Colorado Trip Reports

I you're an Overland Bound member there is a trip going on in early August that would cover the Alpine Loop. I think the tentative dates are the 3rd-7th.

 

Damn this kind of sucks lol. I'll try to do september then. I def want it to be a great experience. I'll check that link out. And thats a beautiful picture Steve!

 

Negative I'm not a member lol don't feel worthy of joining until i have some trips under my belt lol

 

FYI, I was in that area last week. The section from Hwy 550 to Animas Forks from Ouray to Engineer Pass (some call Mineral Creek) is closed. Rock slide with no known date to get it cleared. The rest of the major trails were open. A few minor trails where still closed due to snow.

We didn't camp, we stayed in Lake City. Hinsdale County is something like 95% public land. You should be able to find somewhere to camp out there, but tread light. The plants out there are far more delicate than our mesquites back here in TX.

 

Window is last 2 weeks in Sept usually. This is the "Dallas Divide" area by Ridgeway, CO. This pic is actually from County rd 7 (My favorite) just west of Ridgeway and people also use County Rd 5 & 9 (9 goes right through Ralph Lauren's Ranch at start, stay on road and ignore any of the hands if they claim its Private).

Last Dollar Road is also amazing coming into Telluride, not to mention Wilson Peak area.

Back-up, if fall color timing is off, would be Crested Butte area

 

I ordered this off Amazon a couple weeks ago and I'm just now looking at it. And it says best times of year is June-September. So not sure if I'll be going this year then. We just came back from a trip and have banff NP in august. My girlfriend can't take that many days off. This really sucks
Might have to go without her and make it a guys trip lol

 

I joined before I even officially "completed" my first trail. And it's not expensive either. Just a great community!

 

I have a few maps of that area, the one that seems to be the best is a national geographic one.

I would recommend waiting until July if you are in it just for a wheeling trip. Depending on the year, a lot of trails can still be closed well into June.

I've been going to the Lake City area since the early 90's... I cannot get tired of that area, highly recommended.

You will need several days just to explore the main trails.

I'm thinking my trip for next year will include Black Bear and Poughkeepsie(if rock slide has been cleared on mineral creek trail). Those 2 trails aren't usually open until at least July.

 

Also, this i found this map is pretty good for that area and not as "busy" as National Geo one for quick acess

 

Yeah the book i have has that one in it. Its the same publisher funtreks. A LOT of good information on there. Wish i would've known all this sooner. Really looks like i won't be making it out there this year. Thanks a lot tho guys! i'm still staying subscribed to this thread

 

I think you are making the right choice... make a solid plan for next year instead of a rushed plan so you can prepare and hit all the trails you want. You will not regret going!

 

Pickle Gulch

@kashtyaatsi
@NaZRaQ









Yankee Hill

 

my son was the photographer yesterday -
with - @Littles and @kashtyaatsi, pickle gulch and Yankee hill

 

Just got a couple.

@Littles @NaZRaQ

 

Roamed around the mountains with @lobsterbait today. Nothing crazy just a fun day out with the wives. We went to the West side of Gross Reservoir to get my wife used to being offroad and the trail was unexpectedly a bit fun and definitely not just a fireroad like we thought. I got yelled at for taking one hand off the steering wheel pointing at the view while next to what she thought was a ledge After hanging at the lake for a bit we cut back across Magnolia Rd to Rollinsville via 119 to hang out by South Boulder Creek and check out Moffat tunnel. Kinda wished I would have realized if we had gone across 119 it would have brought us down to Moffat road, but the wife probably had her fill of that stuff anyway Need to go explore that one next time out.

 

Glad to see asher gettin it on the bike @kashtyaatsi

 

Looking forward to your build thread!

 

Did Birdseye Gulch to Mosquito pass the other day. Very impressed with this stock tacoma.

 

Is Birdseye on the Leadville side of Mosquito? Last I checked the Alma side still had a few big drifts in the way.

 

Bunce - Ironclads - T-33 Crash

One of my buddies and I hit up the Bunce School Trail system today and we had a blast. It was kind of the inaugural run for both of our trucks after some pretty significant mods, so we wanted to be able to start off easy and ramp up the difficulty if the trucks seemed good to go.

We hit the road from Westy at about 6:30 to try to beat the Idiot Horde, and for the first part of the day, we were successful. As the day wore on, we saw an increasingly dismaying display of derpitude that still boggles the mind. And it was entirely centered around twits riding on UTVs and ATVs. In fact, on one of the gnarlier obstacles on Plane Crash, I watched as two sheeple on two different ATVs both nearly rolled the things onto themselves.

But enough about that. It was still a great day.

We ended up taking FR105 north and headed for Ironclads (FR216). I was in the lead and pulled off to the side of the road right before the big step to look it over and pick a line. Just as I did that, two Cherokees and then two JKs rolled up. The first Cherokee made it up no problem, but the second one just couldn't do it. After his buddy finally spotted him up, the JKs made it up and I took my shot. It felt good to have the truck just pull itself right up and over. My buddy's 2011 Sport wanted to just spin tires, so we parked it and he rode with me and we did a couple loops. When we got back to the step the second time, we stacked a few rocks and eventually got him up.

Unfortunately, we didn't get many sweet poser shots on Plane Crash (FR202 to FR203). It was later in the day, and definitely more challenging than anything else we had run earlier. I'm glad to say that both of us did a damn good job of both driving and spotting, especially because a few of the obstacles on Plane Crash would have punished us severely if we had picked a bad line.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I did crunch my passenger mirror on a tree. Oops.

All in all, it was a great trip. The drive from Lyons to the trailhead was gorgeous, and the trail system was a lot of fun. Plane Crash really tested both of our trucks, and it was nice to see that they were capable of pulling something like that off. Now I want to check out MSV!

The first big obstacle of the day at the base of Ironclads.​

Great views from the top.






Extra awesome poser shots.
Super White, FTMFW!


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