Labor Day Tundra Abuse by a Noob in Colorado

This is not really a single trip report, but I beat on my new Tundra enough this weekend that I figured I'd subject you fine folks to another trip report.

Context: I've only owned the Tundra since July 4th. It's my first truck and I'm still damn-new to the sport of 4-wheeling. I'm learning as I go. Feel free to make fun of my decision making; useful feedback is welcome as well.

Sunday - Cloyses Lake

I'll be honest. The main off-roading use that I wanted a 4WD vehicle for wasn't for driving as much as for getting me to remote, rugged trailheads. I label myself an "aspiring mountaineer" and love spending my time hiking and climbing steep slopes at high elevations with friends and family. Lots of the Colorado mountain trailheads require serious 4WD and before the Tundra entered my life, that meant either:
(a) finding a friend with a more rugged vehicle than my Subie
(b) adding extra mileage hiking on a road (puke) from the 2WD parking (the last summit I obtained before the Tundra required an extra six miles of hiking)
(c) pushing the Subie further than I should (reference body damage from creek crossing going to Castle Peak)
(d) finding a different mountain or at least a different route to climb

When my buddy learned of my new Tundra he asked me about Cloyses Lake Road -- a rugged 2.5 mile out-and-back to a beautiful remote lake and the Rockdale Trailhead, providing access to Emerald Peak, Iowa Peak and Missouri Mountain. I read up and agreed to drive, telling him he could leave his Xtera at the park-and-ride -- "I got this!".

So, Sunday of Labor Day weekend, my alarm goes off at 2AM. Mountaineers in Colorado start early as the biggest risk of lightning comes early afternoon -- the goal is to be heading down from the summit by 12PM (or better yet, back below treeline by then). Many would've driven to the trailhead the night before and camped, but I'm married and wife doesn't climb -- I get a long leash from her, but I push it to the limit and there's a difference to her between "being away for a night" and only "being away for a day", never mind if the night only lasts a couple hours. Everything in life is a negotiation.

Buddy and I drive from Golden, CO west across the divide to Granite (past Leadville on Independence Pass). Made good time -- About 2.25 hours to the 4WD drive.

First, that road is rough. I'd rate it Intermediate if it was going in one of the Funtreks books.

Second, finding the turn off CR390 was tough. My GPS wanted us to turn about 50' earlier, but that's a private gated drive (a mine, I think) and the real turn to Cloyses Lake Rd looks like a camping spot, at least in the dark. After wasting about 15 minutes determining which was the right road, we headed down.

Next, you start with a creek crossing that requires driving about 50 yards upstream (not the short, obvious, straight trip across to the other bank you can see). The water wasn't deep in September (but my mountaineering book says vehicles have been swept downstream in June) and we made it without a problem, once we figured where to go. The crux is the second stream crossing, and a tough rocky ledge you have to go up just on the far bank. Then another 2.25 miles back to where the 4WD road is gated just before the lake.

This area is beautiful and would make a good wheelin' road and camping spot even if you weren't interested in hiking and climbing. I'm not a fisherman but saw a few people angling. One pop-up camper trailer was back at the lake -- I'm impressed they got it up there.

First truck damage of the weekend happened at 6:30AM. I'm at the trailhead/road-closure, trying to back into a "parking spot" between another truck, a tree and a boulder. My hiking buddy is spotting, paying close attention to the boulder and truck on the driver's side, and ignoring the tree on the passenger side that I backed into. Cracked taillight cover, but the reverse light, brake light and turn signal are still working. My buddy's feeling really bad (he should) and apologizing all over the place. I'm not thrilled with this, but knew this kind of stuff would happen when we decided we'd have an off-road vehicle. "whatever man, shit happens, no biggie. let's get those peaks!"

The plan was to hike a loop: getting Emerald first, then staying high on the ridge and bagging Iowa and Missouri. But, weather is a big variable factor in climbing mountains and our blue skies started turning gray and actually releasing a bit of snow as we climbed to Emerald's summit. We high-five on the summit, but don't like the looks of the gathering clouds. We can see rain in the distance and it's not moving away from us. Studying the map, we thought we had a bail-out point at the saddle between Iowa and Emerald that was an easier retreat than turning around. That turned out to be true. Rain and snow continue to fall as we make our way down the slope and bushwack back to the trail.

It was a bummer that we didn't get the other summits -- we had gained almost all the elevation and covered most of the vertical distance -- bagging those other peaks would've been comparatively easy from that point after making it as far as we did. But, "summitting is optional, returning is mandatory" and I've never regretted a decision to turn around. including this one, even though sunshine and blue skies returned by the time we were back at the truck.
Now, most mountaineering adventures end when the group returns to the trailhead. But not one's on 4WD drive roads. We had another 40 minute journey back to the county road that included watching a Ford Explorer get stuck on the return creek crossing.


