Trip Reports
| Blanca Peak | ||||
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| Date: | July 10th-11th | |||
| Trip Leader: | Mike Borum | |||
| Members Present: | Rob Cooper, Bob Novak, Russ Rose | |||
| Guests Present: | Jelene Leathes | |||
| Picture Link: | Mike's Pics | |||
| Description: |
Most of the offroad trails in Colorado have at least one thing that brings the avid off-road enthusiast back to it year after year. Usually it's one significant feature, like a rock garden, or a pristine lake, or ghost town ruins. Maybe it's the sheer magnificent vistas, or the little place that requires one to get out of their rig and hike a bit to see it. Blanca Peak is unique among nearly every one of those other trails we cherish in this Rocky Mountain state. As one of my cohorts on this trip said, "THIS TRAIL HAS IT ALL!" And how right he is.
We started with 5 rigs ready to hit the pavement of I-25 towards Walsenburg. But as misfortune has a way of doing to us all sometimes, we lost one rig before we even got completely through Pueblo. Rob Kaplan was flat-towing his red '88 YJ when something you just don't see every day happened: the front driveshaft on his Jeep fell out of the front diff and twisted up like a pretzel as it plowed asphalt. More unfortunate was the fact that none of us had a spare drive shaft that would work on his, so he was forced to drag his junk home without even experiencing the first obstacle, Jaws 1. As I approached this interesting rock fin in my bright yellow "bug light" Jeep Rubicon, I remembered all of the times and rigs I'd climbed over this with in my short 15 yrs of wheeling. The method never changes; keep it high on the right side, turn down hill as the front end crests the rock, and hold on! The climb off of this obstacle make your rig yaw menacingly over and left. But patience and prayer will get you over intact. Russ Rose followed me in his little blue 'Zuki, then Bob Novak in his capable white Rubicon LJ, and finally Rob Cooper popped his--isn't that purple?--TJ over, and we were all safe and sound. Jolene (I hope I'm spelling her name right!) jumped back into Rob's rig and we were moving on to Jaws 2. Jaws 2 has a BAD reputation. With the memorial plaque plastered to the rock face reminding us of Leonard Davis and his plunge off the side of this obstacle in 2002, you always want to be more careful than with any other obstacle on this trail, or even on most trails. Thankfully, the left side has been built up, with posts and logs and rocks creating an additional 5 ft or so of road just in case you were to flop your vehicle over, heaven forbid. I again remembered the appropriate line: say right, hugging the rock wall, and don't let up, just keep clawing along until you clear it. That's fine with my long-wheelbase LJ, but Russ' little Sammy just can't seem to keep from bouncing the front end over, pitching it towards the abyss. After several harrowing tries, we finally decided to use the line that the ATVs use: just go around on the left. Although it's too narrow for the rest of us, the Suzuki fit it just fine, and up he went. Bob, followed my line to the letter, and motored on up, and Rob took a good number of tries before he finally found the right tire placement. Whew! Jaws 2 1/2 just makes you use your rock sliders to pivot around a pointed rock jutting up in the middle of the trail, while Jaws 3 is negotiated easily enough if you just straddle the whole mess and point the rig straight through it. In no time, we were past the obstacles and on our way to Como Lake where we would set up our campsite by the now fallen down cabin. The rest of the afternoon was frittered away, some of us fishing, some of us watching, playing cards, drinking a well deserved brew (or 2 or 3), and dodging a brief rainstorm that passed before it became dark. We pondered all of the stars and planets and the sheer beauty of it all, and finally hit the sack. Sunday morning was warming up, and we had breakfast while Russ fished some more. Finally we broke camp and loaded up the rigs. We had another obstacle to conquer--Jaws 4--and then a hike up the waterfall above the Blue Lakes. Russ and Bob decided to go above Crater Lake, so Rob, Jolene and I just sat around for a bit and then meandered back down to our vehicles. Soon enough, the other two joined us for lunch. We pointed the rigs down the hill around 1:00 pm and made our way back down this wonderful trail. Other than a tire change to Russ' rig, we made quick work of all of the obstacles. We reached our tow vehicles around 3:30 pm, loaded up and headed home. A quick stop for dinner in Pueblo allowed us some time to reminisce about our weekend. What a weekend it was! More Trip Videos No good line on Jaws 2 Rob on on Jaws 2 Running up the trail All 3 peaks |
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