8th Annual Jeep-CJ Colorado Trail REPORT

[BusaDave9]

This was our 8th Annual Jeep-CJ Colorado Trail ride. This year we used Silverton as our base.

I arrived in Silverton on Sunday, August 19th at 3:00 pm. I didn't have lunch yet so I was thinking of stopping in a restaurant for lunch but others were thinking of heading out on the trails. I was game. Lunch could wait.

007 and the others had a specific trail in mind so I trailed behind as others lead the way. We headed up Prospect Gulch.



We explored this old mine.



Here's Shooby's yellow CJ5


MrIPlayBass and OldjeepLady in thier 1979 CJ7


Caveman in his "TJ-7". It may look like a CJ7 but it's mostly a TJ underneath.


Next we climbed up Red Mountain Number 3.






PistolDave continued on to find the trail dead ends abruptly.






This next shot looks back to Prospect Gulch where we were earlier.


We then headed back to Silverton to have dinner at Handlebars Restaurant.
That was the first day of wheeling. It was Sunday and this trail ride was not scheduled. We just had spare time.
To be continued ...

 

[Torxhead]

Thanks Dave, I was waiting for a run report.

 

[caveman]

Here's a few that I took that first day. The quality of my pictures isn't going to compare to the rest but maybe I got something that others missed.

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[BusaDave9]

Monday Aug. 20th

Monday Aug. 20th

Although I originally thought we would need to split up into 2 groups we didn't have enough jeeps to warrant that. We never had more than ten jeeps on a trail ride so we all stayed together.

After breakfast we headed north on highway 550 for 19 miles. We turned off the highway onto Lower Engineer Pass trail.







Here's an old mining building and a boiler.


We gathered at the top of Engineer Pass for a group picture.


Usually we would turn around at Engineer Pass but this year we continued on down the other side.




As we decended we saw this little cabin:


Then we passed this modern cabin:


Looking for a place to eat lunch I lead the group off the main trail and saw this cabin:


I found this place to stop to eat our lunches.




I took this picture of Shooby taking a picture of a deer.


Then we headed back over Engineer Pass.


On the way back to Silverton we passed by this cabin and waterfall.


To be continued ...

 

[BusaDave9]

Tue. Aug. 21st

On Tuesday we headed to Poughkeepsie Gulch. To get there we started at Lower Engineer Pass trail again.







This is Posi crawling over rocks on Poughkeepsie Gulch.


and MrIPLayBass


007 and his red 1977 CJ7 :


Before arriving at "The Wall" we passed a fork that could bypass the harder sections of Poughkeepsie Gulch.
A sign warned us we were taking the difficult route:



















Then we arrived at The Wall. MrIPLayBass was the first to go. Although one tire came off the ground he made it look easy in his black 1979 CJ7 .



Then BillD when up in his 1980 Renegade CJ5




007 laid two strips of rubber when he went up a completely different path in his red 1977 CJ7 .


then PistolDave


Caveman in his "TJ-7"


Shooby and his yellow CJ5


Even after The Wall there were plenty of obstacles.




Shooby brings one tire well off the ground.






After Poughkeepsie Gulch we headed over Hurricane Pass and looked back at Lake Como:




Then we headed back to Silverton.

To be continued ...

 

[BusaDave9]

Wed Aug. 22nd

On Wednesday we all headed to Arrastra Gulch. Arrastra Gulch Gulch has an old tram system that brought ore down from the mines in these buckets.





At the top we explored the Black Prince Mine.



















Then we left the Black Prince Mine and when higher up the mountain to this glacial lake.




On the way back down I took this picture of the Black Prince Mine.


Parts of this trai were very narrow.


Before reaching the bottom there was one more fork I wanted to explore. THis lead back up to another mine. This one is called the Mayflower Mine.


Posi enjoyed looking through the debris left at the mine.


The rest of us also looked over the things left behind at the mine.


The peaks of these mountains were in the clouds today.


The towers for the trams had these large structures to prevent damage from rock-slides.


When we got almost all the way off the mountain I turned onto another trail that, if I remember correctly this comes out at Silverton. Then I saw a sign saying this trail was a "dead end". I told CJ, who was riding with me in my CJ5 , that if this is a dead end this must not be the trail I was thinking of.
CJ asked me if we should stop to look at the map.
"Map?" I said "We don't need no map. If this isn't the trail I was thinking of we'll find out where it goes."

At first the trail went past a couple towers for the trams.


