Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

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markoboston
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Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by markoboston »

Hi Folks. I'm planning a week of solo hiking in the San Juans. In response to a separate post, someone told me to expect a lot of OHV traffic. No offense, but I don't want a lot of OHV traffic. It's okay with me if people want to use OHVs. I'm just hoping I can get advice on where they tend to go, so that I can avoid them in my search for peace and solitude. I have a National Geographic modified topo map. I see that there are "motorized trails". Do the OHVs stick to those and the 4WD roads, or do I need to worry about them on hiking trails, too? If so, are there trails where I'm not likely to see (or more importantly, hear) them? Thanks in advance.
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by Ptglhs »

Motorized vehicles are not allowed in Wilderness areas so I would stick to those Trails for backpacking if you're able to do so.
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Conor
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by Conor »

The san juans are huge. A lot of people enjoy our lands differently, but you really have to try to get annoyed with a single group. Lots of ways to avoid ohv. Avoid the "major" towns - Durango, silverton, ouray, lake city and look at a map like caltopo or fstopo. The roads are pretty clearly marked. Sticking to colorsdo trail and/or cdt will provide the lack of ohv you seek. If you provide more details of where you are looking and what you want, I'm sure lots of advice/opinions will follow.
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Bombay2Boulder
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by Bombay2Boulder »

What part of the San Juans were you planning on being? If you give the specific area people will have some good suggestions here.
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by tmud »

avoid roads and you should be fine
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by ltlFish99 »

In the 3 times I've been to the lake city area recently, there were a lot of them each time.
While chatting with a few peeps at the grizzly gulch trailhead, they mentioned that a large group of them were touring the alpine loop. This was also true at other areas by lake city.
When I camped at places that were not near the alpine loop, there was none, or very little ohv activity.
I do not know where you are going, but I have heard, or read about the ruby lake basin being a wonderful place to spend some time.
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by nunns »

Stay out of Lake City if you want to avoid OHV's. It's a very nice little town though.

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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by Chicago Transplant »

I second the recommendation for Wilderness areas if you want to avoid OHVs, as they are not allowed on those trails. The biggest areas of OHV use are the Alpine Loop (Cinnamon-Engineer and its numerous tributary roads) and Imogene/Yankee Boy Basin. If you avoid those and stick to hiking/mountain biking only trails you are generally good too.

Also starting early, I don't run into many OHVs in the San Juans except in the afternoon on my way back down, they usually are not out before 9/10 am.
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Bccrhp
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by Bccrhp »

When we hiked from American Basin to Grizzly Gulch as part of Handies loop a few weeks ago, probably 40-50 OHVs raced past us. That whole area is packed with them. But as others have said, Uncompaghre/Wetterhorn feels like an entirely different planet.
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two lunches
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by two lunches »

my experience: if the trail you're looking at is open to motorized traffic, you will encounter motorized traffic- primarily in the san juans, but often times on the front range, as well.
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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by cottonmountaineering »

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Re: Avoiding OHVs in the San Juans

Post by rideWP »

Stay away from the Alpine Loop and the other high passes and you should be fine. The San Juan's are unique that you can access them with OHV's, I think it's great as a RZR owner myself.
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