Thunder mountain lodge

[OLD GOAT]

Amazing snow & thunder mountain lodge

6 of us stayed at the Thunder Mountain lodge on Grand Mesa and rode sat & sun. The new owner of the lodge, Mark, is truely a great guy and one of us. He went out of his way to may sure we were happy. Food was good, the bar was open & fireplace was blazing. Thank you Mark! The riding was amazing. They had 40" of snow in the 3 days before we got there and it snowed another 10-12" ovenight. We rode bottomless untracked powder all day long & never got more than 6 miles from the lodge. I bet we covered maybe 10% of the area if that much. As someone who boondocks Rabbit ears every weekend & does a yearly trip to togwotee, I was really impressed by the snow, terrain and riding areas. As Donavon said, it is not quite Togwotee yet, and that is a good thing. It is 1/2 as far away, is 1/4 has expensive and has 1/100 the number of people, PLUS it is owned and operated by some one who really loves & cares about our sport. It's like Togwotee was in the 1990's. We will be back. Hopefully I can get Billygoat to post some pic's

 

[black swan]

waiting for the sun to come out.........

light was flat, but snow was EPIC....my favorite from yesterday..

note: the faceshots galore!! cam is mounted to google area.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtAyucYS5gg

 

[Billygoat]

Here are a couple videos. Ill put some pics up later. It was an awesome trip, I cannot say enough about Mark and the Thunder Mountain Lodge. Great place with some great people. The snow was awesome and the terrain was very cool too. Nice huge fields, some open trees, and some tight trees. A bit of everything!

The second video ends in my worst stick of the year so far...the hole was about 9 feet deep by the time it was all said and done. Got stuck between the base of a fallen tree and another log.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akx8PzAQcEI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi4ow4QTnKA

 

[Jager Bomb 243]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

wow awesome videos. are you using the go pro hero?

How long did it take you to get the sled dug out in the second one. it seemed like you were far away from your friends.

 

[corpeleven]

Hey Billy - was that you I saw loading/packing up at around 3:00 Sunday afternoon? I rode thru the cabins at TML right then and though I saw somebody that looked like you. I was on a black poo with all orange gear. Glad you enjoyed the Mesa.

 

[corpeleven]

I bet we covered maybe 10% of the area if that much.

Goat - Absolutely all kidding aside, I guarantee you covered less than 1%. It's that big. Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[OLD GOAT]

that was us loading up right at 3. As far has how far out billygoat was, it's a good thing he had a radio! Unforunately, my non turbo dragon & the other non turbo m-8 rescue sled could not get to him. I NEED A TURBO ! It as a long hike! Billygoat may dig me out far more often, but that one made up for it!

 

[black swan]

Goat - Absolutely all kidding aside, I guarantee you covered less than 1%. It's that big. Glad you enjoyed it!

2nd that..glad you guys had fun.

So will ya be coming back?

 

[CANNONMAN]

Holy Chit Billy, those trees were getting close. Excellant video, I need to look into one of those. Glad you, your dad and the whole rest of the crew had a good time. I know some boys in WI right now that are salivating. Pretty cool area isn't it.

Here are a couple videos. Ill put some pics up later. It was an awesome trip, I cannot say enough about Mark and the Thunder Mountain Lodge. Great place with some great people. The snow was awesome and the terrain was very cool too. Nice huge fields, some open trees, and some tight trees. A bit of everything!

The second video ends in my worst stick of the year so far...the hole was about 9 feet deep by the time it was all said and done. Got stuck between the base of a fallen tree and another log.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akx8PzAQcEI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi4ow4QTnKA

 

[Billygoat]

Hey Billy - was that you I saw loading/packing up at around 3:00 Sunday afternoon? I rode thru the cabins at TML right then and though I saw somebody that looked like you. I was on a black poo with all orange gear. Glad you enjoyed the Mesa.

Yeah that was us! It was an awesome time even though we didnt know where to go and stuck close to the trail. There was no need to go far from it. I did find a cool area that no one else could get to sunday afternoon that was amazing. My cameras memory card was already full so i couldnt video any of that.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

wow awesome videos. are you using the go pro hero?

How long did it take you to get the sled dug out in the second one. it seemed like you were far away from your friends.

Yeah, that is the standard Go Pro. they now make an HD version. I did a lot of digging before anyone got there and my dad and one other in our group hiked up to me and helped me out. Overall it was a little over an hour to get it out.

PP:

We will definitely be coming back at some point. probably a little later in the season. If at all possible we are gonna try and hook up with Q and make another trip out of it. At the end of the day turning around I was sidehilling above the trail and left off the throttle and came down onto a log perfectly between the plastic and running board and kink the running boards.

 

[CANNONMAN]

Very cool Ray, looks like you found enough powder.


QUOTE=powderpatrol;2122089]light was flat, but snow was EPIC....my favorite from yesterday..

note: the faceshots galore!! cam is mounted to google area.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtAyucYS5gg






[/QUOTE]

 

[Billygoat]

some pics:

Stuck Guy:

OLD GOAT Stuck:

My Rock!!! It launched me straight up, I hit it with all track. No damage from this rock...the log i found later made up for it though...

Going up again...there was $100 riding on making it out of this.

Coming back down

The road on the drive home

 

[grizzly7]

Papa, salivating isnt the word, how about **********, well you get the point. You mountain boys should not be allowed to post pics and videos like that, it just causes us flat landers to pound our heads and through our laptops!!! Well needless to say Mark, Darren and I are looking at airfare as I write this, so dont be surprised if you get a call from Grand Junction airport soon!!!!!

 

[Qreiff]

When the roads going home look like that.....you know there is a big grin on your face!! Great pics Billy!...........and nice vid.........looks like the TM8 loves the Mesa.

 

[Jager Bomb 243]

Papa, salivating isnt the word, how about **********, well you get the point. You mountain boys should not be allowed to post pics and videos like that, it just causes us flat landers to pound our heads and through our laptops!!! Well needless to say Mark, Darren and I are looking at airfare as I write this, so dont be surprised if you get a call from Grand Junction airport soon!!!!!

You hit that nail right on the head. While you guys are out there having fun getting stuck and all, i'm sitting in Wi watching the snow melt and our trails are closed so i can't even ride but i guess thats why im watching all these videos and drooling all over the keyboard.

awesome pics and vids guys, very cool

 

[Winterfreak]

1-23-10 Winterfreak Stuck

This is from Saturday. Took my buddy that moved here from Wisconsin up for the first time in deep snow... he brought his 121" since his summit was down... ahhhh can you say stuck fest all day.

Here is a pic of me for my stuck of the day!

 

[SSWIM]

This is from Saturday. Took my buddy that moved here from Wisconsin up for the first time in deep snow... he brought his 121" since his summit was down... ahhhh can you say stuck fest all day.

Here is a pic of me for my stuck of the day!

Ed???????????? A 121"??????????? That is pure torture right there.


Sam

 

[milehighassassin]

Mark at Thundermountain was a great guy. Place was nice to stay at and eat. Very nice to have everything you need right there. Fuel, food and bed.

I'll see if I can get some pics posted up as well. The snow was bottomless and amazing riding. I think Grand Mesa has something like 500 SQUARE miles on top.

 

[black swan]

800+ sq miles.........takes a lifetime to ride it all............................brrrrr.........

 

[milehighassassin]

800+ sq miles.........takes a lifetime to ride it all............................brrrrr.........

Nice pic, but Wiki says 500.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mesa

Either way it is a lot.