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Old 10-08-2019, 10:43 PM   #1007
Zoomad75
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Pueblo, CO
Posts: 1,513
Re: post up your camping pics

Ok, the guys are on Jaws 1. To the very left is the edge of the shelf that leads to certain doom if you screw up. The idea would be to head up the chute to the right (just over the center of the hood and to the right of Martin) and then hook a hard left on top to go straight over the fin that cuts the trail diagonally. The problem here is that fin has a straight drop on the back side. You can see oil spillage in the center where somebody nailed the rock. We at first though of skirting the whole thing by hanging way left but the rock would force your ride to tilt right at the downhill slope below the shelf.
******



The group decides we’ve pushed our luck enough up to this point we decide to go back down the mountain to find a campsite.
It is beautiful up there though.




We start coming down and get a great look at the San Luis valley and Alamosa below.


*****
Side note from the climb up the trail. We found many trucks/jeeps that went part of the way up the trail and parked to then hike up the rest of the way. This is a pretty narrow trail so parking ends up happening in the corners of switchbacks. The trail is pretty popular for hikers as there are three of Colorado’s 14’ers up there to climb beyond the end of the 4wd trail. One of the trucks we passed was a 2500 Ram was rolling on 20’s with street tread. As one would expect on a rough trail like this, low profile tires and street tread probably aren’t going to last long. Sure enough the left front is flat.


The truck is locked up and nobody is nearby. It’s slightly in the way of navigating the switchback but we press on past it and laugh about the out-of-state plates and being less than prepared for this trail. Further up the road we came across 3 hikers loaded with gear and fishing poles. Bill in the lead ends up talking to them and discovering they are the ones that came up with the Ram. They explained they lacked the jack to get the spare swapped on. It’s at this point we see them loading Bill’s truck with the gear. Seeing this from behind we don’t know what’s being said so I call to Bill on the CB and ask what’s going on. Bill offered to carry the stuff for them as far as we could make it. As rough and slow as the trail is, they keep up with is pretty well on foot. While at Jaws 1 we talk to the guys and let them get the stuff and we asked about the truck and if they would like us to help them out with it since we all had jacks in our trucks. They were more than happy to take us up on the offer.

We get down there and get to work.


I grab my bottle jack and Bill starts taking the lugs loose. John shimmy’s under it to set the jack in place and get the flat off the ground.



We had Martin hop in and make sure the parking brake was on and he was about knocked over by the stench of weed coming out of the truck. It all make sense now.

Spare on I check the cooler to see if there is a cold one we take as payment. Upon further inspection, we’ll let them keep the warm beers floating in who knows what. Yuck!


My trail dog Storm getting a drink while we work on the Ram.


Martin was taking pics through out the trip, this is one.


Since I was leading the way down it was my task to find a campsite for the night. I spot a side trail back into the trees for a natural wind break and pull back there to check it out. We are loosing daylight now so this fits the bill, fairly flat for Bill and the rest of us. Camp gets set up quickly and we get into relax mode.



I’m getting ready to cook some cheesesteak sammiches for the group.


We hang out around our campfire in a can due to the burn restrictions and the sun sets on great day of wheeling.

__________________
Rob Z.
1975 K5 350/465/205/D44/12b 4" lift on 35's- RIP
1991 K5 8.1L/NV4500/241/D44/14b FWC Camper
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