Grant's CO Trek Schedule -aka "the Triple Double Black

OK, I will be running some trails instead of the convention. This is not an official get-together, but if anyone wants to join me on the trails consider this an invitation. A tentative shcedule is laid out below, keep in mind we need to stay flexible to allow for changing weather conditions.

Tuesday July 30th - Very early start to Mt Blanca, usually a two day trip, camping restrictions currently in place mean it will be up and down in one day.
Wednesday July 31st - Drive to Buena Vista, visit Tomken Machine, set up camp. Run trails in the area, most likely Old Chinamen's Gulch. Meet up with any of the crowd still possibly staying at Taylor Reservoir.
Thusday Aug 1st- Iron Chest, those wanting easier can run Mt Antero or Pomeroy Lake.
Friday Aug 2nd, Holy Cross City, camp at the city
Sat Aug 3rd, down from Holy Cross, and meet the CO-XJ guys to socialize and run trails together on Sunday Aug 4th.

I would suggest making Buena Vista a base camp for this if needed. Although Mt Blanca is a couple hours to the South, BV is centrally located to IronChest and Holy Cross and is near to Taylor reservoir. It also contains any sort of service we may need, from auto parts to Motels. There are developed campgrounds, and plenty of undeveloped camping. The toursist season has been exceptionally slow as the low rivers have precluded much of the rafting business, so booking accomodation at this late stage will not be a problem.

If you are going to attempt Holy Cross then be prepared to camp that night at the old mining town. also be prepared for the schedule to change a little, we may run IronChest on Wednesday and then Holy Cross Thurs and Fri depending on Mt Blanca on Tuesday.

If you are travelling from out of state, you may want to meet us at Blanca and then head north from there. Mt Blanca is located in south central CO, from the east take I-25 to Walsenburg and head west until Blanca then head north to the trail. From the west - the best route may be I-70 to the Leadville exit and head south to Buena Vista, set up camp, then continue south to Alamosa then east to Blanca and north to the trail.

Mt Blanca is kinda isolated on it's own, so if you choose not to run the trail but still want to run the other trails, then you may want to meet me in Buena Vista. Maybe Tuesday night, if we get done with Blanca by 4pm, otherwise Wednesday mid am.

I hesitate to stipulate vehicle requirements, but would suggest the following as minimums. enough lift for 31" tires, one locker. As much rocker/body/undercarriage protection as you feel you need. The trails are all "difficult" rating 8 or 9 out of 10. But they fall way short of the "extreme" trails like Independance, Kremmling, or Montrose. With 31" tires you stand some chance of body damage. With 35" tires you are NOT guaranteed to avoid damage. Basically a capable trail rig that would be at home in Moab, the Rubicon or Tellico. These trails are not suitable for stocker XJ's but there are many trails in the area that are, so join us anyway and run your own trails during the day if you like.

A brief trail description.
Mt Blanca is a trail up a mountain, amazing scenery. 3 or 4 difficult obstacles, no bypasses. Obstacles named Jaws. the worst would be similar to the can opener rock in the Sluice at Rubicon.
IronChest - the first mile of trail is a rock strewn gully that is always challenging as the rocks re-arrange themselves after each vehicle. Also a VERY offcamber section on the upper part of the trail.
Holy Cross City - old mining trail, medium to French Creek then a difficult obstacle before the city. Two extreme obstacles above the city are optional FUN. Amazing scenery. Old mining town ruins.

So if you are thinking of joining me for some fun here in CO - please answer below.

To stress again, this is not an official convention, just me and some Jeepin' buddies running trails. Join me for all or some or none of the time. It is gonna be a bunch of Jeepin fun.

Grant

This sounds good to me. Where do you want to camp on the 29th? Do we still meet at Taylor, or is there someplace closer to Mt. Blanca where we could all meet? If it's Taylor, should I make a reservation though Thurs. night? Whatever you think is best.

PS Does Tomken know that we're coming, or are we just going to gang up up and take our grudges out on them?

Eric, I will post a meeting place for Blanca next week sometime for those wanting to meet us near the trail. Otherwise I suggest making Buena Vista base camp and travelling to the trails as needed. The closest town to Blanca that is worthwhile is Alamosa. I have a CO XJ'er scouting the trail this coming weekend and he will report on the camping situation. It has been a couple years since I did the trail last and the current fire restrictions mean we cannot camp at the top, up and down in a day. There is a lot of camping nearby, but this is one of the hotter area's of CO, whereas Buena Vista is at a higher elevation and is a little cooler.

If you want to establish a meeting place then Buena Vista would be fine. We need to depart BV early on Tuesday morning to get a full day on the trail (it will be the longest day of the week). I like to be off the mountain by mid afternoon (thunderstorms and all) so we will meet and be ready to depart the City market at 6:30 am. I will only arrive late Monday night, possibly only showing up for Tuesday morning, but i will meet everyone in BV and then convoy down to Mt Blanca.

I would avoid the Taylor Reservoir camping. It is 45 mins drive from Buena Vista, although only about 10 miles as the crow flies. If you need to make reservations then I highly recommend Buena Vista. try fourteeners.net otherswise a search on Google will show all the motels and camping places.

