Italian Creek Road 8/13/22

[subzali]

Finally got some videos downloaded and edited reasonably enough to post them.

First video is the approach to the shelf road. There is a "gatekeeper" rock and one or two other places where spotting was useful to get by.


Second video is getting through the crux section


Third video is an outside view of the crux section - apologies, buy my camera person is 10 years old


Fourth video shows my friend in his CJ walking through it - again 10 year old camera person. I was taking video from another angle but turns out I didn't have the video camera on. Argh.

 

[DouglasVB]

Looks really fun! That's one of the two trails that goes between the Tin Cup and Crested Butte area, right?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Looks really fun! That's one of the two trails that goes between the Tin Cup and Crested Butte area, right?

Yeah, pretty much. It goes from the west side of Taylor Park Res. over to Crested Butte.

I'm surprised they took the upper route. That looks sketch AF.

 

[subzali]

Looks really fun! That's one of the two trails that goes between the Tin Cup and Crested Butte area, right?

This road splits so there is a high road and a low road. The videos are of the high road. The triple bypass crew this year took the low road and it is much safer.

I am not aware of any other 4x4 connectors between those two areas.

 

[subzali]

Yeah, pretty much. It goes from the west side of Taylor Park Res. over to Crested Butte.

I'm surprised they took the upper route. That looks sketch AF.

Yeah in hindsight I’m not sure it was worth it. I was pretty stressed-you can hear it in my voice and my breathing in the video. I had called the forest service ahead of time and they didn’t seem too concerned about us getting through, so we went for it. It’s not something I think I would have been able to drive without a spotter. I had no idea what my tires were doing for much of those tough spots. Kinda surprised the forest service doesn’t have a sign to let people know it’s not your average section of forest road.

 

[DouglasVB]

We did the lower road over the Italian divide a number of years back. Very mellow by comparison!

 

[HoneyBadger]

We did the lower road over the Italian divide a number of years back. Very mellow by comparison!

Same here. The only issue was a 4ft. deep mud hole.....

 

[dan1554]

I just pinched a hole in my office chair.

 

[RossM]

This road splits so there is a high road and a low road. The videos are of the high road. The triple bypass crew this year took the low road and it is much safer.

I am not aware of any other 4x4 connectors between those two areas.

The lower section is getting pretty worn and beat up. Lots of use by side by sides, dozens a day from what we gathered the 2 times we went this summer. We drove it last Fall and it was substantially better which might sound weird but is true.

 

[LARGEONE]

I'm not sure the death-to-fun ratio is right on this one.

 

[DouglasVB]

I'm not sure the death-to-fun ratio is right on this one.

I believe this is referred to as Type 2 Fun.

And this gif feels relevant 🤣

No Oh GIF - No Oh - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

 

[subzali]

I believe this is referred to as Type 2 Fun.

And this gif feels relevant 🤣

No Oh GIF - No Oh - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

It’s fun until it’s not. Thankfully we didn’t cross that threshold