TrailDamage.com - Golden Spike (May 11, 2003)

Golden Spike Member Report
Run on May 11, 2003

This is the trail, the Holy Grail of trails, with the Holy Grail of obstacles -- the Golden Crack. We could barely wait to get there!

This trail is a blast and noisy with all of the scraping, crunching and banging we did on the ledges. We all hit skidplates and bumpers but no one got any major damage.

The overlooks were really cool -- the weather was gorgeous and sunny and we were all getting sunburned. Lots of pictures were taken and much camcorder action recorded.

Kendall tried Golden Crack first. He couldn't get up the other side with his passenger-side tire even though he tried a dozen times, so he had another McGyver moment. He got his spare tire out and put it down in the shallow part of the crack. Then he pretty much drove over it. Count on Kendall to come up with these things!

Then Mitch went through. It was easy and not fair. Nice lift!

Monica went through and had a little trouble getting the driver-side tire to pop up to get the passenger-side tire in the crack (probably too much air in the tires). After that it was necessary (as always) to drag the hitch on the back bumper all the way through the crack but she's used to that.

Mike went through and made it look really easy too. Kendall stood on his front bumper to help him through the rest of the way.

We ran into a LOT of Moab offroaders at the Crack, all of them with massive vehicles. They didn't have an easier time as we noticed on this and the other obstacles coming up.

No one had a problem on the Golden Stairs. Kendall tried Double Whammy but it wasn't meant to be. Monica drove up Body Snatcher and didn't even realize what it was -- then Kendall had some issues making it through without damage (though everyone came through fine).

A perfect day!

Additional Reports for Golden Spike

Members On This Run

Kendall: blue 1988 Suzuki Samurai
Mike S.: silver 2002 Jeep Wrangler (TJ)
Mitch: green 1999 Jeep Wrangler (TJ)
Monica: red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (JK)

Trail Movies

Kendall On Witchs Crotch (10.9 MB, MPG)
Mike On Launch Pad (1.9 MB, MPG)
Kendall On Launch Pad (4.3 MB, MPG)
Full 360 At First Overlook (6.8 MB, MPG)
Mitch On Some Stairs (2.7 MB, MPG)
Mike On Witchs Crotch (3.4 MB, MPG)
Kendall And His Magic Tire (0.8 MB, MPG)
Monica On Launch Pad (4.6 MB, MPG)
Kendall On Some Stairs (10.0 MB, MPG)

Trail Photographs

Arches National Park