AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Who is the owner of the silver taco with the gfc? Is there a build thread? Have a few questions about his rear bumper.

 

Oh, this is priceless.

Dan(iel), let me introduce you to Dan @drr. I feel that both your parents had great taste when it came to naming you. -Dan

 

What’s the question? I have no build thread due to sheer laziness, so I’ll have to foul up Dan’s thread with info about my pile.

 

Just curious about your side protection, I’m looking to change mine up and I was thinking something similar to yours. I was hoping to see some better pictures of yours.

 

Mine is pretty simple, just 2x4x3/16" wall rectangular tubing. The sides are flared out slightly to match the taper of the bedsides. The frame mounts are heavy angle, with a return from the side protectors to box it all in. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't cut the bedside quite as high up, try to keep it tight to the bumper because with the solid mounts the bed doesn't move very much.

 

The Day We Can't Unsee - Colorado #3
Well, that's an ominous title to the day. Guess we'd better get started.

As we'd become accustomed to, the night was chilly - somewhere in the high-20°Fs or so - cold enough that the fridge cooled down again overnight without ever turning on. Being our second night, we were all much more prepared for the situation, and an extra layer of clothing here and there seemed to do the trick, everyone sleeping relatively well until the sun warmed our tents in the morning.

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Dan @drr and I were up first, and as we ate breakfast, remarked at how quickly the sun seemed to warm up the air around us. Our breakfasts couldn't have been more different - Dan clearly putting a bit more thought and effort into his delicious looking breakfast burrito, while I slurped up my cold cereal. This was definitely a good trip for the fancier breakfasts, as we rarely left camp before 10:00am, giving anyone who was up at an earlier hour, ample time to whip something together.

We pulled out of camp a little before 11:00am, everyone having enjoyed the warming sun for an hour or so before packing up and continuing south on Buzzard - Muddy Divide Road, the completely-avoidable detour that we'd taken after running into a landslide the previous evening.

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The terrain was - as it'd been the day before - beautiful. We'd appeared to time the trip perfectly to catch the bright yellows of fall, though a bit of CB chatter centered around whether we were a week or two early - since there were still some green aspen leaves - or, a couple weeks late - given that many aspen had no leaves at all. None of us were complaining though - there was plenty to enjoy no matter the answer.

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Rumbling along - now a longer caravan of six trucks - since Monte @Blackdawg's parents (Steve @woodnick and Megan) had joined us - what did become immediately clear was that there were some communications issues. See, generally on the trail, we use CB radios to communicate. Sure, they don't have the range of our mobile Ham setups, but they are accessible to everyone without a license, and they allow for more convenient - or rather, less structured - communication.

Today, there were three issues: First, Steve didn't have a CB radio, and as such, he was working to tune one of his Ham radios to the CB frequencies in order to communicate with the group. A radio jockey, this was rather easily done for him, but it took a little bit of time given the fact that he was driving the FRV (Frankenstein Recovery Vehicle) as well. Second, for some reason Monte's radio was on the fritz - neither Mike @Digiratus nor I could hear him from the back of the pack. And lastly, my transmission and reception seemed exceptionally weak - a rarity given that my radios tend to be some of the more consistently well-tuned in the group.

Still, we bumbled along, messages getting passed down the chain of trucks, everyone able to communicate well enough to not miss any turns as old cabins and splendid hillsides scrolled by.

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We'd stop every now and then - as we do - for a photo op, and just to chat outside the trucks for a while, soaking in some of the better views for as long as we could before continuing on to the next "wow" moment. It was on one of these stops that we were all subjected to what can only be described as, "That which would be better left unseen."

You see, earlier that morning, Mark @IDtrucks had decided that today was the day he'd wow us with his cut-off jean shorts. And not in a good way, though he assured us that the previous attempt at their creation had been, "Too short." Seeing his display, Emily had immediately come to the conclusion that matching shorts day was in order, and she too donned her own pair of cut-offs (which, I think we can all agree, she wore better).

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At any rate, Mark discovered some issue with his side marker light, and set about fixing it during one of the stops. I've captured the G-rated version of the scene here; unfortunately, it wasn't all so tame. But hey, that's the joy of having Mark along - never a dull moment.

Side marker zip-tied back "into position," we continued south on Delta County Rd 1 towards what had become our target destination - the town of Crested Butte.

