Click on some Santana, Top Gun, Bob Marley, Rocky, AC/DC, Mission Impossible,
Beach Boys, Axle's Theme, James Bond, Van Halen, or the Eagles while you browse this Holy Cross report.
|
|
|
Click on link above for directions with a nice topo and map profile of the Holy Cross Trail provided by 4x4trails.net... |
On Sunday July 1, Hobos Sean "Joker" Tallant & guest Lance, Drew "Drewby" Middleton & guest Vicki, Scott (with sons Tom & Pete) Maxwell, and guests Bob & Heather from the Springs, all headed out from Morrison for a nice drive (2 hours west on I-70) through the mountains on what turned out to be a "4 TJ trip to Holy Cross".
|
|
| Can't beat the views from Holy Cross... |
We stopped at the MHJC's Patrol 12 Fugowie campsite on the way up and talked to Brian and a couple other Fugowie's about their previous day's run. They reported great trail conditions, good water flow in French Creek and a couple of the more interesting trail breakdowns we'd seen in a while. We headed on up to the lower trailhead and hooked up with Hobo Sean and his buddy who'd come in the night before.
|
|
|
Drew tackles some early obstacles at the start... |
The trail has shades of Moab in that the obstacles start off early and there are plenty off them. We hit a little bit of traffic in the lower section of the trail, but once we navigated around a couple other vehicles coming up and down we were on our way. The lower section offers some good obstacles and a taste of things to come.
|
|
|
Trip leader shows the gang why you don't pick the line by the tree... |
|
|
|
New Hobo Drewby takes the better approach... |
|
|
|
Early on the obstacles grow in size, no problem for Sean's TJ though... |
After a quick bite of lunch we headed up through French Creek. I thought I'd recognized one of the Jeeps parked in one of the campsites and it turned out to be fellow Hobos Chris "Curly" and Debi Vieth, who'd come down the day before to run with Patrol 8. They'd broken an axle, so had parked Curly's Jeep.
|
|
|
Sean stuffs the left front fender up and thru... |
|
|
|
Drew's TJ makes it up and over with ease... |
|
|
|
I manage the same line (note the steepness with people below)... |
There was a small group of testosterone and Keystone beer pumped kids hung up in a Toyota pick-up in the big rocks. There was another small group of spectators on the hill that had brought out their lawn chairs to watch the fun. After beating and bashing, running and gunning, the Toy and their buddy in the Scout managed their way out of the rocks without leaving any significant components behind.
|
|
|
"Hey Dude, that's my beer you put under my tire!"... |
The beer gang came back to watch what they thought would be sure carnage to await the Hobos. Alas, we disappointed them. With some excellent spotting by Sean and the rest of the gang the Hobos navigated the creek with little trouble. Bob enjoyed watching Heather pilot his 2inch lifted TJ with the thin tires through with minimal effort. She did a great job and left some of us wondering about the benefits of those wider meats on our rigs when picking your way through the boulders.
|
|
|
I didn't try the fishin'... |
|
|
|
Mad Max starts out of French Creek... |
|
|
|
and gets some great articulation as he crawls on... |
|
|
|
Next stop Holy Cross City... |
|
|
|
Sean "Joker" Tallant navigates the creek's boulders... |
|
|
|
Nice flex Joker!!. |
|
|
|
Drewby picks his line & flexes thru... |
|
|
|
Heather takes the TJ thru French Creek... |
On up to the trail and taking the right fork past Holy Cross to some great obstacles. The first is a big off camber rock with nothing but open meadow waiting below. The angle of the rock sends the front end skyward and makes the spotter scramble for higher ground so you can see his hands over top of your hood. Meanwhile your mind is thinking about that downward slant and slick granite that will send you sliding sideways toward the edge with any misplaced tire. Needless to say the sphincter got more exercise on one obstacle than a vegetarian choir member gets in a month.
|
|
|
View above French Creek Crossing... |
|
|
|
Bob puckers up above Holy Cross City... |
|
|
|
"Yes, it's as bad (and fun) as it looks"... |
All safely across we proceeded to the wall (I'm sure there's a official name for this, but I don't know what it is). This is a great obstacle with slippery granite and multiple ledges to work your way up. Again, with some good lines and spotting Mad Max and Sean were eventually able to navigate up the face after several attempts and some carefully placed rocks. Drew and Bob gave valiant attempts, but with open diffs and limited lift on Bob's rig, decided a little winch help wasn't such a bad thing after all.
|
|
|
Bob says "Steep and slippery"... |
|
|
|
Looking good Drew on the last obstacle... |
|
|
|
Going back down is much easier, but a good line is still important... |
|
|
|
Sean "Yea, I've got skid plates"... |
|
|
|
Bob coming down thru French Creek looking good... |
We then headed to the top of the trail for a quick look at the beautiful scenery and to take advantage of the line of site for a couple of quick cell phone calls home letting folks know we'd be running a little late. This was a long day up and back, but what a great trail, great scenery, and best of all, great Jeepin' company.
|
|
|
Drewby stills smiles after a fun day, and he finally got rid of his stock steps! He now has some Tomken sidesteps for next time... |
Thanks to all for a great run.
"Jeep, Jeep,"
Scott "Mad Max Maxwell HoboJeepers
Here are some other Holy Cross Trip Reports:
Holy Cross City Trail by The Flatlander: http://www.off-road.com/4x4web/travels/hcctrail.html and http://www.4x4now.com/hcc.htm
Holy Cross City Trail by Jeepin.Com: http://jeepin.com/campjeep1998/holycross/holycross.html
Holy Cross City Trail by Cindy Beaudean: http://www.jeeptech.com/~txh3202/trail/hc9808.html
Holy Cross City Trail by Mile-Hi Jeep Rebuilders: http://www.milehijeeprebuilders.com/Holy%20Cross.htm
Holy Cross City Ghost Town: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/holycrosscity.html
Holy Cross City Trail by Unknown Source: http://www.info2000.net/~cjnut/arb.htm
Holy Cross City Trail by Terry Howe: http://www.jeeptech.com/~txh3202/trail/hc.html
Holy Cross City Trail by The Rocky Mountain Moggers: http://home.att.net/~rldp/20000907rmm01.htm
Jeep is a registered trademark of DaimlerChrysler Corporation
