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Chocolate Thunder & Co. Colorado Jeep Excursion 2022

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Chocolate Thunder

Chocolate Thunder

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Jay and I made it to Red River New Mexico to do a little fishing. We hit the Goose Lake trail. 8.5 miles and about 4,000 feet up. Took an hour each way. Had to ford the Red River to get in and out. We should be back in Houston Sunday.

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Have fun Scott. We left early this morning and decided to act like we’re still young and drive straight through. We left a little after 7 this morning and we are somewhere past Lubbock still 8 hours from home. :(
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Very cool CT. Pics are great and glad you like my state. :) I’m heading to Ouray for the Jeep Jamboree on the 22nd. Your post got me wishing the days till my trip would speed up!
What trails will you run?
 

MattMc123

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What trails will you run?
Not sure yet. Still learning and definitely heard you on the pucker factor. I’ve souped up my sport with everything but lockers. If you had a few don’t miss have to do let me know.
 
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Not sure yet. Still learning and definitely heard you on the pucker factor. I’ve souped up my sport with everything but lockers. If you had a few don’t miss have to do let me know.
If you want an easy country drive with great scenery, Last Dollar Road is good. You really don’t even need to use 4WD if it’s dry. Poughkeepsie is fun and not that hard if you bypass The Wall. You need lockers, skill, and luck if you take that on. Ophir is pretty easy as well. The Ouray side of Imogene is easy, the Telluride side is more challenging.
 

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Not sure yet. Still learning and definitely heard you on the pucker factor. I’ve souped up my sport with everything but lockers. If you had a few don’t miss have to do let me know.
Tip for you for the JJ event... get there early or you will get whatever trails are left to run. And by early I mean at least an hour+ before registration. Poughkeepsie will have all of its spots filled up quickly as will any other more difficult rated trails. We attended in 2019 and there were over 100 Jeeps and everything good was gone in a flash.
 

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Tip for you for the JJ event... get there early or you will get whatever trails are left to run. And by early I mean at least an hour+ before registration. Poughkeepsie will have all of its spots filled up quickly as will any other more difficult rated trails. We attended in 2019 and there were over 100 Jeeps and everything good was gone in a flash.
Noted and thanks for the pro tip!
 
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Here’s video Jay took of us on The Steps. Nobody rolled over.



 
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Last day: Thursday 9/8/2922 - Friday 9/9/2922

We rolled out of Ouray south on 550 just after 07:00. Nobody wants to drive on the steep, narrow, twisty, mountain roads so I took the first leg. I ended up driving all the way to Albuquerque. It took about 6 hours with fuel and restroom breaks. While eating lunch it was decided to just drive straight through rather than stop for the night half way. We took a different, more direct route than on the way up. We took I-40 east out of ABQ, then US 84 at Santa Rosa, NM. US 84 from Clovis, NM to about Lubbock, TX absolutely reeks of cow manure. Heavily. It is unbearable and it’s almost constant for 3 hours. We pushed on through the night, stopping only for gas and restroom breaks. From US 84 we merged onto I-20 at Roscoe, TX, then turned off on TX 36 from Abilene, TX to Brenham, TX. We’re getting closer to home. In Brenham we take US 290 into Houston and Loop 610 around the city to I-10 East to Baytown. We rolled up to our house at 7 AM, just short of 24 hours on the road and a couple of minutes before the sunrise blinded us heading east on I-10. Huge thanks to Scott (@DaddyEngineer) for being a reliable trail buddy, spotter, and all around good dude, Jay and Reuben who I just met for being excellent companions and spotters, my wife Melissa for agreeing to this trip as our family vacation this year even though she hates wheeling, and my niece and nephew Taylor and Bernard for coming along.

Some trip stats:
  • 2598.7 total miles
  • 13,054’ of elevation gained
  • 16.4 mpg round trip
  • 11 trails run (including 5 Jeep Badge of Honor trails). I didn’t count Million Dollar Highway because it’s a paved US highway, but I should because it’s more treacherous than some of the trails. :LOL:
  • Dozens of small water crossings
  • Dozens of fellow Jeepers and off-roaders met
  • 0 black bears seen
  • 0 mechanical breakdowns
  • 0 winch/snatch/tow situations
  • 0 đź’© taken in the wild
  • Uncountable memories made
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Jay and I made it to Red River New Mexico to do a little fishing. We hit the Goose Lake trail. 8.5 miles and about 4,000 feet up. Took an hour each way. Had to ford the Red River to get in and out. We should be back in Houston Sunday.

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Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder & Co. Colorado Jeep Excursion 2022 image

When you said "ford" the river I was scared to scroll down.
 

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Here’s video Jay took of us on The Steps. Nobody rolled over.
The Steps had me puckered significantly, mostly because I'd watched so many vids of rollovers there (which do indeed mostly seem to be 4runners, lol). It's funny how lame it looks on video, which is NOT the case when you're getting tippy in the driver's seat. I was breathing heavy.

Though given how flexible a JL with a disco'd swaybar is, I'm pretty sure we could get away with almost any line that isn't intentionally stupid. That didn't make it any less scary though.

I thought the switchbacks weren't even 25% as scary as the steps. Though I was in a 2-door with no doors on- having the short wheelbase and being able to just look out and visualize the positioning of the front tires was very helpful. No spotting needed when you can see everything!
 

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The Steps had me puckered significantly, mostly because I'd watched so many vids of rollovers there (which do indeed mostly seem to be 4runners, lol). It's funny how lame it looks on video, which is NOT the case when you're getting tippy in the driver's seat. I was breathing heavy.

Though given how flexible a JL with a disco'd swaybar is, I'm pretty sure we could get away with almost any line that isn't intentionally stupid. That didn't make it any less scary though.

I thought the switchbacks weren't even 25% as scary as the steps. Though I was in a 2-door with no doors on- having the short wheelbase and being able to just look out and visualize the positioning of the front tires was very helpful. No spotting needed when you can see everything!
You’re right. We discussed how photos and videos don’t truly convey how steep it is and how off camber you can get on the steps. But in a well built Jeep it’s simply a matter of taking the right line and executing it.

Only the first 2 switchbacks are very tight, they get easier as you go. By the 3rd or 4th if you turn in correctly you done even need to do a 3 point turn.
 

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Something about the position of your Jeep reminds me of a cartoon drawing.
Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder & Co. Colorado Jeep Excursion 2022 207034EE-39CB-4B09-A4DB-244F2AC48F41
 
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An observation: regular unleaded gas currently costs a little less than $3/gallon here in the Houston area. In Ouray it was $4/gallon. In Telluride less than 10 miles away it was $5/gallon. Go figure…
 

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. . . realizing each day–
An observation: regular unleaded gas currently costs a little less than $3/gallon here in the Houston area. In Ouray it was $4/gallon. In Telluride less than 10 miles away it was $5/gallon. Go figure…
Only the 'pretty' fuel tankers are allowed in Telluride. I love the art galleries there but a cup of coffee is $6 bucks—
 

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Telluride. Even the food and beer tasted hippyish.


Ouray, I want to go back there just to have a Maggie’s patty melt 🤤


beautiful wheeling.


group of friends is headed to Hidden Falls in November if you want to joint CT
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