Provisional Trail List

This is only a guide and is subject to change. We have not been able to run many of the trails yet, but as the snow melts we will be scouting more.

Ouray

Saturday - no official runs

Sunday - Alpine Loop. Engineer Pass to Lake City, Lake City to Animas Forks via Cinamon Pass. Return route optional, road through Silverton, or one of the many 4WD roads in the area.

Monday - Black Bear from Ouray to Telluride, return via Imogene.

Tuesday - still not definite, Poughkeepsie Gulch, Yankee boy Basin, many choices.

All trails rate Easy, a capable driver in a stock Cherokee should manage all. The altitude and sharp drop off's do increase the ratings a little, so Medium at worst. 31's, open diff's, some protection if you want.

The Wild trails are in Montrose and I will see how many "wild boys" show up, and they can decide on their schedule themselves. Die Trying, Calamity Canyon, Scratch & Dent, Cactus Ridge, topless.

Wednesday - travel day to Buena Vista via Gunnison. Paved road for the trailers, but I expect the XJ convoy to make the journey over some of the many passes available. Hancock or Tomichi, or run up to Gunnison and come past Taylor reservoir.

Thursday - Holy Cross, and overnight trip for those who want to camp, a one day trip for those who want to motel it in BV. An easy/mild trail will be run too, most likely Tincup pass over to Taylor reservoir.

Friday - Pearl Pass, Taylor Pass, italian Creek. Pearl Pass should open in July sometime. Very scenic trip over the mountain passes near Aspen CO, an all day trip. Easy/Medium. Holy Cross overnighter returns.

Saturday - old Chinaman's Gulch - a fun trail for all vehicles. The difficult stuff has bypasses. Hardcore can tackle Carnage Canyon.

Sunday - no official trails.

subject to change. comments? requests?

Grant

A couple of things:

From BV, Taylor/Pearl/Italian is a really long day. That's like 35 miles of trails and 45 minutes to the trailhead and back. But it should definitely be on the list as a top notch loop...people should just expect to leave very early and be home late.

Also, if Poughkeepsie Gulch is wet, which is very likely at this time of year, then the one non-optional obstacle can be quite difficult, so the tow point requirement for stockers should be carefully assessed.

Looks like a great suite of trails to showcase Colorado, and there is nothing that should scare off a moderate wheeler, while providing access to some serious hardcore just about every day.

Again, great work.

Nay

As a note, Pearl Pass is still fairly snowed in. We had heavy snows this year. At least the snow boarding was great.

I'll only be there on the 10th, and in the rest of CO for the previous 2 weeks, so if someone could decide on the trail, that would be good.

Not too hard, as the Jeep has to make it around CO and then back to Northern AZ. The Jeep has 30s, 2.5" lift with an Auburn rear and possible LockRite front, if that makes a diff on the trail selection.

Thanks and cant wait to meet some of you.

Fergie

Fergie said:

I'll only be there on the 10th, and in the rest of CO for the previous 2 weeks, so if someone could decide on the trail, that would be good.

Not too hard, as the Jeep has to make it around CO and then back to Northern AZ. The Jeep has 30s, 2.5" lift with an Auburn rear and possible LockRite front, if that makes a diff on the trail selection.

Thanks and cant wait to meet some of you.

Fergie

Click to expand...

Fergie-
Poughkeepsie may be a little tough with the 30s, but Yankee Boy is really pretty and not difficult at all.

BillR said:

Fergie-
Poughkeepsie may be a little tough with the 30s, but Yankee Boy is really pretty and not difficult at all.

Click to expand...

You should have no major problems with a front locker/rear Auburn on Poughkeepsie. Last event we had a bunch of rigs with 30's and just rear lockers or limited slips...it was wet (major monsoon that year), and everybody got up the one major obstacle (some with a bit of strapping )

I'd keep Poughkeepsie on the list as a must-do in the San Juans...and quite honestly there is nothing up there that you shoudn't be able to do with your setup. The major trails in the San Juans are nowhere near hardcore (although they do have major pucker factor in many cases).

Nay

Well, after thinking about it, and more planning, I think that we will be joining all of you for the Black Bear run. Whether we return via Imogene with everyone is not for sure, as I think we both want to visit Telluride a bit, and do some shopping.

What time in the morning are the runs/inspections going to begin? I'll be traveling from Durango, and will need to plan accordingly. Also, where do I meet all of you?

