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Author Topic: Colorado 6/29-7/6 stories, pictures and we aren’t talking about the last topic  (Read 9860 times)

Online tcdawg

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Home as well. 

Will update with a few more pics and my travel miles, etc later.
Unpacking and very tired

Offline jc79

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Here’s the quick Trip Report…. I'll post the full report next for those that want to read it.

This was an incredible week of wheeling!  We saw a LOT of Colorado, wheeled at five different spots, and didn’t have any real breakage to report.

Great crew, trails, scenery, spotting, stories, ball-busting, crawling, drinking, eating… you get the idea. 

We drove a lot in order to hit the various trails, but I suspect that everyone will forget those miles in about two weeks.  But ask any of them about the trails and the rocks they crawled in two years and they’ll still remember them.
Jared

2004 TJ Unlimited (LJ)

Offline cru9

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Absolutely Killer trip! I had a rough start the Friday we left but got everything squared away Saturday morning.

Extremely pleased with the way my Jeep preformed.

Drive home was uneventful and the trailer and truck have been washed and debugged. 


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« Last Edit: July 08, 2018, 04:58:52 PM by cru9 »
Bobby

Offline Scott F.

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Sounds like an epic trip! Can’t wait for all the details and pictures.

Online tcdawg

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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.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2018, 11:10:03 AM by tcdawg »

Offline jd30005

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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.

spot for pictures when I find them

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

more pics here when I find them

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

Holy Cross pics here at some point

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. 

More cool pics of Independence

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.
Awesome summary. Epic trip. Glad you guys enjoyed it.
John
Tube chassis/buggy

Offline patman

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Nice write up Tony. Super jealous of the trip.

Any idea of the distance traveled by jeep?

Offline Anvilsam

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Nice write up Tony. Super jealous of the trip.

Any idea of the distance traveled by jeep?
I would say 30-50 miles


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Offline jc79

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I know… TL;DR… but here’s my full Trip Report.  I’d love it if others added details I’ve forgotten.

Sunday
Arrived in Grand Junction area later than we’d all hoped.  Wes had found the perfect campground for us.  Sites that were fully shaded, 30 yards to the Colorado River, trailer parking and brand new bath/shower house.

We setup camp (Brent’s tent was a level 10) and started mounting my Pitbull’s onto the beadlocks.  Finished mounting them on the Jeep at 1:00 AM.  They held air all night long and ultimately all week.

Monday
Between Tony’s trailer flat needing to be addressed and any number of Day 1 checks/fixes (mostly mine) we didn’t get onto 21 Road until 11AM.  We made a pretty direct route to the “cave” and had lunch.  Another direct route out to the area where the obstacles really start. 

We made really good time up and through the first few spots, and came to Carnage Corner (not to be confused with the trail Carnage Canyon).  It was 3:00 and the next part of the trail was going to be risky.  We decided to turn back.  Got to the trailers around 5:00.

Clark had a trailer tire blow on I-70 on the way back.  We limped to the next exit and did a quick change and headed to eat Mexican for dinner.  Back at the campsite we had a couple of drinks and went to bed. 

Tuesday
Headed South to Montrose.  Left camp at 7:00 AM, wheeling at 9:00 AM.  Once unloaded, it took about 15 minutes to get to the trailhead for 4 of the trails, and another 10 minutes to figure out which trail lead to the start.  We started with Topless.  It was a fun trail with rocks to crawl the whole way. 

Next was Calamity Canyon.  It has two optional loops, the first one being right at the start.  This one has a really nice V-notch style climb.  It took Justin no time to figure out the line, and we all made it up with good spotting.  The second optional loop was a great rocky climb that led to some serious ledges to get out.  We ended up turning around on that one and continuing on the main trail.  Right before the end is a nice boulder obstacle, leading to more ledge climbs to get out.  It was getting late and storm clouds were in the distance and heading our way.  We all gave a couple of tries and then winched out.  We were on the trailers at 5:00.

Back at camp we started to get packed up and organized, had some drinks around the fire and went to bed tired.

Wednesday
Broke down camp and pulled out at 7:25.  We’d decided the night before to change plans and run Holy Cross, since our new travel route meant that we’d be passing it on the way to Buena Vista.  Bobby, Sam and Tony were taking the day off since it was Sam’s wife’s birthday.

