AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Gorgeous scenery on that trip, I'd love to explore Colorado next year!

Glad to hear the bumper took the hit and kept your evening and rest of the trip on track!

 

Thanks man. It's the second time in two years that the bumper has come out on top against a deer. The first time was head-on at about the same speed, and while the bumper and truck came away unscathed, the Hella's didn't.

The custom bracket you guys built for the winch solenoid has held strong through it all. You probably don't remember - but at the time, you weren't all that jazzed about making it when I was like, "can you guys just mount it for me?" Anyway, now that I know more and am not totally green, thanks again for everything!

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I know the avalanche fall of which you speak . . . and just noticed my mirror was still pushed in from a previous tight squeeze. This north side of the loop is really pretty mellow, though.



Looking back down the valley from Lead King, you can see how steep and narrow that chute is. This south side of the loop is not mellow.




We had a chat with a guy down in Buena Vista that used to spend a lot of time in Marble and told us a story about the guy that lives in the cabin up there by the bridge (yes, someone does actually live in there!). They call him Lead King Larry or whatever his real name is, I forget (but Larry sounds good). He stressed that it is just a legend, but it is known that his wife went off the road up there and was found deceased. The legend says that Larry (or whatever his name is) killed her, put her in the truck and pushed it off. I guess either way, end result is the same. I'm not messing with a guy that lives up there year-round.

 

Oh Look, More Rocks! - Colorado #5

Having arrived at camp well after dark, it was nice to get a look at the place as the sun came up the next morning. Nestled in the aspen, Mike @Digiratus and I were the first two out of our tents, and as he prepped his traditional cup of coffee, I wandered off to get a view of our surroundings.

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Perched near the top of a ravine overlooking Brush Creek, a short trek up the bluff behind camp yielded expansive views of the mountains around us, and as the early morning sun crested one to our east, the yellows and blues seemed to jump out of the sky.

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As the rest of camp began to stir and prep for the day ahead, I approached Steve @woodnick about trying to figure out what was wrong with my CB setup. Our first order of business was to measure the SWR with a fancy meter that he'd brought along. With a target SWR below 1.5, and anything above 3.0 essentially unusable, the picture for me wasn't pretty.

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An SWR of nearly 17. Unincredible!​

Hoping for a quick fix, Steve pulled out an extra antenna he'd brought along - and while it wasn't as bad as my existing setup, it was far from acceptable, the SWR reading somewhere in the 12 range. So then, we decided to poke around with my antenna a bit more - ultimately removing part of the rubber casing that held the wrapped antenna wire to the fiberglass shaft. Low and behold, we discovered that the wire had come unsoldered from the base, essentially rendering my setup antenna-less!

The fix was easy - given that, as one does, Steve had brought along a Milwaukee M12 Soldering Iron.

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Seriously, a battery-powered soldering iron?!​

And with that, I had one of the finest tuned CB setups in the crowd. Read it and weep! (and thanks Steve!)

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100% sold on the RigExpert AA-600 that we'd used to determine my SWR, I was sure I'd be purchasing one when I got home...that is, until I checked the price and determined it to be a little above my price target. Still, if you're really into radios, this tool is a must-have in my opinion.

At the same time we were fixing my antenna, Monte @Blackdawg was busy reinstalling the NMO mount for his Ham antenna into the roof of Igor, and before long we were all ready to get moving on the trail - the climb to Pearl Pass, reportedly one of the most beautiful in the state.

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This time of year, the report of Pearl Pass' glory couldn't have been more true, and we stopped often (perhaps me more than the rest) to capture the colorful leaves in various shades of yellow and orange.

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Filtered light on Tacoma rear ends; magical.​

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The Redhead looking glorious.​

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An hour or so after we set out for the morning, we finally broke through the thickest of trees and into a high-mountain meadow - views of Pearl Pass rising up before us and terrain becoming more rocky under our tires. As if we hadn't stopped enough already, Monte quickly slowed in the lead vehicle and soon we were all out admiring the first real pass that we'd conquer on this trip.

