Advocate I
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US West Pardoes Trail, El Dorado NF
- Thread starter WTSMatt
- Start date
Advocate I
It's been years since I did Pardoe, but I think you'll be fine. There are a couple squeezes between tress where you'll just need to be careful and have a spotter watching the top of your cab. Wheelbase might make a few things a bit trickier, but that's the case for any/every trail with a Gladiator. I'd prob search YouTube for any 2023-2024 videos showing (more) current conditions given the various fires (and related fire-fighting efforts), storms, etc. over the years since I've been there.
-TJ
Pathfinder III
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Last year you could have but once again we are getting heavy snow so all the trails will look different in the late spring early summer when they open up after the closure. I will ask our meet up for any further info and make sure you keep checking the NF page for up to date info.
Advocate I
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- Matt
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- Stoddard
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27782
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Pathfinder III
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- Reynolds
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1632
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- Retired Firefighter
The Pardoe Trail (aka Squaw Ridge or Hungaleti Ridge) can be broken up into a couple of different sections.
If you head in from the west from Lower Bear River Resevoir there are some very tight sections between trees that will require careful spotting in a longer truck. Here's an example of one.
Eventually you'll reach the sign for the Plasse Trading post (38.61468, -120.09014), which is somewhat "in the middle" of the trail.
Optionally you can enter off of 88 near Tragedy Springs and head towards the Plasse Trading post sign. I recommend checking out Mud Lake and Plasse Peak on the way. This route should be no problem for your truck to fit. Once you get to the site of the trading post you can head east along the ridge, but again that gets narrow in places.
Or, from the Plasse Trading post sign you can head east towards Kirkwood. This is the more difficult section of the trail, but we took a friends DCSB Tacoma through in 2020 so I don't think you'll have any issues fitting.
www.overlandbound.com
The eastern side of the trail trail dead ends near the bottom of Mellisa Coray peak, so it's an "out and back" drive.
I recommend going with at least one other vehicle because this trail is fairly remote and has large enough rocks that there is a risk of breaking something or getting stuck. There are multiple good campsites along the trail, I think I listed some in the OB link above.
If you head in from the west from Lower Bear River Resevoir there are some very tight sections between trees that will require careful spotting in a longer truck. Here's an example of one.
Eventually you'll reach the sign for the Plasse Trading post (38.61468, -120.09014), which is somewhat "in the middle" of the trail.
Optionally you can enter off of 88 near Tragedy Springs and head towards the Plasse Trading post sign. I recommend checking out Mud Lake and Plasse Peak on the way. This route should be no problem for your truck to fit. Once you get to the site of the trading post you can head east along the ridge, but again that gets narrow in places.
Or, from the Plasse Trading post sign you can head east towards Kirkwood. This is the more difficult section of the trail, but we took a friends DCSB Tacoma through in 2020 so I don't think you'll have any issues fitting.
CA - Finding the eastern end of the Hungaleti Ridge Trail
To start, I should mention that this system of trails has multiple names. Depending on the source it may be called the Pardoe Trail, Carson Emigrant Trail, Squaw Ridge Trail, or Hungaleti Ridge Trail and may be marked as 17E24 or 16E26. A couple of the trails were closed for several years as...
The eastern side of the trail trail dead ends near the bottom of Mellisa Coray peak, so it's an "out and back" drive.
I recommend going with at least one other vehicle because this trail is fairly remote and has large enough rocks that there is a risk of breaking something or getting stuck. There are multiple good campsites along the trail, I think I listed some in the OB link above.
Advocate I
- 1,988
- First Name
- Matt
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- Stoddard
- Member #
-
27782
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- Fire
Advocate I
- 1,988
- First Name
- Matt
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- Stoddard
- Member #
-
27782
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- KN6TZY
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- Fire
UPDATE: I just got back from doing most of the El Dorado BDT including the Pardoes Trail. I was apprehensive because some said I could do it in a Gladiator and others said no. I have a 2023 Gladiator Rucicon with a Clayton 2.5” Overland plus lift, 3/4” front Daystar spacer, Falcon SP3.3 shocks and 37” Yokohama G003 M/T tires. I aired down to about 16psi. The trail is not THAT hard but there are definitely some VERY tight spots and some turns between trees that were three(or more) point turns. If I had anything on the roof other than Rotopax they wouldn’t have been there at the end of the trail. Some very low branches that scraped the top of truck. I don’t have much poke with my tire, anything too much wider woukd rub sidewalls on all tires when passing through some spots. Fun 6 days for sure and to anyone with a JT that’s thinking about this trail it’s totally doable just make sure you bring a spotter for the few moderate technical spots but primarily for the narrow section.
