From Dean’s Desk

Trip Report, Rough Country 4 Wheelers March Trip, 3-18-2006

Carnage LeftHand Canyon and upper Carnage (Fireman’s Trail)

The day started off foggy and chilly as we met at the I25 and College Drive interchange at 7am.

In attendance were:

Members:

Dean and Julia Thompson Unit#23, Trip Leaders and Film/Photo Crew

Brian Kubal Unit#10, Tail gunner

Jim Carter Unit#12

Mark Titus Unit#24

Guests:

Jeffro600 from the Colorado4x4.org guys-green jeep xj

Joe Houston, attended last meeting- full size blazer

We departed Cheyenne at 7:29am in route to the normal meeting place at hwy66 and 287. We arrived there at 8:35am and no other members joined us there so we headed to the trailhead and departed the gas station at 8:58am.

We arrived at the trailhead at 9:31 and untrailered, aired down and prepared for the day ahead.

At the trailhead additional wheelers from the Colorado4x4.org board joined us:

Sames-2006 burnt orange Rubicon unlimited

Mike Morrison-red yj-open diffs-33’s

Jtw2-red yj-full width locked axles-36” irocs

And a sweet bobtail bronco joined us at the Guardian rocks and tagged along the whole day.

10 rigs started the day, at the guardian rocks all but the Rubicon and the blazer attempted and completed the obstical.various easy and hard lines covered in snow and ice lead us to the slick rock obstacle where dean,jeffro,jtw2,brian attempted and completed the obstacle.

Next, various easy and hard lines lead us to the waterfall. Dean, jeffro, jtw2, Brian, Jim and Mark all attempted this obstacle. The top was covered in ice as well as the approach which made this obstacle difficult.

Dean’s first attempt was beneficial as his rig made it the furthest of all attempters. Carnage report is a bent drivers side slider.

Jeffro made his 3 attempts with bent and removed left front bumper corner, bent and remove front license plate, broken left tail light lenses as his carnage.

Jtw2’s 3 attempts concluded in right hand windshield frame damage and New Bestop damage.

Brian’s 3 attempts concluded in ripped right front fender flare bent right front fender.

Mark’s 3 attempts hailed no damage.

Jim’s attempts, no damage.

From the waterfall we headed up to 5 fingers for a lunch break.

After lunch, Sames headed back home for a previously planned event, and 9 of us continued to upper carnage.

Upper Carnage (fireman’s) has its share of shale shelf climbs and off camber edges. Plus it was covered in snow raising the Pucker Factor level big time.

Marks bronco slid slightly off the beaten path and was strapped by dean just for safety reasons and the blazer had to be winched back onto the trail as well.

At this time jtw2 turned around and headed in to go to work.

½ way thru this trail Jim lost his ujoint end caps and dropped a driveline. Believe it or not, he walked back down the trail, found both his ends caps and was back together in no time only missing 2 needle bearings. This was the only mechanical break of the day.

The view from the top of fireman’s was fantastic as you can see the reservoir in Longmont from the top. I hear it an awesome sight at night.

The end of fireman’s where it about joins 5 fingers is where all the excitement happened. At a tight downhill lefthand turn Jeffro600 in his xj took a difficult line and with the trail forcing his front wheels to full left lock he dropped off a shelf and just about went end over end down the trail. When he stood his xj up on its nose his roof just above the drivers door hit a tree and bounced back stopping his end over end ride. Balancing on his nose 3 ‘ away from the tree he hit there he stood. His anchoring device in the cargo area broke and all contents from back of jeep were now on the dash including a high lift jack. We can laugh because no one was hurt and it was cool. Jim anchored him from the rear with the winch line and pulled him back down to some what level ground and he continued down the trail.

We left 5 fingers and headed back down carnage instead of taking the easy lefthand trail out. Just as fun going down as coming up. We ended the day at around 4pm and logged 3.9 miles start to finish.

Everybody aired up or trailered up and headed out in pairs. The weather set in and rain started at around Berthoud and turned to snow by Wellington and visibility was down to 50’ when we hit Cheyenne at around 6:30.

Trip Leader notes:

Joe did a fantastic job. This was his first trip ever and with a carbureted full size blazer, no lift, no lockers and no real off road experience he did a fantastic job of negotiating Northern Colorado’s most difficult trail. He will be an asset to this club. Well Done Joe.

Jim Carter was a great example of what this club has been based on and we would like to see as a standard in this club. His being the biggest rig in the group he helped out the guests in the stockers more than ever. Great Job Jim.

Jeffro600 was kind enough to give us the show of the day. He is an experienced wheeler as we have wheeled with him numerous times in the past year. Thank You for tagging along.

Thanks to all that attended, we enjoyed leading the trip and look forward to wheeling with you all in the future.

Dean and Julia Thompson