The Epic WY/MT/CO Adventure!!

When people ask me what its like to live in Montana. I tell them it sucks. Bitterly cold, you have to watchout for Grizzlies when you take out the garbage and the jobs dont pay shit.

 

You leave out the part about skiing and RLM, or the beartooths, or Yellowstone? keep it that way, we need LESS people here.

 

Ouch.. It's almost like I am not welcome.. I have good intentions!

 

yep, nice and short wheel base to make those switchbacks a little more maneuverable, unlike some who have a magic school bus for a truck......*cough cough* Travis *cough cough*

Monte,

seeing as it's about a 7hr drive for me to the 1st leg i'm probably going to head out the day before and camp that night. i'll probably pick your brain for a camping spot near the rendezvous once this shindig gets a little closer

 

Yeah but the magic school bus seems to float up over the rocks pretty well.
Well not exactly floating, more like rolling and sometimes dragging and scraping I remember a squeeze that the bus cruised right through where this first gen RV tried ripping off the sleeping quarters off the top on a tree...

 

In the offroading world there isn't much out there with a longer wheelbase than you, except for 2nd gen Tacomas and that's still a Tacoma so that's practically irrelevant. haha

 

yeah, but i still squeezed through..... double decker FTW

 

Longer wheelbases help you maneuver lots of obstacles nicely surprisingly. We just high-center a lot easier and it can be hard to take some turns here and there. haha It's kind of a trade-off really.

I go out with lots of guys in Jeeps, Suzuki's and old school 4runners and they get up the ledges and stuff that I usually have to bypass because I just high-center, but I tend to walk through a lot of the more challenging stuff just as easy as them thanks to my wheelbase. It's funny sometimes.

 

not irrelevant, 1st gen >2nd gen

why you gotta shit in my cereal and get all technical

 

Because 6" is such a big deal haha Unless you are a DCLB, in that case you made that choice when you bought that limo! haha

 

Nope she's good

 

That gif if kind of creepy. haha

 

The one fire east of Ridgeway is pretty much out. It would have only caused visibility problems for the San Juans proper. While the predictions are grim and little fires come and go daily over all it looks pretty good. The dry lightning storms are now wet. Afternoon isolated wet t-storms almost every day are becoming the norm. They are typically small and very brief. Most of the trails are pretty course crushed rock and drain well. Exceptions would be the lower end of Corkscrew and the upper end of Poughkeepsie between "The Wall" and Lake Como. They are just plain dirt. Right at the start of Poughkeepsie is a large puddle that can get sloppy and mid way up, the trail "is" the creek. There is a water crossing right at the tree line on the Ouray side of Imogene. "Usually" this runs just over hub depth but can get much deeper if there is a storm over the basin.

Plenty of primitive camping, pretty much where ever. Most of the nice spots will have fire rings left by others. From Imogene Pass all the way down to Ouray is almost entirely mining claims, technically private property with no camping allowed. That is why I mentioned the spur off the end Imogene as a perfect (legal) camp spot for that day. Most of these claims are just unmarked existing claims from way back and the owners don't mind folks exploring. The few that do will be posted. The lower end of the Yankee Boy Basin road into Ouray has 5-6 USFS small campgrounds but that's no fun.
The PDF Digiratus put up says it pretty plain. Common sense rules the day.

Yep, I would say 98% of the area you folks will be in is fair game for primitive camping. Don't confuse the structured South Mineral Creek Campground (west of Silverton) with Mineral Creek above Ouray.

Not sure what you are talking about, pretty sure you don't.

 

Sounds good man. Mark is also coming up the day before and just crashing at my house. Unless you want something more camp like your more then welcome to join him at my place.

Just let me know..

I can't wait to see if you fit through Christina haha

Everything thing we do an inch is a mile when it come to offroading..figured you'd have learned that by now killing two drive shafts

Thanks for the great info.

You sure you don't wanna come

 

I don't think 6" would have saved me there. I think it has to do a little with my worn out leafs. They have rotated my pinion down which exposes my driveshaft more... I need to get some shims to rotate it back up.

 

My wife's name is christina so I guess I already know that answer to that one, our second child is due a month after the trip.

Oh and every inch does make a difference, just means I plan my lines a little more carefully than some. No biggie.

 

It'll be awesome.

 

Fuck yeah it will!

 

shit. i should have remembered that

HAHA! stupid magic school buses.

and im just crashing at monte's place the night before

surprisingly a very wise and true comment from you haha

 

What like I never have wise comments?? Haha