Every year I make it a point to get down to Colorado to visit family and do a little wheeling. This year I was able to make it happen the last two weeks of July and while I was down there I was able to run Holy Cross and Wheeler Lake for a second time.
Holy Cross is one of the harder trails in Colorado and for us ifs guys Id say it gets right up there on the limit of what we can do. Theres really only 4 tough obstacles but they all will kick your ass and have a lot of potential for body damage. As luck would have it the day we ran it there was rain most of the day.
After getting past the 1 way section the first obstacle is 100 yards up the trail. There was already a line when we got there and we could hear someone getting real friendly with the skinny pedal.
First obstacle is marked by the sign
And this was where all the noise came from. Full tube buggy on 44s, we watched him work at it for 15 minutes before finally winching.
There were a few rzrs in front of us and when the first one tried to bump it up the wall he immediately blew his trans axle giving him 3 neutrals. After getting him out of the way Justin in the red 1st gen walked right up the wall.
I rolled up onto the wall and started off with both lockers on and after giving it two light bumps I could feel that the truck really wanted to climb and would probably of gone if I hit it a little harder but having a line of 30 jeeps behind us and not wanting to break on the first obstacle I opted to winch
We ended up winching david up as well since it started pouring rain..
We made good time up to the next ledge and again Justin walked the first gen right up...
I really wanted to make the far left line work but after trying for a few minutes I couldnt get the ass end to line up and follow the front how I wanted and it was getting pretty tippy. I ended up taking the right line, turtling on my gas tank and then after letting the tires warm up I made it up under my own steam.
David followed the same line up with similar results.
The next obstacle is only about 5 minutes up the trail and I think its what earns this trail its reputation. French creek is a pretty large creek crossing with car sized boulders that are scattered all across the exit. Big rocks, lots of water, and little traction, perfect recipe.
Justin went to take the right line and when re positioning his front diff snagged on a rock and flexed the leaf springs enough that it pulled his front driveshaft apart at the slip yoke so he had no choice but to fix it in the creek.
After getting the driveshaft fixed he continuted on through the creek and out the other end. I was up next and took the right line as well. Id seen a few videos of
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Dirtco
taking the same line and I could see a pretty clear path so I felt like I had a decent shot at making it despite how deep the water was.
I ended up needing to take a few stabs at it but after getting it lined up just right I climbed right up.
And then it happened.. I got up the big line unlocked the front and the front end went down into a hole. It didnt feel very deep so I flipped the front locker back on and started to climb over the rock. Just as the front end came up there was a loud bang and a bunch of shit went bouncing off the rocks. The passenger CV had exploded the outer cup and shot all the balls out under the truck. With only 3wd and the tires covered in water there was no way I was getting out of the creek under my own power so out came the winch. To add insult to injury due to me being dumb and listening to one of the jeep guys that tried to help spot me up the first rock I ran my passenger taillight and quarter panel into a rock pretty hard causing some pretty good body damage.
After winching out of the hole I was in because of how it broke the cv fell the rest of the way out on its own and I was able to limp the rest of the way out of the creek.
Full view of the body damage...
By now the spotty weather had turned and we were getting dumped on again so we opted to drive untill we either hit the city or found a flat spot to swap my cv out. In the meantime I left the rear locked and locked the front as needed to get the front end up things. There was one more good ledge before the city and without all 4 wheels it as just too sloppy to get up and I needed to winch.
About 10 minutes later we were at the city and I swapped the cv in about 20 minutes.
Annnndddd the carnage. Notice how the inner cage that typically blows was intact but all 6 balls managed to get out and the outer cup shattered in half. Not something you see everyday but for wheeling how I do and only breaking this one axle in 8 months Ill take it.