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Still several hours away, we eventually crossed over the highway where we picked up the road over Kebler Pass, the Ragged Mountains to our north, and Marcellina Mountain to our east providing the first Colorado-style peaks we'd see of the trip.

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Kebler Pass is a very-well graded dirt road - the drive (and traffic) reminiscent of our journey over Boreas Pass into Breckenridge on the previous year's Colorado adventure. As such, we kept our stops to a minimum, hoping to escape the traffic as much as we could. Still, I couldn't resist a few photos, the fall colors continuing to stun at every turn.

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Having gotten a late start, it was 2:30pm when we detoured slightly off-track - heading north - to Lake Irwin. Like Kebler Pass Road, the lake was packed - campers and fishermen getting in a last hurrah before the end-of-season closure - and to find a private spot, we ended up a little way off the water. Chairs set up in a circle, sandwiches were prepared and consumed - the sun warm, even here at 10,000 feet above sea level.

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Our bellies satisfied once again, we were in no huge rush to pack up and go. This was a day where the miles we needed to cover were relatively few, and so we hung out around the trucks for a good hour or more before re-packing what we'd pulled out for lunch time and getting back on the road. From Lake Irwin, we were headed due east towards Crested Butte - the first of several towns we'd stop in - to refuel the trucks, refill the propane that we were burning each night for our camp fires, and do a little shopping at the grocery store to reprovision items that had been consumed already on the trip.

The views - as they'd been all day - were nothing to complain about.

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We arrived in Crested Butte and immediately filled all the spots at both gas stations in town - or nearly did! As we each filled up, we remarked at how nice the town seemed. Populated, sure, but it was clear why it was a destination in both the summer and winter - the nearby mountains offering plenty to do in both seasons!

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While supplies were replenished, I took a few minutes to check in on the situation at home as well as check my email - the LTE service strong for the first time since I'd passed through Grand Junction a couple days earlier. Everything was - as to be expected - humming along just fine, and after about 20 minutes or so, the CBs came alive with folks announcing that they were ready to get back on the road. Or trail.

From Crested Butte, we'd planned a figure-eight shaped loop into the mountains north of town. Here, we'd tackle Schofield Pass and the Devil's Punchbowl on the way to the old town of Marble, where - perhaps predictably - much of the town is constructed of Marble pulled from the local Yule Marble Quarry. The quality of the marble here is praised as one of the purest marbles ever quarried and rivals classical Italian and Greek marble in quality. Notably, the quarry sourced material for the Tomb of the Unknowns, as well as for parts of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and civic buildings in San Francisco.

But hey, I'm getting way ahead of myself at this point. We were simply on the road out of town, headed north from Crested Butte.

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It wasn't all that long before we hit dirt - though, as with Kebler Pass earlier in the day, this dirt was well-graded and obviously high-trafficked. Luckily for us however - it being mid-week and whatnot - there was no one else on the road, and except for photos, we made good time.

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And really what that means is that everyone else made very good time, with me bringing up the rear a few minutes later. That "tailgunner" position has become one of my favorite, for two reasons: first, it allows me to hang back and out of the dust that can get out of control on some of these roads. Obviously going first would be another solution to the dust problem, and I don't mind that either, but hanging back also allows me to stop whenever something catches my eye and snap a photo or three before continuing on. I suppose I could do that at the front as well, but I'd hate to be a drag on the rest of the crew.

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At almost exactly 5:00pm we arrived at what we'd ultimately call camp for the night. It was still early to be sure, but the location seemed prime and we weren't sure what the trail would bring in terms of camping - though the elevations were sure to be higher - as we climbed our way into the mountains. Opting for the relative warmth of lower elevations, we decided to end the day early - Monte joking with Mike that he couldn't complain for the remainder of the trip if we ever got to camp late.

Mike agreed. Allegedly.

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Our elevation meant that the temps were reasonably warm, and we mostly just hung out - our chairs circled - until the sun got a bit lower in the sky. Mark and Emily went for short hike up the canyon, their joyful laughter spilling back down the canyon as Monte and I urged Mike to hurry up with the guacamole before they returned. Unfortunately for us, Mike was much more egalitarian than that, though I think the speed with which Monte and I polished off the entire bowl of green goodness once Mark and Emily returned caught them a bit off guard. Though, while we lucked out on this evening, it wouldn't happen a second time.

