As a bit of a homework project and because people are starting to think about it again, though it will likely be some 6 months off, I was hoping to start individuals hunting around at other venues in order to make the 5th Annual Jambo a success.

I have attended the last three. One at Ouray, two in Buena Vista. The first two years of the event, everyone did the same trails together. The time I was there in Ouray, this made easy trails long and slow, though the communal lunch stops were fun.

The last two years we have split up and ran varied levels of trails. This has been good because it gets to real wheeling in smaller number.

The third year of the event was the largest. We had something like 6 states, maybe more, and something like 40 rigs IIRC. Last year was smaller and mostly instate folks.

Where would you like to see the event and why?

 

If we're able to attend, we would prefer the Lake City/Ouray area. I don't need to run the hard trails to enjoy the beauty of Colorado - in fact, we'll prolly be in the stock 2005 TRD Taco anyway.

 

Adrian, thanks for taking the lead on this.

I have never done the Ouray trails.

I like the Buena Vista trails and there is something to be said about going back and trying new lines and harder lines each year.

I will plan to scout out the Avalanche Ranch (and surrounding area) as an alternative sometime this spring. I know some people have a problem with OHV parks, but I have never been to one to make a judgement myself.

What about the Boulder area? Aren't there some nice trails up there?

Also, is another Moab trip in order for this year? I know I'd like to do Moab again.

 

Is there an approximate date as to when the Jambo might take place?

I will be in Ouray in late June.

 

[Cheese] If everyone takes a place and researches it, then consult back to discuss we should have a good deal.

I would likely not go back to Ouray. It is a long haul from Fort Fun. There is only really one daily trail option and the place with the good beer closed.

I am trying to sniff out a little on the Grand Junction area. There are a couple good ones over that way, but I am not sure about the easier stuff.

Up by Boulder, there is nothing that I would count as the caliber of Chinamen's and Holy Cross. There is also no good camping place that I am aware of.

There will be Moab again AFAIK and it ought to only get bigger. [/Cheese]

 

Crested Butte, Aspen, Marble area ???



Jake.

 

I know its not as scenic as those two, but Carnage Canyon is a good challenge.

But really, ya'll should move it all to Switzerland... thats where I'll be.

I can't believe I am going to miss another!!! Maybe in 2 years I'll be able to go.

 

Adrian:

I attended the 04 CO4RJ and I agree with Jim - I was looking forward to trying other lines at Holy Cross and Chinamans this year when the snow melts. However, there are some other good options around the state.

Just west of Colorado Springs there is Saran Wrap and Eagle Rock, which are pretty fun trails. I thought they were difficult for open diffed trucks but fairly easy for me (85 4R, locked, dual cases, 35s), though the hard lines on Eagle Rock were challenging. There's a boatload of other trails up in that area too that I haven't explored yet and the scenery anywhere up there is fantastic. I think this area would provide options for everyone as far as trail difficulty.

I'll do some more homework on this area and post what I find.

Allan Davis

 

Allan,

Did you run Saran Wrap with Aaron E. a couple of months ago?

As far as Boulder goes.
There is the obvious Carnage Canyon which is easily as difficult and can be more difficult than Chinamans. There is also the rest of the trails in the left hand area which can run from easy to difficult.
Gillespie Gulch- Haven't ran it yet but is supposed to be moderate.
Jenny Creek - Moderate, pretty fun trail because you are driving in the creek a lot of the time - Good Night Run Trail.
There are many other small trails in the area, I don't think finding trails would be the problem. Camping and Others on the trails is the problem in the Boulder area.

 

I was at last years gig. I would like to go back this year and kick the trail in the nuts that I didn't attack last year.

Camping wise for the Boulder area, there is Camp Dick and it's right by the trail head of Middle St. Vrain/Jenny Creek area, the camp site would probably facilitate us all nicely. And there are a few trails out here of varying degrees, enough to accommodate everyone's needs.

I do like the sound of Buena Vista again, for the reason stated above. Also the Boulder area just because it is accommodating.

These are my initial thoughts, but I will do some searching on the internet and come up with some alternatives.

Adrian, what is up there in your neck of the woods?

 

For a Jambo, realistically, we need at least two trails a day for three days.

If the mission is to have locals, then what has been suggested sounds decent, but I would not consider running anything listed with more than 10 trucks.

Gillespie is fun and short. I did it at night and had a good time.

The most promising thing to me still sounds like two runs at Chinamen's, two runs at Holy Cross adding Iron Chest for a day and then filling in milder stuff.

Wheeler's is fun, but that is quite a haul. I know people who have taken tow rigs up it.

I will do more homework when I am back in CO.

 

I would like to see another run to the Buena Vista area, it seems if we just cut down the # of rigs per run and varied the start times(and maybe graduated some moderate rigs to diff.) we should be in good shape. I looked at the Glenwood Springs idea too, and I wanna say that thats got some good potential.

 

Sorry to be redundant, but now I am home and have some more time.

I still think Buena Vista makes a lot of sense. I hope to be able to run recon on a couple new options.

My personal feeling is that there should be one of our groups on the each trail each day. The staggered start is fishy since the tail usually catches the head. We sort of had that last year, I bet half the front on Chinamen's had no idea we were towing dead weight.

I also think higher requirements. Not so much to be exclusive, but to keep things moving.

I also hold out a glimmer of hope that my truck will be bigger and I will still be living in CO when this goes down. I think making a run above the city on Holy Cross could be enough to draw some out of towners with big rigs (Jim, Steve and Steve).

