November 2003 - President's Choice - Page 2

We didn't get to run this spur last year due to some trail carnage in our group.

After twisting around thru the canyons, this short section returns you to the main wash.

the last obstacle on President's Choice is the "Launch Pad".  I chose to try the climb next to the launch pad.

I worked at it a couple times but my front end kept lifting.  You can see the hole the passenger tire drops into in the first picture. About the 4th try up it I decided to go for it and started to hit the gas to try and roll thru the hole, instantly the suspension unloaded and the Suzuki listed to the passenger side and then over onto it's lid.  The harness worked really good, I didn't even budge from my seat the hole time although getting out of one upside down isn't very easy....

Other than a few new dents and an unseated tire, everything was still in working order.  Thanks to Pat, Brandon and Scott for the quick recovery, we had the rig back over in about 5 minutes.  Here's a link to the video Brandon shot of the roll (you may have to do a right-click and select save as).

Here's a rig coming down the Launch Pad.  This obstacle is pretty darn steep and manages to roll a few people each year.

Pat and Scott both tried the line I took to no avail.

I think the hard part is getting by the hole at the bottom.  Once Pat winched past it he nearly drove the rest of the waterfall.

Brandon came up the Launch Pad.