Trail Report: CO 2015 - the Altitude Tour, pictures please!

[suntinez]

Doug is still in Arizona and asked me to start a picture thread, so here it is. Please share your pics here.



So many beautiful places, it’s hard to know where to start.

[suntinez]

I guess the beginning is good.

Actually this beginning had a few hiccups, starting with Doug’s truck breaking down near Needles. He made it off the highway and we spent a couple of hours in 106 degree heat re-arranging stuff and waiting for AAA. He offloaded the WJ and piled everything into wherever we could find room, the WJ towed the trailer from there. Nearing heat stroke, we cooled down and waited out an impressive storm at the Pilot/Wendy’s in AZ. Duststorms, lightning, rain and crazy wind. We watched the canopy do some serious gymnastics over the gas pumps, the station’s anemometer read 70 mph winds. Anemometers at a gas station? 2 more mph and we would've had a hurricane, crazy. We found out later Cliff waited out the storm on the side of the road nearby.



But – all was well, the storm blew over and we continued on our way. After setting up camp in the pouring rain, the clouds broke and Bryan & I headed into Silverton.




Cement Creek, famous a few days later for dumping all the muck into the Animas River

A fun new addition in Silverton


Folks continued to arrive and in the afternoon we headed up to Clear Lake. Gorgeous.



Gathering for a group shot. One of these Jeeps is … funny.


Group shot to come in front of this amazing waterfall.


A bit of fishing, a bit of kayaking and a lot of wildflowers. Fun afternoon.






Little fishermen turn into big fishermen.



Pic from Sarah on the way out.

[FishPOET]

Thanks for starting this report Linda. I won't be on a computer until Thursday.

[TipsE-Z]

I'll work on getting mine uploaded later this week. I'm probably doing a video with photos tossed in so that it is all one post. Dino and Chuck... I apologize now; but some zip line videos are too good to not have some fun editing.

[daniel_buck]

Will be uploading mine soon as well

[Materdaddy]

Thanks for starting this report Linda. I won't be in a computer until Thursday.

[suntinez]

We started our first full trail day with a driver meeting, then up Porphyry Gulch.




more waterfalls …

more wildflowers …

Friendly locals …

Looking across to Red Mountain Mining District, waiting on the tail of the group.


Oh, here they are … nice of Rick & Sarah to bring a Jeep for Brandon to use.

The towed rig:

The brake rig:


Soon all was well, and we headed over to Yankee Girl Mine and the Red Mtn Mining District.




Young’uns smiling. TipsE-Z has a fun family, so great having all of them - and this little gal never stopped smiling the whole trip.


Old’uns too, go Ziggy


A nice spot for lunch.



We came up on this mine with lots of cool equipment, but the playground beckoned.





So when the

You have 5 minutes

sounded, play continued. At first it was a treesaver and a D-ring on a conveniently strung 3/8” cable where Chris, Chuck and Dino went zipping over to the top of the first knoll.

All good, what could go wrong?





Can't wait to see the other shots of this, and ... later.

[suntinez]

Upgrades were in order, less than half the cable was used. A snatch block and safety rope got added, and well …

Chuck said “Me first!”
https://youtu.be/7zEsV1vzLJg

Chris won for style points
https://youtu.be/xahq1piqqVY

Dino said “Chuck I’m takin you down, hold my beer - watch this!”
https://youtu.be/gV6o7F_d9ys

Lucky for everyone Ryan had moved his Jeep down to the road to get a better GoPro angle, cause Dino had to one-up himself and do it in reverse. Kinda.

https://youtu.be/JHnCBCGBkrc

[HookandLadder]

Here are some pictures from our view. Our adventure was quite exhausting as our kids wore us out!! Thanks Doug for putting together another great trip.

Our trip started with a visit to the Grand Canyon










Drivers Training for Bryce


Installing a new fuel pump in Cliffs Jeep










Love Birds!


















Uncle Dougie

[aw12345]

Nice pics Y'all, Colorado has some awesome views for sure

[FishPOET]

My mom and my Uncle Bill flew to So Cal from Indiana. We left La Habra at 7am on Thursday July 30. We met up with Bryan, Bill and Linda in Barstow at 9am and headed out on our adventure. The truck lost its transmission coming into Needles. I had AAA tow it home. I tossed all my gear into Linda's Tiger, Bill's Tab trailer and onto my car hauler. We continued on in the WJ towing the car hauler. We dropped the car hauler in Prescott Valley at my daughter Lettie's house and tossed the gear from the car hauler into her truck. We stayed Thursday night in Flagstaff.