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Devin @MissBlackdawg, Mark @IDtrucks, and Emily enjoying the view and doing their best to stay out of the "talking about radios" conversation going on elsewhere in the group.​

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It probably took us a good 15 minutes to pull ourselves away from this vantage point, an amount of time I'd guess several of us would have said was not nearly long enough. But, we were back in the trucks and headed up the mountain, just as I got a call on the Ham radio from operator KG5TZA. Turns out that he'd just gotten his mobile Ham rig working again, and was testing it out for the first time. He'd seen me nearby on APRS, and decided to reach out. We had a nice little chat before wishing each other safe travels - a fun interaction that still seems a little strange to me, even after having it happen several times in the last couple of years.

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It was just as we hit 11,000 feet, that Castle Peak - and the bright red ridge leading up to it from the west - poked into view. It's always striking how the ground can vary in color so much, this section of rock clearly richer in iron than much of the granite around it.

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Also here, as started up a rocky shelf road through a scree boulder field - Emily relayed to Mark, the quote of the day, "Oh look, more rocks!"

"You'd get along great with @mrs.turbodb," I called out over the CB radio after Mark relayed Emily's comment to the group. "That's the problem with this trip," she came back with quickly, "There aren't enough wives." We all got a good laugh out of that one - because along with the rock comment, it was % true.

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We continued to climb now - our ascent slowed by what continued to be relatively rocky terrain - all of us recognizing just how right Emily had been, as we made our way toward the pass. As we reached the tree line, the views really opened up and we took full advantage despite the breeze that was picking up as we got closer to the ridge.

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A final push - or rather, what I think we thought at the time was our final push - took us to a saddle about a thousand feet below the bottom of the pass. There, a reasonably large pull-out and flat spot was the perfect location - with 360° views - to pull out our chairs and enjoy a group lunch.

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We are so small, even in this little slice of the world.​

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Laughter, smiles, and chocolate chip cookies, just below Pearl Pass.​

The wind is what finally drove us back into our trucks - that, and the knowledge that after Pearl Pass, we still had another pass to go before finding camp for the night. As everyone saddled up, I headed up a hill behind our lunch spot to capture the crew heading up the final scree-field shelf road to the pass. A dramatic ascent through the already dramatic landscape.

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Sprinting down the hill and to my truck, I finally caught up just as everyone else was done at the pass and heading down the other side. The view here at 12,705 feet was spectacular, the sharp ridge offering one of the most iconic views of any Colorado pass I'd experienced to date.

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And with that, I headed down the back side with the rest of the crew.

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If the climb up had been slow, rocky, and full of bumps, the descent down was double the same. Though our progress was aided by gravity, our going was - if anything - slower as we passed Castle Peak and made our way down toward Castle Creek.

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Just as we reached the creek, we encountered the most significant obstacle of the trail. In the downhill direction, the rocky ledge was simply a steep drop off that most of us utilized our rear bumpers or towing receivers to slide down; if we'd been running the route the opposite direction, this section may have provided more of a challenge - our tires wet from the melting snow and clearwater springs that pocked this section of trail.

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Eventually - as we had on the west side of the pass - we hit the tree line and the terrain changed from rocks to a dirt-rock mixture, our pace picking up slightly as we passed by the Tagert Hut, an old mine, and a Jeep left by its owners as the (surely) explored the area on foot.

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The bottom of the trail - and about 3 miles of pavement - came just in time for Mark. His zip-tie solution had been working so well for the last 24 hours with his side marker light, that he employed the same solution to secure is driver side front fender to the truck for the remainder of the trip. Zip ties are, after-all, the new duct tape.

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Who needs bailing wire when zip ties are available?​

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While Mark patched up his truck, Monte and Mike discussed our second pass of the day.​

Already 3:30pm, we wasted no time in heading out for Taylor Pass. Rated with a similar difficulty as Pearl Pass, none of us were all that worried, but given the time of day, we knew we'd be pushing it a bit to reach camp before dark.

