Switzerland Trails and Bunce School Road 1/1/23

[Mountaineer01]

Mike, Jason, and I met at the Switzerland Trail trailhead, where we were also joined by Nick who is a professional lurker of the forum. He came in a sweet E-Series van.



The weather was perfect and the sun peeked out halfway through to provide some additional warmth. The trail didn't seem to get much snow recently as it was well tracked but we did hit some deep spots that required a few runs with momentum or careful use of a winch.





Winch being put to use:



About 95% of the way through the trail we came across an abandoned truck blocking the path:



We had to decide between backing up and turning around and running the whole trail again in the other direction, or trying to move the truck about 100 yards back where we could get it out of the way. Fortunately it was left unlocked and had a manual transmission so we could put it in neutral, unfortunately there were no keys and the steering wheel was locked slightly pointing to the right. We decided to move it out of the way:



We spent about 30 minutes moving it 20 yards since we had to winch from the front of the truck and good anchor trees were scarce. Luckily a couple in a rented Jeep with a winch came across us from the other side and were able to help.



After about an hour and a half we finally moved the truck and were able to finish the trail with the sun shining.



Due to the setback, Mike and Nick had to go home and could not do the second trail. Jason and I continued to Bunce School Road, which was more of the same but a little more rutted and fun.



There was a section near the beginning with a bit of a hill to climb that was icy and rutted, which took a couple attempts, and gave Jason a real good pucker moment when his Jeep started sliding sideways down the hill, but he was able to recover and get over it (I don't have photos of this unfortunately). The rest of the trail was pretty smooth until about 4 miles in where it got deep and steep and we had to turn around.

Overall a great day for my first time snow wheeling. The 4WD conversion worked great and I even got to use 4 Low for a bit to descend the sketchy part of Bunce which worked like a charm.

Edit: I attached the photos so they should be visible. Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13QrylBlfu3O0sqvPDA_0arNwxuTg_2cy?usp=sharing

[Jim]

img src="https://mail.google.com/mail

FYI: Photos are not showing (at least to me) as they look to be linked to your e-mail account (which folks would need to be logged into to see the content). An option would be to place them into Google Photos or Drive and grab a "public" URL to the items.

Mountaineer01 previously posted:

[Mountaineer01]

Interesting.. they were showing on my computer but not on my phone. How do you paste photos in your posts Jim? I was trying to do the same. I will try to fix tomorrow.

[Jim]

Two main methods:

1) Direct upload of the photo to the forum - when making a post hit the "Go Advanced" button in the bottom right corner of the "quick reply" box. In the full / comprehensive editor there's an "Upload Photos" button. Using the forum attachments method the pictures appear, sometimes out of order, at the end of the post - not interspersed within the text (as you have in your post).

2) This is likely what you want as it gives control over where, in the post, you wish a picture to appear. Upload the photo to a publicly viewable web host and link to the picture in your post. As you asked what I do - I have my own web site - all content publicly visible - so I just grab a URL to a picture that I had already uploaded to my web site. If you're using Google services, you might upload the photos to your Google Drive or Google Photos - possibly making a section for FrontRange4x4 pictures - making those photos publicly visible (no login needed) and grabbing the URL that Google offers and use that URL in your post here.

[JGRubicon]

Nice and detailed report.

That Mountaineer certainly gets around.

The slide was spooky, luckily it was slow and didn't push me into the rocks, all said, it went as good as it could have.

I agree that the Patigonias don't seem to be great in the snow and ice, which I've heard, and while they are fine around town... it was not really showing today.

It was fun for my first real snow wheeling, finally really used the winch and other recovery gear. I only embarrassed myself a bit.

Great day to get out.

Cam pics attached.

Big Files and cell pics here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...wo?usp=sharing

[Mountaineer01]

Jim previously posted:

[dax444]

Looks like a fun run. Sorry I missed it.

[The StRanger]

Luv in the pics. I’m wheelin vicariously through you.
not meaning to highjack the thread but What spare tire cariama you run in on the mountaineer?

[Mountaineer01]

The StRanger previously posted:

[TjMike]

Thanks to Isak for putting this together and was a great time all around. Moving the stuck pickup was an experience and just adds to the story. Still wish I had more time to do the Bunce School Road but glad you guys had more fun.
For how deep the snow was everyone did great, even the Mountaineer Jason's Rubicon also did amazing as long as the parking brake was off

Im not very good at taking photos but here are a few I did get. Looking forward to the next one!

[newracer]

I hate when people leave their rigs blocking the road. Personally I'd never move one without permission from the owner or a LEO.

[JLWILLYS21]

Agreed 100%, however sometimes it is necessary to move a vehicle without permission, especially when it's blocking the trail.

newracer previously posted:

[JGRubicon]

We also called the owner, they had left a note with their number.

Still wouldn't feel bad about moving that rig, it was not passable, and one hell of a turn around and head back.