We returned this evening from 10 days in Silverton. Had a ball running trails and seeing the beautiful scenery.
The weather was great. 40's in the morning and 70's to 80's in the afternoon. It usually gets warm pretty quickly after sunup so a jacket is only necessary until about 9 AM.
Ran:
Engineer Pass
Cinnamon Pass
Arrastra Gulch
Maggie Gulch
California Gulch
Placer Gulch
Hurricane Pass
Picayne Gulch
Yankee Boy Basin
Clear Lake
Ophir Pass
Alta Lakes Trail
Red Mountain Mining
Cunningham Gulch and part of Stony Pass
and a few others.
Saw lots of Marmots from 10,000 feet and up. Chipmunks by the hundreds, and a few deer.
Watch the highways early and late. We had 3 deer run out in front of us Tuesday morning between 7 and 8 AM as we went from Silverton to Durango.
According to
http://www.soajeep.com/home.html the only trails still closed are Governor's Basin and Poughkeepsie Gulch. They might be open by the time you get there, check locally.
One caveat: Poughkeepsie is the hardest trail in the area. If anyone runs it be sure you have a winch. It may still be muddy. When we saw it it still had a lot of snow on it and was definitely closed and impassable.
Sorry we couldn't delay our trip to go with the group but other ccommitments in the next few days made us come back today (took us 3 days traveling to get back to East Texas).
Lots of snow still on the ground this year.
Go forth and have a great time!
Bill Tolle
04 Sahara
04 Liberty
If you love offroading and want the trails to stay open please join Blueribbon Coalition.
"Preserving our natural resources FOR the public instead of FROM the public"
http://sharetrails.org/