I want to go wheeling! Colorado front range members, what would you think about doing a low elevation easy trail like Lefthand Canyon Playground on Saturday Dec. 7 (my 28th birthday)? Lefthand is easy to find and the part of the trail I want to do is easy for any stock 4x4. I just want to go to the playground where there is all kinds of terrain from very easy to very hard and plenty of stuff in between on the difficulty scale.

For anyone who has never been to Lefthand, its just northwest of Boulder off of US 36. Roughly 40.8 N Latitude and 105.4 W Longitude for you GPS guys. The playground is about 1.25 miles from the paved Lefthand Canyon Road. Its about the size of 2 football fields side by side and offers options to everyone regardless of modification and driver ability. Being so close to the paved road it can be a short half day trip or longer if we explore some of the upper trails. I want to be done at around 4PM so I can go home and enjoy the rest of my birthday with my non offroading friends.

We will meet at the intersection of hwy 36 and the paved Lefthand Canyon road at 9:30-10:00. There is a small cluster of houses and buildings there that is named Altona on the DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer. I'll be on the east side of 36, there's a nice wide pull off there if I recall correctly. Bring your cameras. CB channel 4 unless it has a lot of traffic, 8 as a backup. Reply here or e-mail me jx94148@yahoo.com if you are interested.

Depending on feedback we can do another trail closer to CO Springs off of Old Stage and Gold Camp roads or something near Monument like Mount Herman Road. I want to keep it easy for stock rigs. I picked Lefthand because its close for the Denver area members.

 

Hi Darren, long time no see. I'm glad you can make it. I think I'll throw out an invite on ODW to, I just wanted to see who was reading over here.

 

did lefthand yesterday, has quite a bit of snow on it. i suppose it will stay that way the rest of winter...

 

Its a popular trail, and pretty short. It sees a good deal of traffic on a weekend day. Only a big dump of fresh powder would make is impassible for stockers with highway tires. There most likely will be tracks cut thorugh whatever snow is there, if not, i'll make them. It will have to be a game day decision for each driver regerding the weather. Negotiating the traffic on the turnpike will probably be tougher than getting to the playground. I personally have enough equipment to make sure everyone gets there and back. The playground itself in not very steep. There is only one short steepish climb to get there.

 

we had no trouble doing the trail, only that rutted hill to the playground, i assume thats what hill your talking about. only part that gets sketch is the turns coming down if theyre icy, almost rolled my truck sun. on one of those turns.

 

so this still on?

 

Yep, i'll be there at about 9:30. Jaderunner from ODW says he will try to come, Darren, Sizzletits, (can't say that name without smiling) Myself and whoever else shows up. I didn't want it to be a big group anyway, 4-6 rigs is about right.

 

ill try and make this. could bring a few jeepers if u want more people. maybe 1-2 more. otherwise ill see u there. hopefully.

 

dammit, im pissed, i want to go, but i have to do a furniture delivery sat at 12.

 

Sorry to hear you can't make it Sizzletits. I hope you can do something with the forum crew over the winter like the Georgetown Ice Races.

 

Don't forget your cameras!!
See you in the morning.
This will be the first use of my new Staun deflator dodads. I think I have them set for 18 PSI.

 

Hey Sizzle,

I shlep furniture for a living. Who are you working for? Commercial or Residential.

 

work for a store called "Best Interiors" every now and then when they need help on weekends doing deliveries.

 

There is a designer in my office looking to move to the Denver area, met her boyfriend on the internet - :rolleyes:

How far are you from Denver?

 

To my amazement there were 6 rigs today, all 3rd gen 4Runners except for me.

Myself
Darren
Sherpa4Runner, with passenger Scott
JadeRunner
Aurora Sandman, with wife Donna and 2 sons ages 1 and 3
Jade's friend Randy...

All but Randy I have wheeled with several times before on 4x4wire runs.

For a while I thought it would only be Darren and I. We had a lot of fun but I can't prove it because I forgot my camera.

:pat:

I hadn't seen any of those guys since the CO4RJ in August. The weather was beautiful, the area was suprisingly uncroweded. However there was tons of trash as usual. Another cleanup effort is needed like we did there last March. I finally made it up a certain steep, jagged rock wall that the old ATs never would grip. Jade got it on video with his fancy new digicam. If he puts it up i'll link to it.

I got my wheeling fix for the month. Thanks to all who came out.

 

did u guys run carnage or lefthand?

 

Lefty and 2 of the upper trails above the playground.

 

I had a good time with you guys. I do have a good video of Mike, Matt and I going up that steep little hill. But, I don't have web space to post it yet.

On my way out I was in a little bit of a hurry when I went through one of those big ravines just below the playground. I managed to flex my rear axle hard enough to get the infamous drive shaft\gas tank contact. But this time it hit in a different place than in the past. Which knocked off the grease zerk. Not a big deal to fix though. I'm am overdue in taking my gas tank skid plate off and pounding it straight again.

 

Sounds like you guys had a great time.

Scott, how big is the vid?
Depending on the size, I might be able to host it.

If I post to big of ones, it shuts down my site for awhile from all the traffic.

 

Here's the pics I have. Stupid me though, I think Jade's (Scott) Runner is the only one I didn't get. :pat:

http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand1.jpg
Mine, Sherpa's (Scott) and Randy's (JadeRunner's friend) wife's Runner


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand2.jpg
Trail at the head of the rock garden looking the other direction (S, SE) which leads to the playground (no pics taken there).


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand3.jpg


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand4.jpg
Matt leading the way


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand5.jpg


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand6.jpg
Randy's stock '97/'98 got hung up here. I think due to the running boards. It's locked and I'm still confused how he didn't make this. Close-up of this area is the next pic.


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand7.jpg
Mike (aurora sandman) & Donna Brown's


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand8.jpg


http://pics.montypics.com/Darren/200.../lefthand9.jpg


As with all 2D photography, it's tough to gauge depth and the actual size of rocks. There are, in fact, some decent size rocks in a couple of these pics. Pretty fun trail.

My Staun tire deflators finally came yesterday. These things are absolutely sweet as I got to use Matt's this past weekend. I'm lookin' forward to the next run to try 'em out, and the next one, and . . .