Cortez invited me up to a Men's retreat last week. It started on Thursday, but I could only go on Saturday and I am glad I did. It's located at the Lutheran Valley Ranch about a half hr North of Divide.

The weather was not supposed to cooperate, so I packed as if I were going snow bashing and headed out at 6am.

Saw some friends on the way up. A little blurry, but did what I could without stopping.


Once I arrived, I met Dave right away, and we attended a quick service talking about having a "Dogged Determination" to pursue your faith, your wife and your family. Excellent message.

After the service, I unloaded my bronco and got ready for the trail-ride. Once we got passengers squared away, we headed off to Longwater Gulch. I was excited for this as I had not done this trail since the fire.

First little spot that gave some folks a little trouble:



Cortez making the ascent:


Here is the "slab", but this time Cortez is descending as we head toward the river




My turn:




Trail leader Mike in his very capable CJ was the last to drop off:


Cortez at the end of the trail turning around to head back up:


It was shortly after this that he thought something was wrong as he just wasn't making the loose climbs as easily as he thought he should. So just below the slab, he pulled his hub apart to find it in good working condition. A little puzzled, he checked out the T-case to find that he didn't have it all the way into 4-low. It's a t-shift so he found that hard-to-find 2-low. My old T-shift would slip into 2-low without warning so you'll want to watch that.

Anyway, he made the slab without indecent and was amazed at how well his q-jet was working.





Get some!




We returned to camp for lunch. There was enough interest to go out again, so we setup a meeting place and began to assemble. We had a couple extra minutes so we stopped at the rifle range to shoot the infamous .50 cal rifle! Awesome! It was my first time shooting anything even close to that caliber and it was quite impressive. Got to keep the casing as a memento!

After we assembled, we headed out once again, this time towards Metberry.

We moved right along until the slab.






Diggin that new flex!




YJ:


Group shot at the River:


Cortez and myself representin' the broncos well!


Thanks again for the invite. Had a blast and enjoyed the fellowship!!

J.D.

Was that Metberry first that you did? Is Hackett still closed or is it open again?

Sorry, I just fixed a typo. First trail was Longwater and the second was Metberry.

Hackett is open, but like longwater, only to the park county line. It's the tamest of the three as I understand it, although I have not done it since before the fire.

J.D.

Great pics...thanks for sharing. I forgot my camera that day.

Sure...email davidfoth@comcast.net

I will get you copies from the other cameras when I can get them also.

Thanks,
Dave

I don't recall any cabins, but the loose gravel road is still there. Not so many moguls. The only descent obstacle on either trail is the slabs. We did metberry last year in my wife's LR3 if that tells ya anything. I am fairly confident it could do Longwater unscathed as well. Both are probably rated 3-4 out of 10.

The cabins were at the bottom, one right by the river and the other was close to where the trail comes off the mountain. There was also an old train bridge structure that crossed the river, it was just the upright timbers on both banks, but nothing in between them. Here is a link to the trail, and I marked where the moguls used to be, but looking at the satellite picture, even that doesn't look like they are there anymore. I forget where the rock was that you drive over.