August 15-17th Overnight Run (1 Viewer)

[john657]

The Mrs. and I are heading out again the morning of August 15th for Guanella Pass. I decided to check on that trail on the Grant side of the pass I was last on in 1993. Planning on going up to Waldorf and the Argentine Mine along with the overlook above Silver Plume. Friday morning we are intending to hit some of the trails south of Breckenridge near Montezuma and overnight in that area. Saturday we are looking at heading up Vail Mtn to the far east end of Vail's back bowls and perhaps finish it up with a run across Red & White Mtn through Muddy Pass and out to Wolcott.
If anyone is interested, post up. Planning on returning to GJ Saturday evening.

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

I might be wanting to tag along. Have run some of that area but much would be new to me.

Ace

 

[john657]

Ace,
Glad to have ya aboard. You want to meet in GJ on Friday morning or somewhere along the way? Planning on overnighting on Guanella Pass Thursday night and then Montezuma area Friday night. I had dirt-biked the Montezuma area a lot in the mid 90's and really havent been back to that area since moving away. looking forward to hitting the trails there again.

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

Ace,
Glad to have ya aboard. You want to meet in GJ on Friday morning or somewhere along the way? Planning on overnighting on Guanella Pass Thursday night and then Montezuma area Friday night. I had dirt-biked the Montezuma area a lot in the mid 90's and really havent been back to that area since moving away. looking forward to hitting the trails there again.

Think you meant Thursday AM..... I'd like to meet you somewhere up the valley so I can avoid backtracking. I'd guess your heading east on I-70 for a while but I don't know where Guanella Pass is and no map handy.

Will you be tent camping? I will be pulling my trailer with RTT.

 

[john657]

Think you meant Thursday AM..... I'd like to meet you somewhere up the valley so I can avoid backtracking. I'd guess your heading east on I-70 for a while but I don't know where Guanella Pass is and no map handy.

Will you be tent camping? I will be pulling my trailer with RTT.

Sorry. I meant Thursday morning. Guanella Pass goes over the mountain between Georgetown and Grant. Grant is a small town on Hwy 285 to the east of Fairplay. We'll take I-70 over there if you want to travel together or meet in Georgetown or along the way. I plan on leaving GJ Thursday morning by 0800.

 

[john657]

Think you meant Thursday AM..... I'd like to meet you somewhere up the valley so I can avoid backtracking. I'd guess your heading east on I-70 for a while but I don't know where Guanella Pass is and no map handy.

Will you be tent camping? I will be pulling my trailer with RTT.

Sorry. I meant Thursday morning. Guanella Pass goes over the mountain between Georgetown and Grant. Grant is a small town on Hwy 285 to the east of Fairplay. We'll take I-70 over there if you want to travel together or meet in Georgetown or along the way. I plan on leaving GJ Thursday morning by 0800.

We are tent camping.

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

We are planning to meet at the Kum-n-Go at De Beque at 9:00 AM on Thursday. Dave hopes to meet us somewhere near Georgetown that evening. Any others want to join us?

Ace

 

[john657]

Ace,
I just bought the most recent Charles Wells Colorado 4WD Trail Book which now shows the Geneva City ghost town and trail as it takes off of Guanella Pass. Charles Wells previous trail books did not show this trail. I think this may be the trail I was talking about 4wheeling back in 1993.
I am looking forward to next week's trip.

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

You probably already know this, but JIC probably the best source for current trail conditions is traildamage.com.

I too have the Wells book and a chip he sells that displays the route on most Garmin GPS units. Also another guide book by Massey & Wilson. Papers maps too, of course.

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

Are we still good to go on this?

I did some reading in the Massey-Wilson book and sounds like an interesting area.

Ace

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

Well, we met on time and heading east. Looks like good weather too!

 

[john657]

Well, we are back! Met up with Ace in Debeque Thursday morning and headed off to Georgetown after a brief respite in Idaho Springs for the obligatory Beaujo's mountain pizza! Once in Georgetown we headed up Guanella Pass and onto the trail that took us up to the Argentine Mine and the remnants of the Waldorf ghost town. Back in the late 90's an attempt to re-open the mine was made and I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the workers who were cleaning up and remodeling some of the old buildings. It appeared that attempt was abandoned but their efforts were still visible in the old bunkhouse. At that time, a large sign was hung over the bunkhouse door that said Santiago Argentine Mine. It is now gone. However, the old sluice box in the Mill was still intact.

We then headed over Guanella Pass and down to the lower meadow where we camped for the night. I last camped there in 1993. In the morning we headed up the trail that took us up to Geneva City at the end of the trail in the highest basin in the area. Turned out to be the trail I remembered from 20 years ago. We did find the old widow's cabin and it was in far worse condition than the last time I visited there. Ask me about it in person next time I see ya and I'll give ya some interesting history about it. Beautiful area.

After Geneva City, we finished Guanella Pass and headed west on Hwy 285 to tour around the small town of Como. Como is still inhabitated and as we stopped in front of the old train roundhouse, the caretakers came out and invited us in for a private tour. What an interesting place and a great opportunity!

 

[john657]

!

After Como, we drove up and over Boreas Pass and visited the historic railroad buildings along the way. Fueled up in Breckenridge and then back up the mountain by way of Georgia Pass. Found a beautiful camping spot at the top of the pass and arrived to be greeted by a herd of about 12 mountain goats who were just about as curious about us as we were of them! Made camp and at about 4 am we were awakened by the herd walking around our camp. Some were only 2 feet outside our tent as they continued their inspection of the camp. I got up at that time and rekindled the camp fire with one particular goat staying in the camp only a few feet from me as I moved about gathering firewood and stoking the fire. At one point, while sitting in my camp chair beside the fire, this goat walked right up to the right arm of my chair and stood there as though it wanted to be patted on the head. It looked at me, then at the fire and then slowly walked away to rejoin the rest of the herd now on the fringe of the camp. These were wild mountain goats!

After breakfast and the daily ritual of throwing the ball for Ace's dog Kayli, we headed down off the pass and thru Fairplay. On to Buena Vista and a nice lunch and coffee. Decided to head over Cottonwood Pass and into Taylor Park. We visited the reservoir which gave Kayli a good swimming opportunity. A shortcut thru the Jack's Cabin Cutoff and into Crested Butte. Over Keblar Pass, thru Delta and back to GJ. A great trip overall and good company with Michele, Ace and Kayli.

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

It was a good trip. Even though John had not been to most of those sites in 20 years he still had a huge wealth of info on each one. So thanks to John for arranging this trip.

I stayed on two more days and got home Monday evening. Total miles 528, dirt miles 150 and went over 9 passes.

 

[Alan "Ace" Brown]

Interesting bit during this trip: on Friday we got a surprise visit to the South Park railroad roundhouse and big repair station in Como. On Saturday I was looking for a place to camp up near Ohio Pass and found a side road with a really great campsite. There was a historical sign nearby that described the amazing effort that was made to push the same RR up over Ohio Pass and eventually on to the Pacific but they gave up right there when money ran short. First photo is the roundhouse, second is the sign and third is one of the huge walls built to support the tracks.