Calvary 4-Wheelers

We met Matt on UCORA.org. He is a car hauler from Michigan and was in the Denver area on a nationwide sales training tour for General Motors. We decided to show him a little bit of our beautiful state. After a record high of 74 on Saturday, we woke up Sunday to near-blizzard conditions and wondered if we would have to cancel the trip but, by the time church was over (actually by the time it started), conditions had improve quite a bit so we went ahead.

After a quick lunch at McDonalds where we met up with Charlie and Chuck & Charlotte, we headed through Boulder and up toward Switzerland Trail. As we headed into the foothills the snow increased and, when we reached the trail head, we found 8-12 inches of new snow over what was left of the old, crusty stuff. Someone had already broken trail, though, so we headed on down without chaining up.

It wasn’t long before I decided to go ahead and put on the chains, after having to be strapped back twice within 5 minutes. We took a little break and those with chains put them on. Charlie loaned Matt a set of cables so Chuck and Charlotte were the only ones without. Their MTRs seemed to be doing fine anyway.

Once we had the chains on it was smooth sailing. We got a little over a mile down the trail when we came across a tow truck with his back end off the edge against a tree and his front end blocking the trail. We asked if he needed any help but he said he could get himself out. He hooked up his tow cable to a tree on the uphill side and winched himself back onto the trail.

He said he was trying to get down to another wrecker from the same company that was stuck about two miles down the trail attempting to pull out a Land Rover. While he was getting himself back on the trail the driver from the other truck showed up. He had hiked up to meet the second truck. He informed us that his truck and the Rover were hopelessly stuck and that the trail was completely blocked. We would not be able to complete the trail. After hearing this we turned around and headed back up the way we had come.

On the way up Matt managed to get his stock Grand Cherokee high-centered in the snow. I backed up and hooked up a strap but, rather than pulling him through, I simply dug myself down to the frame rails. All of this gave Chuck the opportunity to finally use his new winch. A little maneuvering, a snatch block and a couple pulls later we were on our way.

From there we had no problem making it back to the trail head. We took off our chains, checked to make sure the tow truck was making it out (he got stuck in the same place Matt had but was able to winch himself out) and headed to dinner at Golden Corral glad for the heaters to thaw out our frozen pants and thankful for the wonderful fellowship of enjoying God’s beautiful creation together.

[Trip Pics]

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