After getting home, I reflected for maybe the sixth time that "off roading gets the interior of the truck dirty as hell" so i cleaned up the interior. We live at 9000' off a dirt road -- trying to keep the outside of our vehicles clean is pretty much pissing in the wind.

some still shots below -- video turned out pretty crappy. I also need to take more pix of truck porn and not just mountain porn if I'm going to keep writing trip reports and posting here.

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I'll get Monday's chapter of the report posted shortly.

 

Monday

It's been dry here in Colorado and the aspens are turning early. leaf-peeping has always been one of the wife's favorite fall traditions and the Tundra allows us to take that to a new level. We planned a day driving two of our favorite 2WD mountain passes with a few 4WD roads connecting things, thinking it would make an awesome day. We had tickets to see Yes that night in Denver.

Our estimate of how long it would take to cover the 4WD roads needs some tuning.

Oh My God Road

We live in an area called Coal Creek Canyon, in the Front Range of Colorado. OMG Road was discovered by us shortly after moving there five years ago, and I've done it in the Subaru several times as well as once in a Lexus with ~5" clearance, with no problem. I wouldn't even include this road in the book, it's so easy. But, it is a fun steep, well maintained road that goes by several interesting old mines and has some great looks over Idaho Springs. More than anything, it's a fun way for us to go down the mountain if we're heading west.

Breakfast in Idaho Springs at some coffee shop because the Main Street Restaurant had a 30 minute wait and we were hungry. meh on the breakfast burrito I had.

Cascade Creek
Goal was to take two connected 4WD roads from Idaho Springs to Georgetown, where we'd drive across Gunella Pass and look at the pretty trees. The road turned out to be a bit rougher than planned, but I don't think we ever bottomed out. Overall fun route across a mountain side, decent views of the I-70 corridor (in Colorado, even the roadsides along interstates are beautiful).

Saxon Mountain Road
Description said it was a bit narrow in spots, but that a stock SUV or pickup could make it. This turned out to be the roughest road that we've taken the Tundra on yet. "Narrow" was right -- several spots required a spotter to get through.

Note, if you refer to the Funtreks books, it shows a side branch of this going up to the summit of Saxon Mountain, but we realized we were already short on time by this point and gave up.

Second truck "damage" of the weekend happened here. Putting the right side tire on a decent sized rock that I was driving over, the rock (which I thought was stable) gets loose and flips up, wedging itself between wheel and frame. It took a bit to get it out of there, and in the process I managed to put a 'crease' in my front passenger-side mudflap. ehhh, whatever, it's just a mud flap.

One point, near the West end of the road, dangerously narrow between boulders -- the wife was driving, I was spotting, and she got her left side so far up these boulders that the Tundra was tilted at what looked like a 45 degree angle. The look on my wife's face was one of sheer terror. She told me that it was the look on my face that really scared the hell out of her. Regardless, we made it though without flipping the truck over and without significant damage. I really wish I had video, or at least still photos, of that. "TURN THE WHEEL ALL THE WAY CLOCKWISE!!!!!" "I AM!!!!!" "MORE"
the skid plates and sliders got a bit of use.

From that point though, we were counting the number of switchbacks left until the guidebook said the road turned from 'blue' to 'green'.
anyway, those two roads were tons of fun, but took way the hell longer than planned and we had concert tickets to see Yes in Denver that night. We had originally planned on taking Guanella Pass Southeast to Grant, and then take Boreas Pass West to Breckenridge. But time was short so we only did the first.

Grabbed carry out calzones from Old Chicago (this concert pavilion allows fans to bring in food) and heard some decent music on a beautiful labor Day evening.
then I went home and watched the DVR recording of my Hokies beating the shit out of Florida State

now I need to clean the inside of the truck again.

life is good. thanks for reading.

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hahaha! so much this. "i'll just be gone for the day..." is how most of my conversations start.

are you going to make another attempt? let me know if you do. that's an area i haven't done much exploring in and, if possible, i'd like to tag along.

 

Great pictures and sounds like a great time but not in my truck! Lol

 

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glad i'm not the only one that noticed the leaves going early. feels weird.

sounds like a fun loop. OMG Rd has some gorgeous views.

i went up cascade creek with the girls earlier this summer. had a good time. some narrow spots. some tippy spots. our plan had been to go up then down saxon mountain into georgetown. once in georgetown, i had promised the girls a stop at Cake (my wife has been friends with the owner since we moved here) for an afternoon yummy. about halfway up cascade creek we stopped for a bit and a chatted with a group of jeepers. i asked about saxon and they thought i was crazy for trying to attempt it in the tundra. they said there was a huge boulder at the top that would have made it pretty sketchy for me. since it was just me and the girls, i bailed on the idea. good to know it is doable though.

i would recommend heading out to boreas pass for some leaf peeping. nothing difficult. great views. your wife will be much more relaxed.

