March 16 Trail Ride - Canon City area trails, Seep Springs, Temple Canyon, Texas Creek, Penrose Common (1 Viewer)

[LCPilot]

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.

 

[COS80]

I'll be there.

 

[wonderlc]

Sorry gents, I can not do Saturday but if anybody wants to try for Sunday, I would be game!

 

[COS80]

Suggestion: cancel the muster at the Safeway in favor of the Coffee Den. Last trip, all but one person went straight to Coyote's, and having the alternative just added time and confusion.

 

[LandLocked93]

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

[SAS]

Heads Up!!!!

Texas Creek is temporarily CLOSED due to Colo DOT maintenance on the bridge from Hwy 50 across the Arkansas River (Fremont County Rd 27) into Texas Creek OHV area.

I saw this info on a post by a motorcycle/dirt bike club.

 

[COS80]

Will we be making a fuel stop between coffee and the trail?

 

[Goslow]

Most likely not. There is a station 1 or 2 miles past coyotes on the left. Perhaps you might gas up there and come back to coyotes for the meet up.

 

[Goslow]

Sam, thanks for adding images and description to the road you describe with the big rocks. Perhaps we might give it a try this Saturday.

 

[COS80]

As of this moment (Tue eve), NWS is calling for 3-7" of snow (total) in Canon City. Fingers crossed for some good snow!

Rampart Range total prediction is 24-36"!

 

[LCPilot]

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.

 

[PWCO70crusier]

Trails may not be very accessible near Texas Creek. Cotopaxi reported 20" of snow, and most areas from Canon City, west were 12+. How does that play into your decision making for tomorrow?

 

[COS80]

NOTICE: We are switching to Sunday the 17th. Please post up if you plan to join us this Sunday.

 

[Goslow]

I plan to be there on Sunday and Molter will be there, also.

 

[Kamzee]

I plan on joining Sunday.

 

[Goslow]

Just made our first recovery of the day.

 

[COS80]

Couple pics from Lumberjack Hour.

 

[Goslow]

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”

 

[Goslow]

Here’s where we stopped for lunch and here are several other pics along the trail.

 

[Goslow]

A couple of downed trees had to be cut out and removed from the trail. Mud man was instrumental in cutting them with his battery powered chainsaw and winching them out-of-the-way. in the first pic, note Steve with his hands in his pockets supervising.