Grizzly Lake - July 11-12 Wheel and Camp
OK folks after fighting the first obstacle yesterday with the group from the Set Them Free Offload Event for 3 Hours and 11 different rigs I now know the line to get rigs with 33 or bigger tires and a winch up and over.
Trust me no winch no go!
Please do not attend this run if you do not have a winch. Because of the steep incline directly after the first obstacle it makes it near impossible for another winched recovery vehicle to pull a non winched vehicle through. Mind that if you do get up and make it you have to come back down it placing a winched recovery vehicle in an off camber spot in the middle of the creek.
Directly after the first obstacle the next 1/2 mile is a steep boulder filled road on a ledge, take it slow here, one wrong bounce and your toast! The rest of the trail is a 3-4 and the lake is a solid 10! Plenty of parking and tent spaces available. The fishing was amazing and there looks to be plenty more to explore.
I plan to meet at the Gunsmoke Travel Plaza in Johnson Village, CO just east of the HWY 285 and HWY 24 split/intersection at 8:00 am Saturday morning July 10th 2015, and pulling out sharply at 8:30. I know its early but the short 20 minute drive to the trail head from the meeting spot and the time it takes to air down and approach the first obstacle puts us at 9:00-9:15. Getting an early start betters our chances of being first up the trail and allows us to spend a good majority of the time at the lake. At the trail head we will have a short drivers meeting and I will go over what to expect as far as the first obstacle and the following climb go.
Once again this trail does not afford bypasses. If you have a mechanical breakdown here it will require extra effort to get your rig down safely or off the side of the trail so others can pass. Getting towed out of here could be quite expensive as the tow vehicle will have to navigate the first obstacle as well. Also rock sliders are mandatory as you will use them on this trail, if you do not have them I can almost guarantee you will have some type of body damage.
I plan to pack up camp the next morning Sunday July 11th 2015 and start heading back down around 2:00 pm this will better our chances of following another group down instead of incurring one coming up. This should put us back to the trail head around 3:30 pm (without incident). Going down the step at the end will test the nerves of almost any off road driver, longer wheel base vehicles will actually need to drive off the ledge and onto frame/skid plates/sliders to get down, its brutal without sliders and even with them it is quite a rough exit.
This should be a an amazing time. Great fishing, great views, and a wonderful wheelin' weekend.
If your interested in joining I will be leading and spotting through the first obstacle both up and down, would like to limit it to 10 vehicles max.
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