Webster and Red cone 8/17/14

[Robert B]

made it all the way up there from the springs and i was only about 10 mins late which is great and the town of dillon and those around it are amazing. met alex and his family, then he led the way up as i have not been there for a few years. was a little bit of a bumpy trail as its mainly rocks and no dirt but hey second time i aired down a little more and that helped but it was a great day for the trail as i could see soo many mountain ranges out i thing it started showing the curvature of the earth. there was only one little spot that i had to even look at the tire placement for the edge and that part was not hard at all and i thing i still had plenty of room. no real issues for getting stuck on the trail minus one boulder in the ground that was just perfect to hang up my rear diff and i had no where to go so eventually i broke a nice big piece off the boulder in the ground and alex and i moved that under one of my rear tires to get me up and over that little annoying stone. overall it was a blast and minus my truck losing a bunch of Horsepower when i reached I 70 in the morn and bleeding more through the day (30 mph on hills and 57 mph on flat highway is no fun) was great, even had a bunch of wildlife in the area from many little creatures to a few times i saw deer and of course the mountain goats at the very top of red cone that didnt even care about us being there. i will get pics up a little later and i dont have a whole bunch since i was solo in my truck but i did get some so by this evening i will have them on here.

[Robert B]

took me some time but here we go

[Robert B]

oh and yes the goat stood in front of me on top of red cone and did not care about me at all... also heres a fun little thing showing how far one can see with the naked eye since I saw these guys bunched up at the snowdrift along with a bunch of other people on different parts of the trails in these valleys. and this little machine if I remember correctly is in montezuma in the middle of the road as a divider

[Robert B]

and yes the first 4 pics uploaded in a different order than I wanted but ehh....... in pic number 4 the drift in the first 3 is about right in the middle of the pic and I didn't go nuts on the other pics of the many valleys and mountain ranges i could see in the distance in every direction

[alexb]

It was good to meet Robert. Had a good time. Trail was a little more rough than I had been doing and I escaped with a little damage as I really banged up my oil pan. I think it was when I got stuck on a rock once we got out of the trees.

Webster was fairly tame. Up to the pass was 2wd. I switched to 4 lo at the pass to control descent only.

Red Cone was exceptionally rocky, more so than Mosquito Pass.

I used my rock sliders on rocks and not just as steps for the first time. I significantly dented my oil pan and a small dent in what I think is my right rear control arm mount.

I also managed to get 30 degrees off camber without flopping on two occasions. Anyways, on to the pictures!

Montezuma is still guarded by the automated traffic light.


In case you can't read the sign, it says "Stop. Hammertime"







To echo what Robert said about seeing far, you can see a jeep riding along the ridge here in this picture.



Robert squeezing down the skinny part of Webster.



These stagnant ponds of abnormally orange water looked odd.

[alexb]

And on to Red Cone.



I have some video of Robert getting hooked up on this rock that I'll try and upload. In the mean time, here's the aftermath of him digging his way out. Significantly more ruts around the large boulder near the start of Red Cone.








A little blurry, but this shows the portion of the trail where I think I banged my oil pan. Where the trail splits in two, I went right and got hung up next to a piece of quartz the size of a boulder.


Distant mountains.


What most of the trail looked like.






Trail leading to Red Cone, above timber line.

[alexb]

Jeep ahead of me on the ascent.





Mountain goats waiting for us at the top.








So much adrenaline after going down the last hill.


There were 3 big down hill stretches at the end of Red Cone. The first 2 were scary but the third was worse as it was rutted so it didn't feel like you could just let yourself cruise down.

[alexb]

Here's my banged up oil pan.


Nothing leaked that day. The next day after driving home from Dillon and parking on my angled driveway I got a couple of drips and then nothing since then.

Lots of fun. Thanks Robert.

[Jim]

Nice pix - great that you didn't puncture the pan!

[jayson44]

awesome...this one is definitely on my list!

J.

[Funrover]

Thanks for the pics!!! I love that area!

[Robert B]

okay here ya go i think i got the area where you dented your oil pan lol video number 3

[alexb]

Robert stuck on "the" rock.


Another stuck video that shows how big the ruts got trying to get through. It's like the last 5 seconds where you can really see it.

[alexb]

Thanks for the videos Robert. That third one is definitely where I think I banged my oil pan. Got hung up and couldn't go forward or backward.

The second one is me going over the rock near the start of Red Cone. Reminds me that I did manage to bang both my driver and passenger mirrors along the way.

[Jim]

What is this? It looks large enough to drive a quad or maybe a jeep into. Was it fenced off? Where was it?

Robert B previously posted:

[Fatboris]

aaaahhhh.....she'll buff out. No problem

[Robert B]

im not sure jim it was just on the left hand side of the trail and its kinda visible but the whole hill had water running down it and out of the hole so it seems man cut but not entirely sure what it is .. no fence or anything so could be something to be explored another time maybe .. oh i think it was on the trail right out of montezuma a little ways in right as you come out of the trees

[alexb]

Jim previously posted:

[alexb]

Definitely not large enough to drive a jeep or quad into. You might be able to crawl in hands and knees.

[F150_UP]

Awesome pictures! Thanks. Sorry about the pan but glad it's only a dent!