SynergyXJ
November 16th, 2014, 05:11 AM
Around 9:05 we were at the trail head and ready to go, but the trail was empty, so I took charge and led our way. And just like that, I am starting the trail report for this run:
I must say that I had a f'n blast leading the crew and bashing the fresh powder. This was the thickest snow my XJ has seen in its 18 months in Colorado; ranging from 4" at the trailhead to up to ~16" on the trail. I was ecstatic to be plowing snow with my axle tube. I met some new people, saw some familiar faces, and just had a great run overall.
The hardest spots were in the beginning and had by-passes, followed by several miles of flat and sometimes very narrow trail with lots of side shoots and intersecting FS roads. We pretty much followed the .gpx file from TrailDamage exactly up until we hit some kind of building/station near Dakota Hill. Then we climbed said hill to find a radio tower where we stopped for lunch and let the weather roll in. This was definitely the thickest snow we saw - while going uphill, I finally couldn't plow it and had to let tcm pass me and pack down the powder for us. It was absolutely gorgeous on this hill for the first few minutes, but as soon as the fourth rig got up, the clouds and snow came. After the break we headed back down. Well, most of us did, but some stayed for some trail fixes. I'm sure someone in that group will comment on that.
The group that did make it down decided to head over to Moon Gulch, following my lead. I will go ahead and admit some misleading on this one. I found some FS roads that would take us to Moon Gulch and led this way. With there being lots of side shoots, I led us down a trail about 200' over from the trail I was aiming for. I quickly realized we might have been off route, but it was a legit trail and heading in the right direction, so I went for it. A quarter mile later, it dead ended in a mad tight squeeze to get 5 or 6 rigs turned around. That tight turn-around process was a hell of a maneuver, but we managed it with only one slide-off-the-trail-and-winch-back-on scenario - which was definitely not our first utilization of winch technology on this trip.
Just as we got back on trail and through the obstacle that I like to believe is the "Pickle Gulch", the rest of the group caught up. The route down this gulch was icy as heck, I was popping and sliding all over the place. That was when I determined it was indeed the Pickle Gulch. By that time, it was nearly 3pm which is like night in the winter, so we called it a day.
Great ride! I had a blast!
some shout outs:
@JAB & tcm - good to see you guys again; big ups to the lunch equipment
@EKXJ87 - your rig is sick and I got some inspiration from it
@dieseldoc - it was good to ride with ya'll again, too!
Attached are some pictures and a screen shot of my GPS log.
I must say that I had a f'n blast leading the crew and bashing the fresh powder. This was the thickest snow my XJ has seen in its 18 months in Colorado; ranging from 4" at the trailhead to up to ~16" on the trail. I was ecstatic to be plowing snow with my axle tube. I met some new people, saw some familiar faces, and just had a great run overall.
The hardest spots were in the beginning and had by-passes, followed by several miles of flat and sometimes very narrow trail with lots of side shoots and intersecting FS roads. We pretty much followed the .gpx file from TrailDamage exactly up until we hit some kind of building/station near Dakota Hill. Then we climbed said hill to find a radio tower where we stopped for lunch and let the weather roll in. This was definitely the thickest snow we saw - while going uphill, I finally couldn't plow it and had to let tcm pass me and pack down the powder for us. It was absolutely gorgeous on this hill for the first few minutes, but as soon as the fourth rig got up, the clouds and snow came. After the break we headed back down. Well, most of us did, but some stayed for some trail fixes. I'm sure someone in that group will comment on that.
The group that did make it down decided to head over to Moon Gulch, following my lead. I will go ahead and admit some misleading on this one. I found some FS roads that would take us to Moon Gulch and led this way. With there being lots of side shoots, I led us down a trail about 200' over from the trail I was aiming for. I quickly realized we might have been off route, but it was a legit trail and heading in the right direction, so I went for it. A quarter mile later, it dead ended in a mad tight squeeze to get 5 or 6 rigs turned around. That tight turn-around process was a hell of a maneuver, but we managed it with only one slide-off-the-trail-and-winch-back-on scenario - which was definitely not our first utilization of winch technology on this trip.
Just as we got back on trail and through the obstacle that I like to believe is the "Pickle Gulch", the rest of the group caught up. The route down this gulch was icy as heck, I was popping and sliding all over the place. That was when I determined it was indeed the Pickle Gulch. By that time, it was nearly 3pm which is like night in the winter, so we called it a day.
Great ride! I had a blast!
some shout outs:
@JAB & tcm - good to see you guys again; big ups to the lunch equipment
@EKXJ87 - your rig is sick and I got some inspiration from it
@dieseldoc - it was good to ride with ya'll again, too!
Attached are some pictures and a screen shot of my GPS log.