Question about nederland area trails

[Peter Hoffman]

Howdy folks,
So, tryin to plan a run this friday for me and some buddies/anyone else that wants to come. Since a few of the vehicles are closer to stock (inc. mine :p ) than not, i was thinking about doing MSV, Jamestown/Ward Road, and Caribou Creek. Does anyone know if those three are completeable in a day? Or should i cut back to two of em. Would be starting from denver area around 8a. Nederland (or altona depending on which trails) area by 9 probably. Thanks in advance.

[DamnHippie]

There is no longer a Jamestown/Ward Road trail, it was closed early last year. You can't get through the lake and resort at the Ward end anymore, the resort people have permanently locked the gate. From the Jamestown side, Gillespie Gulch is no longer a trail, the forest service groomed it into a smooth dirt road that's no fun to drive on (I suspect at the request of Jamestown residents at the base of the road who got tired of 4x4 rowdies in their back yards).

There is still a super-hardcore path from Altoona to the top of the GIllespie Gulch road/trail, but it's only for things like rock-crawling buggies, there's an insanely hard obstacle at the top of the road that nothing short of a buggy (or a highly modified street rig and a driver with a deathwish) can make it over. And there's nowhere to turn around, you have to back for like a mile on a narrow shelf road.

Middle St Vrain and Coney flats make a nice loop, but pretty challenging for a bone-stock rig, it'd be better have have at least a bit of lift and good tires. A day trip I've done a few times is to start at the north end and go up MSV, down Coney Flats, then when you get back to the highway go a few miles south to the Rainbow Lakes campground and catch the northern end of the Caribou trails, take those all the way through Caribou and to Eldora. For stock trucks that aren't gonna be running the trails at high speed, that's probably a good all-day outing.

I'm gonna try to get up into the same general area Friday with Neight, but it'll be after work, so we won't be leaving Boulder until 2pm or so. I'm not sure where exactly we're going except that we'll probably start up towards Nederland. We might hit the trails that start off of West Magnolia Road (the old "haul road" trails) and work over towards Rawlinsville, and then if it's still early we can go from there up into the Apex playground area via Moon Gulch.

[Peter Hoffman]

:o thanks for the reply. good to know, i was thinking jamestown/ward then msv but never mind that lol. I think it'll end up being msv without the coney loop, then the caribou trails. if you decide to head in that area give me a call (hopefully i'll be in a service area :p) 303-668-3206