Eventually of course, as the sun left the sky, the air cooled and we all bundled up for the evening. The propane fire ring was ignited, and dinners were made. Gourmet of the night award this evening went to Steve - his Traeger grill smoking away - the 120v outlet in the bed of the FRV providing the power to keep it smelling tasty. Dan got in on the goodness with his steak, and it was obviously apparent that there were several jealous campers around the fire as he enjoyed his feast.

Our conversation of the night before - what exactly denoted an established camp site - continued, our current location used as a borderline example, as we oscillated between that and other topics late into the night.

Eventually though, many laughs later, we called it a night. It'd been a short day on the trail, but one we'd all enjoyed. And, just as the day had been magictacularly beautiful, so the night was turning into the same - the mountains and stars around us glowing under the light of the moon.

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Little did we know that tomorrow we'd run into our first real excitement of the adventure - one of the trucks even turning around due to trail conditions...

 

How do you like the propane fire pit? I’ve been considering one, mostly because I feel like CA will continue to have fire bans moving forward. Do you carry a 20 gallon tank? And fire rocks? My only hesitation is the amount of space it would require. But after many camping trips with no fire that hesitation is starting to diminish.

 

Mike @Digiratus should pipe in as well, since it's his pit. For me personally, I think it's great - it lets us have a fire, which for some of our bunch is the favorite part of the trip - even when there are stage 1 fire bans (most of this trip, for instance).

The propane pit comes with the rocks - at least the one Mike has, and that I linked above (propane fire ring). It's important to have a lid+case because things bump around in the bed of the truck a lot. On this trip (and most where we use propane), we have at least two 20lb tanks in the group. That way, if we run out of one, we've got a backup. One tank lasts ~5-6 hours I'd say - for us, about 1.5 camp fires.

Personally, I also like the fact that they are smoke-free (so me and my tent don't smell like camp fire for eternity), but for others, that's a drawback. Other drawbacks include the fact that propane is (generally) more expensive than finding a tree to cut down somewhere, and it's not as hot as a blazing wood fire with a good coal bed, so there's that to consider.

 

I feel like a fire should be small and the propane ring allows for that. But you're right, a small wood fire is much warmer than a small propane fire ring. The other advantage is should you arrive in camp and find no fire ring, yours will not be the fire that scars the site

 

Here's my $0.02 on the subject. We've sat around friends propane fire pit and ended up not really caring for it - yeah, there's not much smoke, but getting close to warm up does mean breathing in the combustion products, and at least with a wood fire is really obvious. I've walked away more than once with a CO headache.

We ended up buying a SOLO stove to burn wood. It comes with base ring that keeps it high enough off the ground/deck enough that you don't leave scars on the site. It also burns really cleanly with low smoke output, provided the wood is reasonably dry. Yeah, it contains the heat a little more than an open fire pit, so there's less warming you unless you're closer to it like the propane fire - which means you're also closer to the CO, though I haven't had a headache from the SOLO yet. YMMV...

 

I've wondered about the Solo stoves. They look as if their construction encourages a more complete burn. Except for its size, It looks like a great way to have a contained fire.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy a wood fire. But for pretty much all of camping season this yearning CA there was zero fires allowed. And at some points when the wild fires were bad, august and September, there was a zero ignition source out in place(fire,stoves, lanterns etc). But they have said propane is cleared for use again (still no fires). So I’m just looking for alternatives. Because for me and for most a fire at night really makes the camping better.

With that all said, I know it will not amount to being the same as a wood fire.

 

We all (in our group) MUCH prefer a real campfire...well maybe not dan who has to play dodge the smoke all night..

But the propane lets us have fires in situations where a ban is in place or in wilderness areas where fires aren't aloud in the first place. It has been extremely handy.

 

Even I prefer a good wood fire, as long as we use enough wood. It’s also a benefit for me when the wind is blowing a consistent direction, but I think you guys get more of a kick out of me moving around than I feel like it is a pain for me to do so. Hahahaha.

