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| Photo by Erik Gudmundson |
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The FJs are back
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Post-trip FJ todo list
A few items I really have to look into after I get the FJ back this week:
- I lost my ATRAC after Iron Pig installed the new drive train. Need to troubleshoot and fix that. Hopefully they just forgot to plug some harness in, or maybe I have a blown fuse somewhere.
- Need to look into doing a body lift. Normally not recommended, but I figure a very mild lift (1/2") should do a lot of improvement to tire rubbing (which hasn't been that bad with the 34" tires, but it's there).
- Troubleshoot CB. I'm having some transmission issues which might be caused by grounding problems, or by antenna location. In addition to check the wiring I'm considering transferring both CB and ham antennas to the brush bar to improve transmission characteristics.
- Need to get a new tire to replace the one I shredded at Rose Garden Hill. It still holds air, but I don't really trust it to last much longer.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Erik's expedition summary
Erik Gudmundson gave me permission to copy and paste his trip summary here from the restricted area in the FJ Bruisers forum, which saves me the trouble of having to write one which probably wouldn't be as good, so thanks buddy.
Organization began here [Another restricted link to the FJ Bruisers forum. Removed.].
Here is my report.
Upon return from NJ, I packed the FJ with all the gear we would need for two weeks, and we met the flatbed truck driver on Friday August 27 to send the FJs to Colorado. We shipped the trucks to an offroad repair shop where Beto had some work done at the last second before we arrived. Why ship? So we could spend every minute of our vacation enjoying our destination, instead of spending half of it driving across the country. When your vacation is to spend two weeks offroading from the driver’s seat, we didn’t want to spend another week driving on straight highways.
The time without our FJs was like a weeklong Christmas Eve. The waiting finally ended on Saturday September 4 when we flew from Philadelphia to Denver and picked up the trucks. They survived the first major hurdle by making to the start of the expedition ready to go.
Saturday and Sunday were reserved for cross-country travel snafus and altitude adjustment. Since the travel went fine, we took the time to explore a bit of Denver. We hit some good restaurants, including one run by a Food Network regular, Keegan Gerhard. This was our last taste of civilization before the expedition’s main course.
Monday it was time to get down to business. We drove to Ft. Collins to meet Bill Burke at Jax, a large outdoor and Army/Navy surplus store. After the introductions and some obligatory shopping, we hit the trail. True to form, I cracked my windshield on day one. It’s my signature expedition move, but was nothing serious, so we carried on.
Bill showed us some very scenic trails through Northern Colorado, with some venturing into the South of Wyoming. We stayed primarily on National Forest land and camped the entire week. The nighttime stars, satellites, and shooting stars were simply indescribable. We found the trails to be generally mild to intermediate for our FJs, except for all of the fallen trees. Over the course of the week, we found many of our trails were blocked by freshly overturned trees. Running without a chainsaw, we got to be quite proficient with winch, axe, and saw techniques to move the timber out of our way. By the end of the week, we were a well-oiled, trail clearing machine.
Despite all the warnings and the attempt to acclimate, none of us were fully prepared for the effects of high altitude on the body. All of us were in decent physical condition, but we still found ourselves winded after performing small physical tasks like gathering firewood or dragging recovery gear above 10,000 feet. Beto even suffered a bit of altitude sickness. Sufficient acclimation time and drinking lots of non-alcoholic fluids seemed to be the cure. All of us were doing noticeably better by the end of two weeks, but none of us were operating at 100% up there. Still, the clean, crisp air was worth it.
With Bill as our guide, we winded our way West. The sights on a trip like this are too numerous to mention, but if I had to pick three highlights, they would be: seeing Rabbit Ears (a large, high elevation rock formation in the shape of… you’ll never guess) from a distance _after_ we had driven to the top of it, walking through numerous abandoned buildings and an authentic ghost town, and taking in the views of vast areas of aspen trees while cresting the mountain tops around Hahn’s Peak.
Along the way, I bent and punctured a valve stem. I was carrying what seemed like a spare everything (alternator, fluids, CV, etc.), but no valve stem. Fortunately, Bill had several to choose from and we fixed it on the trail. He showed us how easy it is to reseat the bead on a tire with nothing but a high lift jack and CO2.
The week with Bill flew by, and he was kind enough to leave us with several suggestions to help refine our itinerary for next week. As we left Bill, he was camping on his own. The man spends over 200 nights each year outdoors. Amazing.
