Summer
Vacation
All right
- Sunday morning is the best yet, cloudless sky with a light fog
enveloping the town of Silverton. Beautiful doesn't begin to describe
it. Grab breakfast at the Chattanooga and head for Ouray. Pull
into town and soon find Jason, James, Mark, Ethan and Paul in
his red LC, along with assorted wives, kids and friends. More
faces to put with the email names! Introductions all around and
then Paul has to take off to meet some folks at the bottom of
Ophir. Find out Michael and Toby are already up in the hills somewhere
on Engineer. The rest split up to eat, get gas, or eat and get
gas. James' better half elects to stay behind and shop, the rest
finally all get out of town around 11:00, the vote is for Imogene
and then Ophir.
Somehow I
get the lead and we head up past Box Canyon Falls toward Yankee
Boy Basin. I vaguely remember the Imogene turnoff is up that way
somewhere. We stop a few times to air down and do photos and pretty
soon the turn does show up, right where it used to be.
Only difference
is the rock just past the creek has gotten much larger over the
years. Actually the creek has washed the earth away from the base
of it, causing it to grow larger. Visions of Moab! Mark and I
go down first wondering if Ethan and Slush Puppy can make it without
dragging. While we are discussing it a Ford (Explorer or Expedition?)
comes down the trail. He stops with wide eyes at the base of the
rock and asks "Am I supposed to go up THAT?". We say either up
or around, and he tries up first, but loses traction when he rear
tire comes off the ground, so he backs down and goes around. Next
thing I know, there's Ethan, I still don't know if he came down
or went around it.
We take off
with Mark in the lead and wind our way through the trees stopping
at one point to admire the view of the Camp Bird mine complex.
The view here is one step from goodbye, talk about a steep drop-off!
Back on the
trail, just before we leave the trees we meet a group of 26 vehicles
coming down. They are mostly jeeps and are with the Farmington
club (the name of which I forget), not an FSJ in the group. Fortunately,
there is room for everyone to get by our little Wagoneer train
safely.
A little farther
up we stop at the base of Imogene basin and take a break. My engine
is getting pretty warm and James' is getting a little dry, so
we kick a few more tires, water a few bushes and enjoy the spectacular
scenery while things cool down. Up above us is the shelf road
carved out of the mountainside which we will soon occupy, Ethan
asks that we not point it out to Susan.
After the
cool down, up we go with some confusion as to which section of
road goes where. Each one tries a path and they all meet at the
base of the shelf road. The trail is getting a little rougher,
the wet summer has been hard on all the trails in the area. Ethan
is beginning to wonder if he can keep his promise not to bend
or mutilate Slush Puppy. Before long we are all on the shelf road
and heading for the upper part of the basin.
Mark goes
up first, and I'm following. At the top end is a YJ? coming down
that doesn't want to wait for the others. I pull up at a switch
back above a gnarly loose section with big rocks and notice that
no one is behind me. Mark continues up toward the top when the
call comes over the radio that someone (Jason?) is having problems,
vapor locking I believe. I wait in case someone needs a tow, but
am out of sight of the pack below. Mark then has trouble up above
me, again out of sight, so we have gotten a little spread out
on the trail.
Someone else
will have to fill in the details, but eventually Ethan, Jason,
and James get caught up. I'm sitting up above a steep sluice like
washout with a big rock in the middle. Just before the trailing
FSJs get there a Nissan comes up and tries to straddle the wash
and the rock, with two loud bangs from his diffs as a result.
Loud enough that he stops for a damage check. When Ethan gets
up to it, he tries one side, then the other, and when it looks
like he's stuck on the rock, he gives it the gas and up he goes,
not a bang or a crunch to be heard. And all from a stock FSJ!
I'm sure us expert spotters had something to do with that!
Up the trail
a bit we get to Mark's rough spot. More steep rocky stuff with
a few different paths to choose from. At least the mud bogs that
used to be here are now just dry depressions. Vapor locking turns
out to be the problem of the day, seems only James and myself
aren't suffering from it, but I'm running very hot and James is
leaking green stuff from his radiator. Mark finally makes it up
the rough section and waits at the top. Ethan can get started,
but has no power when he gives it the gas. Jason can't get his
engine started, and no fuel is coming out of his fuel line at
the new filter he installed down below. Some cold water over the
fuel pump restores his fuel flow and by then Ethan has made it
up to Mark,so with everybody now running we continue on to the
top of the pass.