 

Looking at the aspens, we must have missed you guys by a week -- they were just starting to turn the week after Labor Day when we went. We did a CCW loop from Crested Butte through Paradise Basin (skipped Devil's Punchbowl), and found a great spot to camp up Poverty Gulch. We headed the long way around to Marble through Kebler, and may have found a scarier route than Devil's Punchbowl when we went up past Crystal and headed up to Lead King Basin, apparently the hard way. NOTE: Stuffing your face with BBQ and then driving that bumpy-ass road from Marble to Crystal is a BAD idea.

Due to the fire ban, I bought that same propane fire pit prior to our trip (for about $100 less than it is going for now!). It's better than no fire, but we didn't realize how much we are kept busy tending to a wood fire. Definitely prefer wood, but it was worth the investment.

 

One thing that hasn't really been mentioned here is cost. Unless we are in Montana, Propane is expensive. It is much better if everyone benefiting contributes their share.

Of course there is the initial investment in the equipment as well.

 

Just wait for the next chapter, we are familiar with the roads of which you speak, hahahaha .

I did mention propane cost and heat output as the two drawbacks.

Overall though, I think it's safe to say that you really do like the propane ring though, ya? I mean, it allows us to sit around flames under pretty much any circumstances, which I know is one of your favorite parts of any trip .

 

Ah, of course, burn bans - you'd think I might read and get that before chiming in. In that case I'd go for the propane too...

 

FINALLY a trip report where I've actually been there!

If you head out 317 from Crested Butte toward Marble, there's a nice (mostly level) spot right before the Crystal River Waterfall that would hold all of y'all's trucks. Also, some manmade waterfalls. Not sure if you'll be able to zoom in enough to see the timber used, but it's there!

 

Devil's Punchbowl Proves Too Treacherous - Colorado #4

If there was a drawback to our primo camp site, it was that being in a valley meant that the sun didn't reach our position until sometime around 9:30am, two hours after sunrise. Of course, at that point, it was once again beautiful and warm, Dan @drr taking full advantage as he ate breakfast in front of his GFC. Within about 15 minutes I'd changed into shorts and a t-shirt, it was so pleasant.

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The larger the group, the harder it is to get going in the morning, and with six trucks and nine people, we finally rolled out of camp just before lunch time - 10:45am or so - and headed up the aptly-named Paradise Divide Road towards Schofield Pass.

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Switchbacks and smooth gravel allowed us to gain elevation quickly, and before long we found ourselves at the apex of Paradise Divide, the road dropping down into Paradise Basin - Mount Baldy rising up to our east.

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Through the day, the CB troubles that had popped up continued to make themselves known - or rather, one of them did. Steve @woodnick was chatting along without issue, having ferreted out the correct frequencies on his Ham radio. Mike @Digiratus seemed to have no problem hearing either. But my setup seemed worse than ever. Both reception and transmission only worked over extremely short distances, and it made for a quiet trip as I brought up the rear over Schofield pass and past the historic town of Schofield.

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We didn't stop at Schofield - a cute little cluster of houses in the Schofield Park - Monte @Blackdawg mentioning that we'd stop by in the afternoon as we returned from the day's adventure - though I couldn't help but to snap a photo of one of the well-kept houses nestled into the trees.

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Head northwest at this point, the terrain varied between evergreen forest and grassy valley as we made our way towards what would prove to be the most treacherous trail we'd encountered so far (though to be fair - at this point, that's not saying much): Devil's Punchbowl.

In stark contrast to what had been a dusty trail weaving in and out of the woods, as the trail approached the punchbowl, it became a narrow shelf road, with a steep drop-off to the creek below. This in itself wouldn't have been much of an issue, but as we looked down the trail, a couple of fallen rocks were enough to get us out of our trucks to check them out before continuing.

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As usual, photos make this look tame.​

A bit of scouting by Monte, Mark @IDtrucks and I, showed that we'd likely be just fine with our band of 1st gen Tacomas - but one of the rock slides was going to mean an extremely tight turn, very close to the edge of the trail, for Steve in his wider-and-longer 2nd gen Tacoma. As such - and because he and Megan had to be back in Crested Butte by 4:00pm anyway for an online appointment - they decided that this was the spot where they'd turn around for the day.

The rest of us proceeded cautiously. Monte and Devin @MissBlackdawg first.

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This seemed like a tight squeeze at the time.​

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Past the second obstacle.​

Then Mike took his turn, followed by Mark and Dan.