The trip from Aspen to Crested Butte took the better part of a day. We used a 4x4 trail known as Pearl Pass and took some side trips along the way. Here, we got to play in the snow, experience some pucker-factor mountain switch backs, and enjoy absolutely fantastic views with exceptional visibility. Parts of the trail were filled with jagged rocks, and we all took some tire damage, especially Beto. He slashed through the Kevlar layer of his sidewall and had to switch to his spare at 12,000 feet above sea level. That was the best exercise I’ve had in a while. Having only one non-functioning spare between two trucks made us a little nervous, so we slowed down the pace and completed the trail with no further issues.
Crested Butte is an interesting little city. It feels like you’re in a fake model railroad town, surrounded by mountains, filled with fantastic gourmet restaurants and nice people. We found a Thai/Indian restaurant that was unbelievably delicious, and a hotel that served warm chocolate chip cookies. It was a good night.
The next morning, we were on a mission to find a replacement tire. Despite an hour of Googling and calling every tire shop between Crested Butte and Moab, we had nothing, so, we did what they used to do in the wagon train days- we ordered one on tirerack.com and had it shipped ahead to a hotel in Moab so it would be there waiting for us.
Leaving Crested Butte, we took some highway to get us to Lake City, Colorado. We hopped on Engineer Pass and started the trip to Ouray, home of the annual FJ Cruiser Summit. On the trail, we saw lots of abandoned buildings from the old mining boom days. We saw an absolutely impressive caldera, which had to be one of the most interesting sights of the whole trip.
Ouray was a little town whose scenery lived up to all the FJ Summit pictures I’ve ever seen. We swam in the hot springs (150 degrees naturally, artificially cooled to 98-104), and again I could not take my eyes off the mountains and the stars.
After one night in Ouray, we took Black Bear pass towards Telluride, Colorado. The switchbacks on Pearl Pass had nothing on these switchbacks. They were not difficult for the FJ, but they were difficult for any driver who made the mistake of looking down. We had a great time and didn’t soil our pants! We stopped at Floradora to eat duck and drink a sufficient volume of margaritas to calm our nerves enough to continue. We later took highway to Moab.
We did a couple trails/obstacles that Beto and Rick had seen before, and we had a blast. Rose Garden Hill is one of those classic offroad obstacles that looks like nothing from a distance or on pictures, but up close it’s a massive hill piled with boulders. There, we had to winch Beto to me, and me to a tree, to get him un-stuck. We first tried without me winched, then with me winched to a boulder, neither of which worked. A large tree at the very far end of my winchline was what finally did the trick (again, the altitude, and now heat!) At the top, we were treated with panoramic views of the area and the chance to cross the Delores River in two locations. We made it! Granted, the water level was low, but it’s always a little nerve wracking to cross a body of water clearly labeled “River” on the map when you’ve never seen anyone else do it.
On an expedition, you’re far from mechanical help, and even further from home, so it’s no fun to break down. You have to use a different sense of offroad values so you don’t end the trip, for yourself and the rest of the group. Not to mention, these are not our normal FJs. They have two weeks of camping gear, extra fuel, and a rootftop tent, all working hard to add weight and change our truck’s suspension, braking, and acceleration behavior. But, as the trip got closer to the end, especially since we were shipping our trucks home, we could push ourselves a little harder.
On our last trail day, we did one called “Poison Spider.” It’s basically sand, slickrock, and ledges. We made our way to the top, which overlooks Moab, then started back down. We don’t have this sort of thing around here, so it was very interesting, and very challenging for us. Going up was OK. Going down got a little too interesting when I didn’t pay enough attention to my line and took a ledge where I shouldn’t have. With all the left-foot breaking skill I had, I started easing my way down this ledge. And easing. And easing. And easing. I couldn’t find the bottom, but it was too late to back up without the assistance of winch from behind, and I decided to drive through it. I was very glad I ran the rock hill on the competition course rock at Rausch Creek a few times, because without that experience I probably would have panicked or/or rolled my truck back-over-front, or so it felt. In the end, I finally found the bottom, but I had to push the FJ forward on my winch fairlead from my driver seat with a rear tire in the air. The fairlead left huge gouge lines in the rock from the weight of the FJ. It was a very tense situation that made me gun-shy the rest of the day, but I got through it and lived to tell the tale. I think it even made Beto gun-shy [Actually, I call that being "deliberate." Ed.]. And did I mention there was a cliff 1.5 FJ lengths away from me on my front and right sides? I had to put that part out of my mind in order to complete the maneuver.
We arrived home Saturday September 18, and now we wait for our FJs to rejoin us. Hopefully they will arrive this weekend. We put them through two weeks of torture, and they survived without any significant problems. I am in awe that these trucks handled the hell we threw at them. Mine is due for a professional detailing and some TLC as soon as it’s home.
