On Tue, January 24, 2006 12:10 pm, Jason Bleazard wrote:
>
> On Tue, January 24, 2006 9:37 am, Josh Battles said:
>>
>> It looks like there's some sort of paved/packed dirt road that leads up to
>> the top, you think it's nice enough for us altitude challenged folk to make
>> it up there too? I'd definately like to be in on the group photos.
>
> It's hard to say. The only photo we've been able to find is this one:
> http://tinyurl.com/akjb4 You can see the road coming in from the left side
> of
> the picture right near the "west" label, going up a couple of switchbacks,
> and
> the clearing at the top. At least we're pretty sure that's it.
That doesn't look too bad, I could probably make that. The only issue I can
forsee is rocks/dips in the trail. If all goes to plan, my frame will be
considerably lower to the ground next year than it is now. I don't want to
ding it all up after spending all that time getting everything all sorted
out.
> It would be pretty cool to get as many Dakotas up there as we can for photos.
> You could always try it and see what the road is like, no shame in turning
> around and going back if it gets too rough.
True enough. If the road becomes prohibitive we could always attempt a 2wd
only photo somewhere flat. (we should do a group photo on flat land too
anyway)
> The only counter argument I can think of is that Jon and I were talking about
> combining the trip up to Dakota Hill with a full day of off-roading. The
> hill
> is quite a ways north of the campground. Jim estimates about 2.5 hours to
> get
> up there, but then once we've traveled up there and taken all of our
> pictures,
> what do we do with the rest of the day? If we were going to go off-roading,
> you could find a safe place to park your truck and go along as a passenger,
> but that would kill my idea of using the trail system to actually travel back
> to camp.
If all the planning is done ahead of time it would be possible to set up a
scenic drive for the on-road return trip to camp, then allowing all you
crazies to take the wooded way back. We'd have to plan a couple different
scenic drives though since you mention taking one further along in this
message.
> It's near the Denver area, so we had thought about combining it with
> something
> else around Denver as long as we were going to be up there. But, we couldn't
> really think of anything else that would be interesting. We're already
> planning on doing the Coors tour on Wednesday morning, and heading over to
> Red
> Rocks for lunch (assuming we'll be able to get in that day) and then
> Bandimere
> in the afternoon and evening. It makes sense to combine all of that stuff
> together since it's all located within a few minutes drive. That's already a
> full day, I don't think we could squeeze Dakota hill in there anywhere unless
> we didn't care about showing up at the track right as it opens.
This is a vacation. I'm all for lolligaggin' about. We don't have to pack
every day full of activities. I'm sure some other free time would be
appreciated. I've heard fishing in the Denver area is quite good....
> As I mentioned above, the second idea we had was to leave camp in time to get
> up to Dakota Hill for lunch, have lunch and take pictures on the top, and
> then
> spend the rest of the day taking a series of 4x4 roads and trails to get back
> to camp. Unfortunately, that would necessarily exclude any 2wd trucks. We
> could split up, but that would depend on whether you'd rather head back to
> camp in a group of 2wd trucks, or ride along as a passenger for some
> off-roading.
As previously mentioned, perhaps a seperate 2wd return cruise could be
planned so you guys can take the trails back. That way everyone would be
able to see something new/different.
> The only other thought I have is that maybe the rest of that day could be
> spent on scenic back-country highways, maybe stopping in at some of the
> tourist traps like Breckenridge, etc. Possibly Walt, Adam, Mike and anyone
> else with a big rig could take the opportunity to go smash their trucks on
> some boulders while the rest of us are doing the touristy thing. I'm not
> sure if they'd be interested in those areas or not.
Let's make sure to get some twisties in there for us lowered trucks too.
Mountain roads make for some of the best technical driving. I love to carve
corners.
-- - Josh www.omg-stfu.comThis message has been brought to you by the American Kneejerk Coalition for Equality, Compassion, and the Restoration of Karmic Unity of Self And Other Silly Hippy Happy-Swell Gayness Bullshit, or AKCECRKUSAOSHHSGB for short.
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