Wheeler Lake 09.12.20

[Rocrawlr]

I had a blast today with Chris & family, Ty & Kevin, Steve, Steve's friend Zac and his significant other (sorry I bad a remembering names) and of course Shane. It was crisp and cold on the drive up to Fairplay and I could see snow capped mountains. We aired down at Montgomery Reservoir and hit the trail a little after 9A. I was expecting to run into a lot of snow. It was wet but there were only a few traces of snow here and there. One minor mishap, Chris went a little too wide to get around a big rock just before the right turn up bowling ball hill and both driver's side tires slipped off the trail. Chris pulled out winch line and attached to Shane and Ty ran his winch line to the rear of Chris to make sure the rear end wouldn't slide. In a few minutes the Taco was back on the trail. Other than that everyone made it to the top without much trouble. The view from the top is amazing. I never get tire of seeing it and those waterfalls though...! Congrats to Shane and his trusty Land Rover for making it to the top without having to be pulled or winched. It was his second attempt at Wheeler. Last year he went solo and only made it to the base of bowling ball. I only have a few pictures, but hopefully others will post more.

Thanks everyone for a great day!

[speedkills]

I'll upload higher quality pics if I find some time in the next few days but in the meanwhile here is a low quality version of the one people will probably be most interested in because recovery pics are always some of the best. One of my favorite runs so far, we took a bit more or a break than usual at the lake and it was nice to be able to just relax around the lake and chat with folks and meet a few people I haven't had a chance to wheel with before who I hope show up again. I was all set to have to winch over the spot immediately after bowling ball hill that stopped me last time I tried to make it to Wheeler Lake, and just as I pull up to the obstacle one of the people coming down the trail appeared with possibly the best spotting job I have ever seen. Talked me right up the spot that kicked my butt on my last attempt at this trail. It felt amazing to make it up that section and even if 95% of the credit rightly goes to the spotter, I still get to keep the smiles.

[speedkills]

I uploaded some pictures I took to iCloud, hopefully this link works for people, let me know if not and I'll try to fix. Unfortunately something happened with my camera or settings on the second half of the trip and all of the pictures after that turned out much darker, if you download any to keep you may need to lighten them up a bit. Also, I turned on a setting to embed the date, which thought meant save the date in the file metadata, but it actually put the date in the lower right hand corner so you may want to crop that out. Oops, I disabled that feature just now so that won't happen again. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0g5Uzl7VGGOgmx

One of my favorite parts was watching Gerald, Steve, and Zac tackle the notch. With the trails I go on I don't usually get to watch the built Jeeps really work. It was awesome to see. In the photo album the last pic of Zac you can see his driver side rear wheel climbing over the rock ledge he was working on, I didn't get a picture of him coming over the top as I had to jump out of the way at that point but after working it a bit he managed to get some drive and popped up and out. I was stunned to see those Jeeps could tilt that far without rolling. It was an impressive bit of driving.

[Rocrawlr]

speedkills previously posted:

[TjSteveA]

Had a great time with everyone! Shane thanks for the pictures. I didn’t get any pictures. I’m used to having my wife with me taking the pictures for me haha.

[TyTheJeepGuy]

What an awesome run! Thanks Gerald for organizing and leading. Everyone was pleasant and helpful as you can expect out of Front Range 4x4 folks, looking forward to wheeling with them again. I need to go through the photos that Shane uploaded, and I think I'll add most to this shared album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cetybd4JRWZbxcXP8

You should be able to add your own photos if you're ok with me sharing them with friends and family.
My manager Kevin came along and had a great time. He was especially impressed with Steve's Jeep. He kept staying out after spotting my relatively low-rider to "see if Steve needs a spot" and Steve would usually already be clear of the obstacle by the time Kevin could finish his sentence Steve's friend Zach brought his Jeep on a trailer so guess who put on the most spectacular performances of the day?

Gerald's Jeep is something else. I refer to that as "peak Jeep."

Chris' Taco has to be the most impressive (and more than functional, is just dang good-looking) Tacoma I've seen and both he and Frankie were great drivers to follow for portions of the trail to help me choose some good lines. I think his kids enjoyed the trail too, especially when he had to give it some gas up the slick obstacles.

Shane's LR4 floored me, I need to eat my words on air bags. Compared to the Trailhawk Grand Cherokee that I've seen in action, the LR4 has articulation! The front suspension comes up at an impossible angle that gives it great function and it looks awesome, too. Both Kevin and I thought that Shane had complete confidence in how he drove it and it was really fun to wheel with.

I really beat the crap out of the Bluebicon's underside but it held up. This trail was about the limit of what I'd take it on so it was as expected; no tears and all smiles!

I have some footage from my bumper-mounted camera. If anyone has some additional footage they'd like to share, you can add it to the Google Photos link in this post and I can try to match it up with my bumper footage if we captured the same moment, or just toss it in its own spot in a "fun moments" trail video.

[TyTheJeepGuy]

Oh and just one more thing, the sections of trail before, after, and including bowling ball hill are incredibly loose. I think the edge of trail Chris used to get around a trail-blocking boulder just gave out underneath him. So sketchy!

[cnstaco]

Super fun trail ride guy’s! I was seriously impressed by everybody’s vehicles and driving skills. My wife and kids had a great time. I thought I was going to loose the taco on bowling ball but thanks to everyone it survived unscathed. Thanks again guy’s!

[tirefoamcan]

Looks intense! Definitely beyond my skill level, but something to work towards! Really cool.

[TyTheJeepGuy]

tirefoamcan previously posted: