Balanced rock/schubarth loop 5/24/20

[DomOfTheDead]

On Sunday, 5/24/2020, a group of 6 vehicles including:
Adam-on the rx-3rd gen 4runner
Alex-oh shift-5th gen 4runner
Jimmy-j1000-lc100
Dom-domofthedead-2nd gen taco
And hopefully future club members:
Chris in his nice lc80
Phil in his also nice 470

A nice run of balanced rock road with the full group. Weather was nice despite some rain. Only Moderate traffic on the trail considering the very large crowd of campers in the area. We did run across a young man that had gotten lost trying to follow his gps back to his friends camp site. He had managed to get his infinity sedan all the way to the bottom of the trail but wasn't able to make it back out. He declined our advice and help so we wished him luck. (We later came across rangers that we informed about our unfortunate buddy.) Due to lack of time remaining in the day (chris in his 80 was also having oil pressure issues), only Adam and I decided to run Schubarth loop. Cloud cover obstructed most of the notable views but gave a very nice atmosphere to our journey. Rain gave way to graupel to soft snow but trail conditions never got too bad for us. Very nice day with good people. Social distancing was observed. Thank you to everyone involved for having a good time and putting up with my inexperience on this unfamiliar trail as lead.

 

[DomOfTheDead]

Photo credits to everyone else (mostly on the RX). I took no pics this day😞

 

[On the RX]

Great description of the days events! I would also add that the slush was stacking up on I25 coming out of co springs and 4wd was called back into action to keep the lane drifting to a minimum.

 

[bassguyry]

Nice! @Stuckinthe80s and I just missed you guys - we hit Balanced Rock and a few other trails in the area on Monday. I camped off of Ice Cave Road Monday night. Those snow pictures are a great example of how conditions up there can change so quickly - we saw a tiny bit of snow in the forest, but pretty much everything on the trail had melted by the time we made it down there Monday morning.

I think I'm missing a few teeth that rattled out on the washboard sections of Rampart...

How was Schubarth? Is it more technical than Balanced Rock (though, it's not like Balanced Rock is really all that technical except for the ruts at the bottom).

 

[DomOfTheDead]

Nice! @Stuckinthe80s and I just missed you guys - we hit Balanced Rock and a few other trails in the area on Monday. I camped off of Ice Cave Road Monday night. Those snow pictures are a great example of how conditions up there can change so quickly - we saw a tiny bit of snow in the forest, but pretty much everything on the trail had melted by the time we made it down there Monday morning.

I think I'm missing a few teeth that rattled out on the washboard sections of Rampart...

How was Schubarth? Is it more technical than Balanced Rock (though, it's not like Balanced Rock is really all that technical except for the ruts at the bottom).

Schubarth was easier than Balanced rock. Even with an inch of fresh snow on the trail and a quick blizzard, neither of us had any issue. I would like to run Schubarth again in nice weather to see the views the trail offers. It sounds like a bunch of us just missed each other in that area all weekend long!😂

 

[On the RX]

The only thing I noticed about Schubarth is that the roof clearance is shorter. I think Chris with his 80 and rtt would have been snapping branches in some spots.