OTR Colorado Trek
Leadville, Colorado
July 28 - August 3, 2013
Leaders: Mike and Jerome
Attendees:
Rich and Corkey, Mike and Laura (along with part time visits from son Chris and oldest daughter Kristina), DuWayne and Tina, Jerome and Theresa, Bill C., Chad, Joanna and Nash O. and Tom M.
This has to go down as one of the best trips ever. Colorado Trek 2013 was amazing with beautiful scenery, almost perfect weather, fantastic four wheeling and as always, great friends.
The trip started with a bit of a disappointment when we were informed by both Tom and Jerome they were not going to make it for the week. Jerome's Sprinter motorhome experienced mechanical problems in route to the event stranding the Sprinter in Gallup New Mexico for repairs. He didn't make it the rest of the way. Tom let us know he had to handle a business issue and didn't know if he would be able to make it. Thankfully, he was able to make it out for one day. Tom now lives in Colorado Springs, a few hours from our base camp.
Base camp was the town of Leadville, Colorado. For those that have never been to Leadville, it is an old mining town situated at 10,152 feet in the Rocky Mountains. It was the second largest city in Colorado in the late 1800's. It has the distinction of being the highest incorporated city in the United States. Now it is more of a tourist town with many old mines and lots of jeep trails nearby to explore.
On Monday, we set out for Mosquito Pass which begins just east of town. After passing the remains of old mining activity and stopping to visit the headworks of an old ore tram we headed for the pass. Mosquito Pass tops out at 13,185 feet. We were in the clouds. Down the other side of the mountain, we started up Wheeler Lake trail where we stopped for lunch at a series of waterfalls and an the remains of an old ore processing mill. We then returned back to Leadville via Weston Pass, an easy "shortcut". As we were heading down the highway before the turnoff to Weston Pass, Bill heard a clunk from the front of his Jeep. He pulled off the highway. When he investigated the source of the noise it was found he had a bad u-joint and stub shaft on the passenger side front axle. We still had 40 miles back to camp and it was getting late in the afternoon. Oh well, drive it and don't put it in 4WD. We stopped several times along the way to check it and made it back to camp before dark with no further mishaps. This was a long, long day
Tuesday turned out to be repair day. Rich and Bill headed for the All 4 Fun Week camp south of town (the Mile High Four Wheelers had their event going on while we were there) to see if they could find a replacement Dana 44 axle. Success! They were back to camp by 10:00 with a replacement OEM axle. Bill's Jeep was as good as new in no time at all and ready to head out. For those that are wondering, we did check the unit bearing while installing the replacement axle. Miraculously it appeared to be in good shape and gave us no problems through the rest of the week. Since we already lost a good part of the day, we decided to visit the local mines. Just as we were headed out of town and just hit the dirt, Chad informed us he had a problem. His electric fan decided it wanted to get to know his new aluminum radiator better on his Toy. Back to camp we went so Chad could disassemble the front of his FJ to remove the radiator and fans for repair. With assistance from the group he ended up taking the radiator to a local guy who thought he could weld very thin aluminum and ordered a new fan set up for overnight delivery.
The rest of the day was spent visiting the shops in Leadville and bench racing in camp while enjoying our favorite beverages.
On Wednesday everyone except Chad and Joanna (who stayed back in camp to resurrect the Toy) headed north for McCallister Gulch and Wearyman Creek trails. Like all the other trails, both of these were beautiful. The trail begins and ends at the site of Camp Hale. Camp Hale was created during WWII to train a new Army unit; the 10th Mountain Division. The unit was formed especially for winter warfare with training in mountaineering, skiing, survival, etc. There were still the remains of foundations, buildings and plaques to tell visitors about what happened there 70 years ago. Very interesting.
On Thursday we headed south for Chinaman Gulch located near Buena Vista. Chad was back in business and Tom M. met us in Buena Vista for the run. He came up from Colorado Springs for the day. On this day we had a guide to help us with the route, extra fun spots, etc. While I was at Safeway in Leadville getting supplies on Wednesday morning, one of the managers came up and started asking me about the Jeep. Turns out he is also a Jeep guy with a 1999 TJ, lives in Buena Vista and knows Chinaman Gulch well. He told me he was off on Thursday and would love to show us the trail. Doug was a great guy and his four wheeling style very entertaining with his open front, locked rear 35" tired Jeep. I think we all thought he was going to break something at any minute but he never did. We all had a great time with no mishaps. We also walked a parallel trail part way. The trail is called Carnage Canyon. It would be a blast, comparable to some of the most challenging trails in Johnson Valley, requiring a rig set up for big rocks. We decided to just watch a few buggies work on the rocks.
We again headed north on Friday for the best of the bunch; Holy Cross Trail. This trail was the toughest of the bunch but none of the group had any problems. There were a few difficult sections including a challenging water crossing for a few of the rigs but with spotting assistance all made it through without mishap. We visited the remains of Holy Cross City and visited a nearby mine.
For wildlife during the week we saw deer, an elk, many marmots and pikas, hawks and eagles.
During the week we ate at several decent restaurants. I think my favorite was Quincy's Steakhouse. Quincy's menu was as easy as it gets. Depending on the night, they serve either Prime Rib or Filet Mignon. Never both at the same time and no other main dish. If you wanted fish...forget it. We were there on FM night. You could order an 8, 10, 14 or 16 ounce filet. It came with a loaded baked potato, salad and bread (great bread) for $14.00 for the 14 ounce filet!!! It was excellent. On our last night together, Friday, Bill suggested we order pizza. We had a great pizza party in camp with everybody there and two picnic tables put together. What a great group of folks. Thanks for making it so much fun.
Most of us headed home on Saturday with only the retired folks staying a bit longer.