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 Spring Creek report.
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Click on link above for directions with a nice topo and map profile of the Spring Creek Trail provided by 4x4trails.net... |
Here we are again at the start of another trail season 2002 in beautiful Colorado. At a spur of the moment, I asked if anyone at the patrol meeting on Thursday April 4th would like to run Spring Creek trail with me on Saturday, Jed McClelland was up for it.
On Saturday April 6th, 2002--at 8:00am, Hobos Paul "Weiszguy" Weisz (CJ7), his son Brett "Weiszdude" Weisz, with his friend Josh Crawford, and Jed "Clampett" McClelland (CJ7) started out for Spring Creek and began our first day of wheeling for the season.
Deciding to take the scenic route, we traveled the road from Morrison to Evergreen then up the hill to I70. We then reached the trailhead just past Downieville. Just as soon as we began to air down, four Jeep Cherokees, with George (fellow MHJC Patrol 10) in a white Grand Cherokee leading the group, went by us and started up the trail.
We headed up a few minutes behind them, and had some fun on the rocks of the first obstacle. We noticed how dry the trail was in this area, even though we had heard it was snowed-in. The north face usually still has snow drifts up to the 1st obstacle this time of year.
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| Jed taking spooky line to right of first obstacle... |
As we were at the top of this obstacle, a couple of guys traveling solo in a CJ-7 started up. We asked them to join us on our quest to reach the rock garden, so they won't be alone. The drivers' name was Jim and his passengers' name was Jeramie. So off the three CJ'-7s went, with myself (Weiszguy) in the lead. It wasn't long though before we came upon the tail end of the four Cherokees, which we then followed for about half a mile until all of us came to a halt. They had come upon a section of shelf road with drifts across it.
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Off camber and a bit spooky... |
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Weiszguy at top of first obstacle... |
They decided that caution was going to be their coarse of action and would head back down. Fortunately, there was a turn out that the three of us could enter so as to let the Cherokee group spin around and head back down. After we bid farewell to George and his group, we ran on up through the drifts. Higher and higher we climbed above the highway past several drifts and switch backs. Momentum was definitely the key word this day. With it, the drifts were surmountable. Without it you were sunk.
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'Don't get stuck Jed'... |
When the drifts were especially long you would find yourself "crabbing" slowly across them. At one point, where the 'crabbing' was for an extended period, I felt the rear of my Jeep drop off the lower side of the trail. With some quick footwork, I was able to right myself and continue on!
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Live long, prosper, and stay on track... |
Unfortunately it wasn't much further when the same thing happened again. But this time I was in a real pickle, with my right rear hanging off the edge of the trail! I thanked God for the Aspen trees that kept me from going clear over, but cursed my luck for being wedged amongst them.
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Thank Goodness for those trees... |
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'Grab your saws boys'... |
What time is it? It's 'Winch Time'. With my winch tied to a tree uphill and ahead of me, and Jeds' winch snatch blocked to a tree uphill to the left rear, and a limb saw to cut the trees that had me wedged, I was freed in about an hour. One tree limb had pushed my right rear hard top's side glass out of its' molding, but I was able to reset in a matter of minutes.
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Weiszguy in a pickle (they are actually Aspens)... |
We were now on a mission to reach the rock garden! Off I went through untracked snow as fast as I dared. We were having a blast sliding around switch-backs and busting drifts, when I was stopped again after slowing down to make a tight turn. The whole tail of my Jeep was off the edge of the trail again. Once again, a bit of footwork, and a tug from my Ramsey had me back on the trail and "crabbing" along through the two to three foot drifts up ahead! Up and up we climbed across un-traveled trail until I came around a corner and was discouraged by what I saw. We had come upon a section of shelf road that was completely drifted over for about 100 yards.
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Workin' on up to the top of the "Rock garden".... |
We walked it and almost called it a day, but I thought that if Jim would try running it with his "open" diffs (ARB off), and staying on the high side---we might just clear this area! He had been running locked most of the other drifts. By running 'open' I hoped he might be able to maintain a straight path. He agreed, and off he went whooping and hollering all the way across (half-way, he turned on his ARB's), with Jed and I following him close behind. Once we reached the other side, high fives were exchanged all around!
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100 yards to cross, here we go Jed... |
The rock garden was now within our grasp! Jim got to the base of the garden first where we all stopped to have a look. What usually looks like a mine field of rocks and boulders, now appeared as a large blanket of deep white snow. Not a rock to be seen, due to the two to four foot of snow cover.
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On a mission. Top of garden or bust!... |
Jim in his CJ7 that has ARB's left them off and tried it first, staying to the far right. It wasn't long though before he was stopped at the tree just past the right side go around fork. I started up next, and was stopped in the middle of the obstacle just ahead and to the left of Jim by the large rocks under the immense snow cover. I was determined to make the top of the garden. So after my son Brett ran my winch cable up to the top and tied it to a large tree, I winched, spun, and steered my way to the top!
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Weiszguy going around Jim at base of the 'snow' garden... |
The time was getting late so we decided to turn back down for home. We all agreed that this was one of the most arduous yet enjoyable trips we had done in some time. Without trying to sound corny, we were proud of our accomplishment (snow-busting as far as we did), and realized that we had "opened" Spring Creek, up to it's "Rock Garden" for the 2002 season.
Tired.....but Happy!
"Jeep, Jeep,"
Storyline & captions by Paul 'WeiszGuy' Weisz HoboJeepers
*Web design by Hobo Willy, Thanks to Paul (smaller pics), and Jed (larger pics) for their digital photos...
Jeep is a registered trademark of Daimler Chrysler Corporation
