Pickle Gulch

[SynergyXJ]

Around 9:05 we were at the trail head and ready to go, but the trail was empty, so I took charge and led our way. And just like that, I am starting the trail report for this run:

I must say that I had a f'n blast leading the crew and bashing the fresh powder. This was the thickest snow my XJ has seen in its 18 months in Colorado; ranging from 4" at the trailhead to up to ~16" on the trail. I was ecstatic to be plowing snow with my axle tube. I met some new people, saw some familiar faces, and just had a great run overall.

The hardest spots were in the beginning and had by-passes, followed by several miles of flat and sometimes very narrow trail with lots of side shoots and intersecting FS roads. We pretty much followed the .gpx file from TrailDamage exactly up until we hit some kind of building/station near Dakota Hill. Then we climbed said hill to find a radio tower where we stopped for lunch and let the weather roll in. This was definitely the thickest snow we saw - while going uphill, I finally couldn't plow it and had to let tcm pass me and pack down the powder for us. It was absolutely gorgeous on this hill for the first few minutes, but as soon as the fourth rig got up, the clouds and snow came. After the break we headed back down. Well, most of us did, but some stayed for some trail fixes. I'm sure someone in that group will comment on that.

The group that did make it down decided to head over to Moon Gulch, following my lead. I will go ahead and admit some misleading on this one. I found some FS roads that would take us to Moon Gulch and led this way. With there being lots of side shoots, I led us down a trail about 200' over from the trail I was aiming for. I quickly realized we might have been off route, but it was a legit trail and heading in the right direction, so I went for it. A quarter mile later, it dead ended in a mad tight squeeze to get 5 or 6 rigs turned around. That tight turn-around process was a hell of a maneuver, but we managed it with only one slide-off-the-trail-and-winch-back-on scenario - which was definitely not our first utilization of winch technology on this trip.

Just as we got back on trail and through the obstacle that I like to believe is the "Pickle Gulch", the rest of the group caught up. The route down this gulch was icy as heck, I was popping and sliding all over the place. That was when I determined it was indeed the Pickle Gulch. By that time, it was nearly 3pm which is like night in the winter, so we called it a day.

Great ride! I had a blast!

some shout outs:
@JAB & tcm - good to see you guys again; big ups to the lunch equipment
@EKXJ87 - your rig is sick and I got some inspiration from it
@dieseldoc - it was good to ride with ya'll again, too!

Attached are some pictures and a screen shot of my GPS log.

[Rick]

great day all in all....good to meet new friends......

[Atl-atl]

Damn, I should have gone. I was busy looking at houses though. Next time for sure!

[dieseldoc]

Morning all,

We had a great time on this snow covered run!
We got to the trail a few minutes to 9.
Not all were at the trail head. So we introduced and hung out chatting.
Few minutes of chat and up come 3 more jeeps.
And off we want. Evan In the lead.
the first obstacles stopped me with my open diff's.
Brandon ( white cherokee) passed on the easy out.
with us now in the 5th position we get good view of the conditions.
As we enter got to the first steep climb Josh had a tough time as did the blue jeep behind him.
Thus Brandon and I opted for the side out.
This was not an easy drive in its own right.
As we reached the top we caught Evan,
to find Josh was down trail helping with the first winch of the day.
The next stop was the base of the pickle
as Evan is locked in the rear he want up no issues.
Brandon want the same way. Thus exposing his failing u-joint, as he spent 10 minutes slowly making forward progress, I want up the side line to have my own issues.
As I was sliding and having issues with forward motion
We finally got to the top after having a close to off trail slide.
Brandon ( white cherokee) was on the strap at this time.
as we all got up and landed we headed out from there.
Was a nice snow bash drive. Using high range for most the rest of the day.
we had a uneven full run to the last set of climbs from the maintenance shack.
As we left an want on up in the deepest snow yet, the 2nd half was a bit tougher thus Evan gave up hi lead, we all had to make a few runs up the last hill before lunch.
The trip down hill was fun and fairly easy.
The side road experience was interesting, 5 trucks and a space for 3!
We got 4 turned around to discover we had one slide off leading to the 3rd use of the winch for the day.
Back on trail some backwards driving and turn around.
We made our down to the pickle.....oh Dam!
What Evan didn't say was this was a no control slip slide all tires stopped.
Fun as that was we got the hell out of the way as the rest of the group caught up.
We found out Brandon was 2 wheeling it as he was minus his front drive shaft.....
all I will say is trail maintenance dude realy!
Some play time at the pickle and off we want and out to the trail head.


Pics will come as I up load them to computer.

Nice to meet all the new faces.
Evan very nice to see you again.

[JAB]

Evan and Brandon thanks for excellent write up from the trip!
Not much more to add than it was another great day with great folks from here.

[dscowell]

Making me jealous I wish I could be out there.

[EKXJ87]

Nice write up Evan, I also had a great time meeting new folks as I met Rick his Son and Brandon at Blackhawk at 8:15 and headed up to the trail, BS'd a little as everyone showed up aired down and heading up the trail. The weather seamed to changed from calm to windy and was actually sunny at one breif point, the scenery was awesome! as it alway's nice being the only group on the enitre mountain.
We had a nice mix of rigs including Rick's full size Dodge that he was able to squeeze through some tight spots !

Thanks for the compliment Evan, maybe someday we can get together and share ideas I would really like to learn more about your on board GPS would love to have that on my rig. On with the Pics

[The StRanger]

Very Nice !!
Love the pics !!

[sunk]

Hey! thats one of my radio sites! That is a state DTRS site called Dakota. There are times during the winter that the snow is covering that 8' fence and we use the snowcat to get in.

Nice pics! I need to get out on a snow run!