Flygtenstein

Because no one would wheel with me this weekend, I headed north to Medano Pass because it looked like a good trail in my trail book and was located in an area that would have enough traffic that if I got in big trouble, I would not be alone.

Well's lists it at moderate, but I would say it is pretty much a fun sightseeing type trail to take your friends on for a good first wheeling trip.

The pass is unexciting, mostly trees, but the hike to the Medano Pass lake is wonderful, gaining somethind like 4k feet of elevation over 4 miles.

After the pass, the trail starts losing elevation and picking up traffic from the Great Sand Dunes which sit at the end of the trail. In total, there are something like 9 creek crossings, several of which were more than hub deep for me..

Eventually the trail gets into the the Dunes and becomes really sandy. The Dunes are quite a site if you have never seen them before. For a couple miles, there is just a mildly sandy, curvy trail. Then it gets really sandy and there is a sign commanding 15-20 pounds of pressure. That is when the sand running gets really fun, but there also get to be a bunch of people.

Conclusion: It was a fun trail to do alone because there was no chance for breakage and minimal chance for stuckage. The scenery was beautiful and the side hikes were awesome. Not a technical trail, but still fun

Darren

Gosh dang it! I got back from my camping trip early and I would've done this with you had I known of your intentions. I've really been wanting to do that one too (never been). Glad you had a good time.

So what PSI did you go down to, or did you air down?

jx94148

Tell this fool there is minimum chance of stuckage!

Pic of me and a stuck F-350 on Medano



It used to be a 6 of 10 trail. I've heard that they tried to make it easier over the past few years. Its more like 4 of 10 now.

Flygtenstein

Sorry about that Darren.

The actual pass has some rocks and I dropped to 20 just so if things got bad I had some more room to air down. Once you get down to the Monument, things are pretty cake. I got passed by CRV's, Subaru's and similar.

In the deep sand I dropped to 12 and it was wonderful. I have very little power, so I really need the floatation. I think I may have been the only one who aired down for the deep stuff, but it let me stay slow rather than fearing every time I slowed down I would get stuck.

There looked to be a heck of a party forming in the primitive sites outside the monument. I counted 4 barrels from the trail alone, not to mention the guy in a Tundra who had one tapped for transport.

Matt, I remember seeing that pick and I can see in my minds eye where that was. There were a lot of full sizers on the trail, and none of them were aired down. Those big pigs are not sand machines, especially at street pressure.

My trail book said there was air after the air down area, don't even bother. The compressor would hardly blow up an air mattress.

Sorry that I don't have cool pics like people usually do for trails reports, but I am digi-cam-less.

Darren

I got your back, brother!

I finally got around to adding that last week. That trip was the day and day after we departed Red River.

Flygtenstein

Sweet pics!

Thanks for covering for me with my lack of camera.

I am not sure if it is because you have experience as a photographer or because you go to cool places, but some of those pics are just awesome!

Darren

I'd like to think it's a little of both!

Thanks!