Red Elephant Hill>Bill Moore Lake 9.10.11

Head up the hills to meet up with Jason (DOT), Eric (CoTacoTRD) and Matt (mreimann) to run Red Elephant Hill>Mill Creek>Bill Moore Lake. Unfortunately we came across a delay at an obstacle on Red Elephant Hill so we had to scratch the Mill Creek portion, but still had a great time and enjoyed a great early fall weekend with the crew...

airing down



beginning of REH



there were some fun obstacles that weren't real difficult but were fun none the less that unfortunately i did not get any pics of...next time i will make sure to document the early section more..

on the the part that gave Eric some trouble...

these were taken after an hour or two of stacking rocks and inching Eric back onto the trail and up the rocks

Eric ended up 4-5 feet to the left of Jason (silver taco) under the trees closest the camera about to slide off the trail...the ground was completely loose and traction was hard to come by...so we had to back him onto stacked rocks in order to stack rocks infront of the tires for traction...we did this countless times to inch him back onto the trail...we used a strap on his rear bumper anchored to Jason's front bumper to help keep his ass from falling down further..this also helped to kick his ass back on the trail once he was able to get forward momentum..got him back on and running without any damage and lessons learned (BUY A WINCH! haha)



more of the obstacle past the slide off



Matt on the rock that kicked Eric off the trail



the pit that Eric got sucked into



shit was at a good angle too



the remaining portions of the trail were scenic and fun to drive through







on our way over to Bill Moore Lake

 

Obstacles on Bill Moore aren't too difficult, most are fun to play on...

this hill has an optional route up it that has many flexing opportunities while climbing.

Matt going up













Eric's turn
















there were a few more fun spots that i did not document this time...


and the payoff...Bill Moore Lake at 11,300-11,400 feet elevation





good time for dogs too




saw a good amount of snow up on Grey's and Torrey's peaks too

 

More pic's? there is none here yet ?

 

look who's jumpin the gun....

 

lol

 

At the point you got stuck, that was the last obstacle before the trail mellows out, right before the left hand switch back?

If so, that is where one of the TTORA guys got stuck when he was open/open. He got twisted up so bad he was almost 90* to the trail. WE had to stack a lot of rocks there for him as well.

 

This:

and a lot of this:

 

yup that would be the spot!

i missed how he actually got off the trail but i guess his ass slid off that rock that the 4runner is resting on his diff...but he ended up below that rock and off the trail

 

oh so you guys build roads as well

 

hahahaha




good times

 

The trail was/is full of loose dirt and rocks, probably one of the hardest conditions to drive in.

Here is a good pic of the conditions:

 

exactly...loose as fuck and impossible to get traction if you get in the loose stuff...

we ended up backing him up a few inches onto some rocks we put down in order to build a trail more or less in front of his tires to gain traction...

sounds like you guys put your backs to work that day too

 

Here's what I've got

Eric after we hooked him up to Jay's truck












By the end of this, we could rock stack better than the romans

 

nice pics matt...glad you got some pics of the recovery/re-alignment

those scenic pics came out real good..like the effects you put on them

 

looks like a decent lil trail with an amazing payoff

 

all these second gens make me sick! ha ha ha ha i should of gone and rep'd first gens!

 

You should have! You also would have had an easier time getting around some of those tight trees

 

yeah that spot looked tricky! but fun.... oh well.... another time forsure. i cant do all the trails up the i70 corridor in one summer

 

why not? we can always try one more up there in the fall...

looks like i gotta hit bard creek, democrat mountain, barbour forks and devil's canyon to wrap up the I70 runs east of copper mountain per traildamage

 

I think in that loose of dirt my locker actually hindered me rather than helped. I started on the left of that big rock and got it stuck on the frame. As I backed off of it and tried to pivot around it I think the locker kept sliding me to the right. Then I backed off to straighten up but was at a 45 degree angle to the trail. All screwed up.

Tying the rear off to Jay's truck was a really good thing. Once I got a bit of traction in the rear it kicked me right around onto the trail. Who's idea was that anyways?

Thanks again guys! Oh and those are some good pics!