Wheeling Mar. 22/23/24?

Nothing official, I'm just hoping to get out of the house. Do a little wheeling, maybe an overnight(weather permitting), head home, grab a beer and a burger somewhere.

I'll have the whole weekend free, and could free up Friday if it's better for anyone that wants to go with.

Let me know, I'd like to meet some of ya'll.

Only person I've met so far is Brian (Briboki) and I was supposed to be bringing him a 31x10.50 on a factory 15x7 alloy and it ended up being a 30x9.5 (the rest of the set was 31x10.50's, I thought the spare was full sized) so I ended up looking like an ass hole and wasting both of our time, and I'm sure I made him late for something yesterday morning. I felt really bad! So it's time for some positive encounters now! Sorry again Brian!! I really do owe you a lunch or some breakfast some time for that. Hit me up when you get back to town.
arty:

Where you planning on heading? I may be down for a day trip, but I don't think I want to be camping this early in the season, too cold!

Well, I'm down to hit I-70 and hit Empire's trail systems although I'm not sure what all is passable. So I'm down to go play in the snow there. I'd be down to run slaughterhouse but it goes quick for a near 12 mile loop. (maybe we could find something else close and run it too?) I feel like Left Hand Canyon could be challenging in these conditions, and I've never ran it.. Camping in this season is made a lot easier with the Jeep. If I had to carry all the gear on my back I typically take in the Jeep it'd make for some slow goings. Also got the option of sleeping in the rig. (take that wrangler guys!) It's kinda nice, I take a bunch of extra luxuries for camping when I Jeep it instead of hike in. My bed roll is nice and plush, well off the ground, very insulated, and quite cozy. I love camping in the winter.. There's no one else out there.

I live for being in the woods though. One year I spent some two hundred and sixty nights camping cause I didn't have a solid place to stay. It was awesome.

I'm also open to any suggestions.

Not sure about an overnight yet. I would totally be down, but the girl was complaining of being cold when we were camping last summer in June! I have spent nights above treeline in winter with no issues, other than being cold! Any thoughts as to where you are planning on heading? I have run slaughterhouse in the past, haven't taken the XJ out there yet, but I don't think there is a lot nearby, you could drop down to bailey and head towards wellington lake/stoney pass but that is easy enough for a passenger car. I have never run LHC, or many other boulder area trails.

Yeah, my lady gets cold in the middle of the summer camping too. Proper winter gear is an absolute must. My last time at Slaughterhouse almost ended really badly. I got exposed to a lot of carbon monoxide from the smoldering fire while I slept in my tent from the ever changing winds on the side of the mountain and had some toxicity for the next couple days that I had to try to work out of my system. I definitely wanna hit something with some degree of difficulty. How's your rig sitting currently?

Howdy,

I've been lurking on here for awhile, guess I should try and be friendly :wave:
Been itching to go wheeling since December, lol. I would be down for a day trip the afternoon of the 23rd or the 24th. Not sure about Camping though, I dont have much winter gear.

My rig is a little light, just started building this past summer. 31s and an Aussie in the rear, not sure how that compares to others?

Anyhow, would love to go! Ill keep an eye on this to see whats up!

JMadigan said:

Howdy,

I've been lurking on here for awhile, guess I should try and be friendly :wave:
Been itching to go wheeling since December, lol. I would be down for a day trip the afternoon of the 23rd or the 24th. Not sure about Camping though, I dont have much winter gear.

My rig is a little light, just started building this past summer. 31s and an Aussie in the rear, not sure how that compares to others?

Anyhow, would love to go! Ill keep an eye on this to see whats up!

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Awesome, the more the merrier. If ya'll got families we could go that route too. I was gonna leave my old lady at home with the 7 year old but if you got kids and an old lady if you wanna get a family gig rollin' that's cool too.

My rig is light too.. 32's 4" lift and some sliders.

No jungle gyms or anything fancy hangin off her ...yet

You should definitely join us. I'm sure this week we'll get some details pounded out. Got any trail suggestions?

Oh yeah, sliders, got some of them too. very useful
Family? If you want to bring yours I'm cool with that, I'll probably just bring a buddy.
I've only wheeled Lefthand Canyon and the Peaceful Valley area to the west (t33a plane crash, coney flats and middle st vrain), but last I checked all the gates are closed because of the amount of snow at that altitude. I could call the rangers this week and ask whats open though. Left hand would be fun with the hill, but on nice days it is always packed!

JMadigan said:

Oh yeah, sliders, got some of them too. very useful
Family? If you want to bring yours I'm cool with that, I'll probably just bring a buddy.
I've only wheeled Lefthand Canyon and the Peaceful Valley area to the west (t33a plane crash, coney flats and middle st vrain), but last I checked all the gates are closed because of the amount of snow at that altitude. I could call the rangers this week and ask whats open though. Left hand would be fun with the hill, but on nice days it is always packed!

