I'm leading a Rising Sun Club Run at Chinaman's Gulch next Sat. in case anyone here is interested.

Date: Sat. Nov. 15th.
Time: Meet at 9:30 - Leave at 10am
Place: Gunsmoke Truck Stop at Johnson Village - HWY285. This is about 2 hrs. from Denver.

I'm sure many of you remember it from the Jamboree. Sliders, a locker and confident driving skills are required. If you don't have these you probably won't have a good day. On the other hand if you have all these then this trail is a blast!

Hopefully there won't be too much snow. But, it could be a little slick. I will change the venue at the last moment if there is too much snow. I'll be calling the Gunsmoke truck stop to check the conditions in the valley a few days before the run.

 

Scott, I thought we were talking about meeting at 10:30. That must have changed.

According to MapQuest, Buena Vista, (where we're meeting), is 128.12 miles from my house, a 2 hours, 42 minute drive. I know with absolute certainty that I'm not going to have my family out the door by 6:50 AM. I may not be able to make this one, although I was looking forward to it.

 

I bummpd back the time from 9:30 to 10:00 for you. I drive it in 1:45min from my house. 2:15min would be a safe estimate for you.

 

We'll be at about 30,000 feet somwhere between Chicago and Denver at 10:00 on sat.

Wish I could make this run.

Have fun.

 

Too bad Mojo. Maybe we hook up an a snow run this winter.

I hope there won't be too much snow at Chinaman's next weekend. I ripped open a sidewall today at Spring Creek. I was going a little too fast up the snowy shelf road and hit a rock pretty hard.

 

I won't be joyriding for a while guys. I have a transmission issue that's keeping me close to home till I get around to fixing it. Input shaft bearing is complaining pretty loudly. I'm scared that i'll have a big breakdown if I try anything hard.



Have fun everyone.

 

In my humble opion, doing Chinaman's with any snow is living dangerously. There is much too much off-camber stuff on Chinaman's where traction is your only allie. (You may have a very long day turning someone back over.)

I won't be there because we have a dinner engagement with some friends at 5:00 that day. If I went on the run, there's no way I'd be back in town early enough.

 

I called the Gunsmoke Truck stop today and they said it's dry. They had a dusting of snow Wed. night. But thats it.

Scott

 

That sounds good. Have a good time! Be sure and take some video.

 

Good luck tomorrow.

Doing that with sleet and hail was bad enough, I would start crying if there were snow.

I thought that all the trails started closing at this time of year, what gives?

 

I don't think most of the trails are gated. They just don't get run because they're covered in snow.

 

It's was just Michael Aaron (from Rising Sun) and I. Again I had a heck of a time getting anyone to come on this run for some reason. It was a pretty nice day and there was only some small traces of snow on the trail in a few spots. Michael has an completely locked FJ80 on 35's and worked hard at conquering the optional Yoder Rock obstacle. He 'beached" himself up on it pretty good. Requiring a winch backwards from me to get him free. He then worked at it some more, until he conquered it with an impressive non-typical line on the big rock to the left. I passed on this obstacle again. It's way over my head now. Since all the dirt and loose rock stacking rocks have been removed.

He tried the hard line on Whale Rock but couldn't quite make it. He almost had it, but wisely decided to back down. In the process of flexing and working his automatic, his tranni line blew off and he lost several quarts of fluid. We fixed the line and I went back to town for 5 more quarts. We put that in and he was ready to complete the loop and call it a day.

I decided to try the double whammy obstacle this time. I promptly beached myself. Michael gave me a quick tug backwards a foot or so to get me free. He spotted me on a slightly different line and I managed to grind my way over. I then successfully negotiated the second part near a tree. I was very close to it but came away unscathed. The second part of this obstacle, about 10 feet after the double whammy, is quite difficult now. Sorry no pictures of me on this obstacle. Just video.

Going back down through the tight squeeze obstacle near the end of the trail, Michael almost ripped his rear fender flare off. But, it's actually still attached. I came extremely close as well, but used my sliders more this time which kept me out of trouble.

Here's a few pictures.
http://community.webshots.com/album/100330155tkwAOG

 

My humble cheese wheeling opinion is to go left of Yoder Rock, that line treated me well.

It is too bad that Mike had camera issues because I like the slicing across to the left line on the Double Whammy as well.

The Whale Rock pics look great and it sounds like a good time in general.

Maybe next year there will be a red runner out in that area providing a good excuse to be on the trail every weekend.

Where is the vid you speak of?

 

Wish you could have made it Adian. You would have had a blast. I'll have to show your the vids sometime.