A short recap of the trip from my seat:
Friday, 6/29: Left Woodstock and met Bobby and we eventually met up with Sam, Clark and Justin. Original plan was to knock out 250 or 300 miles...Clarkesville, Tn or Paducah, Ky. Went for Paducah and when we arrived there were no hotel rooms. Stayed on the road and found rooms in Mt. Vernon, Il. 462 mile day. Bobby blew a trailer tire in Tennessee, swapped out no issues. Tony had a fueling issue, hitting Mounteagle to hard, pulled over to restart the computer, all good. Overall smooth day on the road. It would have been better if we had a reservation somewhere as we didn't get to a hotel that would take us until late. Lesson, call well ahead for a room.
Saturday: Mt. Vernon, Il to Hays, Ks. 590 miles.
Bobby was able to find a Goodyear tire shop that had 4 Goodyear radial trailer tires in stock...boom, no more tire issues. 10 ply radial
Sunday: Hays, Ks to Palisade, Co our rental house location just outside of Grand Junction. Did the Eisenhower Pass Tunnel. 11,150' in elevation. 569 miles
rough google map mileage total 1621 to get out to Colorado on the northern route.
Monday: Woke up to find one of my trailer tires flat, nail in it. This had to have happened in the big gravel driveway of the Hippie House we rented, the nail did not look like it did any miles on the road. Called Discount Tire in Grand Junction, they have the same Goodyear tire that Bobby got earlier. Had DT fix my one tire and put it back on the trailer as another spare, put a new Goodyear on the trailer.
Caught up to the boys at the trailhead to 21 Road. This was a real fun trail with a number of sweet obstacles and a super cool cave. Hot and dusty, but a killer day.
Tuesday: Traired to Montrose, 65 miles one way.
Hit Topless trail in the morning. Really fun trail. Big rocks and dusty but not has hot as Monday. These rocks were like Moab, crazy sticky.
After lunch we hit Calamity Canyon. This trail was the real deal. Big rocks, ledges, dropoffs, everything. It had a few "optional" sections that were very tough but really, really fun. We did 2 of the 3
The exit out of this trail was a 5 foot ledge. We all crawled up on it but were quick to winch out, it was real gnarly. Looking back....This was my favorite trail of the week
Wednesday: Sam, Bobby and Tony traveled to Buena Vista and hung with the ladies, went into town, had some local beer. 212 miles
On the way to BV we crossed Monarch Pass, 11,213' in elevation, one hell of a pull and incredibly scenic.
Clark, Justin and Jared went and did Holy Cross
Thursday: Clark, Justin and Jared wheeled Carnage Canyon and Chinamen Gulch. I will let those guys comment on Carnage but they came back feeling pretty damn victorious.
Sam, Bobby and Tony did Holy Cross. Trailered there, 54 miles on way. Made it to 11,610' in elevation I believe. Really a beautiful Alpine Forest type trail with about 4 or 5 fun obstacles. Jared sent me the pin for the parking lot and the pin for trailhead....I only saw the trailhead pin(my fault). We trailered all the way to the trailhead on a dirt road that would seriously knock your fillings out, it was awful so note to those every planning on going to Holy Cross, find the parking lot.
Had a fun dinner together with the whole crew on Thursday night at our BV house, was a fun time. Wes spent an hour photographing a rainbow. For real
Friday:Trailered to Penrose, 97 miles
Our plan was to run the Independence Trail. As we were unloading, I forgot to let down one of my jack stands on the trailer, ran over the square metal tube with my passenger rear tire and gashed the heck out of it...wow, so stupid. Swapped on the spare.
Independence Trail ended up being a 9.5 out of 10 on the Wheeling Scale. We start off with a big 3.5 to 4' double ledge which was a pretty stout drop off. Then we get to an even bigger 5.5 to 6' straight down drop off and that led to a seriously off camber section. Jared led Justin and Clark...they did an amazing job...tight shoulder straps and helmets on! The 4 door guys, of course, crapped out. The bypass was fun though.
JC, Clark or Justin can update us on the rest of the trail. I think they went through part of the rest of the trial with two other rigs we met and there were issues and they came out before the exit.
Friday afternoon: Traveled to Hays, Ks. 356 miles
Saturday Hays, Ks to Clarksville, Tn. 780 miles. This was a long day on the road.
The section between Kansas City and St. Louis really sucks. The roads are bumpy, its congested, lots of exit ramps, road work, etc. The crappies part of the ride out there and back.
Sunday Clarsville, Tn to home. For me it was about 260 miles and home by 11:30am. We had no issues with trucks or trailers on the entire ride home.
rough google map mileage total 1499 to get from Buena Vista to home, with a stop in Penrose to Wheel
Total miles on truck and trailer to get out and back, plus the trips to the trails...about 3600 miles. DuraBurb got about 11ish MPG, so that is 328 gallons of diesel, it felt like we were at the fuel pump every freaking day.
This was one heck of a trip. Smooth road trip and out and back with some really incredible wheeling. The terrain in Colorado is amazingly varied and the stunning views come at you from every angle.
Edit: Just reviewed my credit card statement on-line...$908.52 for fuel on the trip. The jeep was full before we left and I did put gas in it once, otherwise, that is all diesel.