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To be honest the whole point of this wheeling trip for me was to get away from the house a bit. I might just bring a buddy too. LoL. See, typically we have my lady's kid every other week but we have her for a two week block because of the spring break thing.

You could hit up the rangers about that for sure. LHC I don't think would be too bad this early in the season. Even on the weekend. I could be wrong though.

I just figured if anyone was going to have a family in tow that I could bring mine along and they wouldn't feel awkward or out of place at all.. The kids and the old ladies would have things to talk to each other about at least. LoL

I'm getting excited though. 3 rigs so far then?

I think if I can talk my buddy into it we'll probly wheel with ya'll one day and scout for a cool camping spot and maybe go back to it at the end of the day.

Either that or go wheel something and camp it and have ya'll meet us at our camp site. I really wanna try to camp, but it might not pan out.

Wifey gets huffy about my constant overnighting when the kid's here. I think she's starting to figure out what I'm up to... LoL.. That kid just starts to drive me a little crazy sometimes.

It's all good though, cause if I don't gotta bring the family that means I can actually leave the damn house before noon.

I have a couple friends rolling through town on saturday, so I am definitely up for sunday. If you decide to roll out and camp I can meet up with you guys wherever on sun morning. Currently on 33s with open diffs, so trails with some difficulty but not too much, say around a 4 or 5 are what I prefer. Not sure how much snow is out there right now. How far are you guys willing to travel?

I'm good for 50-60 miles.

Snow pack is the big question. I know the Empire trail systems get pretty snowy, but we've had a lot of sun lately. I know Slaughterhouse is completely passable. I hear that LHC is completely passable. It seems to me that further south near monument doesn't have a lot of snow, but I don't know of anything over there.

I'm going to study Trail Damage real quick...

Sounds like our rigs are all just about the same capability at the moment. That's a plus.

If we started on Saturday, I wouldn't be able to be there until noonish, morning class.
I'm good to travel south a ways if it means less snow. Slaughterhouse looks like it would be a fun one!

Just incase we run into snow; what do y'all have for recovery gear? I just have a come-along and a 15-20' tow rope.

What about China Wall or one or two of the gulches on sunday? There is a few trails in that area you could play on Sat and camp out, I could meet up early Sun morning.

JMadigan said:

If we started on Saturday, I wouldn't be able to be there until noonish, morning class.
I'm good to travel south a ways if it means less snow. Slaughterhouse looks like it would be a fun one!

Just incase we run into snow; what do y'all have for recovery gear? I just have a come-along and a 15-20' tow rope.

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Squirrel said:

What about China Wall or one or two of the gulches on sunday? There is a few trails in that area you could play on Sat and camp out, I could meet up early Sun morning.

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Dude China Wall seems like it's pretty close to Slaughterhouse. I'm super familiar with Slaughterhouse it's a good one for our rig's level of capability. I'm available both days so ya'll could figure out whatever for a day and I'm good to go. If we try to find some more stuff over there we could string together a good day. So far we have about 18-19 miles of trail with Slaughterhouse and China Wall. Slaughterhouse is usually about an hour or an hour and a half if you wanna stop and play or anything. The back half of the loop is cool after the ascent cause it's a lot of rolling hills and you can get some speed so it goes quick for a 12 mile trail.

I'm honestly thinking out loud though. Let me know if this sounds cool cause even if my buddy doesn't come I'll camp Saturday night with my puppy up at Slaughterhouse and meet you guys back at the trail head in the A.M.

Cause you guys both said you had better availability on the 24th right?

Guanella pass will get us from 285 to I-70. It's also right down the street from the trail head to Slaughterhouse. It'll dump us out in Georgetown on I-70. Might be cool to run China Wall and Slaughterhouse, cruise Guanella pass up to I-70 hit something between there and Idaho Springs, then top the day off at Tommyknockers Brewery for some Bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers and bison burgers.

Sorry, apparently I'm writing books now.

/edit;

I have nothing but my feet, a GPS, and a cell phone for recovery at this point unfortunately. I've got tools, few extra parts, a jack and a spare and that kinda stuff.

Out of curiosity where does one purchase a tow rope and a come along these days? Something of some quality that I can put my hands on. Preferably from a local business somewhere in town. I imagine I'll be able to afford that stuff before a sick set of bumpers and a winch.

/edit edit

you said two gulches? which other gulch besides Slaughterhouse?

