I just returned from Moab to Colorado.I had the misfortune of following the four wheeler magazine and four wheeler tv camera crew on monday.I hope they were doing a story on how NOT to behave on the trail.They were taking a mildly built Lexus, a bone stock Lexus, a stock 4 door Tundra and a 4 runner limited.They held up the trail , stacked a highway load of rocks on any obstacle more than 6 inches without removing them when they passed and the young man behind the wheel of the Tundra shouldnt be behind the wheel of a go cart.They were inconsiderate of the 28 vehicles behind them not to mention tearing up a new Lexus.The trail was Kane Creek and Im sure they write what a tough trail it was.Our group didnt even spin a tire even after removing the highway that tundra boy stacked .The crowd behind them was awfully patient until about 7:30 pm when "You should rename your magazine grocery store speed bump"started the heckleing.By the way, all vehicles were loaded with a bunch of gear none of which was secured.Although they had taken a picture of my truck earlier and would love to see it in the magazine, next time Id rather just like to do the trail ahead of them and show them what true four wheeler can do and how they behave  

This is disapointing to hear. I would like to thank jetwrench for posting this in a professional manner so it can be taken seriously. I hope to see an explanation or rebuttal from FW soon, if not, I think you (jetwrench) should write in to FW, formally (good old snail mail).

yea, we were stuck behind these these mall crawlers, too. We asked politely if they'd just let us by, we were forced to witness the discourtesy and limited driving skills displayed by this crew. My main question is this: why pick one of the buisiest weekends to do this? I expected a lot more from Four Wheeler, and if I subscibed to the mag, I'd  cancel it.  

Four Wheeler responds:

We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you folks out at Kane Creek last week. Now here's the REST of the story.

The reason we held up so many of you fellas on the trail that day is that we were held up ourselves by a trio of vehicles in front of us, which included a stock '80s Toyota pickup with open diffs and no winch---and apparently, no tow strap either. The vehicle clearly had no business being out there, and we had to wait for 20 to 30 minutes at each of the last three obstacles for this guy and his buddies (who had decently built Jeeps but who weren't the most skilled drivers you've ever seen) to maneuver through sections that our stock vehicles cleared in far less time and with much less effort. This was how the gridlock developed in the first place.

Also, things didn't get any better when one of the Jeeps in that same group in front of us busted a driveshaft and had to limp over the last couple of obstacles in two-wheel drive. Because we'd let this group pass us earlier in the day, we opted not to let anyone else pass us later. Regrettable, perhaps, but understandable given the lateness of the day.

You can question our driving skills if you like---as one of you has---but in the end, our stock vehicles fared just fine, thank you. The unmodified Lexus required a couple of yanks of the tow strap, but the other vehicles got through with no broken parts, or any other damage of consequence---just a few dings in the running boards---and with no assistance required but some rock-stacking in places.

Why did we stack up rocks on the trail? Well, the guys in front of us had chewed up some sections so badly with their repeated efforts to "power out", we had no choice. You're right about one thing, though---our failure to remove the rocks after we had cleared the obstacles was an oversight on our part, and we apologize for that.

However, when one of you asks, "Why did we pick one of the busiest weekends of the year" to do this? Pardon me, we ran the trail on MONDAY afternoon---five days BEFORE the official start of Easter Jeep Safari! We'll take our fair share of responsibility for our actions on the trail, but please get your story straight before you start flaming us on our own message boards.

Once again, our apologies for any inconvenience---and trust me, we didn't like sitting around and waiting for the people in front of us to get through the trail any more than you guys liked waiting for us to do the same---but sometimes, that's just the way it goes.

Douglas McColloch

Editorial Director, FW