July 2003 - Sidewinder

Avalanche Ranch, Colorado

Trail Rating - 2 Diamonds 

Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal, Mike Lewis

Day 2 - Alien/ Aliens

Day 2 - Enigma Night Run

Day 3 - Navajo Lake

Day 3 - Whippersnapper Night Run

About half of the BTG crew packed up and headed out on Thursday for a 4 day 4th of July wheeling vacation, our destination was the Avalanche Ranch located near Ignacio, Colorado. Mapquest was not a big help as far as directions.  You can save some time by taking the Farmington truck bypass and heading east on 64 to the 511 which will take you by Navajo Lake and on into Ignacio. We left Phoenix at 7:30am and arrived just after sundown (there were a few navigational errors). Upon arriving at the ranch our group registered, for the 3 days of camping and wheeling the bill was about $50 per vehicle, not bad at all. Steve and Jen (the owners) were very nice even though we interrupted their dinner, they went over the maps to the facility, answered questions and made us feel right at home. 

With a map of the trails in hand we drove over to the campsite, setup camp and then headed out for a night run at around 9pm. We figured we'd start with a 2 diamond trail (3 is toughest), so we picked Sidewinder. We were pretty much blown away by the trail. It's hard to describe but for the most part the trail is roped off and snakes up and down the hills. And I mean you'll be heading down after a tight 180 degree turn and your buddy can be next to you, separated only by a thin row of trees. And the trees, we don't have them in Phoenix, so they were pretty much wreaking havoc upon our group.  It was a completely new type of wheeling to us and we loved it.  Also, in case your wondering how these trails compare to our Arizona trails, I would easily rate the double diamond trails 4.5-5's.  There was always the potential for rolls and body damage, not to mention mechanical failure.  Go prepared and bring spare parts is the best piece of advice I can give if you go :)

We ran trail after trail over the next two days (mostly night runs) and were constantly uttering stuff like "wow" and "whoa" at the obstacles, the rocks were huge! You guys with 40+ tires would feel right at home if you can fit between the trees (some spots are tight). As if the rock crawling wasn't hard enough, toss in some inclines and throw some sand on the rocks, that's the recipe for liberal throttle usage in spots. Carnage ensued, drive shafts were broken, hubs torn off, beads separated, cages were dented and rigs rolled (some repeatedly). We'll be back for more. I'd definitely give the Avalanche Ranch a big thumbs up, they have a great set of trails that will challenge the hardcore 4 wheeler. As a bonus, Navajo Lake is a short drive away. We took the rigs down there on Saturday and played on the rocks which amazingly had better traction than anything in Moab IMO. We were climbing verticals like you wouldn't believe plus it's always fun having spectators. When we got hot we'd take a dip. The icing on the cake was when Steve let me drive his Sniper, but I am getting ahead of myself.  Here's some pictures from the first trail we ran Thursday night.

(Click for larger images)

Steve recommends 36" tire minimum to run the double diamond trails and I would almost say bigger.  Some of the obstacles were pretty tough even with our groups 37 and 38" tires.  Ground clearance and articulation helped a lot but all of us received some sort of body damage or cage rubbing along the way.

Check out the break over on this obstacle!  I got hung up on my frame rails but with a small push from the guys I was up and over.  Jack was up next and found a way to gas it at the last minute to kind of launch yourself over. 

Lots of solid ledges to climb, this one was at the bottom of one of the switchbacks. 

Keep in mind that while navigating these rocks you were always either heading uphill or down (the camera doesn't show this).

Towards the top of one of the switchbacks.  I took a line to the left and ended up rolling onto my side pretty hard, enough to dent the cage pretty good.  Due to my position on the hill I was able to turn the tires, and back up which righted my rig without assistance.

Hmm, tilted camera, nope.  Mark rolled over pretty hard on one of the last obstacles.  The rock you have to climb is roughly 4 feet tall and we had to get one tire up at a time, a head on attempt just resulted in our bumpers hitting the rock before our tires.

Thru the use of a snatch block and tree saver we were able to winch Marks rig back over using his own winch.

This is the same ledge Mark rolled on.

Next Trail - Alien/Aliens