I was talking about Longwater, Hackett, and Metberry Gulches. They are all along Cedar Mtn Rd, Northwest of Woodland Park. Also in the area is Rule Ridge and Phantom Creek but those are rated at 2, pretty much dirt roads, Rule Ridge has a spur that is technical but it may not be worth running just for that. I ran Metberry recently with a friend on 3" and 31s and we had no issues up and down. Longwater and Hacket are rated a little higher, but are closed at the county line, and I haven't run either. That whole area is secluded and probably littered with places to camp. Be careful as always with camping and fires, there is already one up in Fort Collins from what I've seen and these trails are in the Hayman fire area. Honestly I think I would like to run China Wall as I have never been on that trail, and there seems to be a little something for everyone there. Of course I am open to suggestions, is Guanella Pass open this time of year? Not sure if they plow it in winter, I recently noticed they paved it most of the way.

Squirrel said:

I was talking about Longwater, Hackett, and Metberry Gulches. They are all along Cedar Mtn Rd, Northwest of Woodland Park. Also in the area is Rule Ridge and Phantom Creek but those are rated at 2, pretty much dirt roads, Rule Ridge has a spur that is technical but it may not be worth running just for that. I ran Metberry recently with a friend on 3" and 31s and we had no issues up and down. Longwater and Hacket are rated a little higher, but are closed at the county line, and I haven't run either. That whole area is secluded and probably littered with places to camp. Be careful as always with camping and fires, there is already one up in Fort Collins from what I've seen and these trails are in the Hayman fire area. Honestly I think I would like to run China Wall as I have never been on that trail, and there seems to be a little something for everyone there. Of course I am open to suggestions, is Guanella Pass open this time of year? Not sure if they plow it in winter, I recently noticed they paved it most of the way.

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Guanella is open all year, I think paved throughout now. I could be wrong, it's been several years since I've cruised that pass. China Wall seems like it would be a freaking blast.

Always careful with fire. Always carry lots of extra water that's always available. Always dig and rock my pits. Always make sure they're completely extinguished before I leave. I also like to replace the land I've taken for my pit and rake back anything I may have disturbed during my adventure. My old man has been a Littleton firefighter for the last 25 years or so and I've always had an interest in the wild land team. Seems like this year may be a good year to at least volunteer to get my foot in the door while I go to school for forestry in the fall.

However I did just discover China Wall is about 100 miles from the hogback.

So the schedule if we did that would be something like meet at the trail head of Slaughterhouse, run Slaughterhouse. Air back up at the loaf and jug, drive about 70 miles to China Wall, run that, then probly grab some grub and call it a day.

This may be a little far to string two trails, although I really want to run China Wall too. I'm not apposed at all.

Talk to us more about the woodland park stuff. Could we string together a good day of trails and get some good food on the way back?

I'm going to keep hunting on Trail Damage maybe there's some more cool stuff by China Wall and we'll skip Slaughterhouse, although to be honest it's a cool trail just cause it's pretty long.

Keep talkin guys we'll figure this out. I'm cool to drive to China Wall, I'm cool to drive up to LHC, I'm cool to drive down to Woodland park.

So one of ya'll is up North and Squirrel is pretty much over by me in the Southish Denver Metro Area.

JMadigan, are you down to drive down from Thornton? Slaughterhouse is a cool trail, and it's kinda central if we wanna find some stuff to string together in the kinda central easternish mountain area.

Wouldn't be that big of a deal to run Slaughterhouse. If we ran it and worked our way down 285 we could hit a bunch of stuff..

http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=50

Look at all the trails near that one. Then go on http://www.4x4trails.net/ and you can see a map. Slaughterhouse is just West of Bailey, follow 285 further west and you'll see Webster pass and all those trails. I have not been on any of them though.

Directly north of that stuff off I-70 near Idaho Springs has some wheelin from 3-5ish ratings.

I did just see Webster is part of Red Cone and stuff and that seems like it could be real sketchy if it was icy at all.

Idaho Springs / Empire stuff (off I-70) Check out this link and the nearby trails.

http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=354

It seems like a big system so if we get to a point and want to turn around there's other stuff to do. Plus Tommyknocker's Brewery is right there when we get back to paved roads.

yeah, there is a few trails up that way. Webster is definitely not passable this time of year nor the trails up in that area. I imagine snow will be encountered but like you said it is close and retreating to grab a pint is always an option. The terrain gains elevation quickly, so not sure how far up each trail we can get, but there are lots of options like you said.

Woah, lots of reading in there!

After running LHC 8 times this past year I'm good for Slaughterhouse and anything central on Saturday afternoon. I would prefer to stick to trails at least one of us knows well. Like Squirrel said, the higher up we go the more snow there will most likely be. NOAA predicts snow on Thursday, not sure how much and where though.

Just a few thoughts.

Squirrel, those gulches down Northwest of woodland park seem pretty sick and they're real close together. Your day however is Sunday, right?

Seems like that stuff is actually closer to China Wall to be honest.