5:59 pm
July 14, 2016
Offline
Jeff_R said
Mike, I figured so but I thought I offer just in case you could go.
I do really appreciate the offer Jeff and I hopefully soon will be out there with y'all again
7:28 pm
April 9, 2015
Offline It seems everyone who said they are going on this run is meeting at the Spicer turnoff. (Except me). I should probably still go to the Angels Camp meeting place in case we get any stragglers that have not posted or kept up on the forum. That would put me at the turnoff about 9:50am. Remember to pull off hwy 4 onto Spicer. We had the law ask us to move one time when we were pulled off on the shoulder of hwy 4.
7:48 pm
Club Member
July 14, 2016
Offline Got it
11:16 am
Club Member
July 10, 2003
Offline Looks like lots of you heading out to have some fun. It's good to see all the activity. Let us know how it went.
I used to wheel a lot. . .
9:05 pm
Club Member
March 3, 2015
Offline Anyone check in yet?
10:17 pm
Club Member
September 3, 2008
Offline They are safe and on their way back. Tyler texted me.
Um...what?
1:00 am
April 9, 2015
Offline 
I got home at 12:15am. It was a long day but very fun. We departed the Spicer Resevoir Road meet point on time at 10:00am. We had five rigs, and four club members. Many parts of the trail are more difficult than the last two times I ran it. I did get some minor body damage on the passenger-side rear door and cab and the driver-side cab and bed. Prior to the rerouted section, I was winched once (by the Samurai of all things ) and strapped out twice. The rock I call the pivot rock (because I have to pivot around it due to my wheelbase), was not passable in my truck. It has been dug out very deep. I had to take the bypass which required Jeff to strap me over some rocks to make the turn. The new reroute is difficult going up, more like a winch hill (with no winch point anchors). Very steep with powdery silt and all the rocks are loose. I had the most difficult time in our group because I have no lockers or winch. I give all the credit to the spotters, rock stackers and the winch/strap train to get us all up the hill. Everyone had great attitudes and pitched in to make a real team effort to get everyone through. I did get to experience my first night wheeling since it got dark well before we were off the trail. After airing up, we went to Angels Camp to eat and fix the tail lights on Dave's Samurai.
11:10 am
Club Member
July 14, 2016
Offline Having the longest drive, I pulled into home at 1:40 a.m. Fortunately Tyler invited me to stay in Arnold at his uncle Daryl's place Friday night, otherwise it would have been a much, much longer day for me! Thanks Tyler and Daryl. Tyler's uncle is in the Mad Hatters club with Tyler. Daryl was most familiar with the trail so he was the lead in his LJ and did a great job. We got lots of pics, especially of the tougher part of reroute and will post them later. Daryl ran first then me, Rich, David and then Tyler.
I would highly recommend that you don't attempt to run the trail from the south to the north like we did because of the winch hill that you have to go up in order to get out at the north end. The dirt is total powder and all the rock is unstable because the trail was just cut and built up in up in some places. It will take a few good rains to wash out the some of the excess dirt, firm up the trail and set the rocks. Going down is a little sketchy because everything is so loose but with a good spotter very doable. We ran into Steve (last name?) who has attended a few of club meetings on the winch hill reroute. We watch his group of five rigs come down before we went up. They were planning to camp at the river but may not have made it there before dark because of the traffic jam of rigs (13?) ahead of us going up the reroute winch hill before Steve's group could come down. Nice to see Steve is a like minded wheeler and appears to be a good fit for the club.
1:28 pm
Club Member
March 3, 2015
Offline Glad you all got back ok. Sounds like a rough day. Interested in seeing some pics of the trail now.
8:34 pm
Club Member
February 26, 2014
Offline Very good I can't wait hear more and see the pictures. It's good to hear the group work and played well to gether as usual. It's that everyone made out and home in relatively in good shape.
9:16 am
Club Member
June 4, 2012
Offline It was a great day, long day with a wide range of vehicles. This is my first time on the trail so did not know what to expect or how my Samurai would do. With that said I am a happy wheeler..... the Sami did actually fairly good. Got to use my winch "To save the BIG Ford" I think Jeff got Picture proof of it. At slick rock I forgot to turn on the front locker and it started to stand up, I had to slowly back down a bit and turn on the locker and then it went right up. I was concerned at the new hill about flipping over backwards (That $5 trail tail stand sure has messed me up) But I gave it a shot and the Sami just climbed up it like it was no big deal. The front Air-locker has made it a completely different rig. Only one spot at the top of the new hill did I have a challenge. Slid off a rock and got stuck in between a couple of big one. But with the great spotting and rock stacking I was able to wiggle and get out. Had one spot after that that was way off camber and I was puckering a bit, but went real slow and it made it with out tipping over. (Rats, I didn't look at my tilt gauge to see the degree of tilt) we were off the trail around 8:40pm. Like Jeff said, I would suggest running the trail North to South till all the dirt & rocks get packed in solid. At least to "see" the hill first in a direction that is easier. Right now every time some "yahoo" groups go through it tears it all up and kicks all the dirt loose. On the way back my tail lights bulbs burned out, Tyler did rear tail blocking down to Angles Camp. We stopped at McDonalds so the group could eat. While I work to figure out the tail light issue. With great coaching by Rich figured it was the bulbs ( both of them) had burned out. They are only the original bulbs from 1986, They just don't make bulbs like they used to.... ha,ha,ha.
