|
  Part II  |
| . | . |
| . | . | . |
As many of you probably know, a lucky group of GCC members, including myself, were fortunate to be able to go to the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado the week of August 4th. Green Country was one of three Land Cruiser Clubs represented - Lone Star Land Cruisers and Tornado Alley also teamed up on this trip. All together, there were 14 land cruisers there, a baby land cruiser (4-runner), and 27 people. I must say, it was an adventure that everyone will remember. Green Country members that attended this year were Robert Waters, Dave Rising and his two youngest children. Randy and Ellen Underwood, Dave Surface and his wife, Alex Ulivi and Jen Henson, Don Pennington and his son, and myself. Just about everyone agreed that we need to make this an annual event, so we need to start thinking about 2004. We camped at the Red Mountain Campground in Silverton, which was a centralized point for our day long trips into the mountains. Lone Star member Gary Coberly (he owns a cherry HJ61) has for a number of years patronized this campground, and he was very familiar with the mountain trails. Gary did a wonderful job of introducing us to the area, setting up reservations at the campground, and leading us on the trails. For many of us, it was the first time to explore this area of high mountain passes, old mining ghost towns, and historic and charming towns such as Ouray, Telluride, Lake City, and Durango. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Alex, myself, and Jen drove out from Oklahoma City on Saturday, August 2nd, and we stayed in Taos, NM. Sunday morning, we linked up with Pat Elliot, Lone Star member who lives in Santa Fe, and we drove the rest of the way up to Silverton. We drove up through Chama, NM, then up to Pagosa Springs, CO, then on over to Durango, and finally up the "Million Dollar Highway" to Silverton. The 55 mile trip from Durango to Silverton, was absolutely stunning scenery. The road follows the Animas River as it snakes it way down to Durango, passing a number of 14,000 ft mountain peaks. When we arrived at the campground Sunday afternoon, most of the Lone Star and Tornado alley group had already arrived and set up camp, and were awaiting our arrival. Monday We assembled Monday morning, and decided to take a group trip into Lake City (via engineer and cinnamon pass). We started out, all 14 vehicles, by traveling up to Animas Forks. Then, one group, led by Robert Waters, took Engineer pass into Lake City, and the other group, let by Gary Coberly, took Cinnamon pass into Lake City. We decided to split into smaller groups to lessen the traffic on each pass. When we got to the top of Engineer pass, my GPS registered 13,200 feet. We pulled off onto a ridge line, and got out to take pictures. Dave Surface, who was riding shotgun with me, was a great passenger, as he has spent a lot of time in the area (just like Gary Coberly), and he was able to point out a number of interesting sites. Here’s a picture of Dave in front on my FJ60 while we were parked at the top of Engineer pass. The mountains in the background are near Ouray. This was taken about 12:00 noon, and the temperatures were 60 degrees when the sun was out, and 40 degrees when the clouds came over! John Winstead’s tan FJ60 (he’s a lone star member), and Robert Water’s red FJ40, are also in the picture.  We proceeded down the trail to Lake City. Along the way, we came to a really neat looking old dam which appeared 100 years old, apparently built to generate water power for mining activity. It had a large hole in it, and I couldn’t tell whether it was intentionally made, or not.  We went on down to Lake City to have lunch. By the time we got down there, 2:30pm, the Italian restaurant had already closed for lunch. Dave and I had a burrito at another place down the street, which was pretty good. They hired a bunch of eastern European school kids to work in the restaurant, and they spoke good English, which was kind of cool. Our Group passed Coberly’s group in Lake City, as each group switched off to take the opposite route back into Silverton on the return. We took Cinnamon pass, and Coberly’s group took Engineer back. About a mile from the pass on the way up, we took a trail up into a big scenic basin known as American Basin. While Randy, Robert, Dave, and John went to the end of the basin road, Jeff Jones (Lone Star) and Dave Surface, and I stayed near the road and I took this shot of them coming back to meet us.  Near the top of Cinnamon pass, we pulled over to take a look at some mine shafts. We got passed by a Silver FJ60, with Colorado plates! Here’s my FJ60, Robert’s FJ40, and Randy’s FJ40. This is about 12,000 feet, just above the tree line. A few places in the shade still had snow on the ground!  After we cleared the top of Cinnamon pass, as we rapidly descended back down towards Animas Forks, the view was simply breathtaking. I was too busy keeping my hands on the steering wheel, however, to take any pictures. The road clings to the side of a mountain, and the drop off was tremendous to the left! When we got back to Animas Forks, we stopped and took a look at some of the old historic buildings that are still standing. It’s really a pretty interesting ghost town. The one thing you notice is the vertical, two story buildings, with steep roofs. This is because this area averages 20 feet of snow every year! Animas Forks residents would actually dig tunnels in the snow between houses each winter! That was the end of a very long day. The buffalo burger I had at Handlebars restaurant in Silverton was excellent. Tuesday On Tuesday, Gary led our group into Ouray for lunch. In order to save time, we took the million dollar highway into Ouray, as we planned to take Engineer pass back. This turned out to be a good decision, as we had some mechanical trouble on the trail as you’ll soon see. We split up for lunch in Ouray, and we reassembled and headed back up the highway to where Engineer pass comes out of the mountains. We got started about 1:30pm. This is a picture of us lined up at the start of Engineer Pass. The U.S. Forest Service actually had an employee watching vehicle use.  The first few miles of Engineer pass road is kind of scary. It’s a narrow shelf road about the width of a vehicle. The passenger side is a shear drop-off into a canyon below. It’s not really difficult, but there are a bunch of rocks in the road that you slowly bounce over, which makes you think you’re tumbling over the side. You then start to get up higher into the mountains, and you begin to actually follow a valley being carved by a mountain stream fed by snow. This picture shows where the road widens out after passing the shelf road.  When we got to the intersection of Poughkeepsie Gulch road and Engineer pass road, the group decided to take the more difficult Poughkeepsie Gulch road. Dave Rising and I were the only stock vehicles in the group. A nice lady in a jeep saw me at the end of the group following them up, and as I was talking to her about the trail, she said I shouldn’t go up that route unless I was willing to risk damage! I definitely didn’t like the sound of that, but, I wanted to stay with the group. I was following Dave Rising, and noticed he had a challenging obstacle which he made it through. Justin Ward (Lone Star), who was following me at the end of the group, spotted me through this. I was having some difficulty, and Justin discovered that my front wheels were not turning! That was really strange, as my shift lever was supposed to be in 4 low. Anyway, I made it through, thanks to Justin spotting me, in 2 wheel drive. This was just the start of a long, challenging afternoon for me... Continued in Part II ... |
. | . | . |