Yeah, Golden Spike can be really hard to follow in places. The paint marks fade quickly, and are hard to see sometimes even when they are fresh. Then there are numerous illegal dead-ends and parallel routes that have been created from people getting lost, and also illegal painted bicycle routes. It has become so confusing that we will be helping BLM later this month to install new signs and close the illegal routes.
Where Eagles Dare is a legal, marked trail, but if you don't know exactly where it is, it can also be difficult to follow. It is west of the main trail, and starts near "Zuki Hill" (if your are heading south to north).