Group shot Potato Salad Hill

Thursday morning I met Gerald, Alec and Guy at the City Market. We decided to run the Klondike Bluffs Trail which is a relatively easy trail with a few obstacles thrown in. The most interesting part of this trail, for me at least was the dinosaur foot prints which are embedded in the slick rock surface. Looking at the foot prints I couldn't help, but think of Jurassic Park and the huge dinosaurs hovering above the parks "visitors". 

This was my only chance to run with Alec and his 2wd Explorer "Splat". I was very impressed at how well his supercharged Explorer did. His Eaton posi unit got him through the rough spots without a problem. And the torque from the supercharger propelled him up and over some pretty gnarly slickrock. 

"Splat" the supercharged 2wd Explorer is Alec's creation

Perry's Fab n Fiber has recently  released a carbon fiber dash for the Explorer

My day ended after Klondike Bluffs as I had symptoms of heat exhaustion from over doing it in Phoenix on Tuesday. I had installed my new tires on the beadlock rims in 100+ deg heat in my driveway. I neglected to keep my body hydrated and I ended up paying for it for the rest of the trip. 

Friday morning it was my turn to lead a run. This was to be my first attempt at the fabled "Golden Spike Trail". This was a run I had looked forward to since first hearing of Moab. Golden Spike joins two other trails, Poison Spider Mesa and Gold Bar Rim. 

Charles Wells book said to expect the trail to take 7-14 hours to complete. It took us 7 1/2 hours to complete even with a group of 12 Isuzus in front of us that we had to pass twice!.

We first encountered the Isuzus at the Wedgie. Since our group had grown impatient at the wait most of us sailed through the Wedgie without getting air and photo ops. We probably should have spend more time, since we found ourselves behind them once again at the "Launching Pad". The Launching Pad is an excellent spot to test the traction of Slickrock. The hill is extremely steep. The Isuzus we watched were spinning tires all the way up, one of their trucks started to slide sideways near the top, it was a scary thing to watch as the truck slid across the rock face and towards a deep depression to it's left.
Luckily the truck started going up more than sideways and the obstacle was cleared successfully. 

Our group was next to bat. It was amazing watching the Explorers compared to the Isuzus. The Explorers pulled straight up and over, barely spinning a tire. On my turn I put my manual tranny in 2nd gear with my Atlas II in low range. I gave it some gas and pulled the hill pretty fast. Char and I could feel the front tires leave the ground and set back down after we hit a little ridge near the top. What a rush! 

Next up was Skyline Drive. Skyline drive is a steep climb up one side and down the other on a huge slick rock hill, not much of an obstacle, but pretty cool none the less. 

Zuk's Hill was next, it got it's name from a Suzuki that rolled there with the fiancée of the driver. That was their last fourwheeling trip together and they never did get married Zuk's hill had a bypass, but I choose to try the rock ledges. What I didn't realize was that the water hole I put my tire into was DEEP! As the truck tilted over I just prayed I wouldn't imitate Riffman's roll at the Badlands! Luckily the articulation of the truck kept things in check and we drove out of the hole without incident. 

After Zuk's Hill we started to find the ledges that Golden Spike is famous for. You could hear the bumpers and the nerf bars drag across the rock as the Explorer's descended these natural steps. 

David Meisner perched upon the Golden Spike Overlook

David Meisner in the Golden Crack

Just before lunch at the overlook I noticed my steering was a bit tight. I thought my airlocker hadn't fully disengaged which is quite common for the first few feet after an obstacle. I parked the truck at the lunch spot and didn't think about it again.... until after lunch when I got in the truck and the steering was still tight. As soon as I felt the tightness my stomach dropped and I knew exactly what was wrong before I even looked. It felt the same way the first time I wheeled with it after my solid axle conversion. That was the feeling of the track bar mount being torn loose from the frame. The reason the steering
felt tight is because I was pushing the entire axle side to side every time I turned the wheel! 

Now, this is where being prepared for a hard core trail is EXTREMELY important. We were 10 miles in to a 20 mile long trail with no easy way out. Either way would be filled with obstacles and towing a rig with a "floating" front axle would be nearly impossible in these conditions. 

I have been carrying an onboard welder, the Ready Welder, with me for the past couple years. It's the best birthday present Char ever bought me! After looking at the bracket which was torn away from the frame, I knew I needed the help of David Meisner. David has done some excellent fab work for himself and others in the Denver area. I knew that David's welding skills were better than mine as I had just started welding with the purchase of this welder. This was no time to test my fabrication skills! In my bag of goodies I had thrown in a couple strips of steel that I had cut for use as shackles, David used those to brace the broken mount. The welder worked great. We only used flux core wire, so the weld was a bit on the ugly side in places, but the trail repair held up for the rest of the trip without any problems! Thanks David! 

The "Golden Crack" is without a doubt the most famous obstacle on the Golden Spike trail. When we got there I said to my wife, "Char, this is it?" It was much less than I had envisioned. I thought it was wider and deeper, it wasn't bad at all. All of us made it through without a problem except for Guy who had a problem with his airlocker's electrical system. Guy made it through with open diffs front and rear with a little help from well placed human counter balances! A group of ATVers were watching us cross and they were very impressed by what our rigs could do. 

I was worried that the repair we had made earlier wouldn't hold up so after the Golden Crack, Justin and I left the group and headed out as quick and carefully as we could. I figured the farther ahead we got the faster we could get the rig rolling again should it need another repair. On the way out we heard Gerald on the CB. He and his group had finished Steelbender and they were on the Gold Bar Rim trail. About 15 minutes later we met up with Gerald and Jefe at our last... their first, obstacle on the Gold Bar Rim Trail.
Justin and I got off the trail and onto the main road at 4:30 only 7 hrs after we started and that was with a trail repair and lost time behind another group of wheeler's! What a day! 

Justin McNeil

Fins and Things was our groups first run on Saturday morning. What a fun trail! Lot's of slick rock to climb, but the best part was the high speed running through the red sand trails! Justin, Guy and I were really hauling butt! Just after "Ken's Climb" we stopped for lunch and a photo op. 

Rick Horwitz and Perry Schwab

Once again I wasn't feeling that great, so I finished up the trail with the group and opted not to do Hell's Revenge with Justin and Guy. I did decide to try the "Bump Dump" obstacle again. On the way out of the park I saw a Jeep Cherokee make several attempts at the obstacle he never did make it so I figured I would "show him how it's done" LOL... I made it up last year, but it wasn't in the card's this year. At the base of the obstacle there was a large puddle of muddy water which soaked the tires just before you placed the tires on the rock. I gave it a good try. I went up about two feet and the wheels just started spinning and sliding. I let of the gas and slid backward...BLAM I came down hard on my spare tire. Looking at the mud imprint on the spare, I could tell I had never been tilted that far backwards before. I'm just thankful that I didn't do a reverse endo! 

Rick on Dump Bump
Photo by "Leebo"

As you all know Saturday night we all met for dinner at the Branding Iron Restaurant. KKM Kurtz Kustom Motorsports provided, 3 cleaning kits and 3 gift certificates that were raffled off after dinner. With the help of Perry and Terri's donations every driver walked away with at least some sort of prize from the raffle. 

Sunday morning, was another bad day for me... I couldn't get the aircompressor for the airlocker to work! The fuses were ok, and I couldn't find any obvious loose connections so I figured it was fate and decided not to do a run. We did meet at Potato Salad Hill for a photo op though. Everyone took a place on the hill and it made for a great group shot!