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Finally, after letting a group of six ATVs by, I took off down the trail after the group, the experience reminding me of the shelf road leading to Indian Hot Springs in Idaho, though I still believe that road to be sketchier than this one.

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As I neared the bottom, there were the other trucks, all waiting patiently - or was it anticipatorily? - for me to pop around the final corner.

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The view up the trail from the bottom was perhaps more indicative of the terrain than the view from the top, down. Here, from Devil's Punchbowl, it was easy to see how much elevation was quickly lost on the ledge road, as it followed the creek down to the valley below.

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All back together, we continued down what was now a rocky shelf road following the creek for another half-mile or so, the going slow as we let the aired down tires and suspension do their work.

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That half-mile took 15 minutes to traverse, at which point we turned back into the forest and the golden hue cast by the fall aspen. Almost immediately, on a narrow section of trail, we had oncoming traffic. What could have been very interesting turned out to be quickly solved, as the 4Runner we were passing climbed up the side of the road in order to let us by.

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From here, the trail once again wove in and out of the woods - now following the North Fork of the Crystal River as we made our way into the second loop of the figure eight we were traversing - a loop that would take us through Lead King Basin.

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Having spent quite a bit of time scouting and navigating Devil's Punchbowl, we found a beautiful spot in the bottom of the basin to have lunch, the white granite of Hagerman Peak rising in the distance to the north.

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It was during this lunch stop that I finally resolved to figure out the problem with my CB radio. After scarfing down my food, I borrowed Mike's SWR meter and set about testing my antenna - my assumption being that I'd either need to adjust it's tip, or that my actual Uniden Pro 520XL CB Radio was bad.

A good SWR reading is right around 1.1 - at least in my experience - and you can imagine my non-surprise after a couple days of terrible communications when Mike's meter told me that my setup was currently giving an SWR of 10! Some quick troubleshooting showed that adjusting the tip on my FireStik antenna had no affect on the reading, but that swapping in Mike's antenna dropped it right back down into the 1.1 range. So, the problem wasn't the radio - it was the antenna!

And that meant that - for now at least - there was nothing I could do about it.

We packed up lunch and headed out - with Mike assuring me that anything vital would be relayed via Ham to me at the rear of the pack. Which was just fine by me - that is after-all, part of the reason we have redundant communication systems.

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A series of switchbacks led us by the top of Arkansas Mountain, the views getting better and better as we climbed. These still weren't like the views we'd seen at some of the high passes last year, but it was nice to be out of the trees and getting a taste - even a little one - of some of the altitudes that Colorado has to offer.

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Nearing the halfway point of our loop, the trail passed through one of several avalanche chutes that we'd cross on this trip - this one a bit more recent than some of the others.

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It was at about this point that we stopped for a quick pow-wow about what to do next. At 3:30pm in the afternoon, we were running a mere two-and-a-half-hours behind schedule and had to make a call as to whether we'd make the 4-mile roundtrip from the top of the loop to our original destination - the town of Marble - or whether we'd simply continue the loop back towards town to meet up with Steve and Megan who'd turned around earlier.

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Two peas in a pod.​

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Are we having fun yet? Apparently, yes.​

Ultimately, the "why would we drive 4 miles just to see a town," crowd won out, and it was back along the other side of the figure-eight-shaped loop for our gang of five - the roads bumpy and the travel slower than ever due to a sudden increase in traffic moving both directions.

At times, we'd find ourselves at a complete standstill as motorists with much less experience tried to negotiate passing on narrow roads. In one such situation, Monte ripped the NMO roof mount for his Ham antenna completely out of his roof, as he tried to navigate the side of the trail. Through it all, Mark and Emily took the opportunity to gaze lovingly into each others eyes.

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That's not to say there wasn't some beautiful scenery along the way - Lizard Lake and Mineral Point were two highlights - as we made our way east towards the historic town of Crystal.

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Lizard Lake.​

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Mineral Point. Despite a top speed of 2 mph for the previous 30 minutes (dictated by a Rav4 in front of our group) I was yelled at by a UTV behind us when I stopped for this photo. Gotta love the UTVs.​

Finally - and I do mean finally - we reached the cause of all the hoopla. As we pulled into Crystal, there were people everywhere. The main attraction was clearly an old mill perched on the Crystal River - the road so packed with people as to become nearly undrivable at this point.

