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Hi,
the purpose of this post is as a reminder that on busy trails people should pay attention to some things. But also a testament to how ridiculously capable the Bronco is.
This weekend my wife and I took a last minute shortcut through the Sangre de Cristo range, great sand dunes towards Westcliffe through Medano pass. We've done this trail a number of times and it's not very difficult, however depending on the conditions there can be challenges. We were driving solo but have enough gear to get ourselves unstuck.
Merrily driving along, we kept crossing Medano creek and a few mud pits (no pics, sorry...) and it was a lot of fun. It's been raining here and things in places were a bit muddy.
Just before the top of the pass there was a small crowd around an interesting mud pit where one of the steep portions of the trail should have been. Someone with a 1st or 2nd gen built up 4 runner got himself into a bind and was stuck pretty good trying to go through some "bypass" off to the side. Rule #1: avoid temporary bypasses. Rule #2: stay on the trail, don't make bypasses. Rule #3: refer to rule #1. Rule #4, if you don't have a winch, wheel with a group that has a working one...
We winched him out, carefully avoiding dropping him into the creek which would have made recovery impossible in that spot. He was stuck pretty good, front wheels almost all dug in, and at first I thought we wouldn't be able to pull him out, but eventually he made it over the ledge and back on the trail. Without a word of thanks (!!), the guy then rode up the trail and after a struggle eventually made it.
We were riding up, and stopped to help, then got out of the way to let people descend that were there when we arrived. A couple of jeeps showed up after us and they went up without waiting, much to the chagrin of the people waiting for their turn to descend. The first one made it up nicely, the second jeep went high perhaps hoping to avoid a high ledge on the washout, but instead they slid down, gunned it and slammed into the ledge causing the front passenger tire to pop out of the bead. They had to get winched out by the first Jeep, and at that point I thought they and the people waiting were going to come to blows... Rule #5: wait your turn... Also don't hang around the winch cable.
We let the descending vehicles go, and got ready to tackle the climb. A couple vehicles showed up in the other direction at the exact time we were lining up... Luckily a couple beeps and they made some room, we went for it.
While everybody that we saw drive up just gunned it and seemed to rely on building momentum, I thought I'd keep it slow and smooth. I also hoped a higher tire pressure would help: I did not air down at all since the sand was still wet, and I was anticipating the muddy conditions. It paid off, the bronco just rode through the muddy portions, up the washout ledge and over without a single hiccup or damage. To be sure, 4Lo and front/back locked probably helped a ton. Very happy with the performance for a stock height sasquatch with the gravel-grabbing stock tires, I was expecting a bit of a winch assist given the steepness of the trail, greasiness and that ledge. Nope, just rode right up.
Fun day! Too bad we didn't have much time to take pics or hang around some side trails... But we narrowly missed a hail storm as it is and had places to be anyway.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!
the purpose of this post is as a reminder that on busy trails people should pay attention to some things. But also a testament to how ridiculously capable the Bronco is.
This weekend my wife and I took a last minute shortcut through the Sangre de Cristo range, great sand dunes towards Westcliffe through Medano pass. We've done this trail a number of times and it's not very difficult, however depending on the conditions there can be challenges. We were driving solo but have enough gear to get ourselves unstuck.
Merrily driving along, we kept crossing Medano creek and a few mud pits (no pics, sorry...) and it was a lot of fun. It's been raining here and things in places were a bit muddy.
Just before the top of the pass there was a small crowd around an interesting mud pit where one of the steep portions of the trail should have been. Someone with a 1st or 2nd gen built up 4 runner got himself into a bind and was stuck pretty good trying to go through some "bypass" off to the side. Rule #1: avoid temporary bypasses. Rule #2: stay on the trail, don't make bypasses. Rule #3: refer to rule #1. Rule #4, if you don't have a winch, wheel with a group that has a working one...
We winched him out, carefully avoiding dropping him into the creek which would have made recovery impossible in that spot. He was stuck pretty good, front wheels almost all dug in, and at first I thought we wouldn't be able to pull him out, but eventually he made it over the ledge and back on the trail. Without a word of thanks (!!), the guy then rode up the trail and after a struggle eventually made it.
We were riding up, and stopped to help, then got out of the way to let people descend that were there when we arrived. A couple of jeeps showed up after us and they went up without waiting, much to the chagrin of the people waiting for their turn to descend. The first one made it up nicely, the second jeep went high perhaps hoping to avoid a high ledge on the washout, but instead they slid down, gunned it and slammed into the ledge causing the front passenger tire to pop out of the bead. They had to get winched out by the first Jeep, and at that point I thought they and the people waiting were going to come to blows... Rule #5: wait your turn... Also don't hang around the winch cable.
We let the descending vehicles go, and got ready to tackle the climb. A couple vehicles showed up in the other direction at the exact time we were lining up... Luckily a couple beeps and they made some room, we went for it.
While everybody that we saw drive up just gunned it and seemed to rely on building momentum, I thought I'd keep it slow and smooth. I also hoped a higher tire pressure would help: I did not air down at all since the sand was still wet, and I was anticipating the muddy conditions. It paid off, the bronco just rode through the muddy portions, up the washout ledge and over without a single hiccup or damage. To be sure, 4Lo and front/back locked probably helped a ton. Very happy with the performance for a stock height sasquatch with the gravel-grabbing stock tires, I was expecting a bit of a winch assist given the steepness of the trail, greasiness and that ledge. Nope, just rode right up.
Fun day! Too bad we didn't have much time to take pics or hang around some side trails... But we narrowly missed a hail storm as it is and had places to be anyway.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!
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