Greetings fellow 4-wheelers, here are the video captures from our recent trip through Independence Trail, near
Penrose, CO. Do not be fooled by thinking it looks easy, not the case, I'll try to explain each picture so you
have some idea of what it's showing...


The first thing that gets your attention is the approx 4 foot drop into the trail, however this was
quite easy, so easy it wasn't worth taking shots of. However, the next 15 feet or so are a different
story. After the inital drop, you continue dropping, but very off-camber, and to make matters worse
you have to turn right at the same time. These would look better in a video series but it gets really
big really quick. Trust me, this really does get your heart going, being the rock is about 1 foot out
of my window.




This next shot is after a few other tight places, we didn't get it all on video so these pictures are atleast
150 yards past the last one, did I mention this is a VERY short trail. The obstacle I actually hit was where you
have to climb inbetween a large rock outcropping and another rock next to a tree. I made it fine but I turned
left a bit to soon going through it, I didn't hit the body right then, but turning caused me to slip off a rock
which hit the body, oh well, scratched the door a bit and tried to rip the fender-flare off, but the flare won,
I bought Spector's Urathane flare, extrememly tough and they showed it here.



This is a good shot of the "trail" leading to the A-Hole as it is referred to. I guess it was a stream bed or
such, no idea but it's tough and notice how there really isn't any trail, and nothing flat either.



These next pictures show what you probably shouldn't do, however even as out of shape as I got I was still beat
by the guy a few vehicles behind me, I have pictures of that too. Basically this is a huge hole which you have
to somehow climb through, it requires basically 90 degree approach angles, atleast on your left front tire, and
depending on which line you take you may either lean alot like me, or scrape something, or both, I never hit
anywhere going through here, but it makes you squirm, being that the rock is about 1 foot out of my window,
seems to be a pattern of rocks coming close...




We had to stop here for a few minutes while I put the front driveshaft back together, when I came down from
my tire climb, I guess it torqued the springs enough to pop the spline out, no biggie, about 5 mintues
or less, and a few nice people helping, actually the trail was full of nice people. I can't say enough good
about the Colorado Rock Hoppers 4x4 club, they had atleast 3 members there, including the President, Bill Dixon, all great
people and very helpful. So I can't really take credit for my few good lines, they were right there telling me
how to NOT do what the vehicle was doing in front of me, thanks again guys...I got the driveshaft back together
and climbed right out. It is amazing any vehicle can climb through that, it's just plain huge, but no time to
reflect, we have more obstacles...




Keep going to Page 2



Page created by Mark Brodis