The Montrose Massacre

[BroncoMama]

Well, the term "massacre" may be a little dramatic, but nothing about the Montrose trails are little! A friend describes them as "raunchy" and that really sums them up nicely. We jaunted over to Montrose with 3 Toyota's to see what all the hoo-ub was about this last weekend. Had a blast, wore some more tread off our beloved SX's, and came home battered and broken. And a good time was had by all!!

We began our adventure on Die Trying...

A very cool Cruiser that made it about 100 yards into the trail only to discover his rear main seal leaking madly. Sadly, he left our company and was back in Pagosa by 5:00 that afternoon.





And there goes another stub shaft... :sick:











Look at that tire grab that rock! I love it!!

 

[Meat_]

I wanna go wheelin

 

[BroncoMama]

Continuing on....



The climb out of the canyon


Although Saturday was hotter than seven shades of hell, we all had a fabulous day and fortunately, our poor stub shaft was the only real carnage of the day. Of course Lemon Joy did get some more custom body work done, but don't hate her because she's beautiful! Sunday was another scorcher and after bidding our hometown peeps adieu, we met up with some Farmington, New Mexico buddies and went to see what Calamity Canyon had in store for us.







The sunset from downtown Telluride

I didn't get a picture of Sunday's diaster, but the last obstacle on Calamity is a set of stair steps that are pretty steep with just the right amount of spacing to be a double whammy. Chris was last in line and after trying to crawl up it a few times, it was suggested that he give it "the Farmington Bump". Well, sounds good in theory, so second gear and sidestepping the clutch, here we come. It worked, the Bronco made it up said obstacle, but about 1/4 mile down the road from there, the rear driveshaft yoke grenaded on us, so note to self: no Farmington Bumps in Montrose! All in all though, it was a great weekend and we can't wait to get back there when it's a little cooler to do it all again!

 

[Herzog]

Too bad about the cruiser, good looking rig.

That looks like a fun place. It may be time to start the "wheel all of colorado fund" for myself.

 

[Greg]

Sweet! I need to get down to Montrose, hell it's only an hour away. How would you compare those trails to Billings? Nice winch & front frame/bumper work, BTW.

 

[Greg]

Too bad about the cruiser, good looking rig.

That look like a fun place. It may be time to start the "wheel all of colorado fund" for myself.

Just move here and we'll wheel CO every weekend!

 

[Tacoma]

and here I thought there was actually tread on that Bronco. Stupid me!!


THat looks like a fun time.

 

[Meat_]

:guilty: I was too busy looking at your bald tires to even notice that you had mounted your winch

 

[BroncoMama]

It may be time to start the "wheel all of colorado fund" for myself.

I really think you need to do that. Start with this year's Turkey Crawl. I really think we should hit Montrose, it is wicked fun and really beat the snot out of us. I want to go back with chromo's and some bigger tires and see how we do!

Sweet! I need to get down to Montrose, hell it's only an hour away. How would you compare those trails to Billings? Nice winch & front frame/bumper work, BTW.

Die Trying is definitely harder than Billings in my book. We got worked over pretty good, but I do think some of that is because Lemon Joy is truly a big beautiful woman. The Toyota's were able to sneak around more and that helped their cause. It's just a knarly trail any way you slice it though.

Just move here and we'll wheel CO every weekend!

Hmmmm, the guy's got a point there Mr. Herzog!

and here I thought there was actually tread on that Bronco. Stupid me!!

It's okay, happens to a lot of people!

:guilty: I was too busy looking at your bald tires to even notice that you had mounted your winch

I'm so glad to hear someone else is as enthralled with our tires as I am! Funny story, we couldn't find the trail our Farmington buddies were running on Saturday so we just went to Die Trying. As we were finishing the trail we heard rigs coming up behind us, but didn't think much of it. Later that evening, I got a call from one of them and he told me they followed us up Die Trying. I said yes, we were on that trail, but how did they know it was us? Well, it was quite simple actually, no other rig has only half the signature SX tread in their tracks!

 

[Meat_]

... Well, it was quite simple actually, no other rig has only half the signature SX tread in their tracks!

 

[yellowbronco]

How would you compare those trails to Billings?

I'd say Calamity is not quite as bad, although the step climb could get a little intense (read puckery). Die Trying is very commiting and tight with few go arounds. Also it has the potential to become much more difficult or even impassable if a heavy rain came through. I love the climb out, it is very intimidating and fun I would say it is a bit tougher than Billings...

Nice winch & front frame/bumper work, BTW.

Thanks, I got it finished Thursday night, just in time to try it out on Saturday when I broke

 

[cannoncrawler]

those trails look like a blast.....

 

[Bart]

I remember the first time we came out of Calamity. it was about 9:00 at night and snowing hard. It was after I'd added the YJ tub to the back of the XJ but didn't have the doors on it. A friend from So Cal had brought a friend of his that was not prepared for that type of run. He said he did the Hammers all the time. All I could say was Montrose is not the Hammers. I was the only one that could make it up that last climb out and had to winch the other guys out.

 

[lineforeman99]

Die Tryin is definitely harder than Billings. You will have to try Cactus one and two. The out on Cactus 2 is long and steep. Next time you all get over here let me know.

Butch

 

[BroncoMama]

Die Tryin is definitely harder than Billings. You will have to try Cactus one and two. The out on Cactus 2 is long and steep. Next time you all get over here let me know.

Butch

We wanted to get to Cactus, but it wasn't in the cards for this trip. We had a blast though and would really like to come back this fall sometime. Plus, you do have a Rib City Grill there....