Trip Reports
| Scratch 'n Dent and Calamity | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date: | May, 9th 2009 | |||
| Trip Leader: | Montrose 4x4 | |||
| Members Present: | Russ Rose, Mike Borum | |||
| Guests Present: | NA | |||
| Picture Link: | Mike's Pics - Scratch and Dent - Calamity | |||
| Description: |
Mike and myself left the Springs about 3:30pm Friday afternoon and arrived at the Hampton Inn at Montrose at 8:30pm. We ran into Eric Drummond, from the Ute Pass Iron Goats, in the parking lot and we decided to go grab some dinner together.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then attended the State Assoc meeting that was held in one of the Hampton Inn's meeting rooms. Earlier in the week Mike had talked with Perry, president of the Montrose Wild Bunch, and Perry said that there was a guy in their club that "was always ready to go wheeling", so he would take us out on some trails after the meeting was over. Well, Austin was the guy, and he left the meeting before lunch was served and we didn't get a chance to talk with him. At lunch we talked with Perry and he told us that Austin had left the meeting early to go work on his rig and that he (Perry) would take us out to the parking lot west of town where the trailheads were located and Mike and myself could run one or two of the easy trails that afternoon. After lunch a raffle was held and Mike won about 4 items, and I won a $100 gift certificate. The meeting was adjourned and at about 2:00 we hopped into our pickups and we followed Perry about 10 miles west of town to the trailhead parking lot. Perry suggested we do Scratch and Dent which was a "moderate" trail and that we should be finished before dark. Perry gave us directions to Scratch and Dent - drive up the dirt road until you come to the power lines, then take a right and follow the power lines, then go through the gate, then stay on that trail until you go to the bottom of a dry gulch - Scratch and Dent starts to the left in the bottom of the gulch. Perry dove off and we unloaded our rigs off the trailers and headed up the dirt road. Perry's directions were perfect, until we drove through the first dry gulch and started up the other side. Mike stopped and we wondered if the trail went up the gulch that we just crossed - it was a little questionable as there were barely any tire tracks and the gulch was only about as wide as our rigs. We decided to turn around and back track 50 feet to the narrow gulch and give it a try. After about 200 yards of sandy wash the gulch quickly got deeper and sandstone rocks were popping up out of the dirt everywhere. There were also black tire marks appearing on the rocks - looks like this was the The sandstone obstacles were starting to be stacked everywhere and the narrow gulch didn't offer many bypass opportunities. We negotiated everything for about 20 minutes with no problems, and then we came to a "y" in the trail that Perry had told us about - "the left is the harder route and it loops back around and drops back into the main gulch". We decide to go left and we were immediately confronted by a 3-teir dry stair step that was about 75 yards long. There we 2 routes though and Mike decided to take the right side and I followed. We bumped and banged our way through and then the gulch made a hard right with more sandstone obstacles. The trail was aptly named as the combination of the narrow gulch, big sandstone rocks, and stout Pinion trees made it difficult not to get some "Montrose Pin stripping"on our. After another couple of tight turns we arrived at a multi-tiered sandstone stair step climb. We decided that the right side looked best and Mike crawled up and out of the gulch onto a Pinion laced flat area. I followed Mike out and then we proceeded to try a couple of the double track trails to see which one would take us back into the gulch. After a couple of tries we found the right one and Mike slowly descended back into the gulch. It was a very steep section and I got a good look at the underside of Mike's jeep as it nosed down and the rear end kicked up. At the bottom we needed to do a 2-point turn to head ourselves back up the gulch to the left. More sandstone obstacles appeared that kept our attention as our rigs were flexed to the max. After about another 1/2 how of slow crawling we came to the end of the gulch and the final climb out. I convinced Mike to try a harder line to the left, but the spacing of the ledges and the loose dirt on top of the sandstone denied Mike an early exit. The right side route was more forgiving, even though it flexed us both to the maxim, we were able to crawl out onto the Pinion dotted mesa top. It was about 5:30, so we decide we should call it a day and go back to the parking lot. We headed back toward the power lines and then we hooked up with the dirt road that took us back to the trailhead. We loaded up and on our way back to the hotel we missed a couple of turns but it still only took us about 20 minutes to get back to the Hampton Inn. Later that we night we had dinner and discussed out plans for the next day. We were supposed to meet Austin at 10:00am at the City Market, but there were 2 City Markets in town, Austin's rig might not be trail ready, and we didn't have Austin's phone #. Our plan was to go to the City Market that was downtown, and if Austin didn't show by 10:30 then we would go back to the same trailhead and try to find some of the other trails ourselves. The weather Sunday morning was even nicer than Saturday's, about 70 degrees, blue-sky, snowcapped peaks in the distance, the alphalpha fields were green, and irrigation ditches were flowing full. We had plenty of time before we were supposed to meet Austin so we decided to both take our doors off to better enjoy the day's upcoming festivities. We arrived at the city market a little early and went into the store to pick up a few supplies. There was a mild rush going on in the flower section as guys were trying to get their last minute mothers day flowers purchased before their day was totally ruined at home. At about 10:00am a Dodge flatbed with a trailer and a tube'd Toyota buggy pulled into the gas station and we walked over