We were unloaded and at the trailhead at 12:30.  Holy Cross is a pretty easy trail with incredible mountain scenery up to 11,600 ft elevation.  We got to Cleveland Rock at 2:40, then spent some time enjoying the view and getting some pictures at the top.  We were back at the trailers at 5:15.

Stopped for dinner in Leadville, and by 8:30 we were at the rental house in BV.  We enjoyed drinks by the fire and, once again, went to bed tired.

Thursday
Tony, Bobby and Sam left at 7:30 for Holy Cross.  Justin and Wes drove down from Minturn to meet Clark and me at 10:00 to run Carnage Canyon.  We were on the trail by 10:40. 

The trail is just awesome.  It starts quick with some large boulders as a gate keeper, and doesn’t really stop from there. 

We hit the waterfall at 11:30.  Justin came the closest to getting up without the winch, but ultimately we all pulled cable.  Same on the V-notch.  It was 1:00 before we got all three rigs up and stopped for lunch.

The section after the V-notch is a blast.  It has some great rocks to crawl and flex on, including one that you have to go high on in order to squeeze through. 

By 3:00 we were at the exit.  We walked it, found the winch anchors and put together a plan.  I was first, and we slowly found the line as I made it up.  We used the winch to try and spin me around in the middle, which requires a 180 degree turn around.  It didn’t really work as planned but didn’t cause any issues either.  We also used it on the very last last ledge simple because the risk was pretty high (multiple rolls sideways) if something happened.  With the lines figured out we got the other 2 rigs in 15-20 minutes each.

We decided to run Chinamen’s Gulch after.  Looking back it wasn’t worth the two hours….  The good news is that we beat the rain storm by about 10 minutes.

Back to the house at 6:30 for burgers, campfire, more drinks.. and yes, going to bed tired.

Friday
Packed up from the rental and on the road at 7:30.  Made it to the Penrose trails at 10:30, after a seriously contentious stop at McDonalds (Blue Wes). 

The start of the trail system is a couple of nice ledge drops in the range of 3-4 feet.  We all agreed that they weren’t as bad as they looked.  All six of us dropped in.  At the same time, two guys showed up behind us that had run the trails a while back.   

A few minutes down the trail, the sh!t gets real.  There is a sign that tells you this is the point of no return, and a bypass-style trail back to the main road. 

To drop in, there is a 6+ foot ledge leading to more fun.  We watched the two guys drop in and continue down the next rocky section.  Both of them completely flexed their rigs out and in both cases lifted driver rear tire at the bottom.  Justin, Clark and me were the only ones that decided to keep going at that point…

I dropped in and I will say that I’ve never pushed my brake pedal that hard on a drop.  Not even on White Knuckle Hill in Moab.  The two local guys spotted us down, and the LJ handled it really well.  Justin and Clark also got down without any issues but used every bit of suspension travel they had.

We turned onto Patriot trail.  We watched the first guy go through the first 3-4 back to back obstacles, one of which is a tight right turn with a 5 foot deep hole.  He didn’t have the best line and ended up on 2 wheels with his driver door up against the rock wall and his front bumper basically in the ground…

I followed the second guy in, and within 50 yards he’d blown a hydro line.  We talked amongst ourselves and decided to take it as a sign.  The rest of the crew was waiting at the top, ready to start the drive home.  And we agreed it was best to take Liberty trail out.  It was a long trail with only a couple of real obstacles of any size. 

We climbed the final ledges at 2:30. 
Jared

2004 TJ Unlimited (LJ)

Offline tjsahara00

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Awesome report
Kevin Pool
2016 JKU Sport
2000 TJ Sahara (RIP)

Offline kvom

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Great reports to read in the morning.

I'll add that I've upgraded my trailer tires to the Goodyears as well; very tires of blowing the Carlisles.
00 TJ  stuff
02 F250 CC LB 7.3 tow pig
18 Honda CRV
12 Chrysler 200 - Wife's car

Offline cru9

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The drive to work sucked this morning. I wasn’t ready to get back in the truck.


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Bobby

 



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