Buena Vista, Co TC Trip

[BradW]

Just got back from a couple of weeks near Buena Vista, Co. We camped at Chalk Creek RV Park in Nathrop, Co. That is a great place to camp; very clean and well maintained. Its also centrally located for offroad trips in the Chalk Creek Area.

We drove out the southern route on I-40 and sent one night at the El Reno, Ok KOA and another night at the Colorado City KOA. The Colorado City KOA was great, but the El Reno KOA needs to do so maintenance on their bathouse. It’s a pretty new facility but they have let it fall into disrepair. Only one of 3 toilets were working and only 1 of 3 showers were working. The place was pretty filthy. Not sure what is going on there; we always stop there on the way out and experienced no issues in the past.

Had a front brake caliper start start sticking/dragging coming down the mtn pass after Bishop’s Castle. Right front was about 250 degf and left front was about 900 degf and pulling to the right badly. We stopped at the Ford dealer in Salida; Joan had the pads but had to order the calipers. They came in a couple of days later and I replaced them at the campground. No issues to report after that.

Spent a couple of weeks jeeping in the St Elmo/Tincup/Mt Antero area. Drove some great trails and mountain passes with the 6 friends who travelled out there with us. Below is a video of our trip across Tomichi Pass, I will post some other videos and photos later. That is a very beautiful area. I had hoped to run across one of the “Prospector” reality show folks mining on Mt Antero. I never saw any of them, but one of my buddies saw Amada Atkins at the Hot Springs Store and my other buddy saw Duane walking down the street in Salida.

Long but uneventful trip home, except my buddy blew out a tire on his car hauler trailer coming across Kansas.

Tomichi Pass Video

Trip Photos

Iron Chest Trail Video

[The_Mad_Norsky]

That last trail, wow for rocks!

You know, gotta mention. Heard all the times you asked the wife for how's the clearance and so forth for her side of the vehicle.

Years I drove around, always asking the wife how's traffic from your side.

She'd say fine and I'd go.

Then one day I asked, and bothered to look myself too. Wife said fine again, but shockingly, I discovered she'd never bothered to even look!

She was just saying fine to placate me I guess.

:S I quit asking after that, and now always take a double look see for myself.


Grrrrrrr! Wonder, and I really don't want to know, how lucky I've been.

[ticki2]

Thanks for the tour , really nice country out there . I cross country skied some of those hills one spring back in the early '70's . Your pictures make me pine for my old 55 Willys .

[BradW]

Iron Chest 4x4 Trail Video

[nomadictxn]

Thanks Brad. Nice trip. Was camping up in Buenny last fall before the really cold weather hit. I don't live far from there and it makes me wonder why I am not there now! Been busy all year selling old house and getting in new home. Doing all the work involved and losing my Gall bladder to boot. So, I live in CO for a reason, I need to camp and explore!

[Nemo667]

Thanks for posting Brad. Great pictures and information on the area. Makes me want to load up and head out...

[67avion]

Brad and Norsky - Thanks for the information. I ordered the book and looked over the excellent site.

[BradW]

67avion wrote:
Brad, I'd really like to camp in that area and ride some of the trails in my 87 ragtop Samurai. Its bone stock and probably not up to the trails that you take. However, is there a guide to the trails that you could recommend?

My wife just watched the video and decided she's rather walk than ride. Heh.

D

There are easy trails in that area also, like Tin Cup, Alpine tunnel, Cumberland, Pomeroy Lakes and Han****. Here is a good trail guide for southern Colorado. They also print a similar version for northern Colorado.

Book

[The_Mad_Norsky]

67avion wrote:
Brad, I'd really like to camp in that area and ride some of the trails in my 87 ragtop Samurai. Its bone stock and probably not up to the trails that you take. However, is there a guide to the trails that you could recommend?

My wife just watched the video and decided she's rather walk than ride. Heh.

D

Not Brad, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express once! :B

Anyway, looking at a photo in that thread, fellow mentioned Mosquito Pass. So Googled it and found this: Staythe trail web site.

The link only for Mosquito Pass, but assuming here there is info on this site for other locations also.

[67avion]

Brad, I'd really like to camp in that area and ride some of the trails in my 87 ragtop Samurai. Its bone stock and probably not up to the trails that you take. However, is there a guide to the trails that you could recommend?

My wife just watched the video and decided she's rather walk than ride. Heh.

D

[exhaustipated]

Great photos of your Colorado 2015 Offroad Trip that you took and the video was cool to watch also.

[BradW]

Trip Photos

[BradW]

You can see a lot of crazy things up in those mountains. On our way up Mt Antero, we ran into some fellows who had driven their bone stock full size Chevy 4x4 ½ ton pick up most up the way up the mtn before they flattened a tire and then flattened the spare. They had made it past most of the narrow sections and switchbacks and were well above tree line. We had a bunch of tire plugs and glue, so we stopped and helped them fix their tire, air it back up and get them headed back down the mtn. It took about 10 plugs to close the 2” gash across the tread. One thing I failed to mention is they had a full size Harley Davison motorcycle in the bed of their truck. Yep, they drove up to about the 13,000’ elevation on Mt Antero with a Harley in the bed of their truck; I have no idea why; I never asked them.

[trailgranny50]

Cool video. We went thru that area few years ago. Came in from Taylor Park, up thru Tin Cup,over passes, visited St Elmo, over Han**** Pass, Cumberland Pass and looped back around to camper above store at Taylor in dispersed camping. We drove the Polaris Razr we had back then. Great one time drive for old farts. Had to wait on one summit while they cleaned up debris from folks that didn't make it thru. Still some snowbanks on road then, and one idiot just had to pass right there. Piece of paper would have had a hard time getting between his big truck and our little Razr and we had to climb the snowbank on the up side for that amount of clearance. A bit more than just exciting. Don't know why they came up as it was a long straight streach with visibility all the way to the start from their end. Go figure.

[PRodacy]

F350mule wrote:
Very interesting,doesn't appear very wide at all. Is it "one way"?

It's 2-way. When you can, make sure no one is coming down a section before you get on it. If you meet someone coming the other way, find a little wider spot to pass. Thus often requires one person to back up to a wider spot. The person going uphill has the right of way, so the person going down backs uphill unless the other person can easily and safely reach a wide spot.