Apex/Central City trip = my backyard

Smash81

Smash81

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Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
526
Location
NW Denver, CO, USA
Georgetown, Apex and Central City, my new backyard!

Well, the snow is starting to melt so it's time to start exploring my new backyard! I'm quite familiar with the trails outside Loveland and Fort Collins, but the Denver area is still pretty much a mystery. First we headed up to Georgetown, still too much snow but we got to do a little bit. Then Apex, which was a bit too high, too much snow to get anywhere off the "main" road. Nice views tho. Then we went back over to where the cemetery is near Central City and found a great area of trails! It was huge, I don't think we even scratched the surface, but time motivated us to return home. I'm hoping to have money soon to purchase maps for my Garmin Etrex, as one could get lost very easily up there. We ran into dirt bikers, ATVers, a few RZR 800's (those are pretty cool) and a bunch of 4x4s including a beautiful lifted Titan (who knew those could actually look good??) and a sweet highly modified Samurai. Must have passed or driven by atleast 20 other vehicles, most waved and grinned at me and the Foz, a few had looks of total confusion, and I believe a few thought I was on crack and should exit "their domain." :Banane28:

We had some rain Saturday, so we were able to locate some good puddles, a rare occurrence in Colorado. I have a lot more exploring to do up there, and the great thing is the start of the trail system is 45 minutes from my house! :woohoo:

I'll let the photos and video do the talking...

Georgetown:
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Apex:

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https://i236.photobucket.com/albums...al City May 3/IMG_1136.jpg?t=1241451631[/IMG]
 
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Snow blocked just about everything but the grated roads there, so we headed towards Central City. At first it was just rather boring, easy dirt roads with a few rocky bits, so.... I entertained myself and we got some poser shots:

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A few good views up here, but nothing like Apex:

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We didn't get many still shots and such of the more difficult trails up here, but there are a few videos. It was however the first time I really got to play in big puddles!! :woohoo:

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Videos:

Main road that runs thru apex:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZDRUKPYhZk"]YouTube - Main road thru Apex[/ame]

Central City area:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzOli1Aq6_o"]YouTube - Wheeling near Apex - Puddles![/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDey_e0icIM"]YouTube - Wheeling near Apex[/ame]

My car was mildly dirty til we hit this car wash:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYMlDCZ7x8I"]YouTube - Wheeling near Apex - car wash[/ame]
 
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All in all a fun day. Will absolutely be going up there again, this time leaving earlier and taking lunch so we can really play around for a full day. Oh, and hopefully taking my GPS. But more than $100 for the maps?!?! :mob:

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I wrote this...

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Then Karla had a better idea....


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[Please don't wash me]

Seemed appropriate:
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Will be up there again soon!
 
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Love the first pic with the puddle, it's a beauty mate. I can't wait to see the rest.

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Looking forward to seeing some more pics mate. First photo is great!
 
Awesome report!!!:cool: Sounds like we'll be seeing more of that area too.:ebiggrin: I did live in the Boulder area for a while and those pics sure do make me miss those mountains, some of the best in the world!!!
 
Being able to slosh around in the water and ALMOST getting stuck in some mud (I really didn't want to subject my out of town guest in the front passenger seat to helping me get unstuck) made me think of the wheeling you've probably got out there. Lots and lots of deep mud! We hardly get enough around here, and what rain we do get absorbs or evaporates quickly.

Did you offroad when you were living in Boulder? If so, any route suggestions?
 
Now that looks like a lot of fun!

Looks like you have a fair bit of wheel travel in that 3rd video. Were your anti-roll bars disconnected/removed for this adventure?
 
I've actually removed the front and rear sway bars on the foz. I do very little pavement driving in it, usually just if the weather is bad or if I have to have lots of gear/dogs with me. My pavement warrior currently is a 1994 honda ST 1100. Removing the sway bars along with the lift have been invaluable.

On another note, stopped next to a newish stock chevy silverado 1500 4x4 at a stoplight. Teenage male driver and passenger. Passenger rolls down his window, looks at the foz and says with a sneer on his face, "hey, did your subaru loose the road?" I roll up closer to his truck, look at the small spattering of mudd behind his stick goodyear street tires and reply, "yeah, and it did it better than your truck would have." "Oh," the passenger replies, "yeah," as he rolls up his window. The driver hammers on the gas when the red light turns. Dash and I calmly roll away, feeling rather smug. Hehehehe.
 
simxs said:
Now that looks like a lot of fun!

Looks like you have a fair bit of wheel travel in that 3rd video. Were your anti-roll bars disconnected/removed for this adventure?
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Here ya go, this was from a previous trip just tooling around and playing cause there was too much snow to go much of anywhere. Shows the Foz at about full flex:

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What a great report. :)
Those puddles that you went through are awsome.
The scenery in the pics is just brilliant.
It's great to see that you had your two best friends with you too. I bet they loved it also.

Just as a matter of interest, what types of dogs are they ? I know one is an Alaskan Malamute, but what is the other one ?

Thanks for sharing, there's nothing better than seeing a great trip report. :biggrin:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Love the teepee - would liek more of a report on that too. What brilliant country. Don't ya just love seeing all these fantastic places from all around the world? We are so lucky!
 
Smash81 said:
Being able to slosh around in the water and ALMOST getting stuck in some mud (I really didn't want to subject my out of town guest in the front passenger seat to helping me get unstuck) made me think of the wheeling you've probably got out there. Lots and lots of deep mud! We hardly get enough around here, and what rain we do get absorbs or evaporates quickly.

Did you offroad when you were living in Boulder? If so, any route suggestions?
Click to expand...

The wheelin' around here is really more rocky than muddy, now if you get down into the foothills and flat lands then it gets a lot muddier. The mountains here are really cool. Someone once described them to me as being very 'old', and if you came here you'd see what I mean especially coming from CO and in my case CA and CO. At one time OUR mountains were as big as YOUR mountains.:raspberry:

I only lived in Boulder for a year (8/91-8/92) and, sadly, due to a series of unfortunate events, didn't have any sort of vehicle besides my bicycles. So no, no route suggestions. I know there is stuff up there, just couldn't tell you where to go.
 
Dogs are both rescues, adopted both of them as adults at different times. One's a husky/malamute mix the other is a lab/rhodisian ridgeback(?) mix maybe. That's high praise mr turbo, thanks!

Not sure about the teepee, its the first time I've seen it. Unfortunately it was practically empty and definitely unoccupied, otherwise I wouldn't asked for more info. I probably won't go up near the teepee for another month to give the snow time to melt, but I'll keep an eye out for it!
 
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