Golden Spike
photos by Rick
Day Two: Saturday, Oct 25.
Meeting up at the City Market, we decided to split into two groups, with one group going south to tackle Elephant Hill and the BigDawgs headed out for a full day on Golden Spike.
Golden Spike consists of three trails (Poison Spider Mesa, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim) and has always presented an exciting challenge to the Explorer Moab Run. Each year something has broken on someone’s vehicle, and this year was no exception. It is a full day of wheeling in the first place, and with breakage delays, it is sometimes dark before we make it back to town.
As the BigDawg group lined up, it soon became clear that the amount of vehicles had grown tremendously. If I remember correctly, the line consisted of myself, then Rick, followed by Kevin (DiffWhackDaddy), Derrick (Positive Vibes), John and Jeff in John’s J**p (Brother_Of_Jefe and Jefe) , RobbieJ, and finally Clint (HVACman) followed by his friends in two more Jeeps.
A Jeeper Jamboree was going on in Moab this weekend, and as we approached the trailhead, we were presented with a view of about 30 Jeeps lined up in the staging area – if we got stuck behind them, we would be spending the night on the trail! Rick got on the CB and yelled “we are not stopping we are
not stopping to air down and lock hubs!”. We got in front of the group and fortunately ended up having to follow only four capably built Jeeps, so we avoided getting stuck behind all of those rigs. We did take the time to stop at the little girl’s grave on the High Speed Mesa section and toss our quarters on it for good luck on the rest of the run.
Rick makes it look easy like usual *yawn*
Shortly after starting on Poison Spider Mesa those in the rear of our group began experiencing various problems and by the time we passed the Wedgie our group had split into two groups: those in front continuing on to try to finish the run, and those in the rear breaking off of the run and going back to run another trail.
DiffWhackDaddy in the Wedgie
Rick led most of the rest of the trail, followed by Kevin, Derrick, and myself. John and Jeff got caught about four vehicles behind us but soon caught up to finish the trail with us. Rick kept us going at a very quick pace for the entire rest of the day. He stated that he was merely running at a comfortable pace for his vehicle, but that pace was among the fastest that I have kept up on a run in a long time, and I snapped very few photos this day as we sped through the trail. My belief is that Rick kept remembering the very long days that he has spent on this trail and didn’t want to get caught on it at night again, but he wouldn’t admit that

As it worked out I am grateful because we ended up back in town in plenty of time to shop for tshirts and souvenirs before the group dinner – as I recall, we finished very early for a Golden Spike run, sometime around 4:30 or so!
Positive Vibes on the Launch Pad
Earlier on we thought about doing the run backwards and Kevin had asked whether the ledges went up or down. They go both ways no matter which way you take. Golden Spike remains my favorite trail in Moab – at the edge of my vehicle’s ability, but consistently tough wheeling all day long. I did forget how long you spend offcamber – most of the day is spent leaning left and it does get old after awhile.
The breakage fell on Derrick this time - he lost his left front brake line. It was midday so we took our lunchbreak during his repair to save time. Kevin had a spare brakeline that Derrick installed while the rest of us were entertained by a vocal raven that watched over us and gabbed the whole time, emitting sounds I’ve never heard from a bird. In addition to the normal cawing sound of crows, at times he sounded just like a pig and other times like a frog.
Alas, Kevin’s brakeline ended up lasting only a short distance and we were once again faced with a vehicle in the middle of nowhere and no brakes. We resorted to the old trick of clamping off the bad brakeline with a pair of vicegrips. Amazingly, it held for the rest of the day, and Derrick finished the trail with three functioning brakes.
Golden Spike has uncountable challenging ledges, so many that none stand out in memory – except for one. There is one ledge that has to be decended while very offcamber to the left, and as soon as your front reaches the bottom of the ledge, you must turn right to climb back up to the right, forcing you even more offcamber left. There is no room for any error - you must take exactly the correct line or you will lay it over. Of all of the ledges, I had remembered that one, and it is the one obstacle I fear on that trail. Char spotted every one of us perfectly through that obstacle and once again proved to me that she is one of the best spotters (if not
the best spotter) I have ever had help me. I can count on one hand the number of spotters that I truly trust without question or hesitation, and she is at the top of that rare group. Thank you again, Char.
GJarrett on one of Golden Spike’s countless ledges
We found a group hanging out at the Golden Crack and had no problem showing off what an Explorer can do while cruising easily through it. We kept our quick pace and before I knew it, we had bypassed Double Whammy before I even realized we were there. I wanted to do it again and Kevin had never been to Moab yet, so I thought he should experience it too - but Rick and Char wisely reminded us that obstacle breaks things and both Kevin and I had a very long drive home after the weekend was finished. So this trip, we skipped the Double Whammy. What the heck, next time we'll do it, Kevin will just have to come back again
Our token J**per Brother_Of_Jefe walks through the Golden Crack
As we ended the Golden Spike leg and began the Gold Bar Rim trail our group once again became a rescue service for another person. It seems that we always get a chance to help someone while we are at Moab – I remember one injured woman bicyclist that we had brought down off of a trail during a previous run, and I know there have been other instances that our Explorer group has helped others during our time in Moab.
I was leading at the time, and was approached by a motorcyclist (later we found out he was Tracy Evans, a competitive rockcrawler) who asked if I minded being a rescue vehicle. Mine was fairly full but Kevin had a spare passenger seat. Another one of the motorcyclists (named Chris) had broken his collarbone and was unable to continue further. Rick had a sling and coldpack so we did our best to stabilize Chris and loaded him into Kevin’s passenger seat and proceeded on.
As Kevin followed me down Gold Bar Rim, there was one challenging ledge that I took particularly hard going up. Kevin’s new passenger, already in pain with each bump, watched me and moaned to Kevin, “ohhh, this is gonna hurt”. Kevin took a better line up the ledge and eased it through, generating a grateful “thank you” from Chris.
As we finished Gold Bar Rim the motorcyclists passed us to give Chris his wallet and insurance, and Kevin took him to the ER as we returned into town. After dropping Chris off, Kevin and I joined the others on Main St for a visit to the Moab T-Shirt Shop for the traditional tshirt purchases designating the new trails we had run. All in all, we made great time, and one brakeline was a cheap price to run my favorite Moab trail.
Our group dinner this year was at the Fat City BBQ, where it had been in 2000 when the group dinner gave Ray Lobato and me a birthday party. Fat City BBQ had moved two doors down into a bar and the reservation did not work out very well – I seriously doubt if we will ever bother giving them business again
