Colorado Trip Reports

Im ready for bed so ... Once upon a time, @ashrr213 @VLocos24 @TacRo517 and myself went to do Yankee Hill after the recent snow. It was a good time, some parts got slippery, only one bumper cars situation, 20mph backwards down a hill with zero control... not really fun until you stop safely at the end. We plowed the way for poser Jeeps to be able to make it on the trail. Saw moose after airing up, stalked said moose for a while, white balance is off on some pictures, the end.

 

MOAR











What you looking at!

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to bring a granola bar...

I'm thinking Maxtrax dont like snow. Someone else I know broke theirs in the same way two weekends ago in the snow.

 

Looks like you guys had a good time.

 

You should sell that pic of the 16 to Toyota for advertisement.

 

Thanks. I didn't even think about how it should be more snow at a higher altitude than down here. Duh. But yeah, I've been over actually being sick for two weeks, but I still just feel tired all the time and get worn out easily. The potential for stucks and snow is probably more than I'd want to deal with.

 

Had to throw a little something together real quick. Yankee and ironclads.

https://youtu.be/0dlxG5jqAZA

 

That white '16 needs armor! So naked!

Watching it over the rocks, I was like...




Good stuff, though. Looks like a fun day.

 

Ran Pickle Gulch and Yankee Hill with @aero3685 @VLocos24 @BerettaMato @sbchero and @TacRo517 today. I didn't take many pictures and most were of the scenery. We broke trail to the top of Yankee though! I'm not familiar with the rest of the trail but I'd guess that it's close to being passable On our way down we came across a stuck Cherokee all by himself. Winched him out and he drove off without even a thank you.






I'm sure more pictures will pop up shortly from the others.

 

Bout damn time... haha

 

It's only right we end the day with the Rockies

 

very fun day of some great wheeling. some minor carnage, some stucks, and good times with great people. i think wheeler misses gunnar @VLocos24. hes passed the F out now though. ill get some pix up tomorrow. have to process them from RAW.

 

gunner kept crying but he slept the entire way home haha. we had a vehicle inspection going into base and had to open the doors so he bolted out and had to chase him around haha

 

Looks like you guys had a blast. I am looking forward to conquering Yankee hill some day without getting rescued, winched, or smashing up a fender. I'm 0 for 3 in 16.

Awesome video...can't believe you threw it together that quick!

Both the 3rd gens are in need of skids! @ashrr213 is nekid too!

 

Thankfully no real damage today, a few recoveries. Had potential for some tree damage, some undercarriage scraping as well as bursting a tire off the rim, but we lucked out and none of it amounted to any issues... so far.

 

Had a good outing today. After meeting up, getting radios working, we headed to Pickle Gulch. We were off to a great start since we were all expecting the same overcast crappy weather that was forecast for the day; instead it was blue skies and sunshine! Nobody had been to Pickle Gulch, so we didnt know what to expect... turned out to be a pretty fun trail. Nothing too difficult although we did air down which made it more comfy. As we got out, while it was warmish and sunny, it started to snow a little.



Not far in, there was a mud hole. It didn't look too bad so I slowly drove into it. I quickly started to sink and figured I was already in, lets try and get through. No dice. But I did score some slotted rotors courtesy of rocks and crap getting stuck in my brakes.



We continued up the hill and got to a climb that wasn't too bad until the last section which had snow.... covering a slab of ice. There was a bypass and @TacRo517 made quick work of pulling me up through the snow; and almost up the rest of the trail.

Oh so sexy!


A heep advised us that there was snow blocking the trail not too much farther up. Surprisingly he was correct, so we headed back down. After getting down we decided to head over to Yankee Hill area since it was going to be more passable, whereas East Rollins Pass was probably snow covered (good thinking since I saw some pictures just now... and we would've been stuck quickly).

A little playing on the dirt hills near the parking lot and let the 4 legged friends get some exercise





There were lots of puddles, some snow along the side of the road at points, but not much snow that we had to drive through at the bottom of the trail. Goofing off...

 

Where was I?



Oh yes, four legged friends. They had a fun time goofing off as well.

Rocketman...








We made it to a little "parking lot" area a little ways down from the top of Yankee/ @Littles Hill. There were a TON of vehicles there, I'd guess 12-15. After squeezing our way up past them, we continued to the top. There were a few off camber into tree moments all the way up the last section. Passenger sides received their pin striping (decent sized might I add) on the way up, Drivers side got matching pin striping on the way down.

After a few runs at snow field, we made it to the top... @Reh5108 being the first one to the top. Only a set or two of ATV tracks had been up to the top before us. It had been sunny all day but as soon as we got to the top, we got to watch the clouds grow dark and storms come over the mountains in the distance. We ALL hung out, built an igloo, had a snowball fight, made snow angels, caught and released a snow leopard.




Ohhh.. nevermind. We all did the above other than the wide track Taco @sbchero , it was still trying to get up the hill. Since it had to plow its own way. But it still looks awesome, even when stuck.



He made it just in time for a picture.

Sorry about the HUGE 3rd gen grill on that white one, we tried to get him to face the other way so he wouldn't ruin the picture, but he didnt listen.

We descended the hill and quickly found a set of "lower than normal IQ" kids that were in a very precarious situation. Sidways, stuck in snow, stock grand cherokee with street a/t tires up there to "see how far we could go in this truck i just bought." No recovery equipment unless you count the pebbles they put around the passenger front tire. Unless that was just a roadside shrine/offering to the god of "im stupid please help me get unstuck". We pulled them out and got them on their way, without as much as a thank you or them helping or anything. Back in the day, they would have earned Darwin awards and the global IQ would improve, we're sorry we interfered!

One would think that they would continue down the hill and get the eff back to pavement... no, we saw them tooling around, going on other snowy spurs quite a few times.

We celebrated victory the only way we knew how...



Overall from airing down to airing up, we did 26.4 miles, 4140 feet of cumulative climbing and spent eight and a half hours having fun on the trail!

And contrary to the weather forecast, it was sunny all day, and everyone got sunburned.

 

Nice trip guys! I'm looking forward to getting out soon. One more break in of the gears and then a shake down run before Moab..... I'm cutting it close!

 

I used to say that too... until I poked a big hole in my rockers (previous truck). That's why my first mod on Buster was sliders.

 

ask what that tree trunk had to say about it, when it was making out with your bed side.