Colorado Trip Reports

Lol totally looks like he chased me off the snow!

 

More photos from Jones Pass. It probably took a good 20 hits into that drift to make it through. It was a sheet of ice on the bottom and the crust on top made it hard to keep momentum.

Not in any order.

Kinda sketch going up this locked front and rear, just wait for the ass end to kick and go tumbling down the mountain.

 

Not sure how I missed this one...

 

Lmao!

 

Rolled up to Pickle Gulch for a day run yesterday. The snow was still 4" or deeper in the grass, and there were sections in the trees where the sun had yet to melt anything off. However, the main route up to the spur for the Snowden Mine was mostly clear. I almost didn't air down...but it's a good thing I did. More on that later.






Everyone breezed through both rocky hill climbs leading up to the mine. We stopped for pictures, a break, some football tossing, and a beer at the peak just south of the mine.





We played around in the punchbowl, then ran down to the mine hills. I got stuck in a nasty drift and bent the mounts on my front bumper trying to get winched up. Needless to say, that bumper's days as part of my "armor" are numbered. Decided I was going to have to get yanked backwards (going further into the drift and risking rolling over).

While getting pulled, my front driver's tire got pulled into a tree stump we couldn't yank out and I didn't bring an axe. A nice, thumb size protrusion dug itself into my sidewall, and had I not aired down, would've killed it. My biggest fear came true; my driver's front quarter panel was going to kiss a tree behind me. By some stroke of stupid luck, I was able to get enough bite to turn away at the last second, and didn't end up eating my fender like I thought I would.



Got out, didn't end up doing any 'real' damage to body or drivetrain, and we were sitting at 2:00 PM since I'd wasted a good half hour or more dealing with the recovery. Headed out and grabbed some pizza at Woody's in Golden before the sun set.

Trail conditions: mostly doable, other than some of the more technical playgrounds. Avoid taking the left track around the first hill climb, as ice at the top of the break could put you on your roof. The Snowden mine playground should be done at your own risk.

 

Accidentally went wheeling today. The intent was to drive to Cameron Pass, turn around and come back.
I managed to do that but also noticed that Long Draw Road had just the perfect amount of snow on it.


I took the road to the right.

Where i came from.

Where I was going.


Top of the hill, there is crappy video of this. Mostly of the sideview mirror, but I tried.

The very end of Long Draw Reservior road, after i turned around.
Video of this event too coming up. I was the only person back there, broke the trail after the Peterson Lake turnoff. The seclusion was awesome.

Faithful companion.

On the way back out.



I will edit this post when the video loads.

I gotta remember to fold the mirror in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soQu4cbRr6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRH_oaDKzTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FasLAODRCV0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pplHRYE9GRs

 

Looks like a great time!

 

Nice. I want snow for snow runs!!

 

Nice! I'd have thought all the gates would have been closed up there by now. Status page has everything open and hasn't been updated since 10/21. But it sounds like you only get the snow if you go all the way up there.

 

Well I moved to CO in august and besides some light driving to biking/hiking trailheads and to the range I haven't done much off road exploring.

I moved up here with a Gulf States Toyota two wheel drive Tacoma with summer tires that would spin in wet grass. It more or less worked fine in the south, but those tires wouldn't cut it here. I purchased some used 17 inch wheels and did some research to find a good winter tire. I decided on the Nitto EXO Grappler.

Not doing much off-roading before I moved here and not knowing much about snow I decided on trying out an easy trail. My wife and I headed out to go to Switzerland Trail. It had a bit more snow than I expected, I was pretty cautious when I first started but the truck/tires handled it great.

We started at sugarloaf Mountain trailhead and did the full length of the trail until it ended into a hiking/biking trail. The trail was more narrow north of Gold Hill Road and the snow was less packed down. We turned around at the end and headed back to Gold Hill Road(52???). There was a fork that went left up a steep hill that could have gotten us out, but I wasn't going to push my luck so we just backtracked. Once we got back to Gold Hill Road we talked with a man in an older tundra and followed his advice on the best way home. The way home driving through Gold Hill which was pretty cool...

Overall I'm pretty impressed with the tires. I never had any traction issues and didn't slide around. The larger tire & sidewall made the off-road ride nicer. I didn't air down but I never really felt like it was needed. I'm sure this is a walk in the park for most of you guys but coming from Florida/New Oreans this was quite a change. My wife and I had fun and the views very great.

Now to pictures:

 

The trip today in the search for snow was a success. We began on Mosquito Creek Road which was snowy from the start. There were a few snowy areas as we climbed the trail and then it got increasingly deep. I was able to lead through most of it with my "useless in snow Duratracs" according to @kashtyaatsi. Then we got to the section where the drifts were over a foot on the left side of the trail and my small tires/lift made me a snow plow. Jack took over and after repeated bashing and slow progress, he was able to break through.

The pics look ok... but I realized at the end of the trip that my camera was in manual focus... enough to not notice when its sunny and windy as heck out there, but pretty obvious with the end product.









As you can see from the wave of snow... it was very windy out there.



We went up top to the group photo in a hurricane and I'm sure 0'ish degrees wind chill and attempted to then head towards Rollins East along the beginning part of Kingston Peak. As soon as we turned the tight switchback, I made it about halfway through a deep drift since gravity was helping. I got stuck, high centered with no sign of the dirt under the tires. Ended up winching forward to a not as deep area and was able to clear the next whole section with one more try.


Those tracks in front of that big lifted SAS'ed rig on 35's and chains... carved by an IFS taco on Duratrac 31.5's in a single pass. (The 10' of winching was a few carlengths behind him.)


Jack came through completely chained up and threw snow, too much grip for his front u-joint and became 2wd.



There was another drift ahead which everyone said I could have two tries at to get past, knocked it out without a sweat on the first try, then got stuck in a further drift. It was decided to turn back due to continuing drifts so I did a 19 point turn, winch, and chains to get back through it and roll out. The pull pal was utterly useless, it was just like a shark coming at you under the snow. Im guessing it was a bit too powdery under the crusty surface.

Successful day and glad that we found snow!

 

Damn this looks awesome. I'm bummed I missed out on this.

 

Yeah, I was a bit worried that we would only see trace amounts of snow on Mosquito, but we lucked out and had fun on it. I think it could still be run downhill if the next storm doesn't drop too much snow. Unfortunately the other access points are all snowed in and dont look like they'll be open until spring other than the county road (4 i think).

 

Adding a few pics I got from yesterdays snow run. Fun times my first time wheeling in the snow.

Suspicious looking TW driver













Tug tug







Molly smells another dog

 

That first pic

 

hahaha - who's working the pedals...

Any chance there are any passable roads after this most recent storm? I know they are predicting 6-8" on the front range tomorrow, so my chances of playing in the snow look pretty grim I think.

 

There's always trails or roads!

 

Ran 7-mile today with the Mountaineers.
15 showed up. I was the only Tacoma.

The whole crew gathered in front of my pile.

Corvette Dave in his Corvette powered Land Cruiser. Dave is in his 70's btw.

Surprisingly, this guy had problems getting around. I think he was a total noob. Nice ride though.

Me after blazing the trail for the Jeeps. They still got stuck.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FViqQVPvj50

 

I'm seriously lusting after those Cruisers.

Damn.

 

That one is a 4 link sitting on coils. Stretched wheel base too.