Once again, the colors at the bottom of the climb proved bright and dramatic - we really had chosen the right time to visit this amazing place.

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Aspen eventually gave way to slightly more arid terrain, evergreens lining the trail, our increased elevation resulting in more dramatic views of the surrounding mountains.

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In what seemed like no time - at least compared to the time it took us to climb Pearl Pass - we found ourselves at the top of Taylor Pass, looking east over Taylor Lake and the hills that spilled into the distance.

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Where the route up had been easy and taken a mere 45 minutes, our route down from Taylor Pass was anything but. Almost immediately the nicely graded road became rocky, rutted, and steep. UTV-created bypasses scared the landscape, with some places sporting 4-5 different tracks that split off from the main route. We did the best we could to navigate the designated track, everyone more than a little surprised that the trail hadn't been closed due to the abuse.

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And then, we hit the rough stuff. About halfway down the trail, the boulders got large and line choice important. There wasn't - at this point - any question about whether we could make it or not; once again we'd encountered the hard stuff in a downhill direction - meaning that we'd make it, even if it required liberal use of our sliders and skid plates.

Monte headed through first, with me right on his tail.

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Mike and Steve followed, with the FRVs long wheelbase making for an interesting time.

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And then it was Mark and Dan's @drr turn. Unlike the rest of us, both of these guys were running on 35" tires, and made short work of places that had been tight for the rest of the group.

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The trail followed the creek for the next quarter mile or so, our trucks bouncing from rock to rock, slipping from pool to pool as we slowly made our down. Squarely in the "evening" timeframe at this point, it was just after 6:00pm and we had no idea - not really - how long it would take us to reach the bottom, where we hoped to find camp. Mentally tired, a small sigh of relief was shared as we exited the creek and re-entered the aspen cover of lower elevations.

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Even in the aspens, the road was still rocky and slow-going.​

We had less than 2 miles to go at that point, but it took us almost an hour to cover that distance and reach the bottom of the trail. To our relief, a wide-open, unoccupied camp site sat there waiting, and we immediately pulled in and setup camp.

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It'd been a long day, and the underbellies of our trucks bore the scars of relatively heavy use, the streaks and indents apparent on our skids.

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Still, when it comes right down to it, we'd enjoyed every minute - even if some of them had been a little bumpy for all of our tastes. Chips, salsa, and guacamole - which Mone and I were no longer able to consume faster than the rest of the crew - were consumed with great delight. Dinners were made and eaten; the propane camp fire was enjoyed.

We even talked a little politics around the fire - a rarity in a group used to the rules of TacomaWorld. The particular topics and opinions were irrelevant for the purposes of this story - rather, the most important aspect of the conversation was that we were all able and willing to listen to various opinions, agreeing and disagreeing as we saw fit. And at the end, we were all still friends - as good or better than we'd been a few minutes before - despite the fact that we might not agree on everything politically.

This, readers, is how it should be: it is critically important in this day and age - where all types of media work to polarize us one way or the other - that we recognize that no one is the same, and that is just fine. We're all just human beings, and while we may disagree on one issue or another, respecting each other, and remaining friends through it all is the surest way to thrive!

It was a late evening to be sure as we all climbed into our tents and cozied up under our covers, shielding ourselves from the temps at 10,000 feet. The next day would bring dramatic change to our group - two of our six vehicles opting to call it a trip; but that's a story for another day!

 

what a junk show

<3 love all the stories man!!

 

Dude, it is so fun having you on trips! We need to do it more often than every three years.

 

I wholeheartedly agree!

 

Another stunning trip report! Wow, just wow.

 

How hard were you hitting the skids on Pearl and Taylor pass? Would you have destroyed aluminum skids?

 

No. I didn't even have skids haha

 

I sure hope you didn't bang your tailbone sliding off that soapbox ledge.

