Red Cone, Webster Pass, Geneva Creek

[Jim]

I'm home - 12:25am. Time for bed.

Short notes - a NICE day on the trails. STRONG, brisk wind atop Red Cone. Decent mix of blue sky and puffy white clouds. Down on Webster, in the trees, a motorcyclist asked for assistance. He wished a jeep ride back to camp - certainly. A riding buddy was on the way to ferry the bike back to camp. He said a red quad came flying downhill around a blind corner that he was progressing uphill through. Their actions caused him upset and he had a tumble and injured his left forearm - possibly soft tissue only (it had a nice bulge / swelling) - but it was somewhat out of action. We got him situated and headed out to the county salt shed at Hall Valley & 285 where Louis had his trailer.

Louis was to head home while the rest of us decided on Geneva Creek up Guanella Pass. We visited the ?north spur? and then headed to the main mine at the west end. While there Rob's wife, Tara, noticed a pickup, higher up than us and across the valley, sitting sideways on a sloped trail. The two persons were walking down trail. We headed up to meet them and come to find an F150, sideways on the trail, passenger side to the low side, with a driver's side front tire with a sidewall slash - and no spare. James knows his vehicles and figured his spare should fit.

I drove to the high side of the truck - there was a nice, flat turn-around spot 30' up trail (with mine / boiler footings with nice lag bolts embedded - great for a sidewall slash). We pulled the tail end up trail and positioned the truck nicely. The gent was able to get it to the flat area (all of us fit) and James changed the tire. From there, all of us traveled back to near C-470, back into cell phone range, where James was able to get his wheel back and the gent and friend were able to call family for help.

A GOOD - Good Karma day!

[Getaklu]

Good karma day indeed. Looks to have been a great time.

[78bj40]

Great to see you all again!, turned out to be a nice day and a great run. here are some photos of you guys.

[78bj40]

few more

[RockyMtRebel]

Awesome pics, looks like an adventurous day

[FINOCJ]

Cheers all - was a super fun day. Red Cone has immediately moved to near the top of the list of my favorite trails. Sliders or high clearance to get over the first rock obstacle is nice - but otherwise the trail is mostly friendly including the hill climb and the steep descent. Views driving along the ridge are unparalleled. Its not an easy trail, but its also not overly difficult. I'd rate the trail difficulty as on the harder end of medium, but the consequence of a major mistake in a few places is pretty huge. In the kayaking world, we call that class 3 whitewater with class 5 consequences. Its a fantastic trail that is not crazy, but it really helps to have some experience, especially in the vehicle you are driving. It you are uncertain, its a great one to go for a ride-along.

Glad we could help some people out...although the truck recovery wasn't really all that bad - simple winch pull with a couple of resets to get the position right - it definitely took some time. The tire that was coming off the rim wasn't helping and of course, there was still the tire change to be done afterwards - I think it took about 3 hours from when we arrived till we were heading down. There was a time when 5 lug on 5.5" was a pretty common lug pattern...Scavenging for jeep parts over the years, old ford trucks are often a good source for cheap steel rims - just glad the 33" was close enough in size to work and that we could figure out thin-walled socket with breaker bar to loosen those nuts.

Without trying to single the driver out too much...Hopefully its a learning experience. I was reminded of a goofy safety theme from when i worked at Shell Oil: the swiss cheese model. Its seems we all have a weak spot in our safety preparation net, but it really becomes a hole in the net when all they all line-up. And it seems when something bad starts to happen, all the rest fall in place as well compounding matters. In the F150's case: he went single vehicle without much self-recovery equipment (although not sure a front mounted winch would have helped himself much), the vehicle was new to him so he didn't know much about it, made a careless mistake by driving over the concrete lag bolts, didn't have a spare, or a way to change the spare. He did have a few hand tools. Not sure he was all that prepared to spend a cold night out there - but he probably could have gotten a ride down to 285. What is still uncertain to me is how he ended up cross-ways part way down the trail. Did he not know he cut the tire until he was driving down and lost traction or steering? The way that side-wall looked, i would think you'd know right when it happened. I am assuming at some point he recognized the issue and tried to either turn around or back back-up to the mine? Or did he know he had the flat, but couldn't change it, so he tried driving down on it compounding matters, loosing traction and ending up sideways. For lack of a better way to put it, stuff happens - try to be prepared enough and make good (and maybe conservative) decisions afterwards to keep it from turning into a major consequence failure. I've been subject to stuff happens, especially with my old jeep, and gotten lots help from those that went with me from this forum...happy to help someone else out.

I'll get some pics posted later today - got to go demo some of my back patio and begin relocating irrigation stuff. For 10 years we've lived in this house, we've wanted to redo the back patio, so it starts today. We have a good quote from a contractor to pour a slab in a few weeks, so time to start laboring.

[66cobra]

Had a great time once again. Thanks. That guy had no business being out there. Totally clueless. Hewas lucky we were out there and you guys stepped up big time,I hope he appreciates it and learned from the experience. We all know trail etiquette it would have. Even wrong to leave him stranded out there

[FINOCJ]

Here a few pics - the bright sun washed out most of my camera phone photos.

[cornpone99]

Great job James and crew. Just goes to show the type of people in the group. All the more reason to donate and keep the site going. It may be you next. Up a creek an no ...

[TJS86TOY]

Wonderful pictures! To be honest, that place scares me a bit (having full width axles) with the spot on Webster pass thats washed out and the rock face to the side. I sure bet those people you all helped where glad to see you, great karma indeed! Not to be brash but I agree with 66Cobra that people should have sense enough to know their limitations but..... when I was young , well let's just say I was on the bad end of that karma thing. Glad it was a safe and fun trip!

[FINOCJ]

I have to ask...How wide are your full-widths? For my jeep with 51" wide axles there was plenty of room. I am probably somewhere around 63" from outside of tire to outside of tire! You might be able to straddle and drive over my jeep with that 4runner!

[Brian]

Nice report! Looks like the trip had a little bit of everything.

[redneck23ms]

his front axle is 69" wide plus width from tire and wheel put him 85" i would guess

[newracer]

He might even be wider than that, I am at 83.5".

[goSlo]

I missed out on this one, the pics are great!
Hopefully next time!

Thank you guys for a great trail run report.

[ColoJeeper]

Was up on Guanella Pass and Geneva Creek on Friday, very little traffic and the Aspens were beautiful up there...

[PhillipG65]

Oh man that looks like sssoooo much fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wondering if the elephant and I would get through it ??

[Jim]

Photo set is complete.

Highlight photos in my first post, above, with the full set at the link:
www.JimWilliamson.net/automobile/2017-09-16--red-cone--webster-pass--geneva-creek--help-others/

[78bj40]

[QUOTE=Jim;317478]Photo set is complete.

Wow, great presentation and awesome photos
Thanks Jim

[FINOCJ]

Thanks Jim - got to steal a few more photos from you!