Colorado Trip Reports

I was thinking that the plow driver punished them for blocking them in some way.

 

Knowing roughly where this is, the plow is a very large CAT grader.

 

Yes it was the CAT grader guy going up Old Stage Road

 

I wouldn't doubt it. I came across several full size trucks stuck in the area that day. No business being out on unplowed roads but you can't fix stupid.

 

National Park Service Will Cite Drivers Of AWD Cars For Driving On 4WD-Only Trails
https://jalopnik.com/national-park-service-will-cite-drivers-of-awd-cars-for-1851617315

 

+1

The only vehicle I've ever had to recover stranded offroad was a subie, and they drove off without even a wave.

 

Makes me sad that we don’t get the fully capable Subarus that Australia gets with a legit transfer case.. (1:1.69 ratio)

 

Harvested our Christmas tree last night. By far one of my favorite holiday traditions we do each year.

Theo got to enjoy the snow & we were lucky enough to find a spruce this year. We also got an incredible sunset - the whole sky turned a mix of pink and baby blue. Overall and incredible day / night out in the mountains.

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Picked up our tree today in South Park District. It was going to go in the bed, but 15’ tree ended up better on the roof.

 

Last weekend must have been the annual TW tree cutting weekend, we got out too, but with 4 people the Tacoma wasn't the option for this years cutting.

 

Did someone drive all the way from Wisconsin to get a tree?

 

they have cheese, not trees

 

We had a lot more trees before they got turned into lumber and paper.

 

We bought the truck a couple weeks back from my wife's family. I just haven't switched the tags over on this truck yet.

 

Into the cimarrons for a tree and some camping. Didn't make it far, road was blocked by Florida tourists who slid half off the trail in a rental Subaru. Somehow they thought it was a good idea to try to plow through knee deep snow. Still got the tree tho

 

Day 3: Cinnamon Pass

After a great night of sleep, we woke up bright and early, eager to explore the San Juans. For day 3, my dad and I had thought it'd be fun to change up our mode of transportation & decided we'd try to rent a UTV to drive the Alpine Loop. As mentioned earlier, I grew up riding ATVs with my dad, so renting the UTV had us incredibly exciting for many reasons, but mainly the for freedom you feel when driving/riding in an open air vehicle.

In order to make this happen, we'd need to find a business who had a UTV available, which I thought would be no problem given it was the middle of the week and Lake City has tons of businesses who rent UTVs & jeeps. My dad & I both have always longed to own a Polaris Rzr or Can-Am Maverick, so we had our eyes set on renting one of the many available in Lake City. After calling nearly every business in town, only one had a UTV available for renting, and it wasn't a Rzr, but a new-ish Honda Pioneer Trail. Comparatively, not the most exciting rig, but for our entire lives, we've only owned/ridden Honda utility ATVs and have absolutely loved them - they're incredibly reliable and versatile (used ours for snowplowing, hauling trailers, and just generally working around the property, but also for tons of trail riding).

Anyways, we got setup with the company, learned the logistics of running the loop, paid, and headed back to camp to load up the Pioneer. We loaded up lunch, rain coats, and sunscreen & hopped back into the rig. Unfortunately, when I went to put it into drive, the transmission wouldn't go into drive. Only Park or Reverse. Not ideal... We messed around with it for about 10 minutes, and ultimately determined something with the linkage was malfunctioning. Luckily, my dad had driven the Tacoma back to camp, so we loaded up into it and made our way back into town to notify the rental company. We caught up with the owner who followed us back to camp with his brand new, super badass Honda Talon and we helped him get the Pioneer hooked up. He was incredibly apologetic and offered us a full refund + $100 credit. Overall, a super standup guy and I'd definitely rent from him in the future. I think it was just a freak thing and we were just happy that it didn't happen to us in the middle of the trail. And anyways, we had the Tacoma, so we still had plenty of opportunity to explore.

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After all that, we decided it was too late to run the entire Alpine Loop, so we opted to run Cinnamon instead, starting from Lake City.

I've ran Cinnamon to varying degrees 4-5 times before, so I was familiar with the area, but it continues to be one of my favorite trails in all of Colorado. And I think you'll see why in the upcoming photos. The scenery is absolutely epic - from narrow shelf roads, to slow flowing streams, to massive glacial valleys, to Red Cloud & Sunshine 14,000 ft peaks - this route has everything you want in a Colorado backcountry route.