 

Where in in switzerland are you moving??? and if you don't mind, why?

 

As I stated earlier, if in Buena Vista I will come up one more time. Holy Cross (early start, up to and possibly past the city with a small group), Chinaman's (I'm not going to hurry for anyone, it's too close to camp to worry) and Iron Thong (new trail for me) would be top on my agenda.

And, thanks for the compliment...

 

Once again, I'll have to miss it. I'll be on the west coast!

 

So does that mean that I can not play on this trail? The Orah area would be boring for most folk. The trails are pretty but they are a matter of tight switch backs. I always think that Holy Cross.Chinaman are as fun as you want to make them. We can allways do carnage canyon on the way up to Chinamans to make it exciting.

As for Boulder, I agree there are some fun trail and the camping should not be too difficult. The surrounding area of the Republic of Boulder are out but there are places around that would be no longer to to drive to the trail head as things have been in the past.

Hell we may have to take some "test runs" this spring to do research of course.

 

Are the dates set yet or is this just the location phase?

 

My impression is that we are shooting for the second weekend in August as usual.

At this point, I would be happy to spearhead planning provided someone else who is more computer literate could do a couple things. I need to wait on grad school acceptances before I can fully commit or know if I am going to be in CO at that point. Also, a recent employment change may bag part of it too.

 

I'm glad to see you guys thinking of new ideas for locations. When I organized the first 3 CO4RJ's, I figured we'd come up with about 4 or so locations around the state and then cycle through them. That idea didn't pan out due to gravitating toward locations with harder trails available.

Ouray was perfect for that 2nd year because we had a lot of people that were just starting build-ups and wanted moderate trails with great scenery. Very few people knew that area of the state. That was an awesome year for CO4RJ and many friendships came from that one year. But now we know the trails are all pretty easy.

The local Isuzu 4 wheeling community started having their annual Colorado gatherings in Buena Vista in '98, except a few years ago they tried one year at a campground near Jefferson in South Park. The trails from there were somewhat different from being in Buena Vista. They added ones like Red Cone, Webster, Glacier Ridge, Twin Cone, etc. That was OK, but it was very different being so far from restaurants and having to cook all meals. After several years for them typically being in Buena Vista, their attendance really dropped off. To try to bring life into it again they tried Ouray/Montrose last year. At least it was something different. So from what I've learned from them, I'd highly recommend that we suck it up and attempt to not get stuck in the rut of frequently holding it in Buena Vista. That location does make a lot of sense for a mountain town with a variety of trails nearby. But you still end up running mostly the same trails every year.

The very first year of CO4RJ I made the mistake of holding it in early July. Most of the trails were just barely clear enough of snow to be open. It should definitely be later than that. Sometime in August is good.

Other ideas in no particular order:
1). John and Anna had the idea last year that we could stay at a campground near Silverthorne/Dillon. Trails would likely include Saints Johns area, Radical Hill, Glacier Ridge, Red Cone, Webster Pass, Wheeler Lake, Spring Creek, Holy Cross, and likely the multiple trails near the St.Mary's Glacier area. The camping location is unclear, although it's nice that towns/restaurants are nearby. It's one of the only locations that would make Spring Creek a reasonable possibility for a hard trail.

2). Something west of Boulder and north of Central City. I don't know where you'd stay. There's lots of trails around Central City, plus Jenny Creek, St.Vrain/Coney flats, Gillespie Gulch, Left Hand Canyon and its off-shoots. Nearly all of those trails are easy to moderate.

3). I know last year Mark suggested the Glenwood Springs area. The idea of the town and hot springs nearby is nice. I haven't done any trails in that area, so I don't know how to gauge that, or if we can split the group across 3 trails each day.

4). Crested Butte/Aspen/Marble. I really think this area should be in the future of CO4RJ one of these years. It's awesome scenery with some moderate trails. I'm not aware of difficult trails. I'm really not familiar with it and I haven't done most of those trails yet. Pearl Pass might be open by mid-August. Darren would be a great resource for ideas for this area. You might be able to combine this with one day of trails near Glenwood Springs, but I don't know. One disadvantage is it doesn't work well with our group size, since most people would want to do those same trails. It would be pretty easy to fall into in a Ouray-style huge group on those trails, which is probably a bad idea. Also, we might need to stay in different towns each night while going around a big loop of trails???

5). Ouray area and Montrose. A bunch of easy to moderate trails with awesome scenery. It seems like you'd end up doing just about the same trails/loops anytime you go to Ouray. Most people still remember when we were there, so it's probably still too soon to go back. I've seen many of the Montrose trails, which I ended up parking my 4Runner near the entrance of them since they were too hard. They all are in the class of best having an exo and at least 37's.

6). I haven't been to Avalanche Ranch. I doubt they have much to satisfy the majority of the group that would want moderate trails. Their easiest trails might even be tough for the very modified crowd.

7). Grand Junction area - I don't think there's enough nearby trails for the size of our group, but I must say that Battlement Resevoir near Parachute is an awesome moderate trail. I had a lot of fun on it a couple years ago. I'd rate it a 6 on the easy lines and an 8 on the hard lines. Then north of Grand Junction, there's 21 Road, which is very difficult. It's an 8 or a 9 and changes every year due to erosion in the gulley/canyon. It has a LOT of bypasses, but still some mandatory hard core sections. When I did it in 2000, I was lucky I didn't take out my entire rear quarter panel. I still added a few thousand dollars of damage that set the stage for many other mods that I did. It seems so much better to just continue past Grand Junction and go to Moab.