San Juans - Poughkeepsie Gulch, finally!

We did a club run Wednesday and finally got to do Poughkeepsie Gulch. It's a fun trail and a little technical in a couple of places (no bypass yet for the primary obstacle but our club is working on a new bypass.) I found the primary obstacle, the rock stair-steps (or waterfall, or whatever you want to call it) on the right side to be easy with the correct line - I crawled right up.

There were a couple of 4-doors behind our group with inexperienced drivers and I spotted one of them up - he had no lockers! He was smart enough to keep his momentum up - it wasn't pretty, but he got up and I felt really good about helping the guy be successful in front of his young family and fellow Jeepers.

Two guys that tagged along in our group of six (they wanted to join us when we were at the trail head) had to be winched up - one of them was a Rubicon as I recall! All of our group got up with no winching - whoo-hoo!

After I went up the right side, I went back down and headed to the far left side of the obstacle and went up it ( video here.) It was more difficult finding the right line but I got up it. There is a center line on this wide obstacle that almost guarantees body damage, that one is for the crazies.

There was a fairly large group of Jeeps (at least six or eight I think) ahead of us going up the obstacle and the spotters were clueless - all this group did was tear things up (and take up a lot of time.) The right side is fairly easy if you get the passenger side tires on the correct line. This "spotter" had their passenger side tires too far to the left in a notch which almost guaranteed a big hit on the right rocker panel and fender flares (which happened as I watched them.)

Nice movie, J&J. Looks like fun.

Pretty impressive John, especially since the camera never does the steepness any justice. It looked a little spooky when you backing down before your 2nd go at it.
  We're gong down there the week before Labor Day and staying at Ridgeway SP. We rode alot of the trails down there before on our ATVs but we're taking the Jeep this year so we can do the whole Alpine loop, street legal. I also want to do "Black Bear" which we could'nt on the ATVs.  I'm hoping Black Bear won't give my  stock '97 TJ Sahara any trouble. I am a little worried I might have to sleep on the couch or maybe in a tent after my wife sees those drop offs on the side of the trail all the way to Telluride.  I got in big trouble last year when I told her Poughkeepsie was a short cut.

max49 said:

.. I got in big trouble last year when I told her Poughkeepsie was a short cut.

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Poughkeepsie was a bunch of fun and a nice challenge.  Yeah, backing down on the left side to reposition got a little spooky but I don't think we were close to anything dramatic happening.

DW usually gets out when I do an obstacle to take video, but she's fine being in the passenger seat also.  She drove for about an hour when we did the Palo Duro Jeep Jamboree and did fine with a little coaching.  If your wife is a little leery of heights and shelf roads Black Bear might not be a good choice. 

We've done almost every trail (and side trail) in the area but Black Bear has eluded us.  We were going to do it last year, but it opened way late in the season and we left just as it finally opened.  Our Western Slope 4-Wheeler club is going to run BB backwards on Aug 20 (I think it's the 20th) and do a trail clean-up, so it looks like our first BB run will be the opposite direction  .

Love the Alpine Loop, such spectacular scenery. May be time for a run up there but will wait until the Pro Cycle leg from Durango to Telluride is done and gone.

Wendy

Copy that.  From what I understand, Telluride will be isolated for a few hours.

Don't even want to be on Hwy 145 with a few hundred bicycles riding uphill. Let's see, the law says single-file riding only and vehicles must allow 3 feet when passing - that could be fun !

Wendy

[quote author=John Canfield]

We've done almost every trail (and side trail) in the area but Black Bear has eluded us.  We were going to do it last year, but it opened way late in the season and we left just as it finally opened.  Our Western Slope 4-Wheeler club is going to run BB backwards on Aug 20 (I think it's the 20th) and do a trail clean-up, so it looks like our first BB run will be the opposite direction  .
[/quote]

Why do they clean it up backwards?  Obviously they have to close the trail because there's no room for 2 vehicles side by side.  I'll be there Aug 23rd,  I hope you have it opened back up by then.

Edit by John to fix quote

Max - the Telluride Rotary club sponsors a backwards run of Black Bear in Late July and I just checked our club calendar and the backwards run of BB and cleanup is Aug 26, so no worries for you.

I have no idea why the cleanup day is a backwards run - maybe to make it fun for the club members.  Yes, the trail is closed at the top on those days.

I was a week ahead of myself, I'll be there Aug 30th not the 23rd.
Aug 26th is a Sunday so there may be alot of irate jeepers at the top when they find out they can't go down.

Real nice, have you ever tried the others side? It's fun too!

hes4all said:

Real nice, have you ever tried the others side? It's fun too!

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Haven't had a chance to do Black Bear yet if that's what you're referring to.  It just opened when we left Montrose last summer.

Here's a seven minute long dash cam video of us going up the right side of the Poughkeepsie wall, down the right side, and up the left side.  All in breathtaking high def  ;D.

I am talking about the other side. When you head up to where you are just keep going straight instead of going to the right. If I remember correctly, there is a big boulder and you go to the left of that. We actually put our right front tire on it, or you can be way off camber. Either way is crazy though!

In your video John, in the back ground there is someone in yellow. That is the way I am talking about. Happy wheeling man, I am jealous.

Interesting video John. I was also impressed by the stabilization on the camera -- I didn't know stability that good was possible.

hes4all said:

In your video John, in the back ground there is someone in yellow. That is the way I am talking about. Happy wheeling man, I am jealous.

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Are you talking about a line further to the left?

Larry N. said:

Interesting video John. I was also impressed by the stabilization on the camera -- I didn't know stability that good was possible.

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Thanks.  It's a cheap Samsung we devote to Jeeping.  It does have some image stabilization but for that price (~$120 as I recall) you don't get much.  What really helps is the suction cup mount I use on the cam - the suction cup absorbs some of the vibration.  Oh, also YouTube did some post-processing to reduce shaking.

the suction cup mount I use on the cam - the suction cup absorbs some of the vibration.  Oh, also YouTube did some post-processing to reduce shaking.

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Thanks -- that's some suction cup/processing! Wow!