Calvary 4-Wheelers

Nine people in four rigs met at the Ranger Station in Idaho Springs for a snow ‘wheeling trip to Fall River Reservoir. Along for the first time were Brian in his TJ Wrangler on 35" MTRs and Jeannie who rode with Charlie and his kids in his Cherokee. Missy rode with me in my Cherokee and Richard and Jonathan manned the Pinz. The day was sunny and fairly warm for mid-February in the mountains, although a bit breezy. We circled up for prayer and then headed to the trail.

After negotiating the traffic jam of vehicles parking to snowshoe or XC ski, we headed up the trail. The first half mile or so was plowed and pretty easy but when we reached the driveway where the plowing stopped we confronted a daunting drift. Brian aired down his MTRs while the rest of us chained up.

Brian was ready first and plunged in taking several attempts to make it only about 100 ft. By that time I had my chains on and was ready for my turn but I was unable to make it past the hole Brian had dug with his 35s. Brian strapped me out and Richard lined up for his turn.

He elected to start a new set of tracks to the right of the deep ruts Brian and I had dug. This strategy seemed to being working for him as he past our best effort and kept going. Unfortunately another 100 ft. or so later the Pinz began heading for China and was soon buried to the frame (which is a significant accomplishment on the taller-than-most Pinz).

We proceeded to use the next hour or so taking turns getting stuck and pulling each other out. It was obvious we weren’t going to get very far up the trail. Brian set the high mark at about 150 yards. When we had satisfied our desire to play, we stopped and ate lunch, took off our chains and headed back to Idaho Springs.

We made a brief pit stop at the ranger station where Brian decided to call it a day and headed home. The rest of us headed to Spring Gulch, an easy trail just south of town (not the more difficult Spring Creek). Here we again found the beginning of the trail had been plowed but it was steep and slick enough that after a couple of attempts we went ahead and chained up again.

A short way up the trail we met the landowner in his Unimog plowing the trail. He told us we’d never be able to get past where he had plowed to his driveway and discouraged us from even trying. We, however, had not had enough snow to call it a day yet so we headed on up. Even where the trail was plowed we were glad we had 4wd and chains. It was fun and quite beautiful negotiating through the canyons of snow created by the plowing.

After a couple of miles we came to the landowners driveway and the unplowed trail beyond. We again took turns trying to break through the deep snow and again made it only a couple of hundred yards before throwing in the towel. We turned around and headed back down the bobsled run that was the trail enjoying the beauty of the snow-filled forest. We hadn’t gotten very far today but we sure had fun not getting there.

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