I ran Red Cone and all I got were these goat pics

[Haku]

After working on trucks yesterday, Red Rhino and I decided to go run Red Cone and Radical Hill today.

The drive up was great, made decent time and without incident. I've been having some teething issues with my front axle after Carnage, and despite a new 3rd member, a new lockout hub, and a rebuild its still making weird noises and there is no drive to the front wheels when the driveshaft spins. This became painfully obvious the first time I needed 4wd. No amount of unlocking and relocking the hubs seemed to do anything, and they seemed engaged. Locked and unlocked the locker a few times and it made a difference but still no drive to the wheels. Could still be the lockout hubs being unhappy, but part of me thinks its the axle shafts. They are Longfield 30 spline chromoly ones, so they are supposed to be strong, but I've still heard of them breaking.

Anyways, story short, I only got about a half mile up before it became clear that it was going to be no fun getting up red cone with just my rear wheels turning. My rig has no weight on the back tires, and it looses traction very easily. Decided not to push it, so I just parked it and rode along with Bryan. Its actually kind of fun to ride with another person to talk to on this trail, since it has a serious pucker factor. Its one of those that pretty much anything with a bit of clearance and a low range transfer case can get up, but it has some steep and exposed hills that bring on the pucker.

Red Cone was pretty much uneventful but entertaining. It started raining a bit, but no thunder or lightening. The hills were steep but fun, and Bryans K5 is so heavy that it doesn't slide around much. There was an almost brand new (still had the temp tags on) Jeep Grand Cherokee that did it just ahead of us, which was funny to see.

After the decent off Red Cone, we decided it might be fun to cruise over and do Radical Hill. Its not too much further, and is a bit more challenging and scary. Its a really narrow trail towards the end, and has some very off camber sections on it (which are also narrow). I swear if Bryan's rig was 3 inches wider, one tire would have been over the edge in a few spots.

Its a ton of fun though, and we got through it. There were a ton of Mountain Goats living up there. A few were split off from the group, with babies, juveniles and adults. I didn't count them, but there had to be about 20 of them at least. A lot of them looked pretty raggedy, and there was "wool" all over the ground at the top of Radical Hill. We got to the top, hung out for a few, and then headed back towards Webster Pass. I took a few pics of the Mountain Goats on the way back down...

Momma with a couple babies (Kids?)
https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pT4IFKgOvhmxpFd5LvQ5eF0kcp8dOXWYFBi4R0qNZnfgNXK9 90z3sek8yoXe7XR3Ol-ETtH2NC14/12.jpg?psid=1

RUNAWAY FROM THE GROWLY V8 TRUCK!!!
https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1paXv7uEqZTS0ykCXMj7ykpJPg-1p0leU-UFnd9Z4SsVFFskSs77rE0zJdGvFZvdx30Zq91Vrmshw/13.jpg?psid=1

The rest of the family hanging out down below...nothing like getting stared down by a goat with sharp horns...
https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pJ0wISvN5q3WasYhnYjYpzZ7tHC41sht4eCFs8U2WEUoBQRC FVOEt0hhLr2Zr5K8RYpwbLv9ktoI/14.jpg?psid=1

https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pK1EM98PaN-wpRgDOoB3nEN2JFq-5WvrwlxD_2OC2Ibmum0PcpaIoTbWYL7GiuOHi-iC7fp1vSoY/15.jpg?psid=1

I was a slacker and didn't take any other pictures. We were kinda just cruising and didn't stop much. Webster Pass is actually passable towards 285 now, if only just. Good news is that the washout that was just below the summit of the pass was bulldozed flat (in a good way) and nice and wide and not scary anymore. The cornice at the top of the summit was still there, but was dug out just enough to get passed it. When I say just, I mean we were literally scraping a straight vertical wall of snow on one side and tires on the edge of the other. This is with a full width K5 with military 1 ton axles though, which is pretty darn wide.

We cruised down, went a little ways back up Red Cone to get my truck, and then headed home. Stopped and got some BBQ at Hog Heaven (yum! :thumb:) and then cruised back to Denver. Great day on the trail. Now I just have to figure out whats wrong with my front axle.

[Rob]

Radical Hill. Its not too much further, and is a bit more challenging and scary.

"Scary" is the right word. Those off-camber narrow sections and the turn into the last steep climb are nerve-racking. :eek:

[Mr6dwg]

I did Red Cone too, on Saturday. We saw the same goats on the first hill at around 3:00. The weather was great. I zoomed in and took a picture of a guy coming down the top part of Radical Hill.

[Brody]

Thanks for the pictures and report! You could have titled it "Red Cone and The Men Who Stare At Goats".....

Nothing to either side of the front axle, locked or unlocked?

[Haku]

Thanks for the pictures and report! You could have titled it "Red Cone and The Men Who Stare At Goats".....

Nothing to either side of the front axle, locked or unlocked?

Both actually. I tried it both ways, and unlocked and locked the hubs. That didn't seem to do anything, so I tried taking the covers off the hubs and checking them out, but it sure seemed like it was doing its job. You could hear a light clicking noise coming from both sides of the rig too. I suppose it could be the hubs acting up still, but at least at a glance it seemed like they were working as designed. My Longfields were acting weird when I pulled them out (had to put them over my knee to flex them). I think for now I'm going to put my stock spares in and see if that changes anything. Luckily Longfield is pretty cool about warrantying their stuff, so I should be back to full strength within a week or two of sending them in.

[Brody]

That's pretty odd, to say the least.

Longfield is more than good about their warranty as the warrantied a first generation Longfield on my heap when it broke last year. Curious as to what you find.

[Java]

cool goat pics!!! :thumb: