Bill Moore, Red Elephant Hill, Mill Creek

[ShutUpHippie]

Is anyone very familiar with this set of trails? I was wondering how accessible these would be around this time of year. (more specifically, the first or second weekend in October) I was thinking of trying to get another run of this together since I still haven't been up.

Here's the link to the old thread if anyone wants to see it:
http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5794

Thanks,
Rob

[Funrover]

Bill Moore should be fine, That's all I know, Sorry

[ShutUpHippie]

That's alright, it's more than I knew a few minutes ago. Thanks.

[Brody]

You should be fine, but don't be surprised if you run into a little snow. Bill Moore is above treeline for the last part of it as is part of the approach. Mill Creek is a fun loop and is quite a bit harder than Bill Moore though they are rated the same in wells book. Nothing drastic, just harder. Trees are tight on Mill Creek and Red Elephant and there are narrow spots.

Be sure to run Red Elephant either first (the right direction to run it) or very last thing in the day. This is one road that you really do not want to meet another rig on as there are virually no places to pull off to let another rig by.

We ran all of these trails earlier this year and ended up going down Red Elephant at the end of the day. We all felt very lucky not to have run into someone coming the other way. We found out later that the trail should only be run going uphill.

Red Elephant is going to be the hardest of the bunch, simply because it doesn't really let up. It is steep, narrow, rutted, and has quite a ifew loose rocks the whole length of the trail. Again, nothing you can't do in your rig, but it is also rated the same as Bill Moore. Running all of these trails, all rated the same, I would put Red Elephant the hardest section, Mill Creek next and Bill Moore last as far as difficulty level goes.

When we ran this, we had a couple of bigger rigs-Adrians Bronco, Chris' FJ, and Robs FJ Cruiser, so your Blazer will be fine. Your body work will end up getting scratched up..like I said, the trees are very close in spots. Other than that, if it is dry you should have no problems. Red Elephant may be interesting wet, but doable. Hope that this helps. There is a trail report in the trail section of our earlier trip.

[ShutUpHippie]

Cool, thanks Pete.

[Rob]

Red Elephant is going to be the hardest of the bunch, simply because it doesn't really let up. It is steep, narrow, rutted, and has quite a ifew loose rocks the whole length of the trail. Again, nothing you can't do in your rig, but it is also rated the same as Bill Moore. Running all of these trails, all rated the same, I would put Red Elephant the hardest section, Mill Creek next and Bill Moore last as far as difficulty level goes.


You forgot tippy. Red Elephant is tippy in spots and stretches. It would definitely be more interesting if it's wet and muddy.

[Pathrat]

Bill Moore was the last trail I ran in the fall of 2008. After that, we vowed not to go out alone if there is a speck of snow and we bought chains. When you head into the trees to the mud bog point, there is a hill that is hard to get back up when there is snow/ice. No sun reaches this small stretch.

http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3305&highlight=bill+moore

[ShutUpHippie]

Maybe I'll hold off until summertime and try something a little closer to the foothills...

scratch this idea, I will try to think of something else. Thanks everyone, and I guess this is why there is an area for planning right? :thunb:

In case there is any confusion:
TRAIL RUN PLANNING FOR THIS TRAIL IS OVER FOR ME.