No Ride Report...take that KsTeve!

[TNC]

 

[KrustyKustom]

Alpine Loop is one of the favs......
If you like some single track take Pole Creek right after stony pass. Scenery like you will not believe..

 

[TNC]

Alpine Loop is one of the favs......
If you like some single track take Pole Creek right after stony pass. Scenery like you will not believe..

Yep, done the whole area many times over the years. Only issue with the A-Loop is that it has gotten a bit crowded on some days. I've definitely ridden that singletrack off Old Carson on Pole Creek/Lost Trail area. This time I just rode out to Kite Lake after Stoney Pass. The fall colors were just starting to hit their stride. Ended up doing about 3 weeks on this trip out to Utah and Colorado. I had done just about everything before on this trip, but I was looking forward to seeing how my new CRF450RL would perform in the hands of an old man.

So, due to an almost continual amount of rain in the CO mountain areas when I left home, I checked southern Utah weather and was surprised to see somewhat lower day temps than usual and little chances of rain. I camped outside of Blanding, UT in my toy hauler. Over 6 days I rode Butler Wash, Comb Wash, Montezuma Canyon w/several side canyons, Posey Trail, Dark Canyon area, and a host of other main and side routes west of Blanding and Monticello. The main routes going and coming from camp were pretty easy dirt roads and routes, but the side trails ranged from moderate to hard.

The weather in CO improved, and I moved camp to the Mineral Creek area west of Silverton to spend 10 days there. I’ve done this area quite a few times before, and it was kind of a homecoming. Those of you who have gone here know that a lot of this terrain is no joke in terms of steepness, rocky, ledges, and eroded. I also got to hook up with a fellow camper for 3 days who was riding his CRF300L. I rode the Alpine Loop, Stoney Pass, Red Mountain Pass, Hurricane Pass, California Gulch, Corkscrew Gulch, Kendall Mountain, Ophir Pass, Black Bear Pass (summit only), and Imogene Pass...plus a few short side routes off these.

It was a good trip. My last day in CO was doing Imogene Pass, and it was tougher than I remember from last trips. Not trying to sound like a power sports sourpuss, but after quite a few trips in recent years back to off road places I've done in the past, I'm tending to think the high power UTV's may be responsible for somewhat "roughing up" a lot of the popular riding places. Yeah, I'm not getting any younger, but I think some of it is attributed to more traffic and in particular more high performance UTV traffic. Most all jeeps and similar 4WD automotive based vehicles have to pretty much crawl over these areas whereas many of the HP UTV's are driven like little off road desert trophy trucks. Soap box over.

On the performance of the CRF450RL?...freaking awesome. The GET ECU, an SX-1 Pro with WIGET phone app control dramatically changed this bike. I was already super happy with this mod, as it transformed the bike on trails back home. The GET is accompanied by a G2 throttle tamer, air box lid removed, stock head pipe with Graves Ti muffler, Graves PAIR block-off plate, fuel vapor system removed, Magura Hymec clutch. Without exaggeration I classify the power output as “electric motor”. After my first desert trip on the stock ECU to the Big Bend area, I never felt this bike would attain this level of smooth, controlled power from idle to wide open. On those CO mountain trails, smooth throttle control and usable power is critical. Loose rocks are continually moving around under the bike, and you’re often having to shoot left and right to pick a survivable line while you’re pointed up or down at extreme angles. Even during screw-ups on gear selection and/or stuffing the bike into a bad line, the engine never stalled. A gentle fan and slip of the Magura clutch system, and I was easily continuing on my way. In some of the nastiest climbs where you’re grinding along in first gear because you just can’t use speed and momentum as you’d like, the bike just flat tractor’ed up and over stuff.

At my camp on Mineral Creek just west of Silverton, I ran into a fellow camper riding his CRF300L, and we did 3 days of riding together. Always nice to run into strangers and share riding experiences on a trip.

 

[LicketySplit]

It’s been a couple of years but I think Imogene pass is my favorite in that area. I’ve always wanted to ride the dark canyon - bears ears area but always seem to be there when there is still snow in the way.

 

[KrustyKustom]

TNC....thanks for your overview.

I concur on the "ruggedness" on Imogene. I rode from Telluride to Ouray last September and the final approach to the pass on the Telluride side was seriously loose and chewed up. There are several spots there once you commit to a line its too loose to correct. Also there is alot of areas that the trail has drifted to what is the trail as people have cut corners on swithcbacks etc. There was a rockslide on the Camp Bird road that kept that Imogene pass 4x4 closed most of this year, I have not ridden it since they re-graded and repaired.

The Alpine loop is just too busy and dusty really from end of June to just after Labor day for my liking. Trains of side x sides that are not fun to pass really take the enjoyment out. My trip for the last 17 years has been start in Silverton and if the weather is going through one of those 4-5 day extra rainy phases Utah is only 4 hours away and its always nice in September.

 

[TNC]

It’s been a couple of years but I think Imogene pass is my favorite in that area. I’ve always wanted to ride the dark canyon - bears ears area but always seem to be there when there is still snow in the way.

