GOLDEN SPIKE TRAIL w/CALMINI |
Calmini
Sponsored ZUKIWORLD 'Zukfari Run. |
Editor: Eric Bewley
Photo: Bryan Zeigler, Sara Bewley, Todd Paulson, Nate Galvin |
MOAB, UT -Wednesday brings the
much anticipated Calmini sponsored run on Golden Spike. Even though this is a lengthy
trail, the obstacles and the quality time keep bringing people back in big numbers. For
the fourth year in a row, Steve Kramer has hosted this special event. New this year was
that the Nissan group did not join us which made for a more capable overall group, a
welcomed change. However, in an ironic twist, our group had many troubles this day and the
group split two or three times due to breakage that was had on the trail. By the end of
the day when the last group got out well after dark the 'carnage toll' was high with
several axles being broke, suspensions, and other running gear breakage. Even with this,
there were still smiles on all the, perhaps tired, faces at the end of the long day.
It all started off innocently enough. As in the
previous day, we met at City Market and convoyed out to the Poison Spider Mesa Trail head.
The Golden Spike Trail is aptly named because it joins the Poison Spider trail with the
Gold Bar Rim trail much like the final spike that was driven into the newly connected
Trans-continental rail road in the 1800's.
| The day's weather was on and off with occasional
showers. Mostly it was sunny and as luck would have it, lunch time was nice, sunny, and
warm. Steve met us about mid way through the trail and cooked up some hot dog w/chips and
served the hungry masses. Not sure where the
carnage began but shortly before or after lunch the vehicles started heading South even
though the trail headed West. First, a t-case could not be shifted and was stuck in
hi-range. The driver toughed it out though and really baja'd through the obstacles he
could and got a tug through the really tough stuff. |
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Next, yours truly had a misfortune when one of
my rear suspension links ripped off of the frame. Never fear though, everyone jumped in
and before you knew it we were welding with three batteries and some antenna.
Unfortunately, the antenna wouldn't cut it so we used a 6" c-clamp and a ratchet
strap. Much to my surprise this actually worked quiet well and the split up group (some
continued on and some stayed with the injured group) were making good time. Luckily, another group led by Sky from Sky's Offroad Design was catching up
from behind and they had a battery operated wire-feed welder. After a few minutes of
welding, we were good as knew. Special thanks to Mark, CJ, and Stan my welding heroes! |
We all powered through "the
Crack" and were making pretty good time when the next victim announce they had broken
an axle on their Samurai. As we all know, broken axles in a Samurai mean a considerable
amount of repair time because of their characteristic breaking of the splines that require
the carrier to be pulled for service. That coupled with the lack of spares had us nursing
the Samurai along as best we could but by the time the day ended he was down to just one
wheel drive and needed a tug to get up just about everything.
| And so we went along our merry way. With Stan
tugging on Nate and Ross, Mike and Zig running cables and hooking up straps we made it
through the challenging obstacles, the last few in the dark. On a side note, I was amazed
at how tough Stan's yellow Sidekick was. Not only was he driving these obstacles, many
times he was pulling a Samurai behind him as he did it. Fun to watch but hard on the drive
train, no doubt. Gallery below of the day's
events: |
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Thank you, Steve Kramer of Calmini, for
sponsoring a run for this year's ZUKIWORLD 'Zukfari.
 ZW
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