cewtwo
New member
There is a trail near Denver that I like to ride in Winter. The name is Yankee Hill. It is located between the ghost town of Alice and the casino town of Central City, Colorado.
Every year is different as far as finding a trail that you can ride. I always try the trails closest to where I live. Yankee Hill is one of those.
Tom (Jeeper) and I headed out for some snow wheelin’! We got to the trail head and headed right in. We didn’t get very far before we noticed 4 vehicles behind us. There was a Rubicon, A Forerunner, an Xterra and a big Pickup.
We found an abandoned car at the start to the difficult parts. Why do people do that? I do not understand why they take their crap back-country, drive it until it stops, then shoot it and then let someone else clean up the mess!
We headed up the trail. I looked back and the other group was not behind us anymore. We moved along fairly well until we reached a little hill. We drove onto it and then stopped.
Wind was blowing that day. The snow had been snow driven for a couple of days by then. All of the water had been sucked out of it. It was a corn type snow that couldn’t freeze. It was dry and moved like sand. That caught the Mighty YJ pretty tightly in its grip!
I’m glad we had the winch as we would still be there if we didn’t. A quick winch pulled us through the first one. By that time, the other group had caught up with us again. They muscled their way through it.
Then came the hill that decided for us that we were about to turn around.
(Videos do take you off-site to my photobucket account)
Everyone decided to turn around. We found out that the pickup slid off the trail and found itself in some trees in deep snow.
The Mighty YJ headed downhill without a problem. The Rubicon did get stuck, but got himself out. The Forerunner was behind him and needed much more persuasion to get out. Tom took the jeep down the trail to turn around to winch the Forerunner out. He let them use shovels (to keep them busy) and then tird on and pulled him right off.
When Tom got back, he told me about the Pickup. He said the pickup was 8,000 pounds and the Mighty YJ is a mere ½ of that. How will we get him out? We decided to attach 2 winch straps to the pickup. Tom and I used a snatch block off of a tree. That would pull him toward the trail and out of the trees. The Rubicon used a snatch block on the pickup hard point and took the line back to his rig.
It worked. The Rubicon had a Mile Marker winch that was half as fast as the Warn on the Mighty YJ. So we would pull, stop and let the mile marker catch up, pull again, stop, etc.
Notice how Molly realizes that she is out in the cold. Not necessarily liking that, she kept shooting Tom glances based on her situation. He was just as effective in ignoring her!
No matter how many times you explain to a person how a winch works, they always end up ignoring those instructions. A winch pulls in a straight line and no matter where you steer, your pulled vehicle will follow the winch line! Here I am getting a little frustrated.
After all was said and done, the very best part of Yankee Hill is that it is by a casino town. Yep, that’s right! All you can eat buffets! I was tired, depleted and very hungry. That buffet did not make any money off of me that day!
Every year is different as far as finding a trail that you can ride. I always try the trails closest to where I live. Yankee Hill is one of those.
Tom (Jeeper) and I headed out for some snow wheelin’! We got to the trail head and headed right in. We didn’t get very far before we noticed 4 vehicles behind us. There was a Rubicon, A Forerunner, an Xterra and a big Pickup.
We found an abandoned car at the start to the difficult parts. Why do people do that? I do not understand why they take their crap back-country, drive it until it stops, then shoot it and then let someone else clean up the mess!
We headed up the trail. I looked back and the other group was not behind us anymore. We moved along fairly well until we reached a little hill. We drove onto it and then stopped.
Wind was blowing that day. The snow had been snow driven for a couple of days by then. All of the water had been sucked out of it. It was a corn type snow that couldn’t freeze. It was dry and moved like sand. That caught the Mighty YJ pretty tightly in its grip!
I’m glad we had the winch as we would still be there if we didn’t. A quick winch pulled us through the first one. By that time, the other group had caught up with us again. They muscled their way through it.
Then came the hill that decided for us that we were about to turn around.
(Videos do take you off-site to my photobucket account)
Everyone decided to turn around. We found out that the pickup slid off the trail and found itself in some trees in deep snow.
The Mighty YJ headed downhill without a problem. The Rubicon did get stuck, but got himself out. The Forerunner was behind him and needed much more persuasion to get out. Tom took the jeep down the trail to turn around to winch the Forerunner out. He let them use shovels (to keep them busy) and then tird on and pulled him right off.
When Tom got back, he told me about the Pickup. He said the pickup was 8,000 pounds and the Mighty YJ is a mere ½ of that. How will we get him out? We decided to attach 2 winch straps to the pickup. Tom and I used a snatch block off of a tree. That would pull him toward the trail and out of the trees. The Rubicon used a snatch block on the pickup hard point and took the line back to his rig.
It worked. The Rubicon had a Mile Marker winch that was half as fast as the Warn on the Mighty YJ. So we would pull, stop and let the mile marker catch up, pull again, stop, etc.
Notice how Molly realizes that she is out in the cold. Not necessarily liking that, she kept shooting Tom glances based on her situation. He was just as effective in ignoring her!
No matter how many times you explain to a person how a winch works, they always end up ignoring those instructions. A winch pulls in a straight line and no matter where you steer, your pulled vehicle will follow the winch line! Here I am getting a little frustrated.
After all was said and done, the very best part of Yankee Hill is that it is by a casino town. Yep, that’s right! All you can eat buffets! I was tired, depleted and very hungry. That buffet did not make any money off of me that day!
