We had a good small group going: Todd in his 99 Montero Sport, Edward in his 97 Montero Sport SAS, my brother in his 2000 4 Runner, an older 4 Runner, a Ford F-150 and myself in my 98 Montero Sport. As far as I know, this was the first time in the USA that 3 Montero Sports went 4 wheeling together.

We got to the trail head at about 10:00 a.m. and proceeded to get our vehicles ready for the trail. It was cloudy and cool, but nice when we started out. We decided to do St. Vrain Road first and then head over to Coney Flats.

As you wind your way though the forest along the St. Vrain Road, this trail consists of lots of 6" to 8" rocks and a few 10" rocks scattered along the trail to negotiate through as well as a couple of fun obstacles and a few small water crossings along the way. Middle St.Vrain Road is a great trail to show new 4 wheelers what their 4x4 can do. Even though neither of these trail are very difficult ones, we sure heard a lot of metal hitting rock. The book that we had said that stock vehicles can do this trail. I agree, as long as you don't mind a few dings and scrapes on your rig. It didn't seem to take us very long to get to the end of Middle St.Vrain Road. We didn't meet a single rig on the Middle St. Vrain Road. There were a few 4x4s parked near the end of the Middle St. Vrain Road, but that was it. We seemed to have the entire trail to ourselves.

On to Coney Flats... I would have to say that the most difficult part of this trail is the first section of trail getting up to the flat part of Coney Flats from the Middle St. Vrain side. This first section of Coney Flats is steep and definitely has some good size boulders to negotiate through. By the time we got to this section it was starting to rain a little. By the time we got to the big water crossing it started to rain pretty hard. We forged through the big water crossing. It wasn't all that deep, even with all the rain they have had lately. It was only 18 inches deep or so because we were running this trail late in the Summer.

So it was on to the flat part of Coney Flats. We were home free..or so we thought. It was raining pretty hard now. This section of trail just consisted of little hills and dips. With all the rain the mountains have had lately and with the present rain falling down, each dip had a foot or more of water in them so it made this part of the trail a little more entertaining and fun. While going through one of the small water crossings, the Ford F-150 punctured a side wall on his Pro Comp M/T tires. Of course, it happened to be the worst part of the rain storm when it happened. Well, he got his tire all changed and pretty darn fast too, even in the rain. We only met a few 4x4's on the Coney Flats section of trail. It was 1:30 p.m. now and we got to the end of the trail with no other mishaps. The rain had stopped and it was time for lunch.

The only real damage I sustained from this trail was on my side steps. I must have hit a big rock somewhere alone the way. I didn't see my side steps until I got home. I didn't even know I hit anything that hard. What is amazing is that I have done trails much harder then these ones and sustained a lot less damage to my side steps.

I wish we could have taken more pictures, but, because of the rain, the camera didn't make much of an appearance this trip.