Trent and I did a full day of wheeling today. Taco did Pennsylvania gulch no problem and Trent was flying through Moon and Pickle. Hopefully i got the names right. Great weather and a fun day. My alignment even held. Thanks for going Trent!
Trent and I did a full day of wheeling today. Taco did Pennsylvania gulch no problem and Trent was flying through Moon and Pickle. Hopefully i got the names right. Great weather and a fun day. My alignment even held. Thanks for going Trent!
Java (June 10th, 2018),open_circuit (June 9th, 2018)
re last pic: Always fun to recognize a new-to-me place. I know where that is! :chuckle:
Today was a great day to be up in elevation / cooler.
open_circuit (June 9th, 2018)
As Chris summarized, we ran northern (or is that upper?) Switzerland trail down to Pennsylvania Gulch to start the day. We then took Pennsylvania Gulch through, and decided there was plenty of day left for more wheeling. We took Peak to Peak Highway across to Moon Gulch Rd, and then worked through the trail network near Moon Gulch and Pickle Gulch, exiting the network via Pickle Gulch. We attempted to run the network basically in reverse from the group run a few weeks ago, but we got a bit lost.
One of the roads on the MVUM map that is shown as a through route abruptly stops, and slowed us a down while we had to re-orient and work our way around the trails differently.
For Moon Gulch, I believe we ran in from Moon Gulch road on 290.1 to 413.1. From 413.1 we turned onto 412.2, and then attempted to take 412.1 to head towards the big X intersection of 411.1 and 412.1 on the MVUM map. We found that 412.1 dead ended at a fire pit / camp site only a short distance off of 412.2, so we turned around and took 412.2 to 719.1C, at which point I recognized the boundary gate between the Boulder and Clear Creek Ranger districts from the FR4x4 run up Pickle Gulch a few weeks ago. The large snow piles that Jim and Matt wheeled on are entirely melted, and the trail is quite dry and dusty. We took 716.1 to 713.1, eventually meeting up with 713.1b. I believe this junction is at the old mine where we stopped for lunch on the last group run. By the way, did anyone notice a large open stone-walled pit at the top of the mine last time? It is impossible to see over the hood of your vehicle while making that climb up the side of the mine! We then connected with 707.1 to reach Pickle Gulch, 718.1, where we ended the day.
Today was a great day for wheeling. Sunny and warm, and little traffic on the trails. Pennsylvania Gulch was probably no more or less challenging than the last time I ran it, a few months ago, but was much more enjoyable this time with more experience and fewer backseat drivers along for the ride. Moon Gulch was an interesting trail, with some nice forest scenery, but does not offer any interesting challenges. Several places on Moon Gulch feature narrow passages between trees. My Jeep had no trouble with the width restriction, and Chris only touched a single tree with a mirror on his Tacoma.