The trip included myself, Adam and Ray along with his young'uns. I camped overnight and hoped that someone would come, 8:30 passed, 9:00 passed, around 9:15 Ray showed up and then Adam another 5 minutes later. Around 9:30 or so we decided to go.

It was another splendid Rocky Mountain day, not to hot and not cold. The aspens were turning, Bonus! We treaded up the trail and it progressively got harder and harder. We were doing okay, and taking some of the harder lines, but French Creek stopped us. Or maybe I should say it stopped me. I tried over to the right a couple of times and came off pretty hard and decided to take the left. Somewhere on that side I also bent my bumper in on the passenger side and bent the fender. As I got over the crest of the big rock on that side, I started to get a little loose and stuck on the rear diff and had to winch forward. Adam and Ray both made it through okay. Adam does good because of the height and those Goodyear MTR's , and Ray just has this smooth kind of driving style. We saw James at the creek and chatted for a bit before continuing on.

We all made it up to the city where we enjoyed lunch, and I pulled my bumper back out. Adam wanted to try for Cleveland Rock. Cleveland Rock is a huge angular mass of rock with more vertical area the horizontal. I wasn't so sure, but we went anyway. Ray hung back a bit, while Adam tried first. He got good line, but didn't have the power and gears for it. After a thirty-point turn, we got him back and away. Adam has a little more height than me, so I wasn't so sure, I got on Adam's line and soon realized that it was to tall a vertical climb for the rear. I started to back down, slid to the left and had the left rear on like the vertical edge to the side of the tire. It worked, and I climbed up onto Cleveland Rock. It was pretty cool! I went up and turned around, and the trip down the rock was a little scary, but still cool.

We made the trip back down without incident, and aired up back at the road, where I found the right hand upper shackle bolt was missing the nut. I always try to check the truck out before hitting the road again and this is why. I don't know where the nut went, (they are the self locking kind), but Ray had a spare and hooked me up. All and all it was a really great trip. I wish I had seen more of you there, but a great time was had nonetheless.

Dave Kelly