Great shots Larry! I'll agree that was darn near a perfect weekend outing. I'll step in with my viewpoint..
Our day started a little later than Larry's since Bill and I had to work Friday. Bill was cool enough to stop by my house and pick up my son so we didn't have to leave another vehicle in Canon City to meet me. They rolled up just in time to shut the shop down, change out of my work duds and hit the road. Outside of darn near wiping out the right side of the Blazer not seeing a car when I pulled out of the lot the ride to Salida was uneventful. Pre-trip the boy wasn't sure how the ride would be without tunes so I threw in a pair of speakers since my cheapie kicker box got swiped a while ago. Funny thing was we ended up talking the entire ride up. Good quality time and it made the ride go quick. A quick gas-n-go in Salida with one last call home before we dropped off the grid for a while too.
We turned off the highway near 9:00 at night. First wildlife sighting was about a 1/2 mile off the highway. A truck in front of us kicked on his hazards to alert us. About 30 feet off the road stud a huge buck with the largest rack I've ever seen. Sorry, no photos it was too dark. We plodded up through Mt. Princeton hot springs and then St. Elmo in the darkness. I stopped to ask Bill about airing down and we both agreed to just hit it at street pressure due to the late hour. We both regretted that about 10 minutes later. A couple of white tail and giant elk were spotted on the way up to the summit. We stopped on top for the obligatory shot in front of the summit sign, the darkness hides the sign mostly.
I had planned on letting the boy drive over Tin Cup, but the added degree of difficulty in the dark we both thought it would be safer to not do that yet. I do have to say Tin Cup is a pretty basic trail that most average 4wheel drive trucks can motor right over, but in the dark it changed a lot. That and the last few winters have changed it. More rough, more rocks and less dirt to fill in the gaps. Riding at street pressure was kidney killing. Still, it's been forever that Bill and I wheeled in the dark and it was fun. Plus the star gazing was amazing. We rolled into camp around 10:30 and threw up the tent, cracked a cold one and turned in.
Next morning didn't come fast enough for me. The tent was warm but the ground wasn't as forgiving. The boy bailed for the comfort of the back seat of the K5 early on. So naturally I was first up. But it afforded me shots like this: (mirror lake, pre-dawn)
Breakfast grub on the griddle:
Where is everybody???
Oh yeah, they were warm and comfy!
So we bail out a little later than we all thought it was, but decided to head for Taylor pass. Now the boy is behind the wheel.
The fall aspen colors were in full effect. We nailed the timing for sure!
Taylor pass starts out rocky and doesn't quit. Nothing big, but large enough to be annoying all day long. Like Larry said, we've been here before and it proved to be way different than last time I did it. Little did we know how much had changed. Plus the boy is the pilot, never driven off road in his life. I think we might have tossed him right to the wheeling wolves..
The trail is cool though. It winds in and out of a creek for a good distance. Then you must climb out of that creek.
Here's where it gets really interesting. In this shot Bill is just starting the climb. He's got to pour the coals to the 24v Cummins and he's at the bottom of the pile.
I don't have any shots driving though it in the K5 as I was a little pre-occupied with giving directions. I will say I was nervous, but the kid proved to be a natural. Calm, patient and without the tendency to hit the hammer like his Dad does, or so Larry says. Still he wheeled that section like he's been doing it for a long time. He got hung up, stalled it and had the added challenge of restarting a manual trans truck mid section, but he nailed it. I think we all got surprised by that and the moto-observers too. You see it in the video Larry posted.
We continued on to Taylor lake and completely sucked at fishing, except Larry of course. 3 casts out or so he nailed a pretty cutthroat, then got skunked like the rest of us losers.
Looking back down the valley at what we just came up.
Like I said the colors were amazing.
We camped out on the backside of Taylor pass and I found yet another spot to not sleep on. But many celebratory beers were had for the great drive we made and many tall tales spun. A good time for sure.
Morning broke to another rainstorm and we broke camp quickly and hauled tail down to the road. Keep in mind we weren't really sure where we were at. We had a general idea from a map Bill had and GPS, but we weren't positive how far out of Aspen we were. My problem was we last filled up in Salida and have had a lot of time in low range. My fuel level was now at 1/8 of a tank and falling. We aired up and scored a killer rack for Blazer 2.0 laying on the side of the trailhead. The ride into Aspen was eye opening between the colors and multi-million dollar estates I knew we were in a foreign land. Rolling into town the boy and I spotted 3 four-door Porches and a 4th pulled into the gas station with us. I chugged down as much $4.72/gallon regular as I could stomach and asked Bill which way out of this high rent district. He pointed the way we got the hell out of there.
Home came over Independence pass. I've driven over MANY paved passes in this state and I have to say that was the most sketchy of them all. The Aspen side narrows to 1 lane in spots with blind curves and you are just supposed to "shoot the gap" and go into hoping nobody else is coming. Driving a portly K5, Larry's K10 and Bill's Ram through this mess was akin to threading a needle with a firehose as the thread. We got the first section down and then some nitwit in a Wrangler tried to squeeze the next one. I got over as far as I felt safe to the guardrail and she delivered a crusty look in thanks as she missed my mirror by barely an inch.
Rest of the ride home was easy from there. Only damage sustained was one broken Blazer emblem on the right fender and the rear diff cover lip got peeled back again starting a small leak. All in all a fitting swan song to the 75 and a wonderful beginning to a new off road junkie.
Fun time, fun people and great surroundings. We Colorado boys are truly spoiled by what is right out our backyard.