Colorado Trip Reports

Ran Chinaman's over the weekend with an FJ and some Rubicons. Well, actually we parked the FJ towards the beginning because it was going to take all day and more trail damage than my buddy was comfortable with to get it all the way through the loop.

This is at the "Whales Tail" I took the line just to the right of the tail. Made it up and the air was thick with the smell of my clutch. haha

I don't think there was a piece of armor on my truck that didn't contact a rock...

Including this new high clearance rear swing-out i just finished before the trip.

This is basically the first obstacle, but on our way out.

 

Easy? Could a Subaru make it to some of the camp spots?

 

nope... 35s and lockers

 

It must be really washed out. When I was last up there 3 years ago there was a Forester at the top

 

Took a spur of the moment run up Johnny Park Road outside of Lyons on Saturday. Decided to run it east to west from Hwy 36 to Hwy 7 so that I could hit the fun stuff going uphill.

FunTreks has the trail rated as difficult, but only because of some of the optional rocky shelves at the beginning. I only ended up taking the bypass around the biggest stair step climb just before you finally top out, but that’s because I was running solo. With another rig, it would be a fun obstacle to tackle for sure.

The scenery was pretty epic, especially as you drop down toward Hwy 7 with some really incredible views of Mt. Meeker with Longs Peak sticking up behind it. My campsite had a great view of the ridges around Lyons and also out toward Longmont. There are a shit ton of well-established campsites up there, and despite a late start on a Saturday evening, I was able to grab a site near the top fairly easily.

It’s definitely not a hardcore crawling trail, but the east side has plenty of fun climbs with lines as difficult as you want to make them. All in all, I was very pleased with the relatively close proximity, the trail, and the campsite. I definitely plan on going back.

 

What kind of Subaru? There are 1, maybe 2 spots where you'd need some decent clearance. Mainly the one wash out is going to have you flexing a bit.

I believe he needed to add an /s at the end there.

 

Cool! One of my out of state friends ran into him in the area and messaged me that he was out there haha

 

Cool report! Is Blake as wild as he seems in his videos? and I'm guessing that's a new buggy? Thought he sold the original to some sheik or something...

 

he should reach out to SEMA and see if he can run that beast at the ford out front track... they usually have a nice jump in the middle. usually see drifting and jumping done there during the show

vaugh gittin was out there lately with his bronco/u4 build jumpin and driftin

 

Drove up to Chinns Reservoir and ate some homemade chicken cutlet sandwiches. Fun times. Nice and clear up there, just some puddles.

 

Hike to the upper lakes - great fishing.

 

The lady and I ran Pole Hill yesterday on our way into Estes Park and we had a blast! It’s another moderate trail that starts with a long rocky climb with tons of line choice possibilities, so it was cool to be able to pick the difficult lines knowing we could bail out to an easier line if we needed to.

The best part by far, though, was the scenery. We took the northern loop past the Notch and the views into the Estes valley were absolutely stellar, especially with the sun setting over Longs Peak and RMNP. We also found tons of really great camping spots that I marked on my map for future use. Definitely a trail and an area to go back and check out again.

 

Is there still a good chunk of it closed off?

 

Not that we saw, but we only did the upper loop.

 

Went up to Chinns today with my son. We hit up both Fall River Reservoir and Chinns Lake. He really enjoyed it. Quite a few people out and about camping, but overall, didn’t meet many other vehicles out there. It probably helps going on a Tuesday. Being honest, the only other roads I’ve done thus far have been Old Fall River Road and Jones Pass, so this was probably the roughest trail I’ve encountered. Overall, fun times and look forward to getting out more.

 

I was also up at Chinn's today, went up around 3pm, just came down and grabbing some BBQ in Idaho Springs

 

We headed back down just before 2:30...just missed you.

 

I think I need to start working 10 hour days and have a day off during the week to venture out away from the weekend crowds...

 

I was impressed by how little people were up at Chinn's. Usually it's packed to the rim from what I've heard on weekends

 

That was my schedule for awhile the bastards change us to 5 day weeks
But what can you do