February 26th, 2000 - West of Central City, Colorado
Participants:
Ron DePugh & Cassidy
1963 Unimog 404.1 VLF
Bob Ragain & Colleen
1957 Unimog 404.1 - Moglite
Duane Russell & Larry Young
1964 Unimog 404.1 - Radio Mog
Jeff Francis & Joshua & George
1965 Unimog 404.1 Radio Mog
Kristopher Dichtel
1963 Unimog 404.1 Swiss
Brett & Cody Pickering
710M Pinzgauer
Greg & Terry Blakely
1976 Ford Bronco
Trip report:
This time, the group all met at the cemetary west of Central City. We headed up the road to the Columbine Campground. There was an icy creek crossing on the way up at to the campground, and then, once we got up past the campground, the snow started getting deeper.Bob was out front breaking trail. We finally ran into a spot that a couple of the Mogs couldn't climb without chains on, so we decided to try another road. Once we all got turned around, I led the way. We wanted to try the road that has the off-camber spot where it joins the main road that was mentioned in the
Kristopher is getting ready to attempt the turn-off. Since I was in the lead, I tackled the side road first. The snow was a bit deep, and pretty soft, but locking up the differentials got me through.
Kristopher approaching the turn-off, with Duane in the background, waiting his turn. It wasn't easy to turn around on this narrow road.
Kristopher made it through the deep snow, and on up the road.
Duane's Mog is on approach to the road. Notice the rear windows on this Radio truck are larger than the usual.
After a couple of tries, Duane's Mog made it through as well.
We finally all made it up onto the road. Here is Bob's Moglite on the way up.
The view of the road ahead. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the snow was a little windblown. The track ahead was not well packed, and my Unimog was digging into the snow pretty well. We continued on up this road until I started having trouble making headway. I was digging down into the snow with all four wheels, and leaving a packed trail behind. Once I quit making headway, since I was mostly digging down, and not moving forward, I decided to call it quits for this road. Greg wanted to try it with his Bronco. He is running fairly wide tires, has lockers front and rear, and I think the lighter weight of the Bronco helped him float a bit more than the Unimogs. He busted trail for a while, until he ran into some very deep snow drifts. We decided that a wide spot in the road was a good place for lunch, so we stopped there.
After lunch, we turned around, and went back down to the main road. Kristopher offered to lead us on another road, that runs over the ridge to the town of Alice, by St. Mary's Glacier. On the way there, Bob started having some troubles with his clutch, and decided to head for home.
Once we got to that road, it turned out to be very deep and soft. Greg went up, and made it a lot further than my Unimog would. I was spinning all four wheels, and ended up digging myself in pretty deep. It took a tug from Kristopher's Mog to get me out again. Greg got stuck in some deep loose snow, and had to extricate himself with a come-a-long. Brett had been looking for us, and caught up to us there, with his yellow Rhino-lined Pinzgauer. I think he will have to be nominated for the all-time long distance award, since he came all the way from the south pole to join us...
Brett chained up the front wheels, and tackled the road. The Pinzie also made it up quite a ways, but eventually had to turn around, too.
While Greg and Brett were making their way up the road, the rest of us had some visiting time. We were trying to decide if it was worth while to chain up some of the Unimogs and attempt the road, but then we decided it was too late in the day, so we all headed home. Brett and Cody, and Cassidy and I wanted to have some of that famous Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs, so we took the turnoff that would take us down to Fall River Road, and on into Idaho Springs. Everyone else headed back toward Central City, and home. (The pizza was great!)
See ya next time.
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