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Crystal - as with many mining communities - began in the 1860s when miners started working the area. However, the location was so difficult to access that it took another twenty years for things to start booming. Officially established in 1881, Crystal City boomed as a mining - of primarily silver, lead, and zinc - camp for several decades with an average population of around 500. With a post office, newspaper, pool hall, the Crystal Club (a popular and exclusive men's club), barber shop, saloons, and hotels, it was a happening place - though ore transport continued to be a hinderance given the road system to and from the town. As with many early mining towns, Crystal's existence was relatively short-lived - by 1917 it was all but abandoned, despite the construction of the picturesque Crystal Mill that is the main attraction today. (Wikipedia)

Today, Crystal does sport a few residents - folks who have taken over care for several of the old buildings in town - but even they reside there only during summer, when the weather is nice and the colors are nothing less than stunning.

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This short pit stop also proved a worthy place for Monte to perform a bit of work on Igor. With new rear leaf springs and u-bolts this trip, he'd been meaning to snug them up for the last couple of days - forgetting to do so each time we stopped - something interesting always distracting from the job. Naturally, the job took one socket and at least three cameras, with Dan, myself, and Mike lined up for the shot.

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The work being done.​

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Like construction workers, there were always several of us supervising and capturing the progress. ​

As quickly as we could, we were back on the road - the top part of our loop now complete, and traffic once again light as we headed back towards Devil's Punchbowl - the short connecting trail to the bottom of our figure-eight. Even without traffic, the going was slow here - the terrain dictating our speed as we picked our way over the rocks alongside the creek.

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As we reached the punchbowl and the narrow shelf road that would allow no opportunity to pass should we encounter oncoming traffic, I ran ahead with my handheld Ham radio to ensure that no one else was coming. The coast clear, I radioed down for the rest of the gang to follow, each of them making easy work of the narrow, rocky road as I trotted back down to my truck - which I'd left perched on the bridge - to do the same.

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From Devil's Punchbowl, the trip back over Schofield Pass towards Crested Butte was a quick one. We didn't - as I'd suspected earlier in the day - stop to check out the historic town of Schofield on our way back, making me glad I'd taken a few seconds to snap a picture the first time through. Instead, with the sun getting lower and lower on the horizon - and with the knowledge that Monte's parents were likely waiting for us - we picked up our speeds through some of the dustiest terrain we'd see all trip, the entirety of Gothic Road seemingly made of silt.

It was here - as we were cruising along as fast as we could, in near white-out conditions - that a mountain biker began to pass us on the road. Naturally, this caught us all by surprise, and being at the back of the pack, I called it out as soon as I saw him in my peripheral vision. This guy was crazy - with no mask or eye protection, he was passing in conditions that could spell certain death should anything go wrong.

Luckily it didn't, and fifteen miles later the dust died down - finally allowing us some colorful views across the valley and to the fall-time show that was on display.

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From there, it wasn't long until we reached Crested Butte - it's main street downtown abuzz with activity, and looking as cute as a button.

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We found a nice pizza spot where we could eat outdoors, and with temps dropping we bundled up to enjoy a variety of wood-fired pizzas as we shared the stories of the day.

Stomachs full, it was 7:30pm - and fully dark - when we pulled out of town and set of in search of our camp site for the night. We knew it'd be somewhere just south of town, on the Pearl Pass Road - our first destination of the following day - and that meant a couple miles of highway travel before turning off onto dirt.

And it was there, in those few miles - at a reasonably slow speed of 35mph - that another deer decided it'd be a bad idea to run out in front of the truck. I clipped it - just barely - with the front corner of the bumper, surely more of a problem for the deer than it was for the Tacoma.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ODHtUGYOV-A​

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Luckily, these little hairs were the only indication of the impact. @RelentlessFab bumper for the win - again!​

After a quick inspection, we continued on towards camp, ultimately finding a tiny little spot that we packed into like sardines - quickly unfurling our tents and huddling around Mike's propane fire ring for a couple more hours of truck talk before bed.

It'd been a long day, and I for one - with the deer incident - was glad it was over. Tomorrow would bring Pearl Pass - our first significant pass of the trip, and that was something I was looking forward to; more than even I knew at the time.