This was a fantastic trip I will remember for a lifetime. Hopefully more Bruisers will find their way out West so you can see what I mean.
THE END
It's going to take a while to get our pictures on the web. Especially me, since my camera is still in the FJ. Here is a preview of some of Beto's pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/adalberto.castelo/2010Expedition
Colorado Wyoming Utah 2010
Beto and I had an amazing time this year heading out West to Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah over a two-week period. We picked the first two weeks of September thinking the weather would still be good and the crowds would be minimal after the start of school. We were right, although we did see lots of retirees in the lower campsites and we were too late to see most of the wildflowers in full bloom. Thanks go to Rick Franz who was a great source of inspiration and encouragement, and to Bill Burke for filling in many of our details and helping make the trip more enjoyable.Organization began here [Another restricted link to the FJ Bruisers forum. Removed.].
Here is my report.
Trip Highlights
- Length: 14 days
- Lowest Elevation: 3,941 feet
- Highest Elevation: 12,943 feet
- National Forests: Roosevelt , Routt, Medicine Bow, White River, Gunnison, Uncompahgre
- Bureau of Land Management: La Sal Mountains: Poison Spider, Rose Garden Hill, Onion Creek
- River Crossings: Dolores
Final Preparations
On Saturday August 21 we did a last-minute shakedown run at Rausch Creek. Beto and I both had major work done on our trucks over the summer and we needed to make sure everything was working OK. The trip revealed a few problems on my truck- an illuminated skid, VSC TRAC, and VSC off lights, which turned out to be bad wheel bearings on both front wheels, and bad hub and ABS speed sensor on the passenger front wheel. Newark Toyotaworld was able to finish repairs just in the nick of time for me to drive to New Jersey and pickup Andras’ rooftop tent before the deadline. (Thanks again for loaning it, Andras!)Upon return from NJ, I packed the FJ with all the gear we would need for two weeks, and we met the flatbed truck driver on Friday August 27 to send the FJs to Colorado. We shipped the trucks to an offroad repair shop where Beto had some work done at the last second before we arrived. Why ship? So we could spend every minute of our vacation enjoying our destination, instead of spending half of it driving across the country. When your vacation is to spend two weeks offroading from the driver’s seat, we didn’t want to spend another week driving on straight highways.
The time without our FJs was like a weeklong Christmas Eve. The waiting finally ended on Saturday September 4 when we flew from Philadelphia to Denver and picked up the trucks. They survived the first major hurdle by making to the start of the expedition ready to go.
Saturday and Sunday were reserved for cross-country travel snafus and altitude adjustment. Since the travel went fine, we took the time to explore a bit of Denver. We hit some good restaurants, including one run by a Food Network regular, Keegan Gerhard. This was our last taste of civilization before the expedition’s main course.
A Week With Bill Burke
For those who don’t know, Bill runs a company called Bill Burke’s 4-Wheel Drive America. He is a noted offroad driver, trainer, racer, and consultant. He even worked with Toyota to help make the FJ Cruiser what it is today. He is a permitted guide, offering mini-expeditions to the public. We chartered him for a week of our expedition through his backyard. We could not have hired a better guide.Monday it was time to get down to business. We drove to Ft. Collins to meet Bill Burke at Jax, a large outdoor and Army/Navy surplus store. After the introductions and some obligatory shopping, we hit the trail. True to form, I cracked my windshield on day one. It’s my signature expedition move, but was nothing serious, so we carried on.
Bill showed us some very scenic trails through Northern Colorado, with some venturing into the South of Wyoming. We stayed primarily on National Forest land and camped the entire week. The nighttime stars, satellites, and shooting stars were simply indescribable. We found the trails to be generally mild to intermediate for our FJs, except for all of the fallen trees. Over the course of the week, we found many of our trails were blocked by freshly overturned trees. Running without a chainsaw, we got to be quite proficient with winch, axe, and saw techniques to move the timber out of our way. By the end of the week, we were a well-oiled, trail clearing machine.
Despite all the warnings and the attempt to acclimate, none of us were fully prepared for the effects of high altitude on the body. All of us were in decent physical condition, but we still found ourselves winded after performing small physical tasks like gathering firewood or dragging recovery gear above 10,000 feet. Beto even suffered a bit of altitude sickness. Sufficient acclimation time and drinking lots of non-alcoholic fluids seemed to be the cure. All of us were doing noticeably better by the end of two weeks, but none of us were operating at 100% up there. Still, the clean, crisp air was worth it.
