As we were wrapping up last year's CO4RJ (Colorado 4Runner Jamboree), talk "around the campfire" was that we should hold the event in Moab next year (UT4RJ?). The reasons were: many of us haven't been there, it's very cool, it's closer for our Western participants, and we'd enjoy a change of scenery.

So Jeff the Marmot is planning to organize a Utah trip for us (which will likely be in September).

Nevertheless, some have said they're still interested in getting together this summer in Colorado. Well, Jeff, understandably, doesn't want that on his plate. So Scott Yoder (JadeRunner) and I have volunteered to organize a Colorado gathering.

Here's the "vision" at this point:

1. Have the Colorado event more low-key planning-wise (making it easier on Scott and me) and have it be geared more for locals.
2. Have it at the same place as last year: same campground, same trails more or less. (Last year was Buena Vista, Colorado.)
3. Have it on a Saturday and Sunday so locals can attend without necessarily having to take any time off work.
4. Others are just as welcome to attend, but we'd encourage them to make it out to Moab if they have to choose between gatherings.

August 21 & 22 (a Saturday and Sunday) are the dates we have in our sights at this point. I haven't yet confirmed that the campsite is available, which is obviously important, so don't mark your calendars just yet.

I'm opening this thread to see if anyone has any major objections to this. I'm sure some out of town folks will be disappointed that it's only two days, but there's nothing precluding them from arriving a day early or a day late to get in some more trails. (And I'm sure we could probably get some "locals" to join you. Don't take difficult trails alone, make sure you're with another vehicle.)

Please post any ideas/concerns/insults/etc.

 

Giddy Up!

 

The Saturday and Sunday deal does cater better to locals, but I would likely get in to camp late Wednesday to wheel Thursday and Friday as well, if things work out.

Sounds great though on the location, just about the right distance to pull in a hard days drive for me. It was such a blast last time, but there will be no Iron Thong on this go, right? It is still paved.

I am looking forward to finally getting to wheel with Yoder in what will likely be my third CO4RJ.

Why not make it a Friday too so that people who come from a ways away can still have a big deal in hopes of not making Moab prohibitively large?

 

I'd be up for a pre-CO4RJ run on Friday. So we get in Thurs and hit it on Fri!

 

It will be a toss-up on which one I can hit (UT vs. CO). For sure one of them, just don't know for sure which month will be best for me. I will get there early enough to do a couple of days worth of trails prior to the official Jambo dates. Need to make the most of the trip and this will be another opportunity for the wife and I to check out possible retirement locations (20 yrs in Military not Social Security retirement ).

 

We wanted to avoid extensive planning, and planning for only two days seemed like it would be easier. Since some of you guys were there last year, you could serve as trail guides for any pre-run days.

The truth be known, I have a wedding to attend the weekend before in Wisconsin, and I won't be back in Denver until Wednesday. I'll need a day to pack for the trip, so a Friday run will likely not be in the cards for me. And I think Scott just won't have the tme to take off work.

 

Hell, you and Flyg can caravan

 

I may be in Leadville visiting my brother-in-law that same week. I will most likely be flying out due to time issues, but if someone doesnt mind a passenger--I would love to tag along.

 

The irony of this is that I would likely leave Tuesday morning if I am going solo so I could get into camp by Wednesday night. I will be coming from Wisconsin for the Colorado trip, but I may be coming from Colorado or elsewhere for the Moab trip if all goes well.

I know this is a long way off yet, but I will 95% surely be there early and happy to wheel with whoever will be there and looking for trouble. I did Chinamen's, Iron Cross and Holy Cross last year and would be happy to rerun any or all of those. Guess it is time to put up or shut up on the Whale Rock big balls line.

As for passenger seats, there are usually a few. I am not sure about mine, but when I know, I will post up. Jayson took a cruise in the Cheese ship on Holy Cross and I got him back to camp without issue.

Pretty much hit the same stuff as last year? Maybe even see the real Yoder on Yoder Rock???

 

I'll be psyched to see what I can do with lockers, no more bunny hills.

It will be nice to see everyone again too!

