Red Cone
It was going to be another hot day in Denver, and Red Cone was definitely a good place to escape from the heat. We planned on doing Red Cone, then Radical Hill, then coming back around to do S.O.B. Hill.
While waiting at the meeting spot for everyone to show up, a fair amount of antifreeze started pouring out from under Gary's Jeep. It turned out to be the start of a day of bad luck for Gary, but we didn't recognize it at the time. Gary told us that he had overheated on the way to Battlement Mesa the weekend before, and it looked like he was still having issues.
Once aired down we drove further down the road looking for the Red Cone trailhead. We found it and started up with great anticipation.
Part of the way up the trail, another group of wheelers caught up with us. We asked if they wanted to go ahead of us. They declined, stating that they, like us, are in no hurry to get back to the Denver heat. We ran into a three motorcycles coming down from the other direction. After pulling over to let them by we continued on.
We finally arrived at the first and only obstacle on the trail -- a couple of large rocks positioned to make things rather difficult. Dave attacked it first, and after a couple of attempts he gets pointed in the wrong direction. He backed up and instead went off to the side of the big rocks.
The next few people, after watching Dave not make it, decided to go over the smaller rocks on the same side where Dave ended up. Bob, however, must have been far enough behind to not have seen Dave, and tried to climb right up the middle. He, too, couldn't quite make it. He ended up driving up the same side as everyone else.
Gary came up last and also decided to try climbing up the middle. He had to drive up over the side, too. The group behind us had a Toyota Land Cruiser with what looked like 37" tires. He was also unable to climb up the middle, and that gave the rest of us a little comfort.
After the obstacle, we all climbed back in and continued on to the top, where the views and descent that everyone was anticipating awaited us. Along the way, however, we were confronted with another group of motorcycles coming down. Again, we pulled over and waited for them to pass us by, only to find ourselves waiting for a group of ATVs following behind the motorcycles. It seemed like we were not the only ones escaping the heat of Denver.
Finally, we could see our goal in sight. It looked like a group ahead of us was also enjoying the views, so we had to slow down a little until they vacated the rather small summit. Once we got up to the top, we were not disappointed. The views were absolutely gorgeous. After quite a few pictures were taken, we looked back and found that a group back down the hill was waiting for us to evacuate the summit. We headed on to make our steep descent.
Dave was the first one down the hill. He called back over the CB to say that he was down safely and that the next person could follow.
Bruce came next, and once down he said that the descent wasn't as bad as he had imagined it would be. But then he looked back to the hill and told us in surprise that if had he just driven up and saw the hill from the bottom first he wouldn't have attempted it. The view from the bottom really does it justice.
Everyone else came down with the same opinion as Bruce. With the exception of Ladd, everyone's descent was quick and uneventful. Ladd decided to go as slow as he could, taking his time. Gary remarked that he was going so slowly that maybe he stopped to change a flat tire.
Finally everyone was down and hungry. So off we headed to find a good spot to have lunch, right where we usually stop. Then we were off to do Radical Hill.
Reports from Other Days: 9
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