Been up to my ears in various stuff but here is the rundown on our Holy Cross trip!

Scott and I met Fred and his gang and headed up the trail, albeit a bit late. We'd heard from Colorado4x4.org that the trail had gotten harder and they weren't kidding.

The new BFG MT's did fine on the rocks. Obstacles got progressively harder throughout the first part of the trail. As we neared the turnout Randy's classic Bronco ran into fuel problems so we parked there to troubleshoot.

Finally on our way again, we tackled the last few tough spots before the major rock climb on the way to French Creek. Holy toledo. I was able to get up that last time with a little spotting. This time all of us had a really, really hard time getting up it.

Randy had to try several lines to get up but his wheelbase being shorter made it easier to maneuver. Fred had a bit more trouble and got hung up on his frame on one line.

Some stacked rocks made the difference and he was able to ascend. We had to strap up the Grand Cherokee (Tim, right?) that was having front locker problems. The TJ was able to get up without any problem (sorry I can't remember names)

Scott was up next and had to try a couple of lines. We ended up strapping him and just as we got close, he got hung up and then we started seeing steam coming out of the front of the truck and coolant dripping. Uh oh!



We had to back him down and drive him to a flat spot to deal with the radiator damage. I decided to forego the obstacle entirely. No sense in breaking my junk when we might need it to get home! We were able to pinch the radiator tubes that were affected and stop the leak, so Scott and I turned around and headed home a bit early. Fred and crew were able to make it up to (but not over) Cleveland Rock after we left.

We'd run into Ray earlier on the trail. Same thing had happened to him: damaged radiator. He also had a broke tcase. So Holy Cross claimed its victims, but it was still a heck of a fun trail and maybe next time we'll figure out how to get farther along.