Rock Sliders. Honestly, it came down to finances. I could either make the trip and have no sliders, or have sliders and stay home. And the latter doesn't make sense because there's nothing at home that warrants them. (Plus I'd have to figure out what to do with the now obsolete nerf bars if I went through with the replacement.

This whole week, I had been committed to keeping the nerfs on just to see how they would fair. Everyone prior was like, "Lose 'em now, or the trail will take them later". After today's lessons, I was ready to acquiesce and remove them. However, our trail guide from today is also the leader tomorrow. And he and another guy were actually encouraging me to keep them on. They were only concerned about the bars themselves possibly getting marred, but they also thought they might afford at least some very minimal protection and at least an early warning if something were to start encroaching on the the body from the side. They will clearly NOT support the weight of the truck as sliders would. The guide also said he did it last year with a bone stock Xterra and had little to no issues. He did acknowledge that my longer wheel base will be problematic, as it was yesterday. Those episodes I'm relatively comfortable with. I'll see if there's any last minute thing I can do to try to survive a bit better.

Wish me luck. I hope tomorrow is my last successful run. Thursday, I'm not registered for anything; I got closed out. Friday might end up being pretty gnarly on all trail levels. Maybe I can ride shotgun with someone on one or both days. I'll see how my girl does tomorrow.

Oh. Final dumb note. I knew I needed to switch out of 4x4 mode before hitting the highway. My toolbox, which had been giving me trouble for the past few weeks. It came to a head today when it would no longer stay latched. I'd hit a bump and it would fly open, as it did just before hitting the highway and departing. So I went to address that...and forgot to switch out of 4x4. I'm not the only dummy who has done this. The trail guide said he had just done it yesterday and had driven for about a mile. I had driven about 8-9 though. Fortunately it was mostly straight. But I was so scared when the hubs were taking a while to disengage. There are circumstances where this is normal for there to be a bit of a delay. Usually you haven't done anything dumb like I did immediately prior. So I was scared.

The good news is though that the truck is mechanically fine. And the only other highlight is that the little pocket compressor I picked up appears to be worth its salt. I was able to air back up right on the trail in about the same time it took to air down in the morning. Not a big deal normally if the trail head is close to the rally point. But in the case of today, we had a 50+mile highway drive from the rally point to the trail head. Not a good look to drive that far on aired-down tires in this Utah heat. Just asking for a blow out in my humble opinion.

So I guess that's that. I'll give it one more go tomorrow. Then I'll probably just hang back the rest of the week. I need this girl to get me back home in one piece. There's no prize for running all 5 trail days.

So I'll go one more bout.