I wonder if the AZ crew will venture up again? I bet Mojo will have a nice new thong design for those late nights dancin' around the campfire...where did those pics of Schaefer go anyways??? JK~

 

I'm not sure if Iron Chest has been re-constructed to be a 4x4 trail again. But Adian, you really should plan to do Wheeler Lake this year. It's a fun trial, and extremely beautiful. Sheaffer even told me afterwards that that trail really made the weekend for him.

Marc, I'm sure we'll be able to find room for extra passengers; there's usually a lot of single guys on the trip. Good to hear everyone's getting excited agian!

 

Okay, I just called the Chalk Creek Campground and made reservations for the same group site we had last year (sites T11 & T12) for the evenings of August 19-22. That will accomodate people arriving as early as Thrusday and leaving as late as Monday morning. The cost will be $6.50 per person per night. There's no charge for children 3 and under.

If someone (like Adrian) wants to arrive on Wednesday, they'll need to contact the campground and make arrangements.

Gentelmen, start your engines!

:bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2:

 

I'll do the CO one for sure and it'll be my first.

 

I will be happy to do any and all trails. For the crap I got about needing two pairs of pants, I will chose my trails more carefully this time.

No posts from Arizonans? You guys are a lot of fun and I know you need another crack at some of the stuff that went rough last year.

Anyone debating the trip who would be up for "harder" stuff, count on at least a Friday fun run, maybe Thursday too. I am going to need someone to keep me out of trouble.

 

Good job planning. I hope to make it to CO4RJ this year. I might be temporarily working in CA over the summer. Not sure yet. I'll find out soon. If I can make it, I'd probably only help with leading a trail or two depending if you need the help.

As far as Moab is concerned, that'll be a separate thread, but I need to mention here that it's even more strongly limited by the BLM than I expected. I've carefully researched this recently. Anything over 25 vehicles for a non-commercial non-profit gathering of friends for 4 wheeling requires a BLM permit in the Moab area. A permit would take a massive amount of effort and would REALLY suck, including getting liability insurance, which leads to multiple other requirements. That's just not going to happen. So, back on topic - the reason I mention that in this thread is that the Moab gathering will be strictly limited in size, so I encourage people to go to CO4RJ in case not everyone will be able to fit under the limit at Moab. Realistically, I now expect that the Moab gathering to likely be the same size as the CO4RJ gathering. Moab will probably happen in October and might be called M4R4A (Moab 4Runner Foray) to get away from "Jamboree".

 

I'm thinking maybe I should ask for volunteers to lead runs on Friday, and then we could just make this officially a 3-day event. That probably wouldn't be too hard since we ran the same trails last year. I'm thinking Holy Cross would probably be a good trail for Friday; it gets a lot of traffic on the weekends that we would probably want to avoid.

 

Okay, so what I'm hearing is maybe the CO4RJ should still as big an event as ever. Actually, I think it's probalby going to be whether we plan for it to be or not.

Now I need to get information and sign-up pages set up for it. Jeff, is it okay with you if I just more-or-less copy the ones you prepared last year? I know the link is still up. I wouldn't have any trouble customizing it.

 

I will look at taking Friday off. That's not out of the question.

 

Yes, that's correct, since Moab might be kinda "limiting".

Yeah, I've been too lazy to take down last year's info page. Copy away. I'll get the old one down later this week. I also have the php page that I made for trail sign-ups. That really helped with my organization last year because I could see how quickly each trail was filling up - I went from 2 trails/day to 3 trails/day because of the sign-ups. I'd be happy to still host the php stuff on the trailseeker.com website if you want, but direct the registration results to you if you want to do it that way. Otherwise, I need to send you the php script. Hopefully it'll work OK on your ISP. You should probably copy the html info page to your site so you can easily add updates like I did last year.

 

You know what? I'm thinking I might be able to get us back from Wisconsin a day earlier. (We're flying, and we don't have reservations yet.)

Would anyone have any objections to us running the same trails as last year? If Iron Chest is still graded, I'm thinking we might want to skip it. Of cource, we need to watch that the group sizes don't get too large. But other than that, any thoughts? I didn't go on any of the easy runs, so I don't know whether or not we should re-evaluate the choice of those.