BVista is central to the other trails but Mt Blanca is somewhat isolated. If you want to base yourself in BV that would be ideal, even if we come off Mt Blanca late BV is still within a couple hours drive. IronChest is close, Holy Cross is about 30 miles (an hours drive). If you go above French Creek on holy Cross you need to be prepared to camp that night. If you only go as far as the Creek you can easily return to BV that night.

I spoke to Tomken when I scouted the trails last month. They were not even aware of 's existence but are prepared to show us around. don't expect much, an hour or two at most, even though the new shop is ten times the size of their original place. This will not be the occasion to bad mouth them.


Grant

I think this sounds like a good plan. It should be fun, and these trails look scenic with some good wheeling. I also think we should find a campground in Buena Vista that we can all use, so we're together in the evenings and can find each other easily.

Bloose, are you bringing your tent trailer or are you going to stay in a cabin? What do you think of these plans?

Anyone have a recommendation of where to stay in Buena Vista? We'll be arriving sometime on Monday, and we could go to BV or someplace closer to Blanca for that first night.

I'm getting excited about this trip again.....

Richard G

Camping can be found at http://www.fourteenernet.com/camping.asp

I would recommend the KOA, as the others are further from town, but I have no personal experience with any of them. The above link also has accomodation available, as of today, the Best Western and Motel 6 have plenty of room during that time.

If you are looking for undeveloped camping then about 10 miles north of town is Clear Creek reservoir, which has a very scenic campground on the west side, only porta-lets, nothing else. There is also a lot of roughing it camping in the same area.

But the safest bet would probably be KOA.

I can co-ordinate bookings if everyone that wants booking emails me - [email protected]

Later

Colorado

Hey Grant,
Are you staying at the KOA or just a suggestion? I would like to stay wherever people would be meeting at night. If it's gonna be at KOA, I'd like to get a cabin there. If not, let me know what your plans are, I'm following your lead. If it's KOA we need to talk Bloose into staying there, come on Bloose, you'll be getting lots of Colorado on the trails 8) I can't wait to hit the trails, that's why I moved here. Also, I met a guy out here who has helped me out with some welding and other things and he wants to run Holy Cross with us. He's seems like a real good guy and the only reason I'm mentioning it is because some XJers might be offended by his truck. Its a Tacoma with 39 inch boggers, 9 inch rear, hp44 front and he did all the work himself. The offensive part is on the tailgate which says "Jeep Recovery Vehicle". He actually likes Jeeps (DD is an 84 XJ), he just has a sense of humor. Another plus is, he runs Holy Cross quite often and is very familiar with it. Talk to you soon, Crunch

Ok guys,
I just called the Buena Vista KOA. NONE of the cabins are available for our dates. They do, however have plenty of tent and RV sites available.
Since my wife and I aren't prepared to tent-it and don't have an RV, we checked the hotels in B.V..
Guess what? Unless you want a single room, single occupancy at $90 a night -- they are all booked as well. Apparently there will be hoards of people there that weekend for god knows what, but everything is getting booked. I didn't check the smaller/older hotels, just the ones listed on www.fourteenernet.com -- even Salida is getting booked.
Anyway, I found a Bed and Breakfast just 2 miles out of town that will work just fine. So, we'll plan on hanging out with whatever group ends up camping at the KOA during the evenings then driving to the B&B.
I guess I'll leave the overnight camping on Holy Cross thing to a later decision -- call it a mood thing I guess.
I'm gonna cancel my Three Rivers Resort reservations tomorrow -- no one better get any ideas about changing this thing back to that area! I'm losing $98 by canceling! :shock:
See you guys there -- and Bloose, suck it up and stay at the KOA !!!

Richard, I like the idea of camping near Mt. Blanca better than Grant's idea of a 6:30 departure time! (sorry, Grant). We can move to BV on Tuesday night, but then we'd be wheeling Mt. Blanca with a full load. I'm not sure if that's an issue or not on that trail.What is the closest town and/or camp near Mt. Blanca? We've had mixed success with KOA campgrounds, and some of us may be banned from there. I think everyone should click on Grant's link and check out the other camps. The KOA there seems kinda dry and barren. Crazy Horse looks interesting. It's cheaper, $19 compared to KOA's $23 tent sites. It is 5 miles north of BV, but it looks greener.They rent Jeeps, so I'm guessing that they are more Jeep friendly than KOA If we can get 10 or more people, we can get a group camp up on the hill away from other campers and the price goes down to $6 per tent.

KOA

KOA will work fine for us. I am definitly tugging the trailer. I will stay where everyone else is staying. Crunch are you going to the KOA?

