I joined Terry (trip leader - '89 Toyota Extra Cab, 33" locked F/R), Kevin ('94 Defender 90, 31" locked F/R) and Bill and Hawk (stock '97 Jeep Cherokee, UpCountry suspension, rear L/S) to tackle the high trails before the snow closes them for the season.
We
aired down at the beginning of Slick Rock trail at 11 AM. We reached
Lake Alpine without incident about 1 PM then headed up the road to the
start of the Deer Valley trail. The entrance obstacle grabbed a front
control arm on the Jeep and a short pull from Kevin's rear mounted
winch solved that problem.
Recent
heavy rains seemed to have had an effect on the trail, more mud, some
places filled in others washed out more, especially dropping down from
the first ridge to the stream crossing, which seemed to take forever.
This
was my first time driving with the 33x9.50 tires and my fender flares.
That extra 3 inches of body width makes a difference, I managed to snag
a protruding tree root on one narrow uphill section. I have been used
to using the passenger side tires to gauge my width.
The aspen trees were beginning to change color, traces of ice were present on the shaded stream crossings and even some fresh patches of snow at the 8000 foot level let us know winter is not far off. Gosh and this area still had snow banks remaining the first weekend in August! We reached Blue Lakes at about 6 PM and headed up 88 to the Kirkwood gas station to air up (not!). The compressor was on the blink, so my on-board air worked overtime filling up 4 sets of tires.
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