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We arrived at American Basin and enjoyed nearly panoramic views 10,000+ ft peaks. We had tons of sunshine on the drive up, but you could tell a storm was brewing over the peaks, so we had a quick lunch in the basin and packed up the truck just as the winds started to rip across the valley. As we headed down, we had intermittent sun & clouds, but it didn't rain until we reached back at camp.

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At this point in the trip, my dad and I were definitely in need of a nice, warm shower and I knew just the spot. I'd stopped into Highlander RV Campground a few times before on previous trips to Lake City and had always been incredibly impressed with their facilities and the hospitality of their family owned business. We paid and enjoyed immaculately clean & piping hot showers. It's amazing how nice a shower is after camping for a few days. A total refresher. As we were heading out, the owners of Highlander RV even invited us to the campground's weekly cookout later that evening, even though we weren't officially camping on their property. Just a testament to how well-run this business is!

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After getting freshened up, we decided to head into town for a bit of walking exploration. I also had a strong craving for a chocolate malt, so we stopped into the local ice cream shop and enjoyed a truly old fashioned ice cream.

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To close the day, we headed back to camp, made some dinner and sat around the fire before heading to bed. Another great day outdoors.

 

Sunday December 29 weather report said 56 degrees and sunny. Time for a drive. I decided to head west of Monument to FS 320 Mount Herman Road, north on FS 300 Rampart Range to FS 323/324 Ice Cave Road loop, then north on FS 300 again to FS 351 Fern Creek into Rainbow Falls area, then north on Hwy 67 home. Uh ... It did not go as planned.

At the start of Mount Herman road.




As elevation increased, the trail became snow packed. There was one SUV on street tires that was airing down as I passed. Winkle was handling the snow with no problems.




As I exited Mount Herman and headed north I heard a BANG! It took me a moment to realize there were people out target shooting in that part of Rampart Range road. I entered Ice Cave Loop around 1:45 pm. FS 323 trail surface had occasional wet dirt, not too muddy, mostly snow packed and rutted in places. I enjoyed the beautiful view of Pike Peak.




I continued on FS 324


Just over the ridge at around 9000 feet. I noticed the rut depth deepening and scrambled snow betrayed evidence where vehicles had been stuck. "Winkle is doing fine" I told myself. I proceeded to get stuck at the next hairpin curve. I pulled out the shovel and started digging. I laid down some Maxtracks and engaged the rear locker and got out. "That wasn't too bad", I thought and continued on. I proceeded to get stuck again at an uphill incline. My tires broke through the hardpack/icy rutted surface to the soft powder underneath. It was only then that I realized Winkle seemed to be doing fine because he was going downhill. "Idiot! You have to turn around and head back up to the ridge", I finally thought. I dug myself out again, laid the Maxtracks, engaged the rear locker and backed down the incline to a point where I could make an 8 point turn.


I got stuck 6 more times as I slowly made my way back up to the top of the ridge. I exited FS 323 around 4:00 pm. I got a good workout digging out of the snow for 2 hours.

I noticed a text from my wife asking if I was OK. I have an air tag in Winkle that revealed to her that I was not moving very much. I got some cell service on Rampart Range Road and phone her that I was fine and heading home. "Good", she said "Pick up some Little Holly's for dinner on your way."

As I headed back on Mount Herman Road, the sun was setting, and I saw this Ford Escort on street tires out my front window:


I got out of the car and asked if they needed help.
“Hey man, you got a shovel? We are heading to Cripple Creek, Google says this is the way."
"That is just classic", I thought.
I convinced them that the going gets worse as they continue uphill.
I told them they will need to back up to a point where they can turn around, head back downhill into Monument and take I25 south to 24 west.
I dug the front tires out, laid some Maxtracks, and asked if they don't mind pushing while I backup the vehicle. As I entered their car, I moved a coat and the pipe that was underneath it so I could sit down. Once their car was unstuck and turned around, they proceeded down the hill safely into Monument. I wonder if they made it to Cripple Creek?

I was fortunate on this adventure to make it home in time for dinner, after getting myself in too deep.

 

Wonder where they put it into their GPS that Rampart would get them to Cripple Creek?

 

Who knows what they were thinking.
As you probably know, Rampart ends at Garden of the Gods, then jump on 24 to Cripple Creek.

 

Common sense is neither common nor sense