With Bill as our guide, we winded our way West. The sights on a trip like this are too numerous to mention, but if I had to pick three highlights, they would be: seeing Rabbit Ears (a large, high elevation rock formation in the shape of… you’ll never guess) from a distance _after_ we had driven to the top of it, walking through numerous abandoned buildings and an authentic ghost town, and taking in the views of vast areas of aspen trees while cresting the mountain tops around Hahn’s Peak.
Along the way, I bent and punctured a valve stem. I was carrying what seemed like a spare everything (alternator, fluids, CV, etc.), but no valve stem. Fortunately, Bill had several to choose from and we fixed it on the trail. He showed us how easy it is to reseat the bead on a tire with nothing but a high lift jack and CO2.
The week with Bill flew by, and he was kind enough to leave us with several suggestions to help refine our itinerary for next week. As we left Bill, he was camping on his own. The man spends over 200 nights each year outdoors. Amazing.
Offroad Journey from Hahn’s Peak, Colorado to Moab, Utah, via Ouray
After a week of roughing it with Bill, we were ready for some civilization, so we alternated between highway and offroad and typically planned our days so we had the option of a hotel at night. We ate fantastic high-altitude blueberry pancakes at a bed and breakfast run by some folks who had no idea how to run a bed and breakfast. We took the highway towards Aspen, rode the scenic I-70 Glenwood Canyon, ate Elk steak at Juicy Lucy’s , and stayed in a ski resort for a night. Beto claims he saw Barbara Streisand and Lady Gaga in Aspen, but everyone knows he made it up. To get back on track, we hit the dirt again in order to reach Crested Butte.The trip from Aspen to Crested Butte took the better part of a day. We used a 4x4 trail known as Pearl Pass and took some side trips along the way. Here, we got to play in the snow, experience some pucker-factor mountain switch backs, and enjoy absolutely fantastic views with exceptional visibility. Parts of the trail were filled with jagged rocks, and we all took some tire damage, especially Beto. He slashed through the Kevlar layer of his sidewall and had to switch to his spare at 12,000 feet above sea level. That was the best exercise I’ve had in a while. Having only one non-functioning spare between two trucks made us a little nervous, so we slowed down the pace and completed the trail with no further issues.
Crested Butte is an interesting little city. It feels like you’re in a fake model railroad town, surrounded by mountains, filled with fantastic gourmet restaurants and nice people. We found a Thai/Indian restaurant that was unbelievably delicious, and a hotel that served warm chocolate chip cookies. It was a good night.
The next morning, we were on a mission to find a replacement tire. Despite an hour of Googling and calling every tire shop between Crested Butte and Moab, we had nothing, so, we did what they used to do in the wagon train days- we ordered one on tirerack.com and had it shipped ahead to a hotel in Moab so it would be there waiting for us.
Leaving Crested Butte, we took some highway to get us to Lake City, Colorado. We hopped on Engineer Pass and started the trip to Ouray, home of the annual FJ Cruiser Summit. On the trail, we saw lots of abandoned buildings from the old mining boom days. We saw an absolutely impressive caldera, which had to be one of the most interesting sights of the whole trip.
Ouray was a little town whose scenery lived up to all the FJ Summit pictures I’ve ever seen. We swam in the hot springs (150 degrees naturally, artificially cooled to 98-104), and again I could not take my eyes off the mountains and the stars.
After one night in Ouray, we took Black Bear pass towards Telluride, Colorado. The switchbacks on Pearl Pass had nothing on these switchbacks. They were not difficult for the FJ, but they were difficult for any driver who made the mistake of looking down. We had a great time and didn’t soil our pants! We stopped at Floradora to eat duck and drink a sufficient volume of margaritas to calm our nerves enough to continue. We later took highway to Moab.
Moab
Moab is heaven for offroaders. I’m convinced you could spend a month there and still not see everything worth seeing. Moab was a nice change of pace for us, because it took us out of the green, wooded mountains and planted us straight in the desert. The West is vast, so it amazes me that you can go from cold and snow to heat and sand in only a few hours. It’s important to have options like this when you’re doing an expedition, so you can mix the terrain and don’t turn blind to the scenery. (“Another mountain? Great…”)We did a couple trails/obstacles that Beto and Rick had seen before, and we had a blast. Rose Garden Hill is one of those classic offroad obstacles that looks like nothing from a distance or on pictures, but up close it’s a massive hill piled with boulders. There, we had to winch Beto to me, and me to a tree, to get him un-stuck. We first tried without me winched, then with me winched to a boulder, neither of which worked. A large tree at the very far end of my winchline was what finally did the trick (again, the altitude, and now heat!) At the top, we were treated with panoramic views of the area and the chance to cross the Delores River in two locations. We made it! Granted, the water level was low, but it’s always a little nerve wracking to cross a body of water clearly labeled “River” on the map when you’ve never seen anyone else do it.
