Gold Bar Rim
Once we were off of the Golden Spike trail it was starting to get late and a light, misting rain was falling. We descended the ledges and made it to the top of one of the canyon overlooks when Jeff noticed a plaque on the inside wall of the canyon just before we got to Slide Rock. The plaque was a memorial to a man named Jason "Wilyswanter" Payne. He died on the Rubicon Trail and the memorial plaque was put on Gold Bar Rim because it was his favorite trail.
After checking out the memorial we headed back to our Jeeps and went up and over Slide Rock without any problems. We skipped the Undercut Ledge because it was getting dark. We decided to take a quick side trip to the start of the Rusty Nail trail to go see exactly how difficult the Riff Raff obstacle really was. After seeing it, we decided it was best for us not to mess with it and we continued out to the trailhead instead.
After over 14 hours on trails that day, we skipped past Improbable Hill and headed off of the trail and back to Gary's RV for a nice, hot, home-cooked meal.
Meanwhile, On Rusty Nail
Bill, Bob, Matt and Monica had plans to run the Rusty Nail trail and meet with the rest of the group at the Golden Crack obstacle. But we didn't get very far into the trail.
Monica needed to be winched up the bottom section of the Riff Raff obstacle, and so did Bill and Matt. It was definitely more dug out compared to how it was the last time we saw it, and it was much tougher. But it wasn't too tough for Bob, who drive right through it like it wasn't even there.
Monica drove right up the second half of Riff Raff and waited at the top for Bill to do the same. However, Bill fell off of his line and got hopelessly stuck in the rocks. He tried winching himself to the top as well as driving back down and out of it, but nothing was working. After a lot of effort he managed to get back down and out of it, but he snapped a front axle shaft as well as a rear axle shaft in the process.
We ended up having a great time driving down Riff Raff for a change, but it meant we weren't going to see the rest of the trail. Bill made his noisy and rough way back to the trailhead, and we waited there while Matt went back to town to get his truck and trailer.
Bill ended up ordering chromoly axle shafts and everyone got his Jeep up and running smoothly again in time to hit the trails on the 23rd. Moab can definitely be an adventure!
Reports from Other Days: 12
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Gold Bar Rim. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