Then the trail went steeply up the mountainside. We climbed up and up and up. Then we headed south and this trail looked exactly like the trail I remember. I told CJ this is the trail that dumps us out at Silverton. "The sign must be wrong. This is not a dead end." I told CJ this trail goes down to the Animas River where we used to cross the river but they built a new bridge. But I was wrong about that. When we got to the river there was no bridge. We all got out to assess the river crossing. It looked deep. We could not see the bottom except near the rocks. We decided the best route was to keep to the left as we crossed.


I think Bill went first ^^^.
The next picture is Pistol Dave crossing the Animas River.


You might be able to tell from these pictures that we could have gone further to the left. It would have been shallow and rocky but we decided it would have been hard to get into and back out of the river. If we would have gone further to the right the river was deeper.

This is Shooby's yellow CJ5 .



Next was MrIPlayBass and OldJeepLady in their black 1979 CJ7 .


The buildings in the background are Silverton. After crossing the river it was a very short ride back to town for dinner.

To be continued ...

 

[CJ]

Reserved

 

[BusaDave9]

Thur. Aug. 23rd

Today (Thursday) we headed out of Silverton to Black Bear Pass. As we took highway 550 up the mountains we came into the clouds. It was very foggy as we went off the highway and onto the trail. As we climbed we came out of the fog and saw more clouds at higher elevations. We came into and out of the clouds a few times this morning.

I took some pictures as we started to descend the other side.






That's Telluride in the valley.








Some sections were off camber






Posi did a good job of spotting people through some of the difficult spots.




If you are thinking of coming to next years trail ride but find these pictures to be intimidating, let me reassure you that you don't have to go on Black Bear Pass or any other trail that looks too challenging. While we were going over Black Bear Pass some of us were going over Ophir Pass. That trail is much more mild. If you are a beginner jeeper or have a pristine old jeep you don't want to bang up please join us next year. There is never any peer pressure to take on the more difficult trails.





Caveman's TJ-7


Telluride
















This first switchback was the tightest.








When we were in Telluride we ate lunch at Brown Dog Pizza. After lunch we came back via Imogene Pass.












Near the top of Imogene Pass









Imogene Pass dumped us out at Ouray. ON the way back to Silverton we took a quick ride down Brooklyn Trail. This is Brooklyn Mine.


To be continued ...

 

[CJ]

Reserved

 

[CJ]

Uploaded thanks to mriplaybass, 2018 Jeep-cj.com Co trail ride moose encounter.

Video -->> https://youtu.be/sv8LQvHUSog

 

[CJ]

Day 2 drone videos.

Jeep-cj Lower Engineer Pass Ledge drone video
https://youtu.be/ygc0dl77J3o

2018 Jeep-CJ.com trail ride drone video of Poughkeepsie Gulch at the Wall
https://youtu.be/P4GUNn40lFg

 

[BusaDave9]

Fri. Aug. 24th

On Friday we all rode together to Kite Lake and Beartown site.
We didn't have to get onto the highway. Instead we went through the north end of Silverton and headed out over Stony Pass which is the continental divide.

After going over Stony Pass there is a valley to our left. This is the source of the Rio Grande River, yes, the same river that forms the border with Mexico.

This next picture is the Rio Grande River. Here it looks too small to even be called a creek.


From this point on the Rio Grande will be to our right for a while.
We crossed Pole Creek and then we crossed the Rio Grande again. We headed up higher into the mountains. We passed by Bear Town site but there is no longer any sign of the town. Finally we arrived at Kite Lake.





Caveman found out that a nut holding his springs on at the shackle has gone missing. He jacked up his jeep and was able to drive the bolt back into place and put on a replacement nut.







The above picture is us heading up the eastern side of Stony Pass.
The next picture is us heading down the western side of Stony Pass.






Then we headed back into Silverton. That's it! That's the end of the 8th Annual Jeep-CJ Colorado Trail Ride ... until next year.

 

[BusaDave9]

What about the others? Does anyone else have pictures or stories to tell about the trail rides?

 

[Belizean]

What about the others? Does anyone else have pictures or stories to tell about the trail rides?

Beautiful scenery and pictures. Thanks

 

[Posi]

I do have some pics and video, hopefully have some time to post them up soon.

Well done Dave!

 

[Posi]

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[Posi]

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[Posi]

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[hagar]

Pictures are beautiful but just don't give the view in person justice.
Were their any mechanical problems with anyone to speak of ?

 

[BusaDave9]

Were their any mechanical problems with anyone to speak of ?

Only minor issues. We did very good considering the age of our jeeps.