to see if it was Austin, and sure enough it was him. We chatted while Austin filled up his rig with gas and we decided to run the Calamity trail. We left the gas station and followed Austin back to the same trailhead that we parked at yesterday. As we unloaded our rigs, Austin's buddy, Will, showed up with his full tube buggy running 42's powered by a Jeep 4cly and driven via an atlas transfer case. Austin's 350 powered Toyota was running very rich but he hoped it would lean-out as the motor warmed up. We ran up the same dirt road to the gate by the power lines and Austin decide to temporarily park his rig, as we proceeded on, and he would disconnect the battery and let his throttle body ECU sit for a minute or two without power to see if the ECU would re-set itself, then he would catch back up with us . Will lead us down past the start of Scratch and Dent and then we followed a short mesa top east for about 1/2 mile and then we dropped into a new gulch that was the start of the Calamity trail. As we started up this new gulch we were immediately confronted by a tight ledge climb that was guarded on either side by two large Pinion trees. Mike attacked the obstacle relentlessly. Will suggested that Mike climb the side of the Pinion tree with his right tire, which he did, and then he finally found traction and powered through the gap, only to be confronted by another steep multi-stepped obstacle. I walked over and examined the 100 plus year old tree for evidence of "damage by a 37" BFG", but the tree looked fine. After two attempts Mike made it past the second obstacle and back up onto the continuation of the gulch. Due to my narrower width I was able to bang my way up both obstacles with a little less trouble than Mike, but as I swung onto the top of the rock pile my left front unexpectedly bounced high and I started to brace myself as I though I was going over on my right side. My rig stopped just shy of going over (at least that's what it felt like) and Mike was able to get a good "poser" shot before I eased forward and my rigged flopped back onto all four wheels. We continued past several smaller obstacles to the point where the BLM had closed the gulch due to an " ancient fire pit and an arrowhead being found". Austin caught up with us at the exit obstacle and we spent about 40 minutes trying different field fixes for his 350's excessive rich condition. We weren't able to improve the fuel mixture, so Austin decided to park his rig and ride the rest of the trail with Mike. We drove for a about a 1/4 mile on the Pinion flats to a point past the BLM closure and we dropped back into Calamity gulch to carry on with the rest of the trail. The obstacles in the gulch were tight and pretty big, but we were able to negotiate all of them without too much trouble. Will was setting a pretty fast pace in his buggy and was too far ahead for either of us to watch him negotiate Calamity's obstacles. As Mike was making his second, slow, hard left attempt around a Jeep sized boulder I noticed Will's rig farther up the trail making several attempts at exiting the gulch up higher through the Pinion tree's. I wondered to myself how big the exit obstacle was if Will had to make a couple of attempts with his buggy. We soon found out, as Mike had made it though a tough step-up, just to get to the final exit obstacle that had several 3+ foot high step ups. I got myself wedged on the lower obstacle and managed to break a front axle shaft as I was trying to pull myself onto the gulch exit staging area. Austin came back down and looped my strap around a huge sandstone outcropping and then hooked my winch into the strap. After a couple of tries I was able to winch myself up and onto the exit staging area. I climbed out to take a break and tried to help spot Mike on his exit route. Mike was able to get his fronts onto the first ledge but his 37's weren't able to pull his rig up to the next level. Mike kept trying different lines and approach angles, until it became pretty apparent that he was going to have to be winched up and out. Will turned his buggy around and pointed it at Mikes rig. I pulled Mikes winch line and hooked it up to Wills front suck-down hook. It took a fair bit of wench grunt and some good wheel spin to get Mikes rig up, but it finally came out on top and Mike parked it next to Wills buggy. There was no way I was getting up with 3-wheel drive (probably not with 4-wheel drive either) so Austin suggested that I line my rig up on the steep "wall" exit line to make my winch extraction easier than winching up multiple step ledges where Mike had exited. I lined my rig up and climbed as far as I could, Will moved his buggy over to be inline with my winch, and Austin pulled my cable and clipped it to Will's front axle hook. The exit wall was so steep that the winch line angle from above was actually pulling my front axle into the wall instead of pulling me up. I backed down and tried Mike's recommend line over a little to the left and as I was jockeying my rig back and forth my brake pedal went straight to the floor. I climbed out and the inspection revealed brake fluid pouring out of my right rear drum. Austin offered to run my winch, which I willing accepted, so I could concentrate on slipping my clutch and gunning the engine to try and help my winch get me up to where Will's rig could get me up and over the top of the wall. After several tries my rig finally rolled up and over the top and I was back on flat ground. We gathered around, surveyed the damage and decide it was actually a pretty good day. We got our rigs turned around and headed west through the Pinions to find Austin's rig. After a few minutes of smooth double track we saw Austin's Red Toyota hood and we headed over to it and Austin hopped out of Mikes rig and he fired his up and we then formed a line and headed east back towards the trailhead parking lot. We loaded up pretty quick, said our goodbyes, and our next stop was the first convenience store in Montrose where we could get something cold to drink. After quenching our thirst we would have plenty of time to plan our return trip as we settled in for the long drive back to the Springs. |
|||
 |
|
 |
 |