Brody
August 10th, 2010, 05:37 AM
Looking for some pictures for the new South Platte Climber's Guide that a friend is doing, I came across a couple of pictures.
The Jeep is a 1991 Cherokee I had right before I bought the current 1994 Yota. It had a mild lift and was running 32s, with a locker in the rear, Dana 30 in the front with a cable actuator for the 4x4, chromo axle upgrade for the 30, and a high output 4.0. After market intake and a custom free flow exhaust were the last of the options. It did pretty well for what was essentially a stock rig, but I got really good putting in front axles before I did the upgrade...
The pictures were taken at the Balanced Rock Trail on a turn off from FS 322 that overlooks the South Monument Creek drainage. The picnic table, also shown in Charles Well's book had just been finished.
When I first found that particular area that the pictures were taken from, there was just a very overgrown trail that no one had used for a number of years. I was driving around looking for a better access to the rocks in the valley that we had been approaching from the Mt Herman Road side. This approach was pretty grueling as you parked on the opposite side of the valley from the rocks, hiked down the valley, crossed the stream, climbed all day, then had to do an hard uphill hike of over an hour to get back to your cars.
I had driven around using my topo and a compass to try to locate something that gave access from the north side and found this faint trail. I parked and walked the trail to the ridge top where the picnic table is located. I then walked back to the rig and tied tree limbs out of the way to allow me to drive in on the old tracks. After I had driven in about 70 -100 feet, I then trimmed the tree branches to the campsite/opening at the top. We used this road like that for a few years and it was a great spot with a shade tree right where the picnic table is now. I also spent a huge amount of time leveling off the area where I eventually put the picnic table and where people would pitch their tents.
Of course it then got 'discovered' and someone trimmed all the branches off the start of the trail and many people started using the site. From that point, every time we went to camp there, we always ended up removing huge amounts of trash. One day we went there for a weekend of climbing and the nice shade tree had been chopped down. The next weekend, the weekend these pictures were taken, I had gone out by myself to remedy the situation a little. I had bought wood for the picnic table and benches, prefabbed it at my house, then had taken the wood to the site where I installed the picnic table where the stump of the shade tree was. Since there was now no shade, I also installed anchors in the rock face that allowed you to hang a large tarp for shade. It made for a nice spot still, with or without the shade tree.
This lasted for a few years, and we used this site quite a lot, establishing many rock climbs on this undeveloped area and trails to the many rocks. When we got tired of picking up trash, I 'found' a much abused FS 'closed to motor vehicles' metal sign somewhere in the Hayman Fire area. I welded it to a post and stuck a buried piece of PVC pipe in the ground at the entrance to the trail, making it removable. This actually helped a lot with the trash, but someone eventually figured this out and hucked the sign down the side of the hill. In the last few years, an obviously very low class of humans have been using the spot as the benches for the table have now been burned for firewood, even though there is plenty of standing dead aspen in the area as well as pine. I used to get a kick out of seeing the picnic table in Well's book and hoped that people were enjoying using it as it was (and still is to some extent) a cool spot. Now it just makes me sad to see what people have done to it.
The Jeep is a 1991 Cherokee I had right before I bought the current 1994 Yota. It had a mild lift and was running 32s, with a locker in the rear, Dana 30 in the front with a cable actuator for the 4x4, chromo axle upgrade for the 30, and a high output 4.0. After market intake and a custom free flow exhaust were the last of the options. It did pretty well for what was essentially a stock rig, but I got really good putting in front axles before I did the upgrade...
The pictures were taken at the Balanced Rock Trail on a turn off from FS 322 that overlooks the South Monument Creek drainage. The picnic table, also shown in Charles Well's book had just been finished.
When I first found that particular area that the pictures were taken from, there was just a very overgrown trail that no one had used for a number of years. I was driving around looking for a better access to the rocks in the valley that we had been approaching from the Mt Herman Road side. This approach was pretty grueling as you parked on the opposite side of the valley from the rocks, hiked down the valley, crossed the stream, climbed all day, then had to do an hard uphill hike of over an hour to get back to your cars.
I had driven around using my topo and a compass to try to locate something that gave access from the north side and found this faint trail. I parked and walked the trail to the ridge top where the picnic table is located. I then walked back to the rig and tied tree limbs out of the way to allow me to drive in on the old tracks. After I had driven in about 70 -100 feet, I then trimmed the tree branches to the campsite/opening at the top. We used this road like that for a few years and it was a great spot with a shade tree right where the picnic table is now. I also spent a huge amount of time leveling off the area where I eventually put the picnic table and where people would pitch their tents.
Of course it then got 'discovered' and someone trimmed all the branches off the start of the trail and many people started using the site. From that point, every time we went to camp there, we always ended up removing huge amounts of trash. One day we went there for a weekend of climbing and the nice shade tree had been chopped down. The next weekend, the weekend these pictures were taken, I had gone out by myself to remedy the situation a little. I had bought wood for the picnic table and benches, prefabbed it at my house, then had taken the wood to the site where I installed the picnic table where the stump of the shade tree was. Since there was now no shade, I also installed anchors in the rock face that allowed you to hang a large tarp for shade. It made for a nice spot still, with or without the shade tree.
This lasted for a few years, and we used this site quite a lot, establishing many rock climbs on this undeveloped area and trails to the many rocks. When we got tired of picking up trash, I 'found' a much abused FS 'closed to motor vehicles' metal sign somewhere in the Hayman Fire area. I welded it to a post and stuck a buried piece of PVC pipe in the ground at the entrance to the trail, making it removable. This actually helped a lot with the trash, but someone eventually figured this out and hucked the sign down the side of the hill. In the last few years, an obviously very low class of humans have been using the spot as the benches for the table have now been burned for firewood, even though there is plenty of standing dead aspen in the area as well as pine. I used to get a kick out of seeing the picnic table in Well's book and hoped that people were enjoying using it as it was (and still is to some extent) a cool spot. Now it just makes me sad to see what people have done to it.