Yankee Hill A.K.A. 'The Failed Pickle Gulch Trip'

TACO ROCKO · May 22, 2016

Yesterday a friend and I headed up to Pickle Gulch with the intention of camping up near the Stewart Gulch road and then running the network today. It became clear that our initial path wouldn't be feasible as two different convoys told us about heavy snow drifts at the top of the hill. Sure enough, heavy drifts made the advent of continuing up the main route unpleasant. We made camp in the large valley and decided we'd go back out to Missouri Gulch Road in the morning and run the alternative loop from the north end in. We left camp this morning at around 10:30.

Just past Uncle Charlie's Ranch, we came upon even deeper snow drifts that peaked in a series of little rolling "hills" in the road. It was clear that the snow was daring us to try and run the network without regular winching and trail-busting. We conceded defeat as my partner runs open diffs, and my rubber tops out at 33". We headed down into Blackhawk to grab coffee at the local joint, and talk shop about how to make the most of the day. I noted that Yankee Hill was just 15 minutes through Central City, and we could run the Miner's Gulch spur along the way, then turn around to at least get some quality trail time for the weekend.

The parking area near the cemeteries was absolute packed with trailers and tow rigs. The ATVs and side-by-sides were out in droves. We headed in and rode the very mild trail up, encountering a lot of mud and water to splash around in while blazing through whoop-de-doos. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the views on the way up.

We made sure to hit every single little playground and obstacle we could find to make up for our shortened trip.

As a guy who's owned 4 Jeeps, it was fun taking the lead in a little Taco and romping through stuff that the JK guys were afraid of. A little gumption, a factory E locker, and prioritizing function over form really takes you places. Soon enough, we reached the Miner's Gulch spur. And it couldn't have been at a better time. A 6-deep convoy had just headed up the main Yankee route ahead of us, and we didn't want to tailgate the day away. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I decided to stick the Yota in the mud pit a couple of times before heading onto the Miner's run.

We were enjoying our quiet run, and bearing our teeth with joy at finally getting the better of the snow. We smashed through tire-high drifts and blazed past the Miner's Hill shortcut back to Yankee halfway through the gulch. However, we soon came up to a downed tree that was blocking over half the trail.

Despite our best efforts, it was not budging. Winching was out since there was no angle to pull it back from between the trees it was wedged between. I had no chainsaw on me, and damn sure wasn't hacking a full pine tree laterally with an axe. Our last ditch effort was to deadlift the tree upwards and try to slide it back. This, needless to say, did not work.

We headed back to Miner's Hill to cut on over and get back to Yankee.

We started reaching the top of the hill and noticed a white glimmer on the trail ahead.

Lo and behold, as we got to about 1000 meters from the trail connection, the entire "summit" of the hill was covered in snow. The trail couldn't be distinguished and the hazards beneath the snow were anyone's guess. We debated and finally settled on playing things smartly. My partner and his lady needed to get back to town, so we decided to call it. We headed back out to Yankee and agreed that we would return on another trip to tackle Yankee, the Miner's Gulch loop, Cumberland, Sheridan, and Kingston all together.

As a final send-off for the weekend, I made a quick point to beat up the rocks near the gravesite.

We had failed to reach any of our destinations. But we had succeeded with the journey for the weekend.