9 AM??? I work till 2 am Friday morning (Thursday night) That's a bit early for me.

The traditional wheelers meeting place in BV is Gunsmoke truckstop at Johnson's Corner.

Not sure if a Mapquest link will work. Its a truck stop with a huge dirt parking lot near the intersection of Hwy 24 and Hwy 285. South side of 24, between the Arkansas River and 285.

On GPS its 38.8*N Lat and 106.1* W Long.

Let's meet there at 10 AMish Friday.

 

Friday day? Uh, I thought it was Friday night/Sat morn?

Where exactly are we planning to camp, and what trail(s) are we thinking at this point?

I normally get off work at 8 PM, but could work out getting off a few hours early and being there Friday night some time.

Oh, and it's Johnson Village, not Corner. Though that is at a corner on 285.

 

Friday day and night and Saturday day, Right? We can pre-set a camping spot and time for you to meet us and join in on the fun Saturday Darren.

Do you guys want to meet and set up camp and then wheel Friday or haul camping gear on Friday's trails and set up in the evening?

 

Okay, does Alan work nights then? I didn't catch that I guess. He said he'd come up after work on Friday, so I don't know.

And I'm guessing you (Matt) work on Sundays?

Anyway, WHERE IS THE CAMPSITE AND WHAT TRAILS ARE GOING TO BE RUN?

 

I work some Sundays and have others off. If I request it now I can probably get sunday off or get a shift where I go in at 5PM.

Suggestions are still being taken regarding trails to run and specific camping areas. How about Chinaman's?

I tried Hancock a few days ago and got burried in snow. It took me two hours to dig and jack and stack rocks under the tires to get myself out. Trails around St. Elmo may or may not be passable at the time we want to go. I'd be much more willing to break trail if I know someone can pull me out rather than having to dig out.

 

Chinaman's sounds good except I don't have my sliders yet. How difficult is that trail? Is it a rocker panel eater?

 

Chinaman's with no sliders could get ugly. I ripped a fender flare off on that trail and spent quite a bit of effort getting the damaged one back on.

I have been wanting to go to Chinamans so bad. But I'm out for your trip. With my wife due in a few weeks with our second. I'm gonna be limited this summer for wheelin'.

Chinaman's will be your only option for "difficult" trail's this time of year in that area. But, exploring forest back roads. Bashing snow, kickin' mud and moving fallen trees off the trail is a lot of fun.

I could suggest one of my hot spots. Drive south over Poncha Pass a few miles and turn right on one of the forest service roads. This takes you into a network of roads that are a lot of fun to explore. Continuing over the mountains on these roads takes you to Bonanza or over to the bottom of Marshall Pass. Being remote and off the beatin' path, camping is excellent and abundant.

I have albums on webshots of my Chinamans run (with oics of Matt) and the truck I accidentially rolled over on those Poncha Pass roads.

Webshots

 

I need to clarify...I work days. I meant I wouldn't get to BV until 9 PM, maybe later. I cannot take Friday off as I am too new to the job. I will be sleeping in the back of my truck so I won't have to pack/unpack/repack a tent. I figured we would wheel most of Saturday. I wouldn't mind staying over Saturday night and driving back Sunday morning.

If Chinaman's is a fender and rocker panel eater and that's the only trail open, count me out. I just paid for my sliders and probably won't see them on my doorstep for another two weeks or more. If everyone has their heart set on Chinaman's, I'll still make the drive to BV to visit with everyone, but I'll probably spend the day on Taylor instead.
If Tincup or Weston are open, I'd rather do those as they aren't as prone to taking a suvenir from my truck.

 

Yep Alan, you are hauling a bit too much chrome around to have much fun on Chinaman's. The Whale rock is not at all kind to stock rear bumpers.

I'd like to take another shot at Hancock if you guys are willing to yank me out and turn around if I get burried again. Weston and Tincup should be passable but those two passes hardly fill two days of wheeling. Linking the two via Taylor or Pearl pass might be fun to try but also improbable.

So that leaves Tincup, Cottonwood, up the highway to Weston and a free afternoon.

An alternative would be to meet in Fairplay, run Weston east to west and do it in reverse order from what has been proposed. Cottonwood, Tincup and if time permits, Hancock, Alpine tunnel, Pomeroy lake and that neighborhood.

I'm supposed to lead Hancock on Friday of CO4RJ in August when it will be clear but i've never done it. I need to check it out before I lead people over it.

Still open to suggestions.

 

Boy, planning these things over the internet is not as easy as it seems.

Should we scrap the camping on Friday night and make it a Saturday , camp, Sunday thing?

As of this moment its not too late for me to request Sat and sunday off with a day shift till 5 PM Friday. If I pull the trigger within the next 5 hours or so I'm 70% certain I can make that happen.

Maybe i'll just take 4 days off without telling them. J/K.

I worked from 10:30 AM to 1:30 AM yesterday with a one hour nap break. I'm pretty sure that's 14 or 15 hours, i'm too tired to count still. They owe me a big favor.

