Red Rock 4 Wheelers Name James Graves Their 2025 Member of the Year
A club volunteer who drives four hours each way for monthly meetings was named the 2025 Red Rock 4 Wheeler of the Year. Here is what tail gunners and trail leaders do and why they matter.
Hats off to James Graves. The Moab Sun News reports he was named the 2025 Red Rock 4 Wheeler of the Year at the club's annual dinner on January 17.
A volunteer's volunteer
- Every month he drives four hours from Farmington to Moab for a club meeting, then four hours home
- He joined the club in 2002 and was a tail gunner on Fins and Things from 2004 to 2019
- He now leads his own Big Saturday Trail, and in 2025 he coordinated the leaders and gunners for the Labor Day Campout
- He often brings his daughter Sarah along, training her as the next generation of trail leaders and gunners
Club president George Schultz called him "the embodiment of our club membership."
Why tail gunners matter
If you have never run a trail with a tail gunner, here is the deal. The leader picks the line up front, and the gunner rides at the back making sure nobody gets left behind with a flat, a broken part or a stuck rig. It is the same way we run our private trips: someone always has your back, and nobody leaves the trail alone. Folks like James are a big reason Moab's club events run as well as they do.