Meanwhile,
we hear Paul on the radio, seems he is just below us on the other
side of the pass down in Tomboy basin.
The view from
the top of Imogene at 13,385 ft is one of the clearest I can remember,
I'm sure you can see beyond the borders of Colorado. Pictures
won't do it justice, it is just fantastic. There are actually
two vantage points about a half mile apart, so we pause at the
first for a group photo, and look out towards Red Mountain where
we look down(!) on Corkscrew Pass in the distance. Next we head
over to the second point which is also where the trail starts
down into Tomboy basin. A few more photos there and down we go.
One steep section gathers everyone up again and some more Kodak
moments are captured.
A little ways
farther on we pass Paul and company, so we stop and chat for a
few minutes. A few more steep rocky downhill sections lie ahead
and soon we are at the site of the Tomboy mill. A huge foundation
with a large collapsing brick structure hints at it's once great
size. The remains of dozens of buildings are scattered throughout
the basin, one can only wonder what it was like when everything
was running. Now only ghosts and four-wheelers remain. Mark spots
a fancy piece of curled-up shoe leather that unrolls to form the
toe section of what appeared to be a wing-tip's predecessor. Far
too fancy to have been a miner's boot it shows that this was once
a large community with all types of residents.
This turns
out to be a great place to stretch out a chill out, the day is
getting long and the trail was a little rougher than everyone
expected I think, so we spend an hour or so unwinding and visiting.
With the shadows
getting longer, we start down into Telluride. Some of us still
have Ophir ahead. What we don't expect is the volume of traffic
heading up. It takes us over an hour to make what is usually a
15 minute trip down. Folks just keep coming and coming up the
trail. One group of 12 vehicles has been invaded by another group
of bikers so we don't know were the end is. At least one sight
to behold as we waited is Black Bear Road zigging down the mountainside
alongside Bridal Veil Falls.
Even when
we are finally in sight of the pavement, we have to give way to
traffic. Seems there is some kind of festival in town and everyone
must have waited 'till the end of the day to see the mountains!
(Once I got back to Silverton, Bill told me that all the Jeep
rental folks recommend doing Imogene from the Telluride side,
it's slowly becoming one way like Black Bear. If only we had known!)
We all gather
at a gas station where some choose not to buy fuel for 1.69 a
gallon, but my mileage has been so bad I go ahead and get a cupful
for $10. Ethan does a quick damage check and finds no new dings
or dents, so his promise to Susan was kept.
Jason has
to head over to Gunnison? I believe, and Mark and family choose
the highway back to Ouray, so good-byes are said and James, Ethan
(& Susan), and I head out for Ophir Pass. I promise to Ethan
that it's not as bad as Imogene.
A few miles
down the highway and we make the turn up to Old Ophir. A few miles
further and we are through Old Ophir and into New Ophir. Actual
streets now exist and the way through "town" escapes me for a
minute. Then we leave civilization once more (with no store in
sight for Ethan to purchase matches). The trail is a little rough
to start but smoothes out once we get by the creek that has been
running down the trail. Up ahead the shelf road appears through
the trees and before we know it we are on it. My engine is once
again getting very warm as we progress. I hurry ahead a little
to the upper switchback to get a shot of James and Ethan still
on the shelf section. They stop for a moment for the photo op,
and when I get back in my rig it's over 250 degrees, I have to
find a wide spot and cool her down. Ethan's also starts vapor
locking again, and I think James has a little trouble also. I
pour a gallon of water over the radiator and get mine down to
220 degrees, and some cold water helps get Ethan moving again
also.
We all finally
make it to the top of Ophir, and sitting there is a bright red
full size pickup with the logo for a cooling system company in
Dallas and Reno painted on it's side. We chuckle at the coincidence
and talk with the owner briefly while things cool down once again.
We all agree that we are nearly to heaven in this great part of
the country. On that note we start down and soon reach the bottom
and highway 550. James and I air up our tires while Ethan and
Susan look for a campsite. I give Ethan a ride to Silverton for
boyscout materials (matches and lighter fluid), and James says
goodbye and heads for Ouray. I get Ethan back to camp just before
dark and say goodbye to him and Susan.
What a day!
Too bad I missed out on seeing Michael again and meeting Toby.
Art (Packrat)
