Colorado Black Bear Pass 9/9/2019

rasband

rasband

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A buddy from out of state and I are going to be touring the San Juans for a few days in September and will be checking Black Bear off our bucket lists. We'd love to have anyone interested in joining us for the run (and follow ups if interested). He runs a 3rd gen 4Runner.

The plan, hopefully avoiding traffic:

* Sunrise drive up the trailhead (up Red Mountain Pass), enjoy some part of the sunrise near the top.
* Take Black Bear down into Telluride

We will probably hang out there a bit before taking Imogene back out to Ouray and some offshoots as time allows.
 
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I really want to do this trail someday. I will be up in the Telluride/Ouray area for my honeymoon, but not until the end of the month. We are planning to at least do Imogene if the weather allows.
 
nk24 said:
I really want to do this trail someday. I will be up in the Telluride/Ouray area for my honeymoon, but not until the end of the month. We are planning to at least do Imogene if the weather allows.
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Congratulations! I hope weather holds out for you - it should be a beautiful year up there.
 
rasband, have you done Black Bear before? There was a roll over on Black Bear yesterday and closed the trail for the day. So pay attention while driving to the road Not the view..
 
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oldjeepman said:
rasband, have you done Black Bear before? There was a roll over on Black Bear yesterday and closed the trail for the day. So pay attention while driving to the road Not the view..
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I haven't, part of why we were interested in company (especially anyone experienced). Looking at most rollovers it does seem to be due to looking at the view and choosing bad lines (typically being unaware of their vehicle's width and accidentally walking up the slope)
 
Where would you plan on meeting, or what route are you taking from denver?

I'm in Vail area and could meet yall. Let me look at my work calender today for the 9th and 10th of september.
 
The rollover yesterday looks hard to explain from the photo. Looks like he rolled before entering the switchback. Lucky the driver was not seriously injured. Those switchbacks are very tight and will require some backing. A trip riding with a BBear experienced driver would be very beneficial. Many of the jeep roads I have been on this year have extra erosion following a huge winter snowpack. I do agree sight seeing is the number 1 cause of 4 wheel rollovers but don’t think that was the cause on this one. Here is an attempt at a link.
https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Driver-ends-up-upside-down--557804681.html
 
The guy I am going with found this YT video


And asked if the cameraman knew what happened. Sounds like a combination of speed and tire placement. They got their passenger up on the wall, where going too fast, and when the step on the left went out - the rig flipped.
 
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The snow on the sides is a bit troubling though, that gets into the tires and it's not going to be a good time.
 
If the guy climbed the wall, then he wasn't paying attention to where the road was going. The only thing you need to do on Black Bear is go slow and keep the wheels on the trail. There really is nothing to climb.
 
rasband said:
The guy I am going with found this YT video


And asked if the cameraman knew what happened. Sounds like a combination of speed and tire placement. They got their passenger up on the wall, where going too fast, and when the step on the left went out - the rig flipped.
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I agree he got the passenger side up on the wall. Obviously not a good strategy. Having a spotter and reversing movement to make the cut is the safe way down those steps. Good that the vehicles behind could turn around. We were up at the pass yesterday and met a parade coming out.
 
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That road is not difficult for a decently equipped, relatively short WB 4x4. I really don't personally see any need for a spotter anywhere on that road. There are videos of full size pickups navigating Black Bear though I would expect that is not a ton of fun.

That said, I did it last year. However, with the massive snow they got last winter, it may be a little worse than it was last year.

That vehicle appears to be not very well suited for Black Bear to me. Probably had less than 4 wheels on the road before getting to this point. May not have been able to stop and turned into the high side to stop himself with near-catastrophic results.

I can't tell from the video but looks like it might also have been wet. The rock up there gets really slick when wet which could also have been a contributing factor.

That guy is super lucky it stopped where it did.
 
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That trails reputation had me nervous, but once I ran it, I was kinda disappointed. Scenery is off the scale, but the trail is very easy and nothing to worry about if you have any experience off road.
 
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Easy trail with expert consequences. Just pay attention to the road and nothing else. If you want to stare then stop to take it all in.
 
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MaloStapalo said:
Where would you plan on meeting, or what route are you taking from denver?

I'm in Vail area and could meet yall. Let me look at my work calender today for the 9th and 10th of september.
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We are meeting up in Lake City the 8th - I plan to head to the Sand Dunes (the 7th) first since I haven't been down there in ages. From our meetup at Lake City's Snowden Meadow (camping) we will be taking Engineers over to Ouray and probably playing around for the afternoon. We'll camp somewhere on the way to BBP and probably plan an early meetup at the base of BBP on 9/8.
 
rasband said:
We are meeting up in Lake City the 8th - I plan to head to the Sand Dunes (the 7th) first since I haven't been down there in ages. From our meetup at Lake City's Snowden Meadow (camping) we will be taking Engineers over to Ouray and probably playing around for the afternoon. We'll camp somewhere on the way to BBP and probably plan an early meetup at the base of BBP on 9/8.
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Just to clarify, you would be starting BBP at what end and rough time, and on september 8th or 9th?
 
I have to cancel this, my buddy isn’t confident in his rig for this yet so we may be doing easier trails in the area.
 
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