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Participants: Dave "CRACKER" Pool, Jeremy Hayden, Brad Gosnall
The trip was planned after getting a call from Brad. He had read about the trail in 4 Wheel and Sport Utility. He was in Pueblo for the day and wanted information on the trail. He wanted to tackle Mad Dog, and wanted to know where it was. I suggested that he not try the trail alone, as it is difficult and it is far from help. After a few phone calls, I was able to get in touch with Jeremy for some additional help.
Location
The trail is located south-east of Canon City, Colorado. Taking 115 south, out of Canon City, or west out of Florence, until we reached the turn off for Rockvale. We headed south towards Rockvale for about .75 miles (top of the hill), until we reached Rural Rd 94. We went west on the dirt road until we past the second cattle guard, after this we took the first left we could onto a small dirt trail. The is the start of the fun. Mad Dog Hill is a short way down this narrow and over grown trail. People in the recent past have used this trail to dump their trash, it is not pretty, but we are working to get it cleaned up.
Taller and larger vehicles will scrape the trees and brush next to and over the trail. If you are worried about your paint job, then I would not recommend trying this trail. Brad was wondering about the trail at this point, but since he didn't care about his paint too much, he had no problems.
After a couple of miles and some little obstacles, we reached the start to Mad Dog! We Proceeded to Lock in our vehicles and air down the tires. Taking a walk through the trail showed just how much worse this trail is getting. Erosion and usage have taken there toll on the easier parts of the trail, and made the difficult ones even worse.
Here we have Brad sizing up the first obstacle in his Chevy truck, Brad
was running 36's with a big block, so he had little difficulty in the power dept.
Next up. Jeremy in his 75 Bronco w/ 33's. Making short work of the first
section of the hill.
This is a good look at the middle of the hill. One used to be able to
drive up the left side without difficulty, but erosion has left the rocks exposed and more
difficult.
CRACKER doing his impersonation of a rock spider taking the extreme right
side in my 67 Bronco. With own cheering section.
The middle section has a knack for getting one high centered, as I found
out. I did not cut it fast/hard enough to clear a huge rock in the middle of the trail and
caught my diff. on it.
It took Brad a few trims to climb the middle section, He was unable to use
our line and had to make his own, right up the middle of the trail! Jeremy did the best,
he made the middle section look like a drive in the park, no slips or hits.
The last section is a steep dirt hill with a rock ledge at the top. I slipped side ways a little going up. Since I was trail leader, I thought I would show the proper way to winch up this last section. After the winching lesson was over, Brad and Jeremy proceeded up the hill without a hitch. Guess they didn't like my winching seminar!? Coming down the other side, there is a narrow and very rocky section that will test your suspension and trail reading abilities.
Brad showing us how to go over boulders, instead of around them.
The chevy was just too big to negotiate the trail without a lot of backing
up and getting the proper line.
Jeremy doing the 3 wheel Bronco dance.
Coming back up the same spot, he had his placement off a little and lifted
his left tire about 5 feet into the air.
Brad followed the same line as Jeremy, with larger tires, he did not have
as much difficulty. I followed behind, and after watching everyone else, I chose a
slightly different route and did not have any problems. Too boring they said, kind of
reminds me of a fellow fourwheeler named LIZARD!!
After getting everyone up and down the trail, we stopped at the bottom an aired our tires back up and headed into Canon City for a little relaxation and some food for us. If anybody else is interested in Mad Dog Hill, other local trails or joining the Ridge Runners 4WDC, you can contact CRACKER at (719)948-2044 in Pueblo or E-mail him at JMHT17A@Prodigy.com.
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