5 YEARS TO GET HERE........
This trip is very exciting for us, since we are finally going to get to run a trail our dear departed Harold Off told us about in 2008. He knew what we liked --- so we trusted his opinion that this trail would rate high on our thrill-o-meter. And now we were finally going to get to score it! But first we have the warm up......
Day 1 begins at 5am leaving Bandera with the goal of sleeping the night on Colorado soil. It is a long haul, but we get to Antonito for our first night. We are having issues running our refrigerator on gas, so we run the generator the entire time. Who cares, right? Diesel is still under $4!! And we only have just a short distance to go to get to our first wheeling destination. All may not be perfect, but it is all good!
Day 2 finds us at Travis’ Trail, near Del Norte. It is a great playground on sand stone rock with some very cool ledges. We spend the morning here repeating Kiss My Ass and Brain Dead, along with some new stuff we did not do last year. There are definitely some extreme wheelers using this area, as we see some well used new climbs. This land was once a rock quarry and there are several well chiseled holes abandoned by man and left for nature to care for. Makes for a very different landscape than we are used to seeing and the obstacles are well worth stopping for a days play. We finish up the trail and load up to head to Johnson Village. This is an easy stretch, so once we get settled in, Artie has plenty of time to move the transmission cooler back into its original place. With the engine swap he had relocated it where he could add some cooling fans - that did not fit the way he wanted - so back to square one. (He tried his best to get every little thing done on the rig overhaul, but after working 14 hour days in our business, I am amazed he has any energy left to do anything at all! By the way, the 350 engine did a fine job.) Good thing is, if you have to be working on stuff, there isn’t a better place than this trail head camp spot! And the full moon against the mountains is totally unbeatable! Life is good just about now.
Day 3 puts Carnage Canyon under our wheels. Excellent trail with what I call the typical Colorado landscape - tall pines, rugged rocks and mountains surrounding you! Definitely great eye candy! And this trail has a true qualification of extreme. Both myself and Larry get sideways on the V Notch....and there will be no mosquitos in this canyon for a long, long time! I did a good job of smoking them all out! The other wicked spot is the straight up exit. Artie does an awesome job of spotting Larry - jockeying his rig into several different positions to make a clean unassisted exit! Woo hooo! Carnage Canyon gets a 10 in our book!
With Carnage behind us and done before lunch, this gives us time for some more wrenching.....this time on Larry’s motorhome. The engine brakes had quit completely and with Tennessee Pass looming in the next stretch, there was a need to get them fixed! We like excitement, but sheer downhill unstoppable terror is not on the agenda! Thankfully they are able to put the brakes on a toggle switch and they work beautifully as we cross the Continental Divide and head on to northwest CO.
Our contact will not be meeting us till after work, so Artie has time to do yet again more work on the refrigerator. Running the generator non stop is for the birds! For the third time he takes out the orifice, blows it out and reinstalls. Lets see what that will do! We meet up with Pat and Jan, who show us the way to our long awaited trail. Our anticipation is growing - we are so close to our goal! We drive and drive and drive - until Pat says, yes this is it. Really?? This does not look like anything promising. I have to be honest and say I was feeling a little let down. All talk and no action?? We will see tomorrow. By the time we return from the trail head it is dark and way past supper time. We share a meal in our motorhome and enjoy the company of Pat and Jan, listening to their stories of adventures in the early days of the Rat Pack. There are so many wonderful people in this sport and we feel lucky to have met some of the very best!