Uraling Proposed Mountain Trails for the Next CZAR

A long day in the saddle this past Saturday, four URAL sidecar rigs and their drivers, plus two monkeys gathered, rode, reconned and enjoyed riding in the hilly trails in the San Isabel National Forest near Buena Vista, Colorado.

For those of you who don't know, the CZAR Rally is the annual gathering of sidecar rigs and riders here in Colorado: Colorado Zidecar Adventure Riders Rally.  It's mostly URAL sidecar rigs but all are welcome of course.

For the 2014 Rally, the plan is to do one day of offroad riding that will involve map navigation and the search for metal markers which will contain random alphanumerics.  The idea is for teams of two rigs, after being assigned random waypoints, must then go out and find said markers...using only assigned maps and their own navigation skills.  Once they find the marker, they record specific alphanumerics for points.  No GPS of course.  Details remain to be worked out over the coming year but that's the gist of it.

There will also be a geocaching event as well I believe.

The first phase of preparing for this hopefully challenging but fun course is to make sure the trails involved are 'doable' by our stalwart sidecar rigs.  We gathered on fire service roads to the east of the town of Buena Vista, Colorado and selected routes to check out.

 Sometimes we're confused, sometimes we actually get serious

photos courtesy of Tim L.

The terrain in the AO or Area of Operations consists of dirt and graveled covered Forest Service Roads.  The terrain is hilly, heavily forested, and all part of the San Isabel National Forest.  Darrell S and his lovely wife Piper were in their rig along with your truly on Valencia, forming one of two mapping teams.  Jay B. and his lovely wife Deana were in the third rig and with them was Tim L on his own rig, they were the other mapping team.

We split up, and test rode our assigned trails to ensure they're safe enough for URAL sidecar rigs and to pick out potential way points, noting their grid coordinates and taking pictures of possible landmarks to help folks find the markers.

Up and down steep hilly/rocky trails we went.  Our rigs clawing their way up gravel-strewn, on inclines reaching 20 degrees at times (probably not that steep but they sure felt like it while on them).  I vividly recall watching Darrell's rig descending in front of me, wheels locked by brakes, and the rig still sliding in the gravel down the slope.  Then there were the portions where the trail was cambered so badly one had to lean out onto the sidecar to keep the tub from coming up since it was now riding higher than the tug; here Darrell and Piper had a better time since he didn't have to lean sideways to keep the tub down as Piper was in the sidecar.

Only overheated Valencia's clutch once, this soon after stalling the engine due to water in the exhaust pipes while doing a small water crossing.  Ten minutes of letting the clutch cool and Valencia was once again roaring up the narrow rocky trails, bouncing and swaying past rock outcroppings and slewing into tight turns covered with loose deep sand and rocks.

 At the start of the route reconnaissance riding, the Collegiate Peaks

in the background.

 A brief stop near one of the proposed waypoints.

Video shot by Darrell S. of my attempt to cross the deeper of the two
water crossings.  Engine died before I got to the other end.  Valencia finally restarted and ran
once we pushed her out of the water enough for the mufflers to vent to air as opposed to water.

 Letting the rigs cool off a bit after another long uphill climb

 Only one more set of hills, it's not too bad, c'mon!

 The photo doesn't render the incline angle well.  There was a difference

of about 50 feet of elevation from where I stood, to where Darrell's Rig

was carefully rolling/sliding its way down this steep hill.

 One of the sandy portions one got to enjoy while riding about.

 Another view of the Collegiate Peaks as we approach Buena Vista

from the east.

Almost back on pavement, after over two hours of hard riding.

So, the proposed routes were mostly covered by us, they're doable by URALs but some care will have to be taken on some of the steeper portions.  We saw how susceptible our rigs are to stalling when the exhaust pipes are underwater for any length of time!  Here I was worrying about water going into the air intake, it's the lower lying exhaust pipes that are the issue apparently.  Another theory is the temperature differential shock causing the engine to quit when the hot engine hits the "cold" water.

 At the shallower of the two water crossings of the day.....

photos courtesy of Jay and Deana

We rode into Buena Vista and spent a couple of enjoyable hours eating a late lunch and discussing the trails we just rode, exchanging experiences such as my stalling the rig in a river crossing, clutches getting overheated by all, the steep inclines and loose traction conditions, the heat of the day and how it was all really great fun.

A late lunch at the Eddyline Brewpub in Buena Vista

photos courtesy of Jay and Deana

 Racing the rain clouds homewards....no significant rain was experienced.

photos courtesy of Jay and Deana