Patrol 2 Run Report
Bunce School Trail
Saturday, February 13, 2010
 
It was a boy’s day out. Five serious snow busting Jeepers arrived this morning in Lyons, CO, looking forward to a good breakfast at Wild Bill’s Restaurant. Sadly, Wild Bill’s is no more. They are in the process of converting this Lyons landmark into a Mexican restaurant.   Opening on February 16th, breakfast will be part of their daily service.  OK, but on this day, we still needed to eat breakfast.
 
So, Plan B meant going right next door to Andrea’s Café. It’s been a while since we ate there and now I remember why. The food is very good, but quite pricy. Unfortunately, paying for the food is always a royal pain in the a*s and the hostess seems determined to make it the customers fault for such difficulty. John Clark summed it up best when he reported; “ I’ve never had such a problem paying for a $10.00 breakfast.” Well said.
 
Fun Jeeping makes for good friends. At 9:10 AM sharp, Vic Padilla, Galen Burkhardt, John Clark, Pat Underwood and your humble correspondent left from Lyons for Bunce School Trail. Traveling west up middle St. Vrain Canyon on Highway 7, traffic was sparse, the temperature was hovering around 30 degrees and the skies were partly cloudy. It was gonna be a good day for Jeeping.
 
Staying on Highway 7 about fifteen miles west of Lyons and shortly after passing Highway 72, Vic pretended to lead us to the trail and in doing so, maintained a long established Patrol 2 pattern of missing Bunce School the first time around. Once again, we turned left just short of the actual trail. Fortunately, the light traffic on Highway 7 allowed us to quickly recover and before anyone knew otherwise, we were parked in front of the historic Bunce School, airing down while remaining somewhat perplexed by the apparent lack of snow. We were at app.  8,200’ in elevation and concerning new snow, there was nothing other than a slight dusting.
 
Bunce School Trail is a 3 difficulty run. On this day, the first mile and a half of it was mostly dirt with patches of snow pack. Happily, as we continued to climb onward in elevation, the dirt began to disappear and the road became increasingly snow packed with an expanding covering of fresh snow. At first a trace, then an inch deep and then two, by the time we were two and a half miles in, we had to make sure we kept up speed and RPM’s on ascents.
 
Patrol 2 ran this same run in early March 2009. At that time, the snow was a little deeper and the icy spots were more treacherous, causing us to turn us around on a particularly long ascent about three miles in. Today, all five vehicles made it through this area.
 
As we continued forward and upward, we began encountering snowdrifts, at first sporadic and easily gotten through but then more frequent and much deeper. Running and gunning, Vic and John busted through each of them as we approached 8,700’ in elevation. Sure, it took a few attempts and some strapping to get through some of the ever deepening snowdrifts, but that’s what we were here to do.
 
In case you don’t already know, Patrol 2 wheelers love to talk trash.  Vic and John did a fine job busting snow, but at a couple of places, they knew a well lifted YJ with 35” tires driven by a seasoned snow buster was the only way we’d keep moving forward. Their champion got through a significant drift at the 8,700’ elevation, but alas, time and ever deepening fresh snow caused us to turn around. At 8,700’, new snow was 6” deep on top of existing sugar snow.  With just 12 more hours of daylight, we’d have made it through.  Sadly, it was already 12:10 PM.
 
I got through the last big drift OK, but once past it, really struggled maneuvering my YJ back onto the trail. I was finally able to do so, but got stuck in the sugar snow outside the trail pack trying to turn it around. John Clark had attempted to come forward to assist, but got also got stuck in the process. Vic wisely stayed back on a harder packed section and walked forward to lend a hand, first helping John turn around and then working with me. Galen and Pat, staying further back, had set up a stove, preparing coffee for us once John, Vic and I returned, or so Galen said.
 
I put a winch on my YJ in July 2009. I was told I needed one. Actually, I didn’t need one until today. I’m so pleased I have one. Otherwise, I’d most likely still be trying to dig myself out while attempting to turn around on Bunce Trail Road.  I would never have thought a winch would be needed on 3 difficulty trail.
 
I was already shoveling mightily when Vic arrived. “Hey Jerry”; he said. “Let’s just put a strap on this tree.”  Vic asked me for my tree saver strap and took the strap and winch cable to the tree. Hooked up and ready to go, we worked for about two minutes, turning the YJ around to a place where we could repeatedly back up and pull forward, eventually getting us once again into the navigable wheel ruts on the trail. Having a winch saved hours of back breaking shoveling.
 
Now turned around and once again caught up with Galen and Pat, the five of us headed back towards Bunce School.  Pat had to pull Galen through one particularly tough snowdrift on the way back down, but having done so, the rest of the return was relatively uneventful, except for Vic’s encounter with a suicidal aspen sapling, which unexpectedly and without any prior warning jumped out and snagged his left front bumper. Vic quickly disentangled his YJ and moved on. We finally stopped along a rocky wind protected area to have lunch.
 
During lunch and having fully discussed and then capably solving much of the world’s problems, a time honored Patrol 2 occurrence and a phenomena only the men seem capable of accomplishing without ever achieving, we headed downward and took a side road from FR 105 onto FR 216.  
 
This trail was relatively easy, except for one short but moderately steep section that thwarted Galen and John. They tried it, got half way up it, and slid backwards down it faster than they went up it. The observant Pat, not having a YJ and then seeing all this, didn’t even attempt it.  Vic and I, in our 1993 and 1994 YJ’s, proceeded forward and easily handled this section of trail, both up and then back down it.   
 
Have I mentioned yet that Patrol 2 likes to talk trash?  
 
It was a truly great day of wheeling and a really fun boy’s day out. Hope to see you at Boston Bob’s for the February 14th Patrol meeting and on the trail real soon.  Patrol 2 is truly a MHJC happening place.
 
Jerry Kennedy
Patrol 2
303-918-1716 - cell