Jenny Creek and Needles Eye, September 6th

[Haku]

Hey all,

Gettin stuff going for September, so here is the first installment. Planning on getting up onto Jenny Creek, then going and exploring the Needles Eye area into Winter Park. Charlie is the man with the plan on this sucker, so I'll let him chime in on the major details, but wanted to get discussion going on it.

Josh H.

[cfr]

I am under the impression that Jenny Creak and East Rollins Pass both end at the closed Needles Eye Tunnel,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollins_Pass

Sounds like fun, but the only way to Winter Park from the East side appears to be by train or foot.

FYI

[Haku]

Looks like thats the case according to Trail Damage as well. Its not really my deal, as Charlie is the one heading this up and it is his brain child. Hopefully he gets his computer up and connected to the net, so he can give the details on what he was thinking. Sounds like the only pass is through that tunnel, and its closed by a rock slide. I'm sure there are some other trails nearby that could be run. Worst case, we could go do something in the Yankee Hill area, or even Saxon Mountain or the like.

JH

[Haku]

So this trail run is scheduled for the day after the Trail Cleanup for our adopted Trail. Everyone is heavily encourage to come help cleanup the trail and do some maintenance and such.

This should be a pretty mellow trip, with lots of exploring and site seeing to be done. I'm sure there will be some fun wheeling to be had too. I haven't been up in this area much, beyond driving to Winter Park over Berthoud, which doesn't really count. Should be a good time, and a good one for the milder rigs to come along on.

JH

[WINKY]

seeing that this is a holiday weekend, and im not oncall and i will have gas money i think i will make a camping trip out of this. camp saturday night after the cleanup run, go on the sunday trial run on this thread then camp sunday night, wheel again monday!!! (ive been needing to get out and camp fer a bit...)

[Brody]

Jenny Creek is a good run with good scenery after you get out of the actual Jenny Creek Trail. There are supposed to be a lot of spur roads off of this, but I have never done them. There is actually only one section that has much of an obstacle that would give a stock rig a challenge and that is the section immediately after the main stream crossings. There is another section where you need to make sure that you take the left turn down into the creek instead of the more obvious uphill road as the uphill road is a really narrow Jeep or ATV trail. We took this the first time we did it and ended up 'pinballing' off of trees the whole way. We ended up with no paint on either side of the exo cage from the rock rails up to the top of the cage, a huge chunk of bark wedged between the tire and rim, and another huge chunk of bark that somehow got into the tire itself, about the size of a paperback book. We never lost any pressure and the chunk that was inside of the tire was found when I got new tires...

Randy...you may very well get some real body damage doing the actual Jenny Creek Trail. It is a very narrow trail in spots...If you had some rock rails, I would say that you would be sort of OK, but the trees are close! We did run this trail with a group of Pinzgauers and one of them was a 6x. They all made it fine, but these rigs are about 18" or more narrower and even the 6x is about 3' shorter than yours is, which may be a critical differences. I also know that the turns mentioned above-left down into the creek and uphill through the main obstacle after the main creek crossing are very, very tight with trees on both sides.You may very well want to do a little more research into running this trail before you commit to it unless you want to really get to know the folks at Perry and Terry or simply don't mind crawling in and out of your windows cause your doors no longer work...Just a heads up...

If you are going to camp, we found some sweet sites above Yankee Doodle Lake in the scrub trees up there that are pretty sheltered, so look up there first...

[Aaron]

My wife has been wanting to get up to needles eye all summer. We'll be camping at Chalk Lake that weekend and probably doing tincup and hancock alone.

[Rob]

Yeah, you can get to Winter Park from Jenny Creek, but you have to backtrack down Rollins Pass Road (east) and Tolland Road, then go down to I-70 and back up 40 (I think). Or you could check out Moon and Gamble gulches right outside Rollinsville. I've heard they're fun. I did a short section of Moon Gulch earlier in the spring, but turned around when I got to a long, deep mud bog. West Magnolia Trail also starts in that area.

If I'm not worn out from the trail cleanup, I might join you. Jenny Creek is definitely fun, just too short.

[Haku]

I don't think the goal is to get to Winter Park, so much as it is to get on a great trail and explore a bit. The cliche "its more about the journey and not the destination" fits very much in this case. I didn't know much about the Eye of the Needle thing, so I was just going on what Charlie was saying. Sounds like there are some fun trails and exploring to be done, without having to back track all the way down the highway.

I'll be in for the Trail Cleanup, as well as this most likely.

JH

[Rob]

"its more about the journey and not the destination" fits very much in this case. ... Sounds like there are some fun trails and exploring to be done, without having to back track all the way down the highway.

I'll be in for the Trail Cleanup, as well as this most likely.

JH
Agreed. Lots to see in that area.

See you on the trail cleanup. Devil's Canyon has great scenery and Barbour Fork has some challenge. Nice mix.

[WINKY]

so it has been brought to my attention that i cant fit in jenny creek so i think i might do something else for this day...

[Brody]

I think that you can do everything except the actual Jenny Creek trail in your rig. The trail ends around Yankee Doodle Lake and really isn't that long. If you were planning on doing a weekend trip, this wouldn't be too bad as Yankee Doodle is a sweet spot to just hang out in.

Having run Jenny a lot of times, I really think it is simply too narrow to get your rig through without extensive body damage, but it would be great to get some feedback from someone who has taken or tried to take a big rig through it. It is, to me, an old Jeep trail and is barely wide enough to fit my rig through it in spots.

[WINKY]

So not to step on White collars plans, rather i have some things planning to go along with this run and the weekend.

http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6315

[WINKY]

What i will be doing is this, i will join the run but wait on the other side of jenny creek at yankee doodle for everyone then continue on to the next trail. :)

[Haku]

So not to step on Josh's plans, rather i have some things planning to go along with this run and the weekend.

http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6315

This run is Charlie's baby, I just posted the planning thread and calender stuff for him since he is having internet issues lately. If people would rather do something else, then I'm sure he would listen. Either way, I'm not picky and would be willing to do whatever everyone else wanted to do. I just like to get out wheeling, preferably on something new.

JH

[WINKY]

sorry...LOL