Colorado Trip Reports

Explored some roads today that were all new for me south of here. Kicking myself for forgetting the real camera at home.

IMAG0123 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

Lots of dead ends and confusion with navigating, but one of those roads got me here:

IMAG0125 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

IMAG0126 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

Finally found the road I initially wanted to be on:

IMAG0127 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

IMAG0129 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

Running out of light and nearly at where I was trying to get to, we find a stuck and abandoned dodge blocking the road with a couple other guys blocked on the other side of them. Evidently, these idiots blew a tire, didn't have a spare, and drove several miles on the rim before getting stuck here. They did leave an empty cooler, an empty box of Keystone, and a couple cans tossed about. Evidently the other 28 cans and the tire are still in the woods....

IMAG0131 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

The guys behind them were pissed and rightfully so because they had been there for like 3 hours waiting for a ride, and were planning to leave their truck behind for the night. I was looking into creative ways to reopen the road with the winch, and while doing so the Dodge owners and their dream team rescue crew showed up with probably another case of Keystone down, along with no gear, no idea what to do, and no spare tire. At this point I wanted nothing to do with whatever rescue operation they were thinking they were going to attempt.

After some back and forth, the stuck hunters were convinced to help pull out the dodge that had been blocking them in. The first tug made it evident a tie rod had been broken on the dodge sometime in the initial unstucking efforts. A couple more tugs got it far enough out of the way that vehicles can get by.

So now there's a POS Dodge stuck in a mud pit with no tire on the front passenger wheel at 10,000' with a broken tie rod and it's about to snow up in the high country. As you may have gathered the owner isn't the most intelligent of fellows, so I'm not overly confident he has the ability to get it out and get it fixed and drive it the 20 or so miles to a paved road.

Over/under on that thing being there all winter?

 

Depends. If it's a county-maintained road, they'll yank it soon enough. If it's just national forest, it'll sit and become part of some Trail Damage report, when the idiot owner says, "Fuck it."

 

It's a forest service road that's about 15 fairly rough miles in from the nearest maintained county road.

The blocked hunters called the FS and the sheriff, neither of which wanted to do anything about it.

 

Forgot to post this picture.

IMAG0130 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

Seemed fitting.

 

Had @Doc.SS come out and join us today from CA. Still in the process of building the roster of the new club, so to speak, and had a great turnout. Started at Cumberland Gulch, took the Washoe spur. Snow flakes actually started falling along the way with overcast skies moving in and out. Got to Yankee, left two of the rigs at the base of the big hill climb, then did that loop and re-saddled. Headed over to Miner's Gulch, ran half the loop clockwise from the west, cut back across Miner's Hill, then took Sheridan southwest back to Cumberland proper.

Right now there's a Clear Creek county fireban, as conditions are exceptionally dry due to the lack of seasonal moisture and heavy winds up there. That being said, get into the trees and off the peak, and it's still camping season. Low traffic today, aside from the usual SBS and quad idiocy on that network.

 

for boxer face!

 

It's off the trail? I'd just leave it. Send your pics to the FS and Sheriff and they will at the very least have a plate to track down for the littering.

 

It's on the trail, but far enough out of the way a truck can get by.

 

I find that rather disturbing. "Hello? We kinda need help, we're trapped on a mountain by a stuck vehicle that isn't ours." "Good luck."


"Aight, cool. We're just gonna roll it down the hill and you can deal with it later then."

 

The FS said it's the owners responsibility to extricate their own vehicle... Guessing the FS would rather not have it abandoned up there though. If its not out when the snow flies later this week, I don't think it will make it out. The owners seemed lack the knowledge, wherewithal, and resources required to pull it out and fix it in the next day or two. Certainly one of the stupidest things I've seen in a long while. For the cost of a couple of those 30 racks of Keystone they littered all over the forest, they could have found a spare tire on craigslist.

Wasn't really told much more about what the Sheriff said. It was in Eagle county, but not really accessible from Eagle county. Would be an all day adventure to have the sheriff do anything.

All that being said, I could have pretty easily slid the back end of the truck with the winch and the snatch block, and was about to do so to open access to the road, when the owners showed up.

 

i hope someone as least peed on it or took a shat in the bed

 

Nice, I have wanted to do some exploring up there and have never had a chance. I want to check out the Trough trail as well some time.

 

My understanding is the Trough Trail is way out of our league, but it could easily be checked out.

A lot of cool stuff down there I've never explored. Contrary what is said on Trail Damage, I was able to connect from the south side of State Bridge over to a large network of roads. Some of which is on TD, most of which is not. Was trying to get to the top of Piney Ridge/Cottonwood Peak at over 11,000' when I ran into the dodge. Will need to spend a few days exploring there next year.

 

Do you have at least 37"s, a solid front axle with long arms, and full skids/sliders bumper to bumper? If not, I'd stay the hell away from that trail.

 

It looks like part of it is milder and then there is tougher out and back, again, just based on the TD page.

Edit - I looked at something other than TD before, the TD pics make it look much tougher, doesn't even look like they ran it, just walked it and took pics.

Have you run it?

 

How do you drink enough Keystone to get that drunk/stupid?

 

Ran up to the summit of Jones Pass with @Reh5108. Ryan bashed through the tall drifts and cut the trail for me to follow. The snow made an easy trail pretty challenging and fun.

Only had the phone with for photos.

 

Aren't you the one on dirty fives? Shouldn't you be the one cutting trail? Looks fun!

 

Ryan has skinnier tires and a front locker sooooo...

 

Looks like an awesome time Austin! Can't wait to join you guys