 

Thanks man! We had a great time, and with scenery like that, it's not hard to end up with something reasonably nice.

Aluminum skids would be fine. Monte of course never needs skids or a locker because he's cooler than the rest of us, and his stuff never breaks.

That's an important soap box for our world these days, don't you think? It'll be important for all of us to remember, now that the "power" is shifting, and it'll become more about setting example, rather than pointing out the problems.

Oh, and my tailbone is just fine b/c I'm still up on the box.

 

But uhh..

 

Absolutely agree.

It's sorta like that discussion yesterday in the daily thread about RFI.

Finding common ground and working from there...

 

real question is. how many views have i given this thread by accidentally clicking the top border when trying to hit alerts

 

not enough.

 

I'm here because of a miss click, but stayed for the content.

Edit- and then I stumbled on your website- its crazy good.

 

We Should Have Brought an American Flag - Colorado #6

The sun hit camp earlier than it had the previous few mornings, bringing a welcome warmth to our tents after the only night that would result in frost on their fabric.

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Breakfast of Honey Bunches of Oats and refreshingly cold milk in hand, I decided to explore the stream that ran beside our camp. A few hundred feet upstream, I ran into a beaver dam - and hut - a cool discovery, even if it was obviously long-abandoned due to the lack of fresh cuttings and build-up of sediment in the pond. As if to prove how cold it had been overnight, ice on the dam glistened in the morning sun.

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Despite the early morning sun, our departure from camp was slower than usual. Monte's parents - Steve @woodnick and Megan - were scheduled to leave, and after an in-tent decision during the night, Mark @IDtrucks and Emily decided that it would be a good time for them to duck out as well - some mountain biking trails in the Moab, Utah area, calling to them after nearly a week of riding in trucks over bumpy roads.

It was 11:30am when we parted ways - Dan @drr, Monte, Mike @Digiratus and I, headed west on FS-742 and then Italian Creek Road, Garfield Peak in our rear view mirrors, American Flag Mountain rising up in the distant foreground.

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Garfield Peak rising up behind us.​

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Our destination (on the left) - American Flag Mountain, Italian Mountain rising up on the right.​

The plan for the day was to do a large loop around American Flag Mountain, eventually popping ourselves out in Taylor Park - not only a location we'd visited on our last trip, but the last camp site we'd called home before that fateful day that ended the adventure. As such, we'd ultimately end up only a handful of miles from our previous night's camp, but we'd set ourselves up for another attempt at Mt. Antero - one of the drivers behind our return to Colorado!

As we drove through - and eventually up - the plain, we were dazzled by Italian Mountain, growing larger and larger in the foreground, the road winding beside a creek bearing the same name.

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The further we got, the rockier the road became. Grades increased, and the mountain grew. Still, it was Italian Mountain that we were focused on - rather than the patriotic one we'd actually summit - as we passed a few "friend or foe" signs for interspersed private land.

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That sign in the distance, though: "If you go any farther, you better be a friend." Yikes.​

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After passing through a bit of said private land - and being sure to keep to the road as we did - our ascent took us to the west and began the final climb to the saddle. There, we spotted an old mine and pulled in for a closer look. Perhaps what we'd stumbled upon was a part of the old Star Mine, a lead-zinc mine, the main structures of which were apparently a few hundred feet to our north. Whatever it was, an old boiler and stove rusted away under a collapsed roof, and a shaft into the mountain had been recently grated by the Department of Natural Resources.

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While poking around, a couple drove up on a UTV, appearing to have come from one of the nearby private cabins. Unsure if they were going to ask us what we were doing - or even to leave - I think we were all a little surprised when then mentioned that if we stopped by the cabin on the way out, we could sign the guest book. While that wasn't in the cards - we were doing a loop after-all - it was a nice reminder that people out in the middle of nowhere are generally friendly, as long as those they run into are friendly and respectful as well.

As they pulled away, we too climbed into our trucks and continued up towards American Flag Mountain, the sky soon filling much of our windshields.

