Chinaman gulch loop Buena Vista Colorado
 

Hello,

This seemed like a decent spot to post a trail run report. It doesn't look like there are many on this forum though, is there somewhere else to look for them here?

Located off of chaffee county road 301 outside Buena Vista Colorado as part of the "fourmile travel management," this trail is rated as "hard" on alltrails.com and rightfully so. It is located near 1 of 2 "Carnage Canyon" trails in the state. As an aside, the canyon is not for you, if you have to ask if you can make it: you can't.

Chinaman is almost 8 miles and the map they give you sucks. I suggest you either find a better one, or just go and have fun.

I used about a quarter tank of fuel doing the trail. It starts off with some fairly easy rocks. If you have trouble here, consider turning around. Although, I usually run trails Solo; with another capable rig and/or a spotter things get much easier.

I spent four hours navigating the trail and another hour screwing around.

I did have to winch out of one spot at the end of a rock garden type area. My rear bumper was dragging the ground on all three attempts so I just attached to the anchor point and pulled it the four feet I needed. I was pinned on my rear diff and did a pirouette of sorts at this garden, before the winch point. The rocks here are not a joke.

There is another area with an anchor point, but I didn't need it as I picked a good line and got out four times to ensure I was tracking well.

I did get stuck on my sliders with all four off the ground at one point. That was fun. If my sliders were angled up more it wouldn't have been a problem. Mine are just a little higher than the running boards and angled at maybe 15 degrees. They help a lot with trees though, and make an excellent Jack point.

I usually run trails in 4hi with open diffs just to see if I need low gear, and I rarely use lockers in the woods.

In contrast, I started this trail in 4lo with the rear and center locked the entire time.

I shredded CV boots, turned a sway bar end link into a u shape (might mount it in the shop as a coat hanger), damaged every skid plate and both bumpers, also scratched up my rear prop shaft pretty good. I used all my lockers, my winch, hi-lift, and most importantly my reverse gear. I switch my front locker on only for the moments it's needed out of fear of exploding a front diff.

My rig: 35s, 4.88 gears, sliders, RCV ultimate ifs CV axles, full RCI skids including rear diff, trailing arm mounts, and LCAs, "shin guards" for the rear shocks, ARB air lockers front and rear, OME 3"front lift with 2" rear lift plus a 1.5" spacer. I'm loaded down, weighing around 6500lbs so I did squat a bit. I have my panhard correction kit usually on the top notch, for this trip it's down one notch and the frame side is still slightly lower. I could stand to have an unladen buddy rig to take some of my gear but oh well.

If I had my full amount of ground clearance I get without all of my tools and camping gear I could have breezed through this, more or less. But then how would I have pulled my front sway bar?

For the record: no sway bars on the road is fun.

any pictures?

Thank you that was a very good review and info!!!!