Day
4 - Rescues by the Big Daddy Dogs on Golden Spike
Ok,
it's another day and this time I am up and raring to go. Cool,
I am back in sync. After breakfast I am heading down to registration
to see what runs have open slots and Woooooooooow. I see some
buddy's of mine gassing up, so I exit stage left. Now these
are buddies. They treat me like a friend, yet... they are THE
BIG DADDY DOGS. The ones folks see being on top of the rock
pile, yet they remain straight-forward good people. Mr. Ed of
Mr.Ed's Excellent
Adventures and Dave
Hickman invitde me along with them to run the Golden Spike
trail.
Just
out of town and now we are airing down. Ed is in his famous
maroon and yellow-caged CJ-5 with mega horsepowered V8 and more
trail experience than wild burrows. Dave is in his for-sale
super rig (approx. $32,000 is the sale price). I am in a TJ,
kind of a humble sleeper that suprises a few folks.
Our
first obstacle Ed calls the Golden Spike Bump followed by a
little crack to straddle. So far, no problemo! Along the way
we get a few tag-alongs; An automotive shop teacher and friends.
Now this shop teacher is smart. He knows how to hook kids! Next
week he is bringing them here to Moab. The kids have been building
their rigs for it all year. Also is a stock rental TJ. The rental
did awesome.
Now
we head to the Launching pad. This is a rather simple climb.
It just kind of has a pucker factor because it is pretty much
straight up! Speaking of straight up, us three head on to the
hole in which Bruce Brownson rolled his TJ. Black Paint is still
on the rocks below it. Both Ed and Dave get a little tippy but
exit the hole on their own.
I
enter the hole but just cant quite keep up with the BIG DADDY
DOGS. At the top I get a strap just to keep me safe (my front
end was considering chasing my back end like Bruce's did) a
little strap and tug down on my front end and out I drove. Whewwwww,
my head was thinking, I was about to be doing vehicular back
handsprings. (that's, sort of like back flippy things). Yep,
this is one definite way to get your heart pumping to the aerobic
level in about 3 seconds.
Man,
I wonder If I can sell this as a new work out? Like instead
of Billy Blanks Ti-Bo I can do Ti-Wheeling, "Be one with the
sky. Be one with your machine. Guaranteed to exercise your heart
and your gluteals (pucker muscles) in seconds!
On
we go... now we are about 1/3 thru this trail. It is a long
trail; approximately 10 hours for the average wheeling group.
We figured about five to six for us but...then it happened.......
Snapppppp! No, it was not us! In fact, the folks we met up with
told us about it. Snapped drive line yoke!
Being
the average wheelers we are, we stopped to help! If you are
not a wheeler then you have got to understand something right
now! We are like Marines! No down man (as in mankind... male
or female) is ever left behind. A little easy-out with Ed's
air drill (York
air compressors are cool) and a little weld from Dave's
welder and we have hope that he can limp along the trail. We
of course will keep him with us on the rest of our journey.
In
the meantime, we discover that Ed had broken a hub. No wonder
he was having a hard time. We fix that too. Ohhhhhhh you mean
something else? One of our new friends has a broken engine mount.
We can't fix it with the engine headers in the way so they put
the rig's own winch on the mount, which pulls it back forward
and snugs it. Good idea Dave! He drove the rest of the trail
this way with no problem...well, at least not with that part.
Throughout
the next hours he also had a separated clutch linkage (Glad
he carried some spare parts for this and a tire popped off the
bead. Before these little dilemmas, the rig with the patched
yoke that was depending on our levels of hope, gave out.
Alright!
Who out there was not hoping strong enough? JAKE (George's dog)!
Figures. Only thing he hopes for is food and a belly rub! Actually,
the hope gave out about 50 feet from the repair shop on the
rocks. This YJ became a hitch hiker via tow strap on the back
of Ed's rig for the duration of the trail. This was now a long
evening in the making. Approximately 3 hours later we are actually
making somewhat efficient forward motion.
Up....
around... over... creek... creep... climb... pucker... crawl...
.and many hours later, at dusk, we approach the famous Golden
Crack. All of us actually scale it with not much effort. the
Golden Steps and many hours lay ahead of us! It is getting dark
and the trail is getting very hard to see. The painted trail
markers are getting fewer and fewer. Next time, maybe Easter
Jeep Safari organizers can start marking the trails from toe
to head, because it is human nature to get mark-happy in the
begging and slack at the end.
We
lose our way once but finally find a mark and we moved on. In
the right direction? We think so. Eventually, we do make it
out around midnight. Myself and Mr. Ed get some dinner and now
we both crash at the Hostel. The floor of Dave's Box trailer
was just a little too hard for Ed. Besides, with no windows,
the pitch blackness was just too scary for Ed.
Day
4 Photo Album
INDEX
| Day 5