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Black Bear bites again

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I hate to admit, this is a place I've not ridden as I've only been to town on a street bike. Seems like I've been everywhere else thoough.
 
I would not attempt Black Bear on a bike or a jeep as a beginner, especially on any of the modern heavy adventure bikes. It is not to be taken lightly. Things can go from great to NOT really fast. 95% of it is no big deal, but that 5% is serious.
 
I've seen some pretty crazy problems on lesser roads. Gothic Road, up above Crested Butte and a ways past Schofield Pass, is pretty easily traversed by light-duty 4WD vehicles with just a little bit of care. That is, unless you get up into that area known as the "Devil's Potholes." Not sure I'd walk that stretch!

But I've seen vehicles at Schofield Pass with 2 wheels stuck off the edge, waiting for a tow truck. And for several years, the pass wasn't drivable because the snowpack never thawed. But one year, I was hiking up there & somebody in a 4WD Subaru had decided to drive across the snowpack. Well oopsie, they slid down the snow/ice covered hillside, and were trapped. The tow truck had to take the long way around from Gunnison to get to the other side of the snowpack, then winch them up the 100' or so up the hill.

Often, the biggest danger is people who overestimate the abilities of their vehicles, and who don't realize that four-wheel driving requires some actual skillsets to be done safely.
 
That “bronco” was the new baby bronco which is just a ford escape with different sheet metal.
 
I don’t ride in Colorado anymore , I sometimes have to pass through to get to riding country that doesn’t have traffic jams on the trails but that’s the extent of my time in Colorado . It’s normal for me to ride a hundred fifty miles and see nothing but critters unless I make an effort to ride a trail that I will see people on which I usually dont .
 
Not Black Bear but mountains bite again.
 

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Guessing it probably happened at the rock overhang where we all stop for a picture. Yeah...just a titch too far and things get real exciting. Honestly folks, there are so many jeeps and quads in the alpine loop area right now it's amazing we see so few incidents. Since Silverton banned quads, that crowd has concentrated elsewhere...like Lake City.
 
_RG_ said:
Guessing it probably happened at the rock overhang where we all stop for a picture. Yeah...just a titch too far and things get real exciting. Honestly folks, there are so many jeeps and quads in the alpine loop area right now it's amazing we see so few incidents. Since Silverton banned quads, that crowd has concentrated elsewhere...like Lake City.
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There or the series of curves on the cliff closer to Ouray. I didn't know Silverton banned quads, but I'm usually on a bike or jeep so I might not have noticed.
 
gixxerjasen said:
This video is a bit lengthy, but it really shows how fast things can turn from awesome to all **** breaking loose. It also shows how difficult the steps part of that trail can be. Flash floods are no joke.


Also, added fun when Jeep guys have to be rescued by a Toyota guy. :D
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The steps aren't really difficult, they're just creepy because they're a bit off camber and what you're looking at as you go down them is Telluride a few thousand feet below. But, while the trail itself isn't hard, there isn't much in the way of a margin of error. If you screw up, it's going to cost you. If you drove carefully, you could do it in Subaru. Interestingly, after going down them in my Cherokee and getting up close with them, I would try it on my Strom if I still had it. A motorcycle can take much different lines with a much larger margin to screw up.

_RG_ said:
Guessing it probably happened at the rock overhang where we all stop for a picture. Yeah...just a titch too far and things get real exciting. Honestly folks, there are so many jeeps and quads in the alpine loop area right now it's amazing we see so few incidents. Since Silverton banned quads, that crowd has concentrated elsewhere...like Lake City.
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Silverton isn't the only one. Nearly all the bigger towns in the area have banned quads/SxS past the city limits. Each town seem to have a large parking area just outside the city limits for that purpose. Lake City was a mad house, though. Holy Crap more SxS than I could count, and rental Jeeps all over the place.

I know the area they're talking about, where the Gladiator ran off the road. Easy to get going too fast down that road when going downhill.
 
2022 Jeep. I wonder how many miles, and of that, how many off-road? Or was it a rental being driven by a clueless person?

If you're properly buckled in, is it likely that you will be ejected from the vehicle in a severe rollover like this?
 
Texas T said:
2022 Jeep. I wonder how many miles, and of that, how many off-road? Or was it a rental being driven by a clueless person?

If you're properly buckled in, is it likely that you will be ejected from the vehicle in a severe rollover like this?
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I think having the hard top on helps, but if it is where I think it was, it is a significant drop and a rough ride down.
 
Did Black Bear couple weeks ago on Beta 390, definitely recommended- for experienced rider and smaller bike (at my age and riding alone). Didn’t see any mention of Bronco sport roll over details, seems driver didn’t see one way sign and tried to turn around.
 

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Texas T said:
2022 Jeep. I wonder how many miles, and of that, how many off-road? Or was it a rental being driven by a clueless person?

If you're properly buckled in, is it likely that you will be ejected from the vehicle in a severe rollover like this?
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I've seen some pretty gnarly highway wrecks, nothing like what they probably experienced rolling down into that gulch but I've never seen someone tossed that was wearing a belt and had the seat adjusted properly. If you lay your seat way back, it's possible to come out from under the belt.

grimsweeper said:
Did Black Bear couple weeks ago on Beta 390, definitely recommended- for experienced rider and smaller bike (at my age and riding alone). Didn’t see any mention of Bronco sport roll over details, seems driver didn’t see one way sign and tried to turn around.
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That's what happened. They went up the wrong way from Telluride and passed the "One Way Beyond this point" signs and decided when the trail started to get a bit rougher that they needed to turn around, passenger got out to help ground guide, driver went "up" a wall too far and rolled which then went over the side with her and the dog onboard. Driver was in bad shape at the time and dog was ok. Doing some quick searching, I wasn't able to find any recent updates on the status of the driver.
 
Downs said:
driver went "up" a wall too far and rolled which then went over the side
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Not being experienced in this at all, I would always worry about dropping off the cliff, never thought of getting too "high" on inside wall and rolling off said cliff!
 
woodsguy said:
Not being experienced in this at all, I would always worry about dropping off the cliff, never thought of getting too "high" on inside wall and rolling off said cliff!
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It's a common problem on shelf roads like this. People are so scared of the edge that they ride hard to the inside to the point they risk roll over by ramping up the wall.

gixxerjasen said:
Like this...

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Yup, just like that. Seems like he lost focus on where his wheels were pointing. Sounds like someone was coughing just before the roll-over, maybe the driver? They got lucky. Looking at the video, there was no reason to be that far left.
 
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Here's another example in an old Land Cruiser. Fastfoward to the last 20 seconds of video or so. You'll see the problem developing long before they roll over.


Part 2, post roll over WARNING- A little bit of blood and broken fingers close to the camera.
 
@Downs that's enough video to remind me why I won't be doing it! lol. Really amazing more folks don't lose their lives on that road. No forgiveness for rookie mistakes.
 
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