June 21st

Ok, I have talked to many offline about holycross and the general concern is the difficulty of the trail and most probably won't go. I would like to compromise with doing something more of us can enjoy.  I threw up some idea's in the poll I think we will be ok for snow higher up.  Certainly up for other suggestions, so who can go, where we going, and who is leading?  

All of the trails have a low end rating of 4, Transfer Trail is a low end of 3.

I'm up for any of these. I would put Chinaman lower on the list because of the distance to get there versus the shortness of the trail and lower scenery rating. But it is on my list of "to do", as are all the other ones.

I've done most of Half Moon (to much snow on the one area), very scenic and awesome water crossings. I'll do it many more times. GREAT camping there too.

With Taylor we could also run Italian Creek afterwards if anyone wanted a full day.

With Transfer there are sooo many options once we are up there with Adams Lake and Grizzly both rated 4

I'm up for any of them.

We too

I like the idea of Taylor and Italian creek. Just have to see what the snow is like up there

Walt, if you lead the run you can pick That or maybe online/weasel can throw in their votes!

So far we got

coluke
Walt
Onlyone
Weasel

Let's get a trail picked and we can throw up an invite on JK and Jeep Forum as well.

It would make for a loong, but fulfilling day. Definitely get your trail runs fix.
Start at which end? Start early @ Aspen end and long drive home?
Chime in guys/gals. Too much?
If we did Taylor 1st, some could head out from there if they didn't want the fuull day.

If we go the taylor,italian route, for me ideally, I would like to drive over to Crested Butte Friday night and camp, not sure if I would be able to get away Friday or not, but would any one else be up for that?

Sorry guys and gals I'm out on this one going to Montana to work for a week, have fun be safe get y'all on the next trip.

If we do that I would prefer starting in Crested Butte and then end in Aspen. I think that would be best for most of us. Transfer trail look kinda cool too though. Lots of options up there. Pretty sure thing that it's passable too. I would hate to drive almost 4 hours to Crested butte just to find out we can't complete the trail.

What about half moon creek? Think it's passable?

Weasel wrote:Sorry guys and gals I'm out on this one going to Montana to work for a week, have fun be safe get y'all on the next trip.

Boo! Oh well, don't work to hard up there!

As far as where to start, I like the idea of going towards home, just incase you have problems... I do see one issue, if we start in Crested Butte and its not passable yet we still have to turn around and make that long drive... again    However it is a forest service road so we should be able to get some info prior.

Halfmoon creek is still and option and so is transfer trail. I would really prefer to do half-moon or the taylor pass option.

I'm leaning toward 1/2 moon creek. Don't know why. Lol. Just want a passable trail. Damn snow.

I'll call and check the status of the trails

I have a really good friend that will be joining us too. He will be in a stock TJ so we might take that into consideration. He is also fairly new to this like we all were.

http://www.bushducks.com/tripreps/passopen.htm#taylor

No info posted on bushducks for Taylor yet. But love this site. All phone number listed for trail areas.

I think you guys may be jumping the gun from what I'm seeing posted for many trails. I know the Grand Mesa club had posted they are canceling their flat top trip this weekend due to snow still heavy wherever they were headed.

IF.  And it's a big if.... Taylor is open I might make the trip with you guys. Might even take wifeys Grand for this one. I can promise u Pearl isn't open. It may not open this year at all.

BTW. the GMJC says Battlement Mesa is open. That's a fun trail close. I am sure it will be sloppy though.

Yup, Bushducks is a Great asset. Weird, I was on Flat Tops last Saturday with no problems.

Walt wrote:Yup, Bushducks is a Great asset. Weird, I was on Flat Tops last Saturday with no problems.

Well. Like I said. Idk where they were headed either. Did you run grizzly? How muddy was it?

I stayed on the west side. Little bit muddy but nothing bad. I know that Lead King was open to the summit, but not passable.

I saw we just do half-moon creek, I just pulled up snow depth information from NOAA and it doesn't look promising... it shows 30-40" of snow still for the Taylor pass area.

Walt,

Do you think it is possible to get from the Leadville area over to Basalt/Reudi through Hagerman pass? You were just exploring that area correct?? If we do Halfmoon, I might try to take Hagerman back to this side of the world, time permitting.

Lucas

Hagerman was one that actually crossed my mind but I wondered about it as well.

This was taken May 18th, they plow it, but they had the gate closed because it wasn't passable at the time. It said it would be open after they cleared it. Don't know who to call to check?

Called the Leadville Ranger office and they said Half Moon was open   

Hangerman Pass is closed. The Ranger said it was decided to just let it melt out instead of clearing it. They said probably mid-July