HaveBlue

...300 feet of Iron Chest!
Darren and I drove all the aforementioned trail this weekend. Had a great time. Mt. Antero is the loftiest trail I've ever been on. Argentine Pass comes in a very close second (a difference of ~1,140 feet).
You can see my pictures here, here, here, and here.

Hopefully, Darren will post his pics within the next day or two. He stayed behind to wheel one more day. I have to work Mondays, otherwise I would have wheeled more, too.

Oh, and for those of you who are keeping track, I scratched my pretty paint on my new sliders.

Here's a teaser:

jx94148

You guys friggin RULE!! Looks like i'll have a blast Wednesday on my personal pre-run.

I see a fullsize Ford in that pic. Can you say "Bunny Trail"?

Jeff the marmot

Ah, refreshing for me to see the pics of Iron Chest, too. Thanks for posting those. Iron Chest looks like a little bit of heaven.

Darren

Whoa! Great weekend of trail riding!

My first time up Antero. Easy as pie. The switchbacks are nothing. Mr. Wells gets very carried away in many of his descriptions. This trail has immediately found its way on my favorites list. Great views, of course, being at around 13,800' or so.

Iron Chest was a blast . . . at least the 200' or whatever we drove. However, things get VERY nuts just after that. I am very curious who all decides to do that one in a couple of weeks. Steve's crawler would be awesome on that IF he chooses to tackle it. No bunny trail here. I suspect many 4Runner undercarriages will look like Scott's when it's all said and done. A belly skid would also be very much preferred along with a front locker. I can say it would be many more years before I even think of attempting it with what I have. Sorry, not here. 3" + 33's doesn't cut it unless you really don't care about the consequences. If there were more (any) turn around area, pull-out things, I would more than love to try a section at a time. But because there are none, once you're on it, you're committed for the duration. Too bad (for me).

We saw about 5 other rigs after we walked the boulder field section. Most were just sickly burly. All in all, they had an easy time of it. 4-wheeling is all relative. The trail is probably 6-rated for what they were built for. I took some pics and a couple of vids of them. Pretty impressive rigs anyway.

Here's a 4.3 MB video of me on a section, complete with a hit! That hit could've easily been avoided. No biggie. There are much worse to be had on the trail.

After Alan departed for home, I continued on over Tincup Pass and into Taylor Park. Did Taylor Pass and fueled up in Aspen. My first time on it earlier this year, we were blocked by snow which is why I did it again. The summit views are absolutely awesome. Alan, I don't know if you traveled any of those roads to the east of the summit, but you'll definitely need to with the group in a couple of weeks. I Came back over Taylor and did Italian Creek. Once again, Wells' designation of "difficult" isn't merited. I would rate it a 3, or a very easy 4. I took the lower loop as described in his book thinking it might save time. It's conceivable the upper loop is a little tougher. From the Italian summit, is a side trail up on top of American Flag Mountain. WOW! Another scenic rating of 10 awarded by me! Great 360* views.

I went on into Crested Butte and camped at the top of the Devil's Punchbowl section along the Schofield Pass road. I ran it and Lead King today and headed for home.

I didn't have time to check Pearl Pass. Soon enough though.

I'll put up all kinds of pics whenever I get my site back up.

Alan, I'll send you all the pics I have of you within a few days. I took about 600 this trip and have to sort through them all.


Following Alan up Antero


I hope you know where you're going, Alan!


Going up the upper section on Antero, looking east


Iron Chest at dusk


How about this one, huh?! On top of aptly named, American Flag Mountain (12,713'). What a view (and awesome pose)!

Jeff the marmot

Great report and pics, Darren. Sounds like you had an awesome time. It's nice to hear about some of the other trails, too.

Wooooohoooo Iron Chest rocks. Just add Mike's skidplates and you'd do fine with it, Darren. Really. I know XTerras and Isuzu Rodeos and Troopers that have gotten through it that are comparably equiped to the mods that you have now. I did the whole trail comfortably before I added the front locker. If you can't make one line, then move either direction 6" and try again. There's a couple slightly tougher spots, but it's mostly more of the same for the first 1/2 mile or so.

Darren

HaveBlue

Darren-
I'll send all my pics to you tomorrow evening. I came home from work tonight and washed all the evidence off my truck
That tree hit I took looks worse than it really was. The paint on the bumper is only marred. A quick fix with some 1000 grit sand paper, touch-up paint, and polishing compound.

All in all, it was an absolutely AWESOME trip. Now I can't wait for CO4RJ. Woohoo! It's next week!

jx94148

Dang Darren!! You found the top of the world!

Can you please PM me and explain how to get to the flag? I'll keep it private so everyone with a truck and a computer dosen't decide to go there every weekend.

Bighead

Great report Darren! I hope you aren't burning yourself out prior to the Jamboree. Get your site going again. I am really looking forward to seeing your pics.

Darren

Not a chance, Lance! This stuff never gets old. Lots of places to go here. I'm still working on the web site thing, but dang it, if I know a thing about what's going on. It's been over a month now, and I have a few more trail reports to put up with all kinds of pictures.

JadeRunner

That's the best country to roam around in. I took some poser pics on top of American Flag mountain last fall on the way to Italian Pass. But, none of them came out as good as that one.

Did you look at the top part of Italian Pass? I hear it's quite spooky. I had my wife with me and no way was she letting me drive up there. We took the lower road also. It looks like the whole road is going to slide off the side of the mountain, because it's just a loose shelf road through scree.

Mike Brown told me about his trip riding along with Jeff on Iron Chest. It sounded like he was bangin' his undercarriage metal the whole way. But, what the heck, if you have some good skid plates ready and waitin'. Go for it. I'm not sure how enjoyable that would be for me though. My runners belly is pretty sore.

Darren

Yeah, I saw the top part of the loop alright. I'll probably do it at some point. Ian Firth (Xterra Owner's Club founder and fellow Auroran) has some nice pictures starting here. Looks doable. I don't care for the off-camber stuff in these scenarios though where it makes you lean over the shelf. The book says ~25*. So, maybe I won't ever do it! 25* in those situations don't feel so great. I'll learn to get used to it. I'm getting more and more comfortable with increasing angles to be sure, though 30* is the most I've been at to this point.

I saw Mike's video as well. I can only imagine at this point. If anyone should do it, you should, being that your undercarriage is all warmed up and broken in!