B-loose

I wanted to..........

but YELLAHEEP called me today and he called for cabins and there were none to be had. I made reservations at the same place he did. It's a little B&B 2 miles out of BV. I feel bad now that I roused you and now won't be there anyway :x . I'm really looking forward to seeing the Looses again and maybe we can even wheel a little. See ya soon, Crunch

I could go for either the KOA or Crazy Horse, whatever is decided. I like the Crazy Horse because it looks nicer and has more amenities, but I like the KOA because it's in town and would be easier for us all to be together, and find each other each morning for the trail runs. I also like the idea of the group camp area at Crazy Horse, except that I doubt we will all stay exactly the same nights and so it may not be a savings....depends on how many actually plan to camp for most of the week. I'll be staying through Sunday night, and will leave for home sometime Monday. It looks like some of the folks want to get cabins or a room, so we need to see who will be camping.

I'm going to plan on driving to Alamosa, which is the closest town to MT Blanca, on Monday and will meet those coming down on Tuesday morning. This will work better for us, it will be a little shorter going out on I40 and heading north to CO than to take I70 and then head south. There is a KOA in Alamosa :roll: so I think we'll plan on staying there Monday night. I don't think it'll be a problem running Blanca while loaded up, it would be like doing Rubicon, Swamp, or Dusy, and normally I think we'd camp at the top anyway.

Actually, I wouldn't mind camping there in Alamosa both Monday and Tuesday night, if it let us have a more relaxed pace on MT Blanca. I'd like to go as far up the trail as possible so we get the best views and can do all the obstacles. IF we did that, maybe we could do one of the passes west of BV on the drive up there on Wednesday, or maybe do MT Antero. I'd like driving to the top of a fourteener. It looks like we'll be close to there when we do Iron Chest, so I'll defer to the CO folks on this, but I would like to get to the top of one of the tall ones at some point, if we have the time.

Richard G

Grant,

How many others are coming out with you? Just curious to see how many we may end up with for this "non-event".

Also, my wife has been to the Crazy Horse C.G. -- years ago -- but she said it was quite nice. The KOA should be nice overall as well but it is going to be east of B.V. along the highway and if I recall correctly when I've driven past it, it's located on a big, flat low land area -- no real "ambiance" if you dig what I'm saying.

Like Crunch said, we'll be staying at a B&B -- which turns out to be a bit cheaper than my original reservations at Three Rivers . So I'm all set --

See you all in B.V.!!!!!

Crazy Horse

KOA's always have conveinent access but are not always the nicest camping setting. The are usually clean and in nice shape though. Usually very nice for people who are traveling. Christine liked the idea of the KOA because she wants to stay behind one day and she figured she could walk into town. I personally don't like KOA's because of thier conveinence over camping experince approach. But they are very nice in certain situations.

I just looked at Crazy Horse and the KOA and Crazy Horse has a pool so that is where Christine wants to go, even though she probably will not be able to walk to town. Would that work out for others?

As far as the group camping sites water and electricity would be almost manditory for us.

B-loose

I found Alamosa's web site. They have a KOA(719-589-9757) and not much else if you want a hot shower. Sounds like that's settled for Monday night, I'll leave it up to Grant and the rest of you if we stay there on Tuesday night also. Richard and everyone else has pretty much summed up the pros and cons of the BV KOA and Crazy Horse. But no pool at the KOA? I'm leaning towards Crazy Horse for just that reason. Still I can go either way. Let's get some more votes. What are we up to now, 5 or 6 rigs with 1 to 2 people per rig?

I will go with whatever camp ground you guys choose. North of BV is more sheltered than South or east, so Crazy Horse is probably a better choice. It may not be as green as the photos when we are there in july.

As far as meeting for Mt Blanca, Goatman is right on the money heading up via I-40. The Alamosa KOA will be fine as a meeting point on Monday, then also would work for Tuesday. I will arrange a meeting place for first thing Tuesday am, near the trail for those wanting to meet us there. I will post that place later this week. Camping in Alamosa Mon and Tues will definitely make Mt Blanca less stressful.

Later
Grant

Mt Blanca
Grant and Carol
Goatman and his Dad
Erik

Then BV
Troy and Shari - Yellaheep
Bob Loose
Crunch (?)

CO-XJ'ers
Aaron Storms
Joe Furlong
Led
Scott M - Vail
Brian - Vail (possibly)

OK who have I missed?

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse is a go for us, unless others object. Give me a confimation and I will make a reservation. As far as I know Troy and Shari, and Crunch are all staying at a B+B. I think they are planning to hang at the CG for the evenings then go to the B+B.

Let me know about CH and I will make a reservation in the next day or two.


B-loose

That's exactly how I'd like to do it, good call. I'm supposed to be rafting in BV Monday, so I'll probably be there Monday night thru Saturday night.

Crazy Horse looks good to me. Grant, any ideas how we should go about making some reservations? We can each make our own, and say we're with the group, so they put our campsites next to each other. I'm planning to stay through Sunday night, and will head for home on Monday.

Richard G

I have just spoken to Crazy Horse. If there are ten people who are going to camp then a group site would be cheaper. Are there ten of us in total?

If not, I have explained who is, and she will TRY to keep us together when we phone and make individual bookings. I know some of us are planning on being in BV from Monday, but others may arrive after Mt Blanca, Wed am.

Do you want to make your own bookings? There is still camping available, as of Tuesday am.