Hackett Gulch 5/16/2010

[BigDaveZJ]

Ran down to Hackett for a quick shakedown run before GSW yesterday. The trail was closed back in 2002 after the Hayman Fire, but partially re-opened late last year. The trail used to be a very popular trail, and was considered one of the most difficult in the area. The last time I was on the trail was in 2001, and I rode along with Corey (JpRngr) and Cristi since my Jeep had no business being on the trail at the time.

For one reason or another, the trail is much easier now than it was. The trail has seen very little traffic for 8 years, and there have also been a LOT of flash floods, mudslides, and other erosion and sediment issues in the area.

More info on the fire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayman_Fire

Here's a satellite pic of the fire. The big square you see around the edges of the pic is the CO state boundary to give you an idea of how big this fire was. The smoke plume engulfed Denver for several days too.


This is one of the "obstacles" on the trail, it used to be a lot bigger and even has a winch point anchored in the rock in front of my front passenger tire.


This was kinda crazy, a very definitive line of where the fire stopped there.


A lot of the area is regrowing pretty well, and makes for some very interesting scenery.


End of the road. The road is no longer a Forest Service Road, and is now a County Road. Teller County decided to re-open their portion last summer, hopefully Park County follows suit and opens their portion when appropriate.


Some people have been going around the closure signs, this is NOT cool.

This road was closed before the fire (it is not the road seen in the distance to the left) and is fully marked about 100 yards down, but people were getting down there only to see the closure and creating a new route back to the main trail, so we dragged deadfall across the closed and user-created routes.


Before the fire, the trail continued west across the Platte River, and then north a bit, where you could cross back over the Platte and head back east on Longwater Gulch Rd, but with the closure the trail is now an in and out.

Coming back down the obstacle with the winch anchor.


Hackett Rock




Got to flex it up a little bit here

[black_zj]

Those pictures bring back some good memories, that trail used to be a lot of fun back in 99 and 00 when I had a 3in lift and 31's, I about cried during the fires and found out the trails were closed. Eagle Rock was another fun trail we used to run at least once a month, as well as some fun areas to play in below Baldy.