 

I was just going to ask if you happened to request Sunday off. I'm game for arriving Friday night and leaving Sunday, or if we arrive on Saturday morning and leave on Sunday, that's fine too. Any combination of trails/roads are fine by me. It will be nice, as you said, to get away with the Toyota buddies up in the hills.

I just met a new CO wheeler today, Ashu ("ts1"), and invited him along. He was the one that moved here from Seattle within the past couple of weeks. Great guy. 10 minutes away from me. Not sure if he'll be able to attend or not yet. Why don't the rest of you bug him until he says "yes!" No pressure, Ashu!

 

That's cool ts1 moved to Denver. Look's like he has a sweet red 2000. Welcome! Were getting a nice collection of Runners in the Denver area now.

Be prepared to get turned around at the top of Tincup. That section of road right near the top on the east side usually has mammoth drifts. Plus it's a shelf road with a lot of exposure. I suppose the same goes with the other passes listed. Except Cottonwood. Don't get me wrong it would be fun trying. Wish I could go.

 

How about this...
We meet at the Texaco near the intersection of 285 & 24 outside of Buena Vista. If I leave right after work (5 PM) Friday, I could be there by 8:30-9:00. That's taking into account shotty traffic on I-25 and 285. I might be there even earlier. From there, we figure out a place to camp that night, probably in Nathrop. Saturday morning we'll drive Hancock Pass/Alpine Tunnel. Saturday afternoon, we'll drive over Cottonwood and scout out a camping spot and Tincup Pass and whatever else we want to do. We can refuel in Nathrop and Buena Vista.

Or, to keep things simple, we can meet at the Texaco on Friday night. From there, we can drive over Cottonwood, find a camp spot, and have a group discussion over what trails we want to take Saturday and Sunday. I don't care what trail we take as long as I don't come back missing a fender/bumper/pride.

By the way, I don't have a CB yet.

 

Alan, where do you work at? I can arrange to get off work (Dry Creek & Colorado, Littleton) at 5 as well, or earlier if need be. We can meet somewhere in town and caravan up to Johnson Village. What do you think?

Don't worry about not having a CB. I didn't have one for the longest time. I can borrow my folks' 2-way handheld family radio units (1 pair) which will be better than nothing. Or, come to think of it, I believe Scott uses a hand-held CB unit I bet he'd let us borrow. I'll email him if he doesn't respond here, and I could pick it up some time Monday if he's willing.

So Matt and Adrian, does ~7-8 on Friday at Johnson Village sound good? Adrian, the truck stop mentioned earlier is the first place on your right just after 285 elbows east a few miles before Buena Vista.

I'm not sure what all is in Nathrop other than an open pay campground, but I thought we'd head a little west and look for an area in the national forest. Looks like I'll have to use my stadium/flying saucer lighting for setting up camp! :alien:

It'll be nice to get out again. I'm looking forward to this. Summertime in the Rockies is here!

 

Darren,
You can swing by and get that handheld cb and window mount antenea any evening. Just let me know.
Scott

 

Darren-
I'm up the street from you at Colorado and I-25. How convenient. Shall we meet at Colorado & Hampden somewhere? Or, we can meet at the Conoco on Bowles & C-470. That way, it's a straight shot out C-470 for you and I can go down Hampden. Either way, doesn't matter to me.

Thank you Darren & Scott. Much appreciated!

 

While picking up Scott's CB tonight, he passed along a couple of route ideas.

The first one being Union Park just south of Taylor Reservoir via a 4WD road and is one of his favorite areas. It could be too that this may still be under snow. We'll have a better idea on Saturday. I love TopoZone!

And Scott, you mentioned the other one that parallels that road, but I don't see it. Is it further to the west?

Also, maybe for a camping spot on Friday night, we could camp along off of the Cottonwood Pass road. Scott mentioned that there are a couple of spurs off of the pass road on the east side near the switchbacks with some great spots. I'm guessing this might be one of them. Click on the 1:25,000 scale to zoom in (if you aren't familiar with topo maps ).

 

Looks like i'm going to be scheduled off Friday and Saturday with perhaps a late shift Sunday, (Go in at 5 PM) perhaps off Sunday. I won't find out till tomorrow evening, I'll post around this time tomorrow night.

About camping on Ptarmigan Creek at near 11,200 feet... I'd rather stay at Cottonwood Inn in a room with hot springs right out side.

Weather forecast, BV friday night low 40* That's at 8,900 or so. Camping near timberline at 11,000 = lots of wind and frigid cold = no sleep. Been there, done that, didn't like it much.

Timewise, looks like i'm free till 2 PM-ish Sunday afternoon. Regarding trails we hit, its probably best to have backup plans if we find huge snowbanks on narrow shelf roads.
Union park looks interesting.

 

The 4x4 section of the Union Park road starts on the bottom of the map you dispayed. Just after you cross the Lotis Creek.

The other area is east of the "Creek" in Willow Creek on your map. And is a cool dead end road that goes up Sanford Creek. With of course other roads to explore nearby. This would be near the main Tincup road in case you were pressed for time.

Scott

 

Bad news... I have to be to work 6 PM Saturday night.