Snow bashing Schubartth?

[nensha]

Out of shear boredom yesterday, I wandered up to Woodland Park and started down Rampart Range Road. For anyone that wants to do some serious snow bashing, just head south on Rampart until you get to the Eagle Lake turn off. That's where they stopped plowing the road and it immediately gets 16-24 inches deep. The genius that I am, I thought I'd just peer down the road a bit (like 150 yards). Well, I had no problems going in, but backing out was a different story. There's nothing like the feeling of sliding sideways towards the edge of a mountain road. ) It took me about 45 minutes to dig, chain-up and hand winch out the last 75 yards. (I've been wanting to practice with my HiLift as a winch anyway.)

There are tracks heading south. By the looks of them, the trucks had 35's or 37's and still had plenty of trouble driving down Rampart.

My guess is that Rampart Range Rd. south end is plowed up to the Garden of the Gods boundry. So trying to drive the south end of Rampart would probably be an all day trip. What with 10 miles of it being un-plowed.

So it looks like there should be a lot of snow on Schubarth and I doubt that it's going anywhere before our run on the 20th.

[Isotel]

wow, i need some chains asap! glad you made it out ok!!

[LCPilot]

I'm looking forward to Shubarth. Hayes and I had fun bashing 18" of snow on the tree cutting weekend.

I have two sets of 35" tire chains that I will loan out to whomever needs them.
They are brand new in the bag. I'll have to bring them to the meeting.

David

[Isotel]

hmm.. I may have to take you up on your offer.. Intrested in selling them?

[LCPilot]

Sell? I'm stuck in the acquire mode.

I'll help you find a set to buy. I see them pop up from time-to-time.

[MountainRam]

More informatio.

I was out yesterday, with my 89 year old dad along on a trip to Sam's. For some reason we ended up on Rampart Range road up out of Garden of the Gods. While I only intended going a short distance, dad was fascinated by how the winds blowing the snow on Pikes Peak looked. We soon found our selves at the shooting range, where I had to stop to let a snow mobile go up the road. I then discovered that the '40 needed to be in 4WD at that point. The snow there was probably 8" or so. We then proceded on up, just "to see". I figured that around the next curve the snow would be too deep, but we kept going and going. Finally at a point that looks down on Ute Pass, I pulled off to see where the cell phone had falled, and saw that about 50' farther the snow was deeper. I found the phone, just in time to see a Cherokee, stock, go on up - yup, about 50'. And as Jeff recounted at the start of this thread, he had an interesting time backing up to where we were. So, he headed down, and I called home. I got a " you are where?" from my wife.
The snow was beautiful, and if I hadn't been alone, and if it had been earlier in the day, and if I'd wanted to chain up, going on would have been a fun idea.

The CLC run on Saturday, Jan 20th will be a fun one to be sure.

Darryl

[Isotel]

Mark and myself where north of woodland park this weekend at a friends cabin.. Atleast 3' of snow in his driveway! We did not take our cruisers, but had a bit of fun atempting the snow in near Stock trucks.. then we hiked in a couple hundred yards to the house.. Id say with some chains and atleast 35's we may have made it

Trevor

[Isotel]

Bump - The Trip is this Saturday!

[nensha]

I don't know if any one will see this before heading out.

If you need to get gas for the run, fill up at Western. The price is $1.96 a gallon.

I had a graduation to attend up in the area and has some time to kill before hand. Soooooo.... I took a quick trip to the trail area. We will have plenty of snow to bash!

Oh well, I was going to post a picture. But the system won't let me.

[Man Jerk]

Long long long long long long day

To quote Andy
"I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today"

After airing down, locking in, and chaining up we headed to Schubarth. We didn't very far at all until we figured out that there was no way were were going to get too far. Andy was leading and even with all of his right foot he wasn't getting any where.


So we decided to take Jeff suggestion and check out Rampart to see what it looked like. Not too much further up Rampart they stopped plowing. The going was slow, but progress was steadily made. For the 1st part David was leading.

I came up next. I had some problems in spots. Lots of back and forth while sawing the wheel back and forth. Then you had Andy and Tim who would thread their way in and out and up and down


It was good and everyone was making progress. I slipped into a ditch at one point, and Tim pulled me out quite easily.

We stopped for lunch at the intersection of Mt herman Road.


After lunch we continued on. From here the snow just got deeper. It got to the point where no matter how hard I tried I just could not make any forward or backward progress. I was very frustrated. So once again Tim pulled me out. Then we just left the strap hooked up and he pulled me, for quite a ways. We finally stopped, some distance on. After a while it was agreed that we need to turn around, once again with me at the recieving end of the strap.

Andy came to come get us. At this point I was still on a strap, and Tim couldn't make any further progress. Now Andy was working on turning around to pull the 2 of us out. With the wheels turned, shifted in reverse and lots of throttle Andy snapped a birf. Bang!

After winching us out Tim pulled me all the way back to where the others were. Then I gave him my spare birf (the only one in the group, thank god) and he raced back down to help Andy. David also Turned back to help. We also heard that Andy's power steering pump was dead. So the others just stayed and waited. We heard they were making good progress so we continued on to where we had lunch. The progress was pretty good at this point.

Finally the others got Andy truck put back together and they were heading toward us. At some point Andys power steering pump locked up which then threw his serpentine belt on the 4.3. No steering, no cooling. Tim hooked a strap to Jeff, who hooked a strap to Andy and we were on our way.

Then to the middle school where we aired up and headed home. I think I walked in the door at 7:30.

It was a long day, but a lot of fun.

Here are some more random pics, and the rest can be found at
http://www.a-o-i.us/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=11
Hi res pics are available upon request.

[Uncle Ben]

Looks like a great time! I am looking forward to wheeling with you fine folks!

[Isotel]

Great Report Mark!

Sounds like a long day guys, glad everyone made it out before midnight!
My truck would not start! :(

[deafswat]

that looks fun. wish i was there With Andy lol

[LCPilot]

Nice pics and report Mark. I was trying to decide if I should try the trip since I had to get my daughter to an appointment at 12:30. It sounds as if that would have not happened.

David

[Man Jerk]

Originally Posted by LCPilot

Nice pics and report Mark. I was trying to decide if I should try the trip since I had to get my daughter to an appointment at 12:30. It sounds as if that would have not happened.

David

Not even close. Sounds like you made the right choice!