memorial run??

[Sleepy]

Ok there is a place called Deckers that we could meet. It's basically a fishing shop in the middle of nowhere. See Deckers Colorado in a google search. There is no fuel there, so be topped before you leave any main roads. We could also meet at Crossroads on 285. That's where you take the road south to head down into that area.

My only concern is that it's been years since I've been there. I'm confident in getting us there - just not sure I'll remember the trails.

 

[Fishy]

Fishy, JPS - either of you up for Metberry Gulch?

I'm working tonight and can't go. But, here's where we usually meet up.
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=...033088&geocode=FW73VgIdVl66-Q&mra=mr&t=m&z=15

Here's an article about the run we did this past winter (shameless plug)
http://www.tlca.org/trails/2013/0506/Rising_From_Ashes.shtml

You can air down at the start of FS360.

 

[jps8460]

I have the wells book of the trails. We should get going soon though, we'll be getting home pretty late if we don take-off soon, I'm down with the deckers meetup.

does everyone have CB?

 

[Sleepy]

The meeting place you mention is Deckers. That's exactly where I was talking about (without the map). It's 11:00 now. Can everyone make it to Deckers by 12:30? We will start with Metberry and see what time looks like for anything else. I'd rather not consume the whole day either.

 

[Sleepy]

I have the wells book of the trails. We should get going soon though, we'll be getting home pretty late if we don take-off soon, I'm down with the deckers meetup.

does everyone have CB?

Yes, channel 19 to start and possible change at Deckers.

 

[Fishy]

It takes me about 3 hours to get to the South Platte river at the far end of Metberry. That's from my house in Centennial near Parker/Arapahoe. From HR, subtract 20 minutes.
This is a popular camping weekend, so expect to see others already there or on the trail.

Deckers Store is right in the tiny town of Deckers at the "T" where CO67 and Deckers Rd meet. There is the Flies and Lies fly shop in the same little building. No gas, the store will have basic provisions. This time of the year they have GREAT ice cream too. Any of you coming from Evergreen/Conifer/Foothills would take 285 to Pine Valley Rd/CO126 and come in that way. Southsiders would take 25 South to Happy Canyon Rd, 85 to 67. Deckers store is almost exactly 40 miles from Evergreen or Centennial.
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=CO...ra=mr&t

 

[jps8460]

I would't get there until about 1pm maybe a little later. Im up in westminster, need to get gas and pack some stuff. If we leave now and do both or all three we won't get homeuntill 6 or so, is that ok (as along as all goes well).

 

[Sleepy]

Ok, meet at Deckers at 13:00 Hrs. WooHoo!

 

[Fishy]

I would't get there until about 1pm maybe a little later. Im up in westminster, need to get gas and pack some stuff. If we leave now and do both or all three we won't get homeuntill 6 or so, is that ok (as along as all goes well).

Trust me, you will be hard pressed to just do Metberry and be home by 6. You're 4 hours from the bottom of Metberry right now......

 

[jps8460]

wow, your right, I was just looking at the map, hadn't calculated it yet. Well, here goes.

 

[Uncle Ben]

Got Rollins Pass drifts broke all the way to "the gatekeeper" drift on Jenny Creek! Broke drifts more than 3 miles past the furthest tracks! Epic!

 

[baja1d]

Got Rollins Pass drifts broke all the way to "the gatekeeper" drift on Jenny Creek! Broke drifts more than 3 miles past the furthest tracks! Epic!

Nice work, wish I coulda been there

 

[jps8460]

Dont trust ye old GPS for this one

Being on a time crunch to make it back by 8, thanks to my wonderful wife for being so gracious. when I learned that my GPS had lead me an an hour out of the way of the trail head. I had no choice but to throw in the towel. Be sure to turn off at Divide.

To those I was meeting, I'm very sorry, I tried to make contact several times. Hopefuly you all found it and had a good time!

the coordinates in Well's book are correct, you just have to use a real map to find it. The "Roads of Colorado" book of maps makes it very clear.

