YELLAHEEP
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Littleton, Colorado
For those of you that haven't done Holy Cross Trail before - and/or haven't done the overnight stay before, here's some helpful information:
I expect that this will be a popular run and will involve a large group, so I'd like everyone to be well prepared.
Road to the trail head:
Once off the highway, there's about 3 miles of dry, dusty, washboard road. The washboard can be awfully rough so if you don't have everything good and tight, you'll likely find out what's loose here. We'll probably air down before the dirt road to make the washboard less harsh.
The Trail:
This trail is an "in and out" trail, not a loop which means the obstacles will be run twice. If you value your stock bumpers, untrimmed flares/fenders and unprotected rockers, this trail is NOT for you. Led has this trail rated between an 8 to a 9 on the difficulty scale. The main reason for this rating is for the "feature" obstacle at French Creek. This obstacle has 3 approaches and for the most part, the "easy" line is still a moderate obstacle. Due to this particular obstacle, your rig will be REQUIRED to have at least a 3 inch lift with 31's, transfer case skid, and front/rear tow points. Even with the minimum lift, rocker and belly skid protection are recommended for all rigs. If you have the 8.25 rear, you will hang the diff in several locations. A locker is helpful for this trail, but open rigs have been able to complete the trail. Once the group is past French Creek, the hard part is over with the exception of the "Plymouth Rock" play area - this is a place for hard-core rigs with front and rear lockers only, some nasty off-camber obstacles.
Camping:
Once at the top of Holy Cross, there's lots of areas in the trees and in the meadow to set up tents. This is primitive camping - no bathrooms. There will be a place for a nice sized pit-fire as well. Be prepared for cold temps at night with the always possible chance for rain in the afternoon to evening. Bring lots to drink and plan to pack lunch and dinner for Thursday, breakfast and lunch for Friday.
In the past, the group gets off the trail about mid-afternoon, so many of us will likely want to eat dinner in Leadville (I know a great Italian/pizza place) on the way back to Buena Vista. Also, there's a NAPA in Leadville and they have been very helpful in the past for repair parts.
Here's a decent link for additional information about Holy Cross with good pictures of the obstacles:
http://www.mhjcontherocks.com/Community/Trips/337.aspx
This is gonna be a great run!
Troy
I expect that this will be a popular run and will involve a large group, so I'd like everyone to be well prepared.
Road to the trail head:
Once off the highway, there's about 3 miles of dry, dusty, washboard road. The washboard can be awfully rough so if you don't have everything good and tight, you'll likely find out what's loose here. We'll probably air down before the dirt road to make the washboard less harsh.
The Trail:
This trail is an "in and out" trail, not a loop which means the obstacles will be run twice. If you value your stock bumpers, untrimmed flares/fenders and unprotected rockers, this trail is NOT for you. Led has this trail rated between an 8 to a 9 on the difficulty scale. The main reason for this rating is for the "feature" obstacle at French Creek. This obstacle has 3 approaches and for the most part, the "easy" line is still a moderate obstacle. Due to this particular obstacle, your rig will be REQUIRED to have at least a 3 inch lift with 31's, transfer case skid, and front/rear tow points. Even with the minimum lift, rocker and belly skid protection are recommended for all rigs. If you have the 8.25 rear, you will hang the diff in several locations. A locker is helpful for this trail, but open rigs have been able to complete the trail. Once the group is past French Creek, the hard part is over with the exception of the "Plymouth Rock" play area - this is a place for hard-core rigs with front and rear lockers only, some nasty off-camber obstacles.
Camping:
Once at the top of Holy Cross, there's lots of areas in the trees and in the meadow to set up tents. This is primitive camping - no bathrooms. There will be a place for a nice sized pit-fire as well. Be prepared for cold temps at night with the always possible chance for rain in the afternoon to evening. Bring lots to drink and plan to pack lunch and dinner for Thursday, breakfast and lunch for Friday.
In the past, the group gets off the trail about mid-afternoon, so many of us will likely want to eat dinner in Leadville (I know a great Italian/pizza place) on the way back to Buena Vista. Also, there's a NAPA in Leadville and they have been very helpful in the past for repair parts.
Here's a decent link for additional information about Holy Cross with good pictures of the obstacles:
http://www.mhjcontherocks.com/Community/Trips/337.aspx
This is gonna be a great run!
Troy