And like ALL Gold Hills Posse runs Everyone made sure I was good (gas station had bulbs) before heading out separate ways.
Pictures & a video posted in Gallery.
If I can't build it, then it's something that should be bought.
12:36 pm
Club Member
July 14, 2016
Offline Specialsoundman said
the Sami did actually fairly good.Pictures & a video posted in Gallery.
David, you and the Sami did more than fairly good, you both did great! Very impressive!!! Thanks for posting the pics and for putting together the video.
7:22 pm
July 12, 2017
Offline Awesome run. I had a lot of fun...I would personally prefer to run the trail the way we did... But that winch hill is gnarly. Think of WH2 on Fordyce. Not super extreme, but extreme enough that you need to be aware of the trail now, rather than just treating it like a "moderate" trail. To give you an idea... of the 11-13 rigs that went up before us, 4-5 of them ended up breaking something.
I have about 100 pictures of the 3.5 hour escape up the winch hill from our group. I can upload them all here if everyone would like... or I can try to cherry pick them haha...
Most of the hill, we had Jeff winched and snatchblocked to my uncle ahead of him, and then strapped to Rich behind him. And we kept rich within winching range of Dave, just in case the Sami decided to try and do some kartwheels. So, it took us literally 3.5 hours to get everyone up and over the new obstacle. If you want to run the trail from Spicer to Alpine, make sure you have 2 lockers... it will pay HUGE dividends on the new obstacle, even if you can do the rest of the trail open/open.
Made it home by midnight 30!
3:51 pm
Club Member
January 20, 2009
Offline Tyler - K6TLR said
I have about 100 pictures of the 3.5 hour escape up the winch hill from our group. I can upload them all here if everyone would like... or I can try to cherry pick them haha...
Sounds like a fun run.
Please upload many photos to the gallery an not the forum. Wasn't sure what "here" meant. 🙂
They'll just get lost in the forum as time passes.
3:24 pm
Club Member
July 14, 2016
Offline I added a bunch of pictures of the Slick Rock trip to the gallery. Towards the end you can see the most challenging part of the new section of the trail. One of our new club attendees is Steve (in the blue shirt and white LJ) and four other rigs were coming down just before we went up. Kevin, a few of the photos are sideways. Can you adjust them?
10:12 am
July 12, 2017
Offline I just threw up 50+ pictures. Pretty much all of mine are of the new winch hill section. It took us 3.5 hours to get all 5 rigs up it... but we had no major breaks! That hill has been chewing up rigs and spitting them out over the past month... so I am pretty stoked by what we were able to do.
6:45 pm
Club Member
March 3, 2015
Offline Looks like it really changes the level of the trail. Hopefully it tames down some as more traffic runs on it. Does it look as if a actual trail was made or more of a area cleared to have for a trail to be worked in over time?
7:25 pm
Club Member
July 14, 2016
Offline Th
70dustpan said
Looks like it really changes the level of the trail. Hopefully it tames down some as more traffic runs on it. Does it look as if a actual trail was made or more of a area cleared to have for a trail to be worked in over time?
They cut a trail. The entire new section is fairly long and they had to remove a lot of trees to create this fairly narrow trail. The tough section is steep and it looks like they moved some large boulders into the trail to make it even more challenging. At the bottom of this section they had to create a shoulder because it is so narrow and because there is a rock wall on the left as you come up hill (see pictures). So to go up you ride up the wall on your left and the new shoulder keeps you from being too off camber on the passenger side.
7:31 pm
Club Member
July 14, 2016
Offline Since Rich doesn't have lockers we had to tie the other lead vehicles together to make it up the hill. Tyler's uncle made it up first without being winched so a well equipped vehicle can make it. The group going up ahead of us had several lead foots which is one reason they had so much carnage. Several of them had to be winch or strapped up.
10:01 pm
Club Member
February 26, 2014
Offline Jeff_R said
Since Rich doesn't have lockers we had to tie the other lead vehicles together to make it up the hill. Tyler's uncle made it up first without being winched so a well equipped vehicle can make it. The group going up ahead of us had several lead foots which is one reason they had so much carnage. Several of them had to be winch or strapped up.
“Yahoos” boo
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