It's been a very mild, dry winter here but let me do a mini-trail report from a couple of years ago.
Early winter I decided to take my jeep around the Mancos Hogback.
At first it wasn't bad.
But the trail was very narrow. I had to be careful not to slip over the edge.
At the pass the snow was deep and the weather wasn't looking good. I wasn't too familiar with this trail but my map said if I kept heading forward I should be able to get to the county road. I didn't want to turn around because that narrow trail would be worse in a snow storm.
The snow started coming down hard. This was virgin snow and I wasn't sure I was still on the trail. As I kept going I knew I was off the trail.
I got to these trees. This was definitely NOT the trail. A jeep couldn't even fit through those trees. I put it in reverse. My tires spun. Am I stuck? This is rough terrain and I can't back up. Where am I going? I had to scope out the area before I ended up in worse shape.
I got out of my jeep and hiked back, looking for the trail. I was scared and didn't want to make any more stupid mistakes. I found the trail i missed. I hiked it for a while to make sure it lead somewhere. Then I ran back to the jeep. It was snowing hard and I didn't want to wait for the snow to get any deeper. My winch is in front so I had to winch myself through and around the trees. My Jeep crawled over rocks that were hidden by the deep snow. The smooth deep snow covered the terrain. Once I was back on my own tracks I could drive. Instead of reeling in my winch cable I wrapped it over my bumper in a figure eight in case I would need it again.
The snow was letting up. I looked back and could see that I was going on the wrong side of this valley. I made it back okay but I admit I was nervous for a while there.
) I decided to get into the woods a little after work.