On an expedition, you’re far from mechanical help, and even further from home, so it’s no fun to break down. You have to use a different sense of offroad values so you don’t end the trip, for yourself and the rest of the group. Not to mention, these are not our normal FJs. They have two weeks of camping gear, extra fuel, and a rootftop tent, all working hard to add weight and change our truck’s suspension, braking, and acceleration behavior. But, as the trip got closer to the end, especially since we were shipping our trucks home, we could push ourselves a little harder.
On our last trail day, we did one called “Poison Spider.” It’s basically sand, slickrock, and ledges. We made our way to the top, which overlooks Moab, then started back down. We don’t have this sort of thing around here, so it was very interesting, and very challenging for us. Going up was OK. Going down got a little too interesting when I didn’t pay enough attention to my line and took a ledge where I shouldn’t have. With all the left-foot breaking skill I had, I started easing my way down this ledge. And easing. And easing. And easing. I couldn’t find the bottom, but it was too late to back up without the assistance of winch from behind, and I decided to drive through it. I was very glad I ran the rock hill on the competition course rock at Rausch Creek a few times, because without that experience I probably would have panicked or/or rolled my truck back-over-front, or so it felt. In the end, I finally found the bottom, but I had to push the FJ forward on my winch fairlead from my driver seat with a rear tire in the air. The fairlead left huge gouge lines in the rock from the weight of the FJ. It was a very tense situation that made me gun-shy the rest of the day, but I got through it and lived to tell the tale. I think it even made Beto gun-shy [Actually, I call that being "deliberate." Ed.]. And did I mention there was a cliff 1.5 FJ lengths away from me on my front and right sides? I had to put that part out of my mind in order to complete the maneuver.
Celebration
The next morning we took highway back to Denver. Speed limits there are typically 75 MPH, so we were able to cruise down the road and make good time. I got a flat tire along the way and managed to light up the dash in the process, but I had no other problems making it to the dropoff point. We ended our expedition in style at one of the best restaurants I’ve ever experienced- a Brazilian steak house. Beto was an excellent guide for the last day feast.We arrived home Saturday September 18, and now we wait for our FJs to rejoin us. Hopefully they will arrive this weekend. We put them through two weeks of torture, and they survived without any significant problems. I am in awe that these trucks handled the hell we threw at them. Mine is due for a professional detailing and some TLC as soon as it’s home.
This was a fantastic trip I will remember for a lifetime. Hopefully more Bruisers will find their way out West so you can see what I mean.
THE END
It's going to take a while to get our pictures on the web. Especially me, since my camera is still in the FJ. Here is a preview of some of Beto's pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/adalberto.castelo/2010Expedition
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
2010 Colorado Expedition wrap up notes
I'm still updating my picasa web album of the expedition, slowly going over the GPS tracks and trying to coerce the place names from memory and from Google Earth. The album can be found here.
The FJs are possibly still lingering in some storage area in Denver as I type this, but hopefully will be back on Friday, if we're lucky.
Erik, my fellow FJ expéditionnaire and best spotter there is, posted an excellent overview of the trip [had to remove the link because it went to a restricted area of the FJ Bruisers forum. See full text in newer post in this blog.] in the FJ Bruisers forum. He left a few funny/embarrassing bits out, like for example when we spent more than two hours winching my truck up the lower stages of Rose Garden Hill because my truck was performing like crap. And it was performing like crap because I forgot to engage 4-wheel drive... Now, in my defense, I have just installed a new transfer case right before this trip, and it has two gear selection sticks instead of the single-stick set up with the old one, and neither stick has any markings on the nobs -- one stick selects 2wd/4wd, the other selects between high or low gears (there is no mistaking between those). So I usually remember if I'm in 2wd or 4wd based on what I was running before (and some dash indicator lights, but who pays attention to those?). So I beat the crap out of the truck and tires trying to climb half way up this very difficult, steep hill with lots of large, loose rocks, ledges and whatnot, in 2wd, all the way irate with the poor truck because it was not performing up to snuff, or so I thought. At least we got to practice some winching...
Bill Burke, our guide through the Colorado trails, did an exceptional job taking us through five days of gