Independence Trail System
Near Penrose, Colorado

by Brad Lovell

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I mid 1999 the first leg of Independence Trail System was opened in coordination with the BLM. Since the opening of the first canyon, another longer canyon has been opened. The System now consists of the Independence Trail that enters the rocky canyons, the Freedom Trail that leaves the canyon before it gets really rough, the Patriot Trail that has been covered in previous articles, and the Liberty Trail that was recently opened. There is also hope that new canyons will be opened in the future.

The Independence Trail System is located near Penrose, Colorado less than an hour away from Colorado Springs. Turn from Highway 115 on 3^rd Street and follow the signs to the Brush Hollow Reservoir boat ramp. The trail starts about a mile past the reservoir. (First left after the cattle guard) A large steel sign with directions and warnings marks the staging area. Don’t take these warnings lightly, you will do body damage and at least one person in a group will probably have some type of mechanical failure. Basically if you don’t want to screw up, leave it at the trail head! The whole trail is extremely tight and there is little room to stop or let a vehicle pass.

We left Colorado Springs early New Years Day with plans to conquer the Liberty Trail over the next two days. The group consisted of three vehicles, my 1988 Ford Extra-Cab Ranger with Air Lockers and 33 x 12.50 Swampers, my brother’s (Roger Lovell) 1986 Ford Bronco II with all the old Bronco goodies and an EFI 302, and my cousin’s (Mark Hayward) 1976 CJ-5 with an AMC 360 and lockers.

About 20 feet after the Freedom Trail the road becomes barely recognizable. There’s a four foot vertical ledge, another off camber drop that pins you against a huge boulder on the left, then a steep boulder filled hill. All this in 50 feet! The Jeep went down relatively easy but my Ranger proved to be a little large. On the off camber drop my right rear rose about 2 feet off the ground while my left front was jammed in a hole. With no possibility of backing up, I had to walk the front end to the right with the power steering.

At this point I was getting pretty nervous and fidgety, I had just come down a section of trail that would be difficult to winch out of, and all the obstacles in front of me had to be climbed. We motored up the canyon only about a tenth of a mile before we hit the fork for the Liberty leg. We heard rumors that further ahead on Patriot a Toyota Land Cruiser had broken an axle-shaft, rolled on the side, and broke glass on a tree.

The Liberty Trail can only be described as a narrow jagged wash filled with ridiculously large boulders. It seemed that any reasonable line over the boulders would pin the body against a rock outcropping. This is territory for a CJ with huge tires or a Sami. Having previously crunched nearly every body panel on Patriot, I was able clear most of the rocks.

We made it to a sign marking ¾ mi. to the end of the trail at about 3 p.m. We left our trucks and walked over to Patriot to see how a group of Toyotas was doing. The Patriot trail was taking its toll. Another Land Cruiser had broken a front axle, crushed the top, and had pulled the whole front axle back while winching. The 4-Runner pictured below had popped beads on three tires, bent a drag link, smashed 3 running lights, broken a front axle, burned up a winch, and kinked the rear drive shaft. What terrible luck, if the axle had not broken most of the other damage could have been avoided. By this time it was getting dark and snowing heavily. We decided we could do no more for the group so we stumbled back to our trucks.

The blizzard had soaked almost everything in the trucks. We quickly set up a tent and crawled in our sleeping bags for a dinner of potato chips and pumpkin bread. (we saved the chilly for breakfast!) We emerged from the tent once the sun hit and were greeted by several inches of ice and snow inside our trucks. Concern started to grow over mud and snowy rocks.

Travel was slow up the canyon. The CJ-5 and Bronco II were able to maneuver through the tight rock but my wheel base proved to long. Several times I had to winch my truck to the side to miss a rock or tree. Around 2 p.m. we came upon another set of hardcore rocks. While climbing over the first pile of loose boulders Mark shattered a hub on his stock Dana 30 front end. We installed a spare hub without bothering to check the axle shaft. We realized that the original culprit was the u-joint after the snapping and popping continued with the new hub. The gravity of our situation was starting to set in; it was 5 p.m. on a Sunday, we had a lame Jeep, it was getting cold again, and we were within walking distance of the previous night’s camp.

We still had one of the best obstacles in front of us. First, a very difficult vee must be negotiated, then some ledges and boulders, and finally a steep climb out. Roger brought the Bronco II into the vee on the left side. A slight pause in forward momentum caused left rear to suddenly shoot up causing the right window to come within an inch of rock. Careful maneuvering prevented any damage.

With all three trucks out of the worst, we concentrated our efforts on getting the Jeep out with what light was left. The rest of the trail is mostly large loose boulders, ledges, and rock jetting out from the sides. We got the Jeep to the top of the final hill well after dark and started the long walk back for the Ranger and the Bronco II. The sounds of crunching sheet metal and shrieks from the undercarriage accompanied me up the trail. The last notable obstacle is a simply a large hole in the road. You can’t go straight trough, you can’t straddle it, and you can’t go around. I entered with intentions of straddling it. As I turned to exit, the weight transferred and I ended up resting on two tires and a wrinkled fender. All of us ended up taking the winch to get through.

Finally around 9 p.m. we found the trailhead and packed up for the ride home. The total damage was a broken axle shaft, hub, CB antenna, and minor body damage (In my case, big dents on top of older big dents).

Keep your eye out this summer for the Big Dogs 4x4 Adventures video covering the entire Independence Trail System as well as other hardcore trails.

Brad Lovell Lovell88@hotmail.com

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