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At 12,713 feet, American Flag Mountain might only be Colorado's 848th tallest mountain, but it was another all-time-high for us on this trip - just 8 feet higher than Pearl Pass the previous day. It was the perfect place to have lunch, chat with the few other folks who found themselves at the summit as we were arriving, and enjoy the views - even if they were just a little bit smoky.

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Eventually, we found ourselves alone at the top - just the way we preferred it - and we enjoyed each others company as we lounged in our camp chairs, the wind buffeting our backs. In no real rush since we had a reasonably short day, it was 2:00pm when we finally started back down the mountain.

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The initial descent - what had been our final climb - was a steep one.​

As afternoon clouds - the first we'd had all trip - rolled in, the views as we continued our loop on the west side of American Flag Mountain continued to be dramatic, the smoke adding a sense of distance to the landscape before us.

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While it must have been a struggle to survive, the view from this cabin would be hard to beat.​

Our descent back towards Taylor Park was slower than the climb into the mountains. The trail got rockier here, certain places requiring careful line choice - and even a bit of three-wheeling - to successfully navigate. It was all good fun, I can assure you!

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As our elevation dropped, more and more civilization was apparent across the landscape. Much of the land here is - or was at one time - leased for grazing, and fences crisscrossed the landscape, the road weaving through several gates in a somewhat haphazard fashion.

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Civilization meant smoother roads, and before long we were passing Spring Creek Reservoir at nearly 45 mph, its banks lined with folks camping and fishing its cool, clear waters.

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And soon, we were nearing the end of our loop. It was here that Grizzly Peak and Jenkins Mountain rose up in the distance. These were part of the same range that we'd see from camp later in the evening, and they were enough to bring us to a stop along the side of the road - just to admire them from a distance.

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Now travelling as fast as our aired down tires would take us, we made quick work of the few miles between us and the Taylor Park Trading Post. Keen to use the restrooms, fill up propane, and see if there were any sweets to purchase, we opted for this pit stop on the way to camp. It turns out that the cell service there also afforded at least a couple of our group to catch up a bit on the news of the day... though, we wouldn't learn of this until later that evening.

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From the trading post, we headed out into Taylor Park - not far from the reservoir - to one of the dozens of camp sites sprinkled along the roads. It was - in fact - the same camp site we'd stayed in our last time here; the views, flat open space, and relative privacy bringing us back for a repeat performance.

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Despite our late start to the day, we'd gotten to camp right around 5:00pm in the afternoon - I hesitate to even call it evening. As the clouds yielded once again to the sun, the temps were downright balmy, and we all set about relaxing, taking care of odds and ends that could use some attention on our rigs, and chatting about wide-ranging topics that were on our minds.

Mike even took a "shower," - really just a rinse, but boy do those feel good after several dusty days on the trail!

Monte and Devin @MissBlackdawg spent some time searching for a leak in their air mattress - which had gone soft the previous night, much to their dismay.

And Dan politely asked if we all wanted to hear a bit of news he'd picked up on his phone when we'd been at the trading post, hesitant to spill the beans on what must have been hard to keep the wraps on. Of course we all wanted to hear it - and that's when he let us know that Trump had been diagnosed with COVID.

Whether that would ultimately lead to a positive or negative outcome - and in what way - we pondered for a few minutes before realizing that we could never really know - but one thing was for certain - we all agreed that it's funny how life works.

Through it all, we gazed out at the mountains, a reminder that through it all, good persists if you know where to look.

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I'll never get tired of these Colorado views.​

Eventually we settled into our normal evening routines of guacamole, dinner, and conversations around the fire. This time, the conversations centered around our plan for the next day - a special one, given we'd be returning to the place that ended it all last time...

 

Last time I was there (2018) there was a nice, new, solidly mounted flagpole and a donation box for the local offroad club to supply flags. Is that not there anymore?

IMG_1700 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

 

definitely not. Bummer.