 

yeah, the original plan was to hit Boreas but too much time on the 4WD roads precluded that. one of our favorite drives.

next week is Indy Pass, Aspen and the Maroon Bells!

 

summary for other Coloardo Tundra owners:

• Cloyses Lake Road -- no issue for stock 4WD Tundra
• Oh My God Road -- no issue for passenger car
• Cascade Creek Road -- rough, but passable for 4WD Tundra
• Saxon Mountain Road -- need full skids and sliders. still narrow.

 

Nice write up and thanks for the pics. (thanks for beating Free Seafood University). After our beat down, glad to see they lost too.

@smslavin thanks for the suggestion for Boreas Pass. Will have to check that out.

 

there's some other stuff out that way that i've wanted to explore. between fairplay and antero junction, there are a few FS roads that head off to the west. in the area that would be between 285 and 24. drawing a blank on the road names though but i can see them on the map.

 

you bet! I'm definitely going back for them. not sure when though -- it could be spring. I'd also consider turning it into a family weekend camping at Cloyses Lake.

 

thanks. that Hurricanes/LSU game pissed me off. nobody's allowed to beat Miami except VT.

 

Don't worry, the way they are playing you'll get your chance

 

i was going to try and hit audobon this week but i don't think i'm going to make it. maybe next week.

looking forward to winter in RMNP. halfway considering a set of snow shoes but i did fine last winter with chains and micro spikes. we'll see.

 

F^<K , I've moved right on to 'following' you. I don't ever want to miss one of your trip reports.

 

microspikes are wonderful for a hard boot pack when traction is required but flotation isn't. snowshoes are necessary if you're going for most peaks. definitely get snowshoes with heel lifts if you do buy -- this is 100% necessary for steep slopes.

I'm a big believer in "rent or borrow at least twice" before purchasing expensive outdoor gear. let's meet up sometime and you can borrow my snowshoes. I'm game for RMNP nearly any weekend.

My mountaineering goals this winter:

• learn to ski. Cross-country skis open up a lot more routes
• summits of Pikes Peak, Grizzly, Sniktau and a few others in calendar winter

 

I first went up OMG Rd in 1979 in a fellow Marine's VW wagon. I use OMG Rd as a shortcut to Clear Creek Highway when west bound I-70 is jammed back up to Dumont and beyond. Fall River Rd is a great route to take over Kingston Pass to Mammoth Gulch and on down to connect to Old Moffet Pass RR route up to Needles Eye on the "Divide". Great scenery all the way. A bit bouncy though...

 

you're awesome. thanks for the offer. i'll take you up on that for sure. kinda keen on crescent moon since they are a local company.

i haven't tried any real winter summits yet but like the idea.

 

Winter climbing here can be a bit dicey at best will all the avalanche danger. Best time to climb Maroon Bells is now thru Oct. Very little chance of afternoon thunderstorms in late Sept and Oct. Need to get to MBell parking lot early otherwise you have to take the tourist bus. Another good thing is now that Labor Day is over.....less tourists and climbers. Wasn't so bad up there in 1979 when 3 of of us went up Maroon (south) Peak up thru the middle col with crampons and ice axes. If you leave early enough you can hit both Maroon Peak and North Maroon Peak this time of year without getting zapped!

 

agree 100% about avy risk. I'm very tuned into that -- when I started into this sport, I read two books on the subject. They scared the hell out of me and convinced me that I have neither the skills, gear or training to be messing around in avalanche terrain ("if caught in an avalanche, your best chance of survival is to have a friend who is not buried dig you out"). Until I take an AIARE class and get the necessary gear, I'm sticking to routes that are well documented as safe. I'm also reasonably comfortable using slope angle shading on Caltopo to identify avy risk areas.

we're camping at the Maroon Bells Scenic Area, but not planning on climbing those peaks. Plans for daughter and I to attempt Pyramid this time.

If you have any favorite 4WD roads in that area, please LMK. Crystal Mill on the way back is a possibility.

 

oh man, i miss colorado. i have been on those trails too.

 

Sounds like a good time! I’d love to tag along on one of these trips! Never been four wheeling in the mountains!

 

good stuff man. lmk if you go out anytime soon. I've got sliders and skids

 

There used to be a lot of mountain goats up there near Pyramid and below the Bells not far from the parking lot. Haven't done a lot of wheeling near there but been on lots of Jeep trails near Twin Lakes below Independence Pass and several near Leadville that are quite decent. It's been awhile. FS/BLM has closed a lot of them over the last few years.

 

Duuuude. We took off from Westminster and headed to Southern Utah for the Labor Day weekend.

I am going to have to find the route you took and give it a go sometime.