Illinois Gulch
After completing Missouri Gulch, we proceeded onto Illinois Gulch from the west end closest to Highway 67. We were all anxious to get to Moab Hill and to see how it would be in the wet, snowy conditions that we had been in all day. An added bonus for Bob was that this would mark his 100th unique trail with the group, and he was glad that he would reach this milestone on Moab Hill. Congratulations, Bob!
We drove to the base of Moab Hill and checked out the conditions. It seemed that the approach was a little more dug out than before but some rocks had been stacked at the base to improve the approach. Mike tried to climb the ledge first by offsetting his tires away from the stacked rocks but he didn't have enough of an approach angle with 33" tires, so his bumper just smacked the ledge. Once he got over the first big ledge, he was quickly onto the level spot before the next ledge. After one approach on this ledge that didn't work out, he got some good spotting instead and he popped over this final ledge and to the top. The others all followed, each taking a slightly different approach to climbing the ledges.
Ryan got pretty tippy on a line to the right side of the obstacle but made it though without any mishaps. Somehow, Jeffrey managed to high-center on the upper ledge and he needed a tug to get out of his predicament. We all remarked that it was a wheelbase issue, as he had an Unlimited Wrangler which often has an advantage over the shorter Wranglers on the Moab Hill ledges. Roger opted to not risk damage so he took an easier route. He had climbed the hill on a previous trip and he didn't see the need to tempt fate.
After completing the hill we all headed off to finish the trail. Jeffrey said his goodbyes as he needed to get back to Denver and a third row seat at the Avalanche versus Red Wings game. The rest of us went on to run Fern Creek and finish the day.
Reports from Other Days: 4
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Illinois Gulch. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