I've gone down in there off of FR88/Gooseberry/Woodenshoe a couple of times over the years. I can't find for the life of me my pics from past trips into this section of the Dark Canyon complex area. It's a neat downhill off FR88 to start with but ends up in a beautiful valley below the bluffs. The huge, white bluff cliffs rising above the valley trail is one of the most beautiful places in the whole area.

 

[TNC]

TNC....thanks for your overview.

I concur on the "ruggedness" on Imogene. I rode from Telluride to Ouray last September and the final approach to the pass on the Telluride side was seriously loose and chewed up. There are several spots there once you commit to a line its too loose to correct. Also there is alot of areas that the trail has drifted to what is the trail as people have cut corners on swithcbacks etc. There was a rockslide on the Camp Bird road that kept that Imogene pass 4x4 closed most of this year, I have not ridden it since they re-graded and repaired.

The Alpine loop is just too busy and dusty really from end of June to just after Labor day for my liking. Trains of side x sides that are not fun to pass really take the enjoyment out. My trip for the last 17 years has been start in Silverton and if the weather is going through one of those 4-5 day extra rainy phases Utah is only 4 hours away and its always nice in September.

It had been a been a few years since I did the Silverton/Ouray area as I'd gotten burned out on it and found southern Utah to be more to my liking. Here's one thing I noticed on a couple of the rougher rides that was really different from my past years. On Imogene I did not see one other dirt bike...same on Stoney Pass. In fact on Imogene on my way back down to Ouray, I had people in 4X4's and SXS's on their way up flag me over to ask if it got any easier going up and stating that they were turning around. I mentioned that I'm getting older and probably shouldn't be doing some of this by myself, but I think Imogene is rougher now. If I do Imogene again, I'll probably do it from Telluride so I'm going downhill mostly back to Ouray. My CRF450RL climbed like a champ on some of those nasty accents, but it really sucked the life out of me at my age now and that altitude.

 

[Tourmeister]

So off of Gooseberry, NW of Blanding, there is a road my old City Navigator from 2012 shows as North Creek Road. It was a two track trail, unmaintained. Back in 2015, I tried to go down some switch backs out there to connect it back over to Monticello. After the 3rd or 4th switchback, half our group mutinied on me Probably a good thing though. Gas might have been as issue for them if it didn't go through. My 2015 and 2024 versions of the maps do NOT show the road connecting. Just curious if either of you have ever done it. Turning around and not finding out has always bugged me

This is what we were originally trying to do, going West to East. This is from a 1994 topo map. Maverick Point is at the top of the switchbacks.

This is what the 2012 version of the map shows

This is City Nav North 2024, shows nothing going through.

This is an OSM map I downloaded from somewhere, and it shows a trail going close to it.

Near the top.


Looking down from first switch back


Looking up from where we stopped when the mutiny occurred.


Looking down






I went down one more switch back to have a look, this is looking back up




We could not see where the road went in the distance and it wasn't on the other guy's GPS maps. Then there was the worry of getting back up the switch backs if we had to backtrack. And we were already well into our gas with nothing nearby. Sooo... smart thing to do was turn around.

Out there in the Dark Wilderness, there aren't many other people out and about. We saw one truck all day and it was a cattle rancher.

I still want to get back and check it out eventually...

 

[TNC]

Tourmeister I think I remember you posting this question and route before, and I did a deep dive into maps and google sat view. I've done a lot of riding in this area with some decent poking around for fun. My problem is I'm usually alone on these trips and can't get too berserk on going down the rabbit holes that pop up out there. However, I find pre or post searching on google sat view to be sometimes more helpful than maps in some cases. If I'm looking at your map examples correctly, there is supposed to be a trail going relatively due east from Maverick Point, correct? Looking at google sat view I can't see any evidence of that, even old faint trails. The scale on the maps make it a little confusing.

Now, I do see a trail further to the north/north east coming from Maverick Point that has a very defined 8-point switchback in it. You mention switchbacks in your thread. Could this be it? Of course the google view doesn't have the "gray line" indicating it as an official trail, but one can see it fairly clearly on the view. It doesn't mean it's rideable due to lack of detail, but it does appear to go all the way to established North Cottonwood Road in the Needles area. I may be way off, but what do you think from what I described?

I've been out to Maverick Point before and just drove by the turnoff on this trip. However, on that past ride I just stopped and returned when it appeared the main route ended. I can see a fork, but both were dead ends if I recall. Going past the Maverick Point turnoff is where I see that complex of switchbacks. I don't think I went down that route.

 

[Tourmeister]

I often use Google Earth to try to "see" if there is an actual road/track on the ground, but it is hard to always see because of the angle at which the satellite took the imagery. Looking at it now, it is not actually Maverick Point, but it is close to it. Here is a link to it on Maps.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[KsTeveM]

Bears Ears in Utah….I think I went by there.

Gary and I have been talking, probably going to start riding in TNC’s zones when we get our next new bikes.