March 16 Trail Ride - Canon City area trails, Seep Springs, Temple Canyon, Texas Creek, Penrose Common

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LCPilot

LCPilot

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Colorado Springs CO
Meet at the Safeway on Nevada ( 1920 S. Nevada Ave. ) at 8:00 am. Leave about 8:20. Travel down 115 to Penrose to meet up with the rest of the group in the back parking lot of Coyote Coffee Den ( Coyote's Coffee Den - Royal Gorge Area's Premier Coffeehouse - http://www.coyotescoffeeden.com/) arrive at 9:00 leave at 9:15 and then drive to Penrose Common. If you are going on any trails in Texas Creek you need to purchase a Colorado OHV sticker for your truck at: Colorado Parks and Wildlife - https://cpw.state.co.us/buyapply/Pages/RegistrationsOHV.aspx

The exact order of the trails being run are up to the group to set when you are ready to go on the trail. Some of the trails in Penrose common are only clearanced for 65 inch side by side and may leave stripes on full sized rigs.
 
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There is a trail connected-to by turning left off 50, directly across from the historic prison.
A right turn off that road (first or second right, IIRC) eventually dead-ends at the top of this hill.
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The red arrow demarks the furthest I've been able to make it. 👍
The large 'marbles' (10"+ rocks) made it very difficult even with all axle locks engaged on 31's.

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The black arrow shows from where the previous pic was taken and the green arrow points to the beginning of the road in that first pic.
Great challenge for well maintained rigs and apprentice drivers.


Otherwise, the views over Canon City are fantastic.
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BTW, this trail's gatekeeper is a respectable climb over loose, sharp rocks followed by a short but quite narrow, off-camber shelf road section that is vulnerable to yearly spring run-off. 👍
 
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To answer the fuel questions. Just South of the Coyote Cafe on 115 is a gas station (about a mile). If you need gas, fill up before you meet at the Cafe. We will go to Penrose common first. Then we will head West through Canon City (6 gas stations) to Red Canyon or Seep Springs and see how time is going to figure out what else we can do.

I would recommend bringing tire chains since we have a bunch of fresh snow. If you don't have any, now would be a good time to get them. I use Peerless tire chains that I got from Walmart. They have heavy duty chains so check the container before you buy (Truck/RV chains not car) some of the later Land Cruisers (100, 200) with independent front suspension need to run car chains in the front to clear the suspension components.
 
We decided to forgo Penrose Commons and head straight for seep springs. West of Canyon city, we turned north on County Road 69. There was a ton of snow and muddy tracks. We came upon the white van who had set off the road and punched out the passenger side window with a tree limb. There were two vehicles pulled over before and two vehicles after. We sprung into action and pulled him back onto the road with two simultaneous winch pulls. He barely made it up the hill to the parking area, but he did make it. We went to the parking area and decided to chain up. Out of nowhere arrived Bigfoot’s mysterious cousin who we named Mudman. Mud man was an eager and energetic helper for everyone putting on their chains, and we decided to let him drive the lead Lexus for the rest of the day. The seep springs gate was closed to prevent resource damage so we decided to drive up and over the mountain on the road that ends at Highway 11. Mudman was in the lead and the snow was so deep that he needed to install a second set of chains. We the followers were running rear chains only. Average snow depth was probably 2 feet.
“Mudman”

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