Colorado Trip Reports

It's not finished yet, but @Wishbone Runner started a thread on our Alpine Loop trip HERE

 

Headed up Kingston to do some fishing on Sunday, ran South to North which I had never done before. Trail was in pretty good shape other than the flat spot right before the last approach to the peak where there are several lines, many of which are super washed out and deep ruts, with many new illegal detours going through the tundra. This area was super cool, and if I had someone with me I would have gone thought the deepest ruts, but by myself I stuck to the deep but not 3' deep stuff, still fun.

 

that's loch lomond that it drops you into?

 

The fist picture is of Loch Loomond

 

Ran Eagle Rock on Sunday. Day started out gorgeous. Our group of two ran into another group with a jeep, a toyota pickup, and a truggy. The guy just bought the truggy and they had a few issues with it. Overheating and some fuel issue, then ended up driving face first into a rock and busting off the fittings that went to the hydro assist ram, so they ended up turning around. Had a slight overheating issue with our friends truck, but only because the fan forgot to be turned on lol but it was an easy fix. Good day it was! We only did half the trail since the clouds started to look ominous by lunch time.

Few pics





















Not too often we hit our sliders

 

I made a solo run up Argentine Pass this last Sunday. I had never been up there before and was alone so I didn't even attempt the lower route along the creek. Higher up on the trail I came across another Tacoma with CA plates and a Tundra with WI plates. You can kind of see their front ends in one of the pano shots below. Overall it was a mellow trip with some great scenery. I would have liked to have seen a bit more wildlife though, the largest animals I saw were some chubby marmots.

 

Ran up Mosquito Pass and camped with some friends this past weekend. There are some fun lakes to wheel up to around that area.

my gf loves my truck haha

 

Alpine Loop 7/30-8/3

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ray-silverton-lake-city-7-30-8-3-2015.386239/

 

How busy was the trail? Thinking about running it tomorrow with a stock 2015 Tacoma.

 

if you have small(er) shoes, you gotta have long legs! That's pretty hot.

 

I know of a few places with ferns like that. Anywhere you've got aspen stands, you're likely to find similar. The road up to the Holy Cross trailhead (14er, not 4x4 route) has sections like that, as does Kebler Pass. They are pretty impressive though. I'm more impressed by the mud - ew... I hate mud. For exactly the reason/result you mention.

 

Colorado Toyota jamboree

Tincup pass




Wheeler lake











Iron Chest

 

Here's a couple pics from the Carnage run on Saturday. Overall there was one flop, broken birf, broken CV, and throttle problems. May have been more but that's all I knew about. Pics


















He was diffed front and rear and stuck on the frame/sliders at the same time haha

 

Not as exciting as Carnage Canyon, but it's fun in the winter.
7-Mile re-opened today. The Mountaineers went up to repair a few soft spots to appease the Forest Service. It took all summer to get the go ahead to get it done.
Started my day off like this.

Auto Zone had a cheap set that got me through the day.

The trip in from the top.

The damage from runoff. Was really just a spur road keeping the main road closed. Main road is fine.


Some manual labor. The majority of the club made a wrong turn. So there was just two of us for about an hour.


The the rest of the crew showed up and things moved faster






Packing it all down.


Another section. The log was moved to another hole.

And that's all the pics I took. After shoveling mud and dirt and chasing Archer all afternoon I just wanted to get home.

There was a gate repair that we did, had to winch it back up straight so the forest service could unlock it.
Road is open year around now except in cases of extreme spring runoff. All the flood damage has been repaired.

 

So this group helps to build/repair trails?

 

Not exactly, we are a 4x4 club, all vehicle makes allowed. The recognized clubs throughout Colorado all have adopted trails in there respective areas. The clubs work with the local Forest Service for that area in keeping the trail damage repaired, replacing signage, cleaning up the trash, which is actually kind of fun as you sometimes find cool stuff and even money on the ground.
Here is a link to our website, click on the "about us" and it explains in more detail.
http://www.mountaineers4x4.org/

 

Man, they just now opened it? I was thinking that was opened a while ago. Glad to see it's open year round.

 

It was kind of silly for them to keep it closed this long. Like I said, the main trail is fine.
The area that was repaired is a spur road that goes to another locked gate that opens after there is about a foot or so of snow on the ground. That's called the Winter Challenge, it's steep and is 2-300 yards long. Turns around at the top.

The plan is now to move that gate to the actual entrance of the spur road, so the run off damage will be a non issue and the gate will of course be opened when the snow falls and the ground is frozen. That should allow the main road to stay open year around or at least open earlier in the spring.