Friday morning Lettie and Daniel joined us in Flagstaff and we headed East on Interstate 40 until Gallup NM on advice from Phil that there was a lot of construction on Hwy 89. We headed North from Gallup. We stopped in Durango and filled Linda's Tiger with firewood. We arrived at Golden Horn Dispersed Camping Area outside of Silverton on South Mineral Creek around 6pm. Cliff and Phil had arrived earlier and saved a large area for our group. We set up camp in the pouring rain. It rained all night. No campfire on Friday evening

Sauturday morning it was scattered showers. We continued setting up camp. Ryan & Cathy, Chuck & Alycia, Chris & Kalah all arrived during a lull in the rain and got their camps set up. Rick & Sarah arrived with their 3 vehicle set up. Buck arrived in his TJ.

The road into camp


We had lunch in camp and at 1 pm we headed for Clear Lake. It was overcast but the rain stayed away for 4 hours and allowed us to enjoy the activities at Clear Lake.

Clear Lake








Dinner was mexican food at Natalia's 1912 Restaraunt It rained all night and we missed out on our campfire for the 2nd night in a row

Russ arrived after dark and set up his camp in the rain. Brandon & Stephanie arrived around 11pm in their travel trailer.

to be continued....

[dirtman13]

We left a little early for our trip and decided to hit a few stops along the way. We took Route 66 through Peach Springs.




Bearzona









2 Guns Arizona. This is an old attraction that is now a abandon ghost town. Really want to go back and explore this place a little more.





Petrified Forest






After arriving in Durango we stayed at the Tammaron Resort for a couple of days to play some golf.
Each morning this deer would come and play in this sand trap...



...and each morning these guys would fix it.

[dirtman13]

Continued...


After some relaxation it was off to Silverton to meet up with the group.







A little fun with a snatch block, tree saver, and a 3/8 cable in the forest.


Hang in there.



Camp for the week.







Looking into Telluride from Black Bear Pass

[dirtman13]

Continued...


On our free day we did the the Heritage Tour in Silverton. This included a tour of the town museum, Old Hundred Mine, and the Mayflower Mill. Great tour.



Our guide actually did some drilling

Ran this front loader

Thankfully he didn't demonstrate this.




Oil bucket for oiling the steel cable up the mountain.













Good by Silverton until next time.


Thank you to everyone for a fabulous adventure.

[FishPOET]

Sunday August 2 was Porphyry Gulch and Red Mountain Mining District.

Dino & Jackie joined the group at the trailhead at 9am. We started climbing the Porphyry Gulch Trail only to find a "Road Closed" sign due to heavy equipment working on the trail. We turned around and took the shortcut over to Black Bear Pass. I had not been on this road before and we found a nice canyon with 2 waterfalls. We saw quite a few rigs coming down from Black Bear Pass and found out later that Saturday and Sunday was the one weekend a year that they allow Black Bear Pass to be run backwards. http://www.wb4x4.com/black-bear-backwards-2015.html

Road between Porphyry Gulch and Black Bear Pass






The wildflowers were spectacular this year.


We headed farther North on US550 to the trailhead for Red Mountain Mining District. The Red Mountain Mining District is a series of mines and old towns in and around Red Mountain #1, Red Mountain #2 and Red Mountain #3.

1891 map of the Red Mountain Mining District https://www.raremaps.com/maps/large/25089.jpg

Some history of the Red Mountain Mining District http://www.silvertonmagazine.com/his..._Mountain.html

Lettie & Daniel at the Robinson Mine


Buck, Alycia, Lettie & Daniel at the Genessee Mine


Genessee Mine














Bill at the Longfellow Mine


Longfellow Mine




Linda documented the zip line fun at the Longfellow Mine. I can't wait to see all the videos.

It was mostly cloudy all day but not much rain. We found an old building at the National Bell Mine to have lunch in. Some of the vehicles went exploring at lunch and found some old mining trails to play on. Dinner was mexican food at Brown Bear Cafe We finally had our first campfire

to be continued.....