Fergie

Fergie
not definite yet but
For coming from Durango, take Hwy 550 to the top of Red Mountain pass. The trail starts there, It is pretty easy to see the trailhead. I would suggest getting to the trailhead by 8:30am as most of the guys will be leaving from the Reservoir camp site and it is about a 30-45 minute drive.

The plan is to leave camp before 8am so the trail can be started by 9am, after a short briefing. That way we can be back at camp at a reasonable hour and don't have to worry about coming home in the dark.

Please make sure you get with the trail leader and sign the waiver sheet.

Many thanks

Grant

I am surprised on Friday that you are not going to do more trails around Leadville/Camp Hale. There are quiet a few moderate trails in the area. I think i should be able to make it up on Saturday on Chinaman's and maybe go up Holy Cross early Friday and meet up with you guys. It sound like it is going to be a lot of fun. I grew up in Leadville and know the Camp Hale area really well so If you need any help with trails around there let me know.

If you read the first post you will see the easy/medium crowd is running Pearl/Taylor and Italian Creek on Friday, all day. Just not enough time to run more than Holy Cross in the Leadville area.

The hardcore crowd that will probably camp at HC will be more interested in Cleveland Rock than in easy/medium trails in that area. Unless you know of any Montrose/Independence/Carnage type trails in that area?

Do you?

I really do not know of any hard trail such as indy an so forth up near Leadvuille but I was thinking what about MineSweeper in Salida. I have heard some good stories about this trail.

Well, I'd hardly say that Minesweeper is in the Leadville/Camp Hale area. anything over 100 miles apart is not quite "in the area".

There is really only one decent obstacle on Minesweeper, but it is a fun trail.

I can think of some scenic trails that could be tackled near camp hale. Stuff that stockers could not make but easy for us. Maybe before the Naxja event I can go scout around and maybe find some trails I know the distance from Camp Hale to salida but the only reason I mentioned the minesweeper is because it is fairly close to chinamans that seams to be where base camp is going to be

Grant, Carnage is going to need to be run on Thurs or fri, the weekend trafic is a killed on that trail. We can do it in the evening if nec , we ran it in about 4 hours with 4 rigs.
Led

Grant said:

Wednesday - travel day to Buena Vista via Gunnison. Paved road for the trailers, but I expect the XJ convoy to make the journey over some of the many passes available. Hancock or Tomichi, or run up to Gunnison and come past Taylor reservoir.

Thursday - Holy Cross, and overnight trip for those who want to camp, a one day trip for those who want to motel it in BV. An easy/mild trail will be run too, most likely Tincup pass over to Taylor reservoir.

Friday - Pearl Pass, Taylor Pass, italian Creek. Pearl Pass should open in July sometime. Very scenic trip over the mountain passes near Aspen CO, an all day trip. Easy/Medium. Holy Cross overnighter returns.

Click to expand...

grant, 2 questions:

what time will the holy cross folks head out thurs morning? i'm trying to determine if i will arrive in BV early that morning or late weds night. also, when you say the "overnighter" returns on friday, will that be in time to also run pearl/taylor/italian, or if you run HC do you miss out on those runs on friday?

thanks!

We will be on the road to the trail by 8am most days. Early starts to avoid late afternoon thunderstorms if possible.

If you camp at HC then you will miss the pearl/italian/taylor run. If you do the day trip to HC then you won't miss the run. Pearl/Taylor will be starting by 7:45 am Friady morning, a long day on the trail.

HTH

thanks grant...

so does that mean the HC campers will just run HC again on friday, or what is the plan for them?

also, are you going to try to get some kind of preliminary "tentative" trail signup beforehand, or just wait and let people go where they want the day of the runs?

terry

terry

I expect the HC campers will probably want to play on Cleveland Rock, either when the arrive at the City, or the next morning or both. This usually means a late start down HC and a late lunch in Leadville when done.

No trail sign up sheets, arrive and drive. Trail leaders will tech late arrivals at the trail head, so make sure your rig complies with rrecommendations. Liability waivers will be signed daily at the trailhead.

HTH

Grant

so would anybody be interested in maybe running pearl pass (unofficially) on sunday?

Grant: i assume we have the campground reserved for saturday night too? (saturday the 14th, official last day).

Nope, you assume wrong.

Campground is booked Wed, Thurs, Fri only. However I do not expect any problems if you wish to stay another night. You would be responsible for sorting that out with the Chalk Creek management though.

I expect most XJ'ers will be on the road Saturday heading home, except the front range folks.