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Alpine Loop - Cinnamon / Engineer / Mineral Creek

md21722

NAXJA Forum User
Location
TN
Went on the Alpine Loop 6/17. Thought the Cinnamon was supposed to be run East, but all we saw was rental Jeep's heading towards us as we headed towards Silverton/Animas Forks from Lake City. We also took Mineral Creek to Engineer Pass. We saw 2 dirt bikes, a bunch of ATV's and ATV buggy's, and one JK. Mineral Creek is supposedly more difficult the first two miles but we found the entire trail about the same. The most challenging was one a corner where a stream was running through. At one point our XJ had one wheel in the air. Once on Engineer, road crews had plowed snow higher than our Jeep. At the summit a bunch of the ATV's that we had let pass were impressed at our mildly lifted Cherokee (2.5-3" on 30's). The road back to Lake City was easy. Nice and scenic.

On problems with the Jeep were a broken radio mount between Animas Forks and Silverton, the rear hatch started giving us difficulty, and a CEL just past the summit of Engineer Pass. Back in Gunnison I stopped at O'Reilly's who immediately asked "Where are you from?" I told them what we had been doing. They said it would probably clear in a few driving cycles and it did.
 
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