Colorado Trip Reports

Piece of cake in the DCLB!

 

Seriously, the front was done by the time the rear started.

 

Well... crap.

Planing my trip to this area for this year, going in Aug and likely again in mid Sept.

I've been wanting to go up Poughkeepsie for years, just never worked out due to weather/closures or whatever... I may have missed my chance entirely.

I can't believe people are like this sometimes.

Picayune - Open
Placer - Open
Poughkeepsie - Closed Indefinitely due to people repeatedly cutting the gate locks and going off trail, causing a lot of trail damage
Scotch Creek - Open
South Mineral Road - Open
Stony Pass - Open, but use extreme caution when crossing Pole Creek. It can possibly be crossed in morning but changes drastically by afternoon due to snowmelt.
Treasure Mountain Loop - Open
Yankee Boy Basin - Open

That warning about Stony Pass is no joke though, someone died when they couldn't make it back across the creek after a day of snow melt caused it to rise. We were out there the week it happened and never even crossed our mines that Pole Creek would be remotely crossable due to the amount of snow the area got.

 

Last weekend, tried out Pierson Park Rd.

I lived in Boulder when the floods hit in 2013. It was no joke. This road is a showcase to the destruction that the water caused.















The road wasn't particularly difficult. But I didn't come for a challenge. I came to see this:



The excessive rains caused a landslide that washed the road out completely at this point.









After spending some time taking in the utter destruction, I headed back.











Above the road, there is a well-known Catholic church, The Chapel on the Rock. The same slide that took out the trail also went past the chapel.



The church managed to stay intact, while everything around it was devastated.

 

Oh, and I also attempted the Rimrocker: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rimrocker-trail.675101/

 

I knew a couple that had their entire property condemned in Lyons. They lived along the river and it rerouted and left them on an island after the flood.

 

The forest service is preparing to impose limits on a lot of things that people have always been able to do in the National Forest. Off-roading, shooting, dispersed camping... There's just too many people coming here, and 90% of them are irresponsible, littering jackasses. I live up in St Mary's Glacier and we are literally being overrun everyday with people from all over the country, and almost all of them are lighting illegal campfires, leaving their garbage behind, and otherwise engaging in destructive and careless behaviors.

 

that’s really sad. I guess I’d rather see things get shut-down rather than destroyed.

I’ve seen that Poughkeepsie might actually open up this year though. 7/18 possibly.

back when we started vacationing in the San Juan’s it was a lot different(early 90s) a lot quieter. The alpine loop was also a lot tougher.

UTV’s seem to be a big culprit.


I guy in a UTV tried to outrun the sheriff in lake city this past week, going over 40mph on Engineer Pass... he got caught. Crazy stuff.

 

Its beyond time to hold people accountable

 

Tried out Moon and Gamble Gulches today. I got lost. I didn't cry. OK, maybe I did.







This part of the trail was tight, and surprisingly tippy for long stretches.











Not a lot of views on this trail, but the ones that do pop up are pretty spectacular.











Of course, it wouldn't be exploring without finding some of the local flora and fauna.



Now to start the bottom part of the loop.







Peaks that rise into the sky here.



The flat expanse of plains here.



I continued on. My goal was to take a side road to an old mining shaft house.



But I was thrown off by the shear number of side roads that all looked the same. I was also completely unaware of my mileage, so I was confusing intersections with ones that were farther along the trail.



What this meant, simply, was that I got lost. I didn't realize it, but I went down FR 717.1. At the bottom, I hit yet another intersection...the most confusing one yet.



I took a few minutes to get my bearings. As far as I could tell on the GPS, I needed to go left. That road linked directly to a dirt road that would get me back home.



There were a lot of open/unlocked/downed gates. I was starting to get a bad vibe.



And those vibes proved to be right. I had somehow stumbled onto private property.



So I just stood there, looking pitiful as cars drove by on a busy dirt road. I was stuck. I was also expecting to get shot, so I turned around and hightailed it out of there.



It turned out that I was much farther along on the trail then I thought I was originally, which is why I took the road that I did. Luckily, I found where I was supposed to go easily and I was able to finish the loop. Unfortunately, I completely missed the shaft house.

 

This what you were looking for?

Easiest way to get there is making the left off gamble / Missouri gulch near the Perigo and Tip Top mines.

I love that area.

 

Radical and Sts. Johns are open, Johns is getting ruined by idiots bypassing the drift at the top near the intersection with Swan, several hundred yard long section of ripped up tundra. I think they need to not open the gates until the trails are clear of snow.

 

Had an 85 S10 Blazer that would do that. On that one you Just had to reattach the hose. Annoying though.

Looks like a good day!

 

Why is only Chevys that do that?

 

All vacuum systems suck.

 

Hit 225, 70, 270, and I25 today. Some new rocks were stacked on 270 and there were random obstacles on 25.

Lots of traffic including fly bys from Jeeps, Landcruisers, and a 5th gen 4 runner who passed me on the right shoulder

 

I don’t miss driving 270 twice a day at all.

 

285 was by far the most dangerous road that I encountered today.

 

Nope.