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| Friday's staging for a last trail ride... |
On Friday August 5th, was a sunny All-4-Fun morning, and great jeepin' weather for the last ride of the week. I signed up to tail-end Brad Pero's trip up the Jenny Creek Trail. The trip was full, as 25 or so rigs pulled out of the staging area for the week's last run. My jeepin'-sidekick Molly and I followed in just like a caboose on a train. We all headed north on Hwy119 on up to Rollinsville and made a turn east towards the Front Range and the start of the Moffat Road.
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Molly's ready to go--bring on the squirrels, birdies, chipmunks, marmots and/or whatever else moves... |
The Moffat road is the old railroad grade that isn't maintained anymore that leads up to Rollins Pass. We "chugged" (chugged-get it?), up the road about 5 miles to the trailhead. All 20-odd jeeps locked in and headed out on the trail. I had not done Jenny Creek since Aspencades last Fall, so I was ready!
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| We stopped to air down since the road up was all washboards and bumpy... |
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The "train" runs along Boulder Creek on up to the Moffat Road along the hill to the right... |
The trail starts with a tight tree-lined trail section down to an old bridge and the Jenny Creek crossing. Brad got his YJ stuck between a rock and a hard place and we needed to move the rock so he could move. A series of boulders and a hard left challenged everyone just after the stream.
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| The beginning of Jenny Creek has towering spruce trees...Hummers beware of trees! |
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| Trip leader Brad Pero gets both diffs stuck on a boulder--front and rear... |
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| I try my hand at coming off the bridge ends... |
We jeeped on up thru rock fields, thru Jenny Creek, and on to a lunch stop in the trees. The trail winds up Jenny Creek, literally it does. A tight set of trees test the power steering pump as you maneuver around them. With Detroit's, I of course had to back up a few times.
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| The bridge to nowhere at Jenny Creek as an obstacle awaits... |
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The obstacle contains a series of boulders to climb along with a sharp left, this photo was taken at Aspencades last Fall... |
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| Twice along the trail Jenny Creek follows the trail... |
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| Another Fall photo showing the many rock fields along the Jenny Creek Trail... |
The trail is a fun trail and well worth the bumpy 2WD drive up the Moffat Road. I wish Colorado had more real Jeep" trails like this one. Unfortunately these are the ones that fall less then 52" wide and are vulnerable to road less status. We ended up at Yankee Doodle Lake just below Rollins Pass, and I suggested since it was still about 2:30pm on the last day to run up 709.1 trail. We all agreed and headed down the Moffat Road thru Tolland and up County rd. 4N to Elk Park. We did want to get back to camp by 5pm though.
I had never been down to the Miner's Gulch (709.1) trailhead from the north but found a cable "gate" that wasn't locked and had NO no trespassing on it. Just past Elk Park from Apex it's on your left. Once we headed down the valley, no trespassing signs were posted, so we stayed on the main FS 705.1 (it says it on a carsonite sign at the bottom-looking back up).
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| A photo from Tuesday's run shows the same challenges on Miner's Gulch... |
I found the trailhead and the fun begins once again. I won't go over the specifics since this is the 3rd time you've heard me on it, but two words: ""A Blast!" Ask Brian Hoag; he led a trip that same day up the trail in the morning. We reached the saddle again, and instead of going west we headed east towards camp thru some easy to moderate jeep trails all the way down to the cemeteries above Central City. A great way to end a fun-fun week of jeepin along the Front Range!
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The trip back to camp runs thru groves of aspens which turn golden yellow as seen in this photo taken last Fall... |
Once back at camp, the MHJC BBQ, free beer, and the band (which played last year at ALL-4-FUN in Fairplay) started up at 6pm as part of Warn Night, sponsored by Warn Industries. During intermission, a 9500i Warn winch was given out by Harold Ogden of Warn, and the band played on till midnight.
Bill Hallinan HoboJeepers
Here are some other Jenny Creek Reports:
**Jenny Creek Trail Directions**
** Jenny Creek Trail by Larry Heck**
**Jenny Creek Trail-HoboJeepers**
Other All-4-Fun Trip Reports
Sun: Middle St. Vrain/Coney Flats Mon: Eldorado Mountain/Caribou Flats Tue: Kingston Peak/Yankee Hill/Miner's Gulch
Wed: Manufacture Day Thur: Miner's Gulch/Kingston Peak/Yankee Hill Fri: Jenny Creek/Miner's Gulch
