I went up to Colorado last weekend to hit two new trails in the Breckenridge area. Got some good pictures, so I'll post them tonight when I get home from work. Here's my report on both trails.
HOLY CROSS:
Holy Cross is a great trail start to finish. There are several tough areas on the trail to keep people happy, starting with a large ledge at the beginning of the trail that I passed a stock H3 (that wasn't getting anywhere). A second large ledge is required to summit about a half mile further up the trail that might give long vehicles an extra workout to avoid body damage. French Creek is a boulder field complete with running water, it kept a group of 25 or so Jeeps busy for several hours on my way down.
The Holy Cross city is a far cry from the name, as it only has two buildings. Anyhow, it's set up in a scenic valley beneath several 13,000ft peaks. I camped out just below the city, to be described further in the following paragraphs.
Above Holy Cross City there is an interesting little area. First there is a nasty rock to get around with the constant fear of tipping off the side of the mountain. ATV's have made a false road below, which is just wide enough to make a full sized 4wd question the real route across the rock. Mud on both sides of this large and uncomfortable rock makes for slippery tires in exactly the spot that you don't want slippery tires.
After this spot there is a 4 foot granite ledge (or series of ledges) to get over. With dual lockers, low gears, 37" tires aired down to 8 pounds, I could NOT get over this thing. Just at sunset, my rear passenger tire slipped off the downhill side of the trail and the truck did a vertical lunge into a tree. (thankfully a tree was there to stop the truck) Had I been running a winch, it would have been easy to pull up the ledge, but I don't. I finally got the truck out of it's sticky situation at about 9:00pm. An alternate route around this ledge is an enormous boulder (probably 12 feet in diameter) that has a winch point at the top. I didn't even try it, as the mud at the bottom of this area just makes mud tires turn into slicks.
The next morning I hiked up that upper ledge to the top of the trail. There is another smaller ledge up higher, but then the trail dead ends into wilderness. If you are willing to hike in about a mile with your gear, an incredible high mountain lake waits with some excellent camping all around it.
Overall a great trail, not too tippy (some spots, but not bad) and enough of a challenge to keep you on your toes. Lots of traffic on my way down, but I had gone up on a Friday and then back down on Saturday afternoon. I saw people getting up the trail with 31" tires, so if some of you HDC folks are ok with using straps and winches, it's a good trail to keep in mind.
It took me 8 hours to get up there in the truck from Albuquerque on 37's, and that included stopping for lunch in Alamosa on the way up.
WHEELER LAKE:
This trail is just 8 miles south of Breckenridge. It starts at the backside of a reservoir at an old mining building - which means you get to have the dorks from the lake watch you climb up the first two tricky sections. I did them both with fully aired up tires, even though I slid around a bit on the way up. The first two rocks are really the only challenges of this trail, and are best suited for people with 31"-33" tires.
What I didn't like about this trail is that it's populated with baby head rocks the whole way. BUMPY the entire way up to the lake, tires at whatever pressure you have them at.
This area is oozing with water, so be prepared for the bugs and mosquitoes. The lake is some 4 miles into the trail, and has some camp spots dispersed about in a typically random fasion. Very scenic area again, but then, you're up in the high country.
I did some hiking in this area on Sunday before coming home, and there are some really neat mining remains all over the slopes above the lake. I even wandered down into a mine shaft and thought I struck it rich. Turns out mica looks almost exactly like gold when you're in a dark hole with a head lamp. Looks like I'll keep to engineering.
Fun area, but I think I would have had a better time with a smaller vehicle. This would be great for a group of HDC's to go through, much less potential for breaking parts or damaging body panels.
Anyhow, I'll post up some pictures tonight of the trip. By the way, who drives a silver FJ80 on 33" mud tires with a fire department sticker on the rear window (lower left corner) and has a cooler rack hanging off of the reciever hitch? We cat-and-moused all the way from Albuquerque to Espanola on Friday. I didn't recognize him.
- Brandon
HOLY CROSS:
Holy Cross is a great trail start to finish. There are several tough areas on the trail to keep people happy, starting with a large ledge at the beginning of the trail that I passed a stock H3 (that wasn't getting anywhere). A second large ledge is required to summit about a half mile further up the trail that might give long vehicles an extra workout to avoid body damage. French Creek is a boulder field complete with running water, it kept a group of 25 or so Jeeps busy for several hours on my way down.
The Holy Cross city is a far cry from the name, as it only has two buildings. Anyhow, it's set up in a scenic valley beneath several 13,000ft peaks. I camped out just below the city, to be described further in the following paragraphs.
Above Holy Cross City there is an interesting little area. First there is a nasty rock to get around with the constant fear of tipping off the side of the mountain. ATV's have made a false road below, which is just wide enough to make a full sized 4wd question the real route across the rock. Mud on both sides of this large and uncomfortable rock makes for slippery tires in exactly the spot that you don't want slippery tires.
After this spot there is a 4 foot granite ledge (or series of ledges) to get over. With dual lockers, low gears, 37" tires aired down to 8 pounds, I could NOT get over this thing. Just at sunset, my rear passenger tire slipped off the downhill side of the trail and the truck did a vertical lunge into a tree. (thankfully a tree was there to stop the truck) Had I been running a winch, it would have been easy to pull up the ledge, but I don't. I finally got the truck out of it's sticky situation at about 9:00pm. An alternate route around this ledge is an enormous boulder (probably 12 feet in diameter) that has a winch point at the top. I didn't even try it, as the mud at the bottom of this area just makes mud tires turn into slicks.
The next morning I hiked up that upper ledge to the top of the trail. There is another smaller ledge up higher, but then the trail dead ends into wilderness. If you are willing to hike in about a mile with your gear, an incredible high mountain lake waits with some excellent camping all around it.
Overall a great trail, not too tippy (some spots, but not bad) and enough of a challenge to keep you on your toes. Lots of traffic on my way down, but I had gone up on a Friday and then back down on Saturday afternoon. I saw people getting up the trail with 31" tires, so if some of you HDC folks are ok with using straps and winches, it's a good trail to keep in mind.
It took me 8 hours to get up there in the truck from Albuquerque on 37's, and that included stopping for lunch in Alamosa on the way up.
WHEELER LAKE:
This trail is just 8 miles south of Breckenridge. It starts at the backside of a reservoir at an old mining building - which means you get to have the dorks from the lake watch you climb up the first two tricky sections. I did them both with fully aired up tires, even though I slid around a bit on the way up. The first two rocks are really the only challenges of this trail, and are best suited for people with 31"-33" tires.
What I didn't like about this trail is that it's populated with baby head rocks the whole way. BUMPY the entire way up to the lake, tires at whatever pressure you have them at.
This area is oozing with water, so be prepared for the bugs and mosquitoes. The lake is some 4 miles into the trail, and has some camp spots dispersed about in a typically random fasion. Very scenic area again, but then, you're up in the high country.
I did some hiking in this area on Sunday before coming home, and there are some really neat mining remains all over the slopes above the lake. I even wandered down into a mine shaft and thought I struck it rich. Turns out mica looks almost exactly like gold when you're in a dark hole with a head lamp. Looks like I'll keep to engineering.
Fun area, but I think I would have had a better time with a smaller vehicle. This would be great for a group of HDC's to go through, much less potential for breaking parts or damaging body panels.
Anyhow, I'll post up some pictures tonight of the trip. By the way, who drives a silver FJ80 on 33" mud tires with a fire department sticker on the rear window (lower left corner) and has a cooler rack hanging off of the reciever hitch? We cat-and-moused all the way from Albuquerque to Espanola on Friday. I didn't recognize him.
- Brandon
