I stayed in the same camping site the last 2 days as where we'll be this coming week. I was there with some Colorado Isuzu wheeling buddies.
One significant change (to me at least) is that the campground owner said they no longer allow groups to have individuals pay the office directly. Apparently groups couldn't be trusted to enforce that everyone stopped by the office. They now require everyone in group sites to pay their group leader. Then the group leader pays the office for the total amount. With tax it'll be $5.50 per person per night that you'll need to
pay ME when you arrive. And I don't have a credit card reader. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Then I'll pay the office the total each day. So you can go straight to the camp sites T10, T11, and T12 starting Wednesday afternoon.
I didn't get to run Holy Cross, but I heard the stories from the Isuzu guys. The crossing at French's Creek is definitely more difficult now than in previous years. There's now flowing water right up to the base of the gnarly obstacle in
this pic. That pic is from last year. (The photographer was standing in the stream). The "easy" line to the left isn't easy anymore either. People who have a winch might actually get to use it there.
I'm not expecting to have enough time to go beyond the city. So we won't even see Cleveland Rock. The normal destination is the ghost town/Holy Cross City anyway. Typically only extreme vehicles go beyond there.
I did Chinaman's on Saturday. It's a bit more eroded this year than last. The notable thing about Chinaman's is that there's now private property blocking the trail junction at the far east end of the loop. The U.S.Forest Service has blocked the road for a 100 yard section and built a bypass trail for vehicles to go around the private property. The flags are still on the trees to show the new route. There are a couple difficult obstacles in that new section. I had to winch one guy up it and a few of us (including myself) took a strap. I tried a different line and got high-centered. One guy almost tipped over there. I'll try to post pics of the new obstacle as soon as some of my Isuzu friends post pics. My camera is presently broken.
On Sunday I quick ran all of the first half mile of Iron Chest. I got up the entire boulder field in 15 minutes. Then it took an hour to get down because 3 other vehicles were coming up and it's not easy to find passing places anywhere in there. I never had to engage the front locker on Iron Chest (but I did several times on Chinaman's, but that's partly due to a lot of optional obstacles).
