Carson-Santa Fe BDT In October

[Gary Lewis]

First off, let me introduce myself. I may not be doing it in the right place, and for that I apologize profusely. I run a forum for the 1980-86 Ford "Bullnose" trucks and can certainly understand the frustration y'all must feel if I'm posting in the wrong place. But when I tried to post in the New Members Introduction thread I couldn't log in. But I am logged in here.

As you can hopefully see in my signature, I've built a pretty capable vehicle and plan to use it. My brother and I took it to Ouray last September and ran all the Jeep trails in it with ease. So now my son and I are considering doing the Carson-Santa Fe BDT this October and I'm looking for input.

This route appears to be quite easy after the Ouray trip, but it might be about right for starting out overlanding. We don't need a terribly technical route as my son will be learning to drive the truck during the trip. So, do I understand the route fairly well? Might there be other routes in that area we should consider?

Also, there's a question about timing. We can't go until about the 8th of October, at the earliest, but I'm wondering about snow that late in the season. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[OTG Ben]

If you did trails like Poughkeepsie Gulch in the Ouray Area, this route will be a cakewalk for you. From what I recall there are a couple of rock gardens, but nothing that should give your rig any sort of trouble at all. Most of it is tame forest service roads and you should be able to cover a good amount of trail each day.

 

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, Ben. We did Poughkeepsie Gulch, but not The Wall as we took the bypass. It was late in the day and no one else was there, so...

Would you say we can do the whole of this route in 2 1/2 days? It looks like we'll get on the trail around 1:00 PM, so maybe two nights?

Also, I didn't get an email notification of your post. But I'm set up, I think, to receive them.

 

[OTG Ben]

Everyone moves at their own pace, so it's difficult to say without knowing how you travel the backcountry. Is it possible, sure, but you won't get much chance to get out of the vehicle and explore the POIs and discovery points along the way.

 

[Gary Lewis]

Good point. I'm thinking we'll go at whatever pace we want and then take off on one of the blacktop highways when we run out of time.

Still didn't get notified of your post.

 

[OTG Ben]

@AdvEddie

I think you just ran this trail. Any thoughts on time spent on the trail?

 

[Gary Lewis]

@AdvEddie

I think you just ran this trail. Any thoughts on time spent on the trail?

Thanks, Ben.

I'm still exploring why I'm not getting email notifications and have ticked a couple more boxes so hopefully I will now.

And in doing so I saw the notice "You recently requested to change your username to Gary Lewis and this is currently awaiting approval by a moderator." Any chance you could work that? (Trust me, I understand the issues with running a forum as mine has lots of members worldwide, so if you can't get to it I understand.)

 

[OTG Ben]

Thanks, Ben.

I'm still exploring why I'm not getting email notifications and have ticked a couple more boxes so hopefully I will now.

And in doing so I saw the notice "You recently requested to change your username to Gary Lewis and this is currently awaiting approval by a moderator." Any chance you could work that? (Trust me, I understand the issues with running a forum as mine has lots of members worldwide, so if you can't get to it I understand.)

Done!

 

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks! But I'm still not getting email notifications. I just happened to check here and saw your post.

 

[Gary Lewis]

Well, is it now October? Our trip didn't happen last autumn as my wife and I came down with COVID while on a cruise in September. Then winter hit and we'd planned to go overlanding in Arkansas but our son, who was to go with me on the trip, became ill.

So here 'tis April and we are going on the Carson-Santa Fe BDT in 3 weeks! Just checking back in to see if anyone has any new info.

 

[velo47]

There's still a fair amount of snow in Chama, so the northern part of this route may still be impassable in 3 weeks.