When I arrived at the nice lady's house in BFE, I apoligized and she replied with "did your GPS lead you here?" yes mam, "it's ok, happens all the time, have a good day, ps if your looking for the gulchs trail you're about an hour away in the other direction."

So, guess I should have planned a little better. beautiful scenery down there though.

Overall still better than being at work.

 

[HoneyBadger]

JPS8460, We did eventually find Hacket Gulch, and later, Metberry gulch. We had a very similar experience to yours. The GPS kept leading us to private property with locked gates. It was frustrating. Sorry we were never able to link up. It took forever to get to the coordinates you gave us. But I guess you never made it there either. So, all well. Maybe next time.

Anyways, we got to Hacket Gulch and decided to run down it, since we were there. About half way my front left drives shaft exploded out of my dif into a thousand pieces. Managed to tie it up out of the way enough to be able to get out. Sleepy had to pull me out part of the way because my 4WD wasn't working any longer.
It was all fun and games till that happened at about 6. Just made it home at 9:30.
So now, I've got to try and get this fixed ASAP.
I think this will be the 5th or 6th time i've had to replace either one or both front drive shafts. It's just incredible to me how easily all that seems to fall apart. Feeling very frustrated at the moment.

 

[jps8460]

Give me a shout early tomorrow if you need some help. I'll pm you my number.
what is you rig? when you say drive shaft, I assume your talking about CV's?

Are you running really deep gears (4.88, 5.29)?

Do you have a gigantic lift?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Give me a shout early tomorrow if you need some help. I'll pm you my number.
what is you rig? when you say drive shaft, I assume your talking about CV's?

Are you running really deep gears (4.88, 5.29)?

Do you have a gigantic lift?

'03 Tacoma, V6, Stock gears, 4" lift.

And yes, it's a CV.

 

[Sleepy]

Ironically Shotshell, it was those same breaking CV's that caused me to swap to a solid axle front. There is supposed to be a company making stronger ones now - I'll try to find where that was since it would be much cheaper to get stronger CV's.

I'm happy, at least I got to climb Hacket Rock. Brings back tons of memories. When we finally got out, I realized the turn that I missed to get us back to the gulches without anybody trespassing

At least people were trying to be helpful. I'm sure everyone coming up to your gate gets old...

All in all, it was a good day. I got to spend the whole day with my son.

Now to get a new microphone for my CB so someone can understand me.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Sleepy,I love your rig. That thing rocks.

As soon as I got up this morning I started looking into solid front axle swaps. Turns out iI'm gonna be into it for ~$6000 if I go that route. Which mean it won't be happening any time soon. But I know that's what really needs to happen if I'm going to be serious about off-roading.

Thanks again for pulling me out of there yesterday.

 

[Sleepy]

Thanks for the compliment. No problem getting out - we all go in, we all come out

I hear you on the axle swap cost. To be honest, find a used 84-5 4runner and work up from there. It already has all of the basics you need and you can keep the milder truck for snow and work. All in hindsight

 

[HoneyBadger]

I may have figured out why my CV axle pulled out this weekend.
I got a new one installed today. And while I was under the truck checking it out, I noticed that the two bolts that attache the rear of my front differential were not just loose...but MISSING all together. So, Apparently when the company that installed my lift were installing it, they must have either not tightened them down properly and they vibrated loose, or the bolts were never reinstalled during the rebuild.
Anyways, looks like it definitely helped to cause the problem. That's probably my mysterious "clunk" sound as well.
Also, looks like the bracket that the differential bolts to got bent this weekend as well. So now that I have two new bolts from the dealership, I can't install them because I can't get the holes to align. And for some reason Toyota decided it would be a good idea to engineer the bracket to be installed with an 11 or 12 mm hex key bolt.
So now I'm having to wait till I can find one of those.

Also, turns out that I crushed the case for the actuator on the back of the differential up against the frame. So now I've got to find a way to fix that. A new one is $350.00 Holy Crap!

What a mess....