Great Job so far where are the trail riding pics??

Red

 

Looks like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.

 

So. These old dudes I was talking about.... they say that since Black Bear, Poughkeepsie, and Imogene are still all closed due to snow, we should try to catch one of the recently cleared trails to run. A little note about the trails in Colorado. Most, not all, are usually a maintained road. They can get rough but most high clearance vehicles can make them. BUUTTT..... If you add a lot of snow and precipitation to them, they can get real out of hand. Supposedly that is what catches the unwary and unprepared each year and you read about them in the headlines. This year, the locals were saying it has been an uncharacteristic winter. Usually all the passes are open by now. Not this year. And the day before we went wheeling here, there was a lot of tornadic weather in Denver. All that moved down to where we were the next day. It made for some interesting wheeling I've never been part of before.

First day of Ouray wheeling. Starting up Corkscrew gulch. Very beautiful scenery with the Aspen trees and mountains, "ok" trail with some muddy climbs. I didn't worry since I had brand new BFG KM2s. Snow starting to fall a little. (New tires give you a FALSE sense of security no matter what kind they are.)



You can't tell by the pics but, almost all of this is going up. Some steeper than Madonna's tits.







The snow was starting to stick which meant the temps were dropping. Just a reminder of how high we were traveling.



We came to an opening where there were a couple of public outhouses. Of course the girls needed to go, so we all got out and threw snow balls.











The two old dudes said it was time to get. Little did I know they were making the best decision for us all. Had we waited, we might have been in trouble further up the trail.



The trail continued to get worse as the muddy switchbacks turned into slush and then to ice.



This is a pic I took out my window when I first engaged the lockers because I wasn't making forward progress any more. But lockers are sort of a two edged blade while in the icy conditions with off camber parts next to cliffs. Since both tires on the axle spin, they also slide sideways..... BAD! Most places don't have but a couple feet of space to go before you fall over the edge. And it's ALWAYS a long way down!



Cresting over the top.



On the other side there is a small flat area. There are no trees up here.... we are way above the timber line.



The back side of Corkscrew is a little less "nervous".



But it still has plenty of "altitude".



Back down below the timber line, the wife finally got her finger nails out of my hide and started taking a few pics of the landscape. It's breathtaking to say the least.







There is so much beautiful land in Colorado that the camera was smoking. I will post a link at the end of my report with all the pics we took on this trip. Some you might enjoy, others are just family oriented and probably of no interest to non family members. I hope everyone enjoys. I still have 10 days of pics to go through. Gotta work in the morning and will post more ASAP. Night.

Terry

 

Looks great and we are taking a similar trip end of july through canon city,pikes peak then to Ouray and hopefully Moad and Durango. All tips or help are appreciatted especially since we will have a 2 1/2 month old baby so cant do anything to crazy.

 

By the end of July, most of the snow should be gone. Take your pick of trails and have fun. Unless it's storming you shouldn't have anything to worry about. If you are staying in Ouray, this is THE place to be. http://www.hotspringsinn.com/ My wife is usually a picky person to please, and she had no complaints what-so-ever on this place. It's so close to perfect.... it might be.
Your little one might be easier to deal with than mine were. At least the infant can't open the Jeep door on her own and fall out on the rocks hitting her head. (That's a story to come.)

We used our Camelback hydration packs extensively. All of us had one for the trip. From everything I read about being in the altitudes, keeping hydrated was one of the most important thing listed by all the "has beens". None of us got altitude sickness even though we live on the Gulf coast. (we are 12 feet above sea level) You might want to aquire a small O2 bottle for the baby along with a pedi non-rebreather mask. If you get up in the mountains and that baby gets nauseated.... it's gonna be a long ride down to the bottom.

If I think of anything else I'll post it up. I'm sure there are other's on here that have more extensive experience than I though so hopefully they too will post up with some tips for you.

Terry

 

Once again, great pics and nice narration.

This one would be a nice addition to the "Highlight your Rubicion thread".

 

To conclude yesterdays post, we dropped off Corkscrew Gulch into Silverton. Nice ride on dirt road into town.



The gratuitous shot of the Durango/Silverton Narrow Guage railroad.



As soon as we got back to the hotel.



The next day, the wife and kids decided to hang around Ouray and test the waters at the hot springs. They said it was nice as long as you didn't get out of the water. I'm not a "hotsprings bathing" kind of guy, so I went wheeling again with Marvin and Roger.

After mulling over the map for a while we all three decided to do Engineer Pass, Cinnamon Pass and possibly one more if the day provided enough time.

Instead of running straight out of Ouray, we rode down to Silverton to start. The highway from Ouray to Silverton, called the Million Dollar Highway, is in itself an awesome run.

On the way out of Silverton the route passes right by the active mines, as well as the old ones.









Today was looking like it was going to be much more hospitable for vehicular travel.

















Another "Highlight your Rubicon" shot.



Here's a clue we are right where the old dudes said we would be.



Getting ready to go above the timber line again.









This stick you see on the left side of the road is what the "road crew" uses to gauge and navigate the snow dozer with. The sticks vary from 15' to 30' depending on the depth of the snow.



The road always seems to get narrower the higher you go up.



Almost to the top of the pass.



We made it. Chalk another one up.









Instead of going all the way over into Lake City, we decided to double back and catch Engineer Pass. Down where Animas Forks forks with Cinnamon and Engineer, there is a lot of well preserved ghost town reminants as well as mining structures.







I found this building unique in that it was built down in the valleys and hauled up here and reassembled. Note that each board is branded with a number depictiing where it goes in the structure. One big puzzle.

 

WOW!! Cool pix! I can't wait to be there in 3 weeks and counting!! I've never been!

 

After leaving there and running most of the way up Engineer, the weather again started to rear it's ugly side.





This route seemed to go up and over in a valley. There weren't nearly as many sheer cliffs as the day before.



The snow wasn't coming down quite as bad as the day before. Also the switchbacks weren't as steep and most places still had the snow bank built up from the snow plows. There was still plenty of snow too.



Everything was fairly risk free until we passed this point.



Then the road again got narrower. Narrow enough for the snow that was blown by the dozers to fall down the sides of the cliff below the road. And it started leaning toward the low side.









Approaching the summit.





Looking down over the other side.



We could see and hear some crazy mofos doing some extreme snowboarding. (Those guys are freaking nuts along with the Pike's Peak racers) They are hard to make out since I didn't have my zoom lens with me. But if you look in the upper middle you may be able to make out their tracks from skiing and then look below at the specs. That's them.



Coming down.









Then all hell broke loose. It started raining, sleating, and snowing all at once. Remember what I said about adding precipitation you the trails? Luckily we were most of the way down before it got this bad.









Once down, the weather got better and I shot a few pics of the surroundings. Sorry for the poor quality shots. I was wheeling solo this day and most everything was shot through the windows while driving.









The first flower I saw that day.









A couple good pics of how shear the cliffs usually are.













And we made it back for another wonderful day of 4wheeling and site seeing.

 

You're gonna love it. Don't forget to take lots of pics and bring them back to share with us.