Anybody doing anything this weekend?

[OdiN]

I'm going hiking up near Boulder tomorrow. Thought about trying to find something on Sunday, but I dunno yet. I may go shooting.

[l1r]

I was gonna hit Oh-my-god road and explore Yankee Hill trails (it's right by Idaho Springs). But with my girl in the hospital again, it's up in the air right now. She won't come for sure, but I wanna go.
But if you're interested in a 3/4 day trip, let me know. Maybe we'll do it.

[OdiN]

With a name like that, I expected it to be rated harder ROFL.

That sounds interesting, and the 119 goes through there and should be decently scenic for a way back perhaps.

It may depend on what I feel like after hiking 10 miles also.

I'll have to check back with you tomorrow after my hike and we can go from there I guess.

[l1r]

OK. I'll know tomorrow as well.
The name scared me at first. But it's a freakin' passenger car road. We'd have to take the 'hard way' to get any fun out of it :) There are other trails in the area rated a little higher, but they might be mostly covered with snow this time of year with recent snowfall up there. Even with Yankee hill we'll be pushing it, I think.
We can run Cascade Trails... again ... Last time we ran it in February we didn't get too far. Maybe now there won't be as much snow. It's right there too. IDK.

[DamnHippie]

I wouldn't expect the trails around yankee hill to be open yet. You'll get part of the way up from the central city side (or via york gulch from the fall river road exit), but usually this early, once you get to the end of the smooth road (just beyond lake pisgah) the deep snow banks begin.

I love the roads around yankee hill for early-season snow bashing. Even if you don't get far and end up getting stuck a bit, at least the roads are all pretty safe -- no 200' drop offs or anything.

[l1r]

Hey, Sunday will be 80 degrees. Perfect weather for mudding and snow-bashing. I'm sure there will be both...

[DamnHippie]

I'd like to go, but I'm not gonna commit to anything at this point. I know I have a pretty busy day tomorrow, and Candy has hinted at things I need to get done soon that are probably gonna have to be done on Sunday.

If I can make it I'll post something Saturday evening. If I can make it at all I'm totally flexible on times and stuff, so plan whatever works for everyone else.

[johngraves2]

I was up by Idaho Springs and on Guanella Pass today, and there is still about 3-6 inches of snow all over the area. Hopefully with the sun this weekend it will get a lot of that out of the way.

[DamnHippie]

3-6 inches is perfect. But I'm afraid that it'll be punctuated by the occasional show-stopping 4 foot drift in the shadows on the north sides of hills.

[l1r]

Yeah. True. Will be like we encountered at cascade trails.
Well, I'm open to the idea of trying it, only if somebody else wants to. I'm sure we'll find something to entertain us for a few hours.
But I guess we'll be deciding tonight...

[DamnHippie]

I think I can go tomorrow, who-all else is going, and when and where should we meet? I'll probably take clear creek canyon up.

Hmm, for that matter, where are we gonna start? There are trailheads into that network of roads in central city, the bottom of fall river road (next exit after idaho springs), and two points higher up fall river road, and at Alice. I suspect Alice is still deep in snow as soon as you get off the pavement. Central city is the lowest elevation, that might not be a bad place to start. If we don't get far from that side we can take the CC parkway over to Idaho Springs and try some of the trailheads on that side.

[zwilke]

i am thinking about going, not really too fimilar with the area, is there i meet time,and whats your thoughts on bringing kids?

[OdiN]

I can't make it tomorrow after all. Have some crap I have to take care of here which I gotta do tomorrow.

[DamnHippie]

Shouldn't be any problem with kids. We're gonna find snow, so the kids are gonna end up cold and wet at some point. If we get stuck, the same will be true for us. :)

We could meet at the base of clear creek canyon (intersection of hwys 6 & 93 in Golden), or at the big offroad parking lot in Central City (just drive straight through the city and out the back until you see the water purification plant on the left and the big parking lot next to it with all the ATV trailers and stuff).

I'm pretty flexible on time, I usually get up fairly early and have all day free. What works for y'all?

[zwilke]

hwys 6 and 93 will work for me around 9am ,how long will this trip take , i just found out i have to be in keenesburg around 4 pm

zack

[l1r]

Man... I really wish I could go, but I can't. My dad has decided to not go fishing tomorrow, as it was planned earlier, but help me on my house.
I do need his help, so I'll stick around and get a few things done.
Have fun guys and if it's open maybe I'll try to run there next saturday...

[DamnHippie]

Should be flexible on how long. It'll only take 20-25 minutes from meeting spot to trail. I suspect we'll end up driving around trying several trailheads and not making it very far down any of them. With this network of roads, when they're dry, you're never more than 20 minutes from pavement anyway. (Well, 20 minutes the way I drive.)

9am works for me. I'll check for new messages in the morning to see if there are any changes in time or anything.

[zwilke]

sounds good to me see you there do you have a cb if so what channel will you be on ?

[DamnHippie]

No cb, just frs/gmrs radios, which are set to channel 18-7. There's a little triangluar pull-off area on the right just past the interesection, I'll hang out there. If there are already too many people there I'll go for the dirt parking area just before it on the left. Look for a muddy black Frontier.

Here's the spot I'm talking about:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=golden+co&ie=UTF8&ll=39.753579,-105.240918&spn=0.003027,0.005429&t=k&z=18

[DamnHippie]

Well, Zach & I had a good time today. We started the day with breakage. I don't mind breaking things, but I prefer not to break while I'm still on the pavement.

I blew the upper radiator hose while coming through Central City. It was spit at one end, and I was able to cut the split part out and use some zip ties to hold the radiator closer to the engine so the shorter hose would work:

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/2632/img0190ft5.jpg

At that point we probably should have headed home, but instead we hit the trail. We got a lot further than I expected to, but just beyond sheridan hill we ran into this:

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/7479/img0192ey4.jpg

It was about 8 feet deep at the crest. So we turned around and headed back. Of course we had to stop for the obligatory "group" photo...

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/1371/img0193rm3.jpg

[zwilke]

i had a great time, i guess the breaks are part of the sport, know i know a couple things to add to my truck.also have to remove a few things. thanks again

zack

[OdiN]

That is one dirty engine compartment!

[DamnHippie]

Yeah, Martin & I were playing in the big mud hole on Slaughterhouse last weekend, and I never cleaned out the engine bay before heading out this weekend. Usually I clean it after every trip, but I've been slacking on all kinds of routine maintenance lately.

[l1r]

Here's why I had to skip yesterday:

Yesterday morning:
http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/8038/p5180948cm3.jpg
Yesterday lunchtime:
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4852/p5180956kz8.jpg
And at the end of the day:
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6059/p5180958zx6.jpg

Same from the outside:
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/7782/p5180950xa1.jpg
http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/1390/p5180957ob8.jpg
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/2637/p5180960od2.jpg

Looks like you guys had fun. Wish I would've gone, but had to take care of this stuff. I'll do wheeling sometime this year...