COZU Report : Saturday August 12, 2006

Returned late last night from my first COZU experience, and thought others might be interested in the happenings...

In short - it was all good. There were 20+ people in total - some drivers, some passengers, some family, some four legged friends... I arrived at the KOA Friday evening, set up camp, and met most of the group upon their return from dinner. That evening we drank some, watched one of the most incredible lightning storms I've ever seen - then retreated to our tents for the night as the rain picked up.

The next morning we woke up to partly cloudy skies and the perfect temp. After rallying the group we headed off to Chinaman's (Gulch). Plenty of rain that night made for lots of soft earth and mud roads/holes to play in! On the way to Chinaman's (Gulch) I got a ring from pbkid (Jack) on the cellie cell. He was on highway 285, just behind us by a few miles wanting to catch up (reminiscent of Don Boss 'dongboss' this year in Moab!) After a small wait, we saw him blazin' his way through a wet/muddy road to meet up with myself and Locomigo where were waiting for him at the trailhead (Thanks again Keith for waiting!)

The trail was MUCH different than my experiences with the terrain in Moab. It provided lots of jagged rocks and large boulders consistently throughout the trail, and good handful of tight squeezes! There were roughly 4-5 really notable obstacles on the trail like "Whale's back" and "The Rock Garden"... All in all we saw the strap pulled out more than a few times, so you *know* it had to be good!!!

I only wish I could have shown up earlier in the event to participate in the trails from Thursday and Friday! I can't wait to go next year...

Until then, here's some pics from the outing:

Camp at the KOA in Buena Vista, CO.
http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/01.jpg

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http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/06.jpg

Mike Bantz tackling “The Rock Garden”
http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/07.jpg

http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/09.jpg

My approach to “Whales Back”
http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/08.jpg

http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/10.jpg

http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/12.jpg

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Crawlin’ up Whales Back
http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/14.jpg

http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/15.jpg

pbkid’s approach to Whales Back
http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/16.jpg

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Strapped: VX to VX!
http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/27.jpg

The view on the descent
http://www.bijulab.com/images/cozu/29.jpg

Oh - BTW!

I was in Buena Vista to air back up before the trip home. I'm airing up my tires when I look across the street in the Cyrano's (sp?) Restaurant parking lot - and what do I see? A PROTON!!

Just as I finished up the guy was getting into his ride. I quickly met up with him as he was leaving to say hi. He was from Boulder and didn't know about the forum, etc. I invited him to drop in and check it out...

Hope he does!

-biju...

Great pics B, looks like good fun!

Good to see young master Jack sportin' some new rims-n-rubber, also some bitchen facial fuzz. :cool:

Good job guys!

Looks like a great time Bij...but where are the pics of YOU on the rock garden?

haha yea thanks larry. i was actually kind of dissapointed with the performance of the new tires. they were way too slippery on everything. i was sliding all over the place. as you can see from where i started on the rock and how i ended up sideways. thanks for the great pics again biju. good seeing you again and it was fun as can be as always =).

oh yea just wanted to throw in my two cents-
-i wanted to thank all the other guys who helped organize the event, it went gerat and everyone had a really good time. fun trails, and i really like the area, very scenic but also very wet (which made for a good time of mudding)
-oh yea, biju also did his first little expedition in the mud with me on this trip which was nice to see the dragon with a little bit of trail marks (dirt) on it.
-im proud to announce my first real peice of damage from this trip...i bent the hell out of my exhaust. (almost time for a new one anyways)
-all in all a fun trip. wish there were more VX's there to help us represent but its alright hopefully more next year and in moab =D

You ain't been wheel'in if you ain't gots a D shaped tail pipe! ;Dy;
PB you need a lift to go with the tires. I'll bet them new tires were a lot less slippery than them ones you had in Moab! :rotate:

Jack - good to hang with you too... Funny how even after playing in the mud the Dragon still looked 'clean'... Bwahahahaha....

Dub - It was good, had lots of fun. I'm seeing if I can make it to your meet (I might just happen to be visiting family in SoDak during that time...!)

Billy - I was working on posting a picture of my VX going up The Rock Garden, but couldn't get it to look real enough in Photoshop! LOL...

-biju.

DAMN, wish I could have been there. It looks a LOT more fun than what I did this weekend (work). It was killin' me to know that you guys where just a couple of hours away, but I couldn't get to you.

The trails look like a blast, and a little mud run would have been good for the complexion.

Maybe we can go back for our Colorado Colors run this year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by biju

Dub - It was good, had lots of fun. I'm seeing if I can make it to your meet (I might just happen to be visiting family in SoDak during that time...!)-biju.

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That would positively ROCK if you could make the "International"!!!

More pics:
http://trailseeker.com/gallery/galle...g2_itemId=3922

CRAP! I could've gone to COZU and the white water rafting trip I had scheduled in CO at the same time!! But I had to miss BOTH of them to ready the Jeeps for a trip to Moab and Lake Powell with the Red Rock 4-wheelers! I don't suppose anyone else is going to the Labor Day event in Moab???? I will be doing the Hole in the Rock and Hotel Rock trails near Lake Powell. I'm not taking the VX, but I might post some pics anyway.

Nice pics biju! Wish I could'va been there!

Cool pics Loco. Who is the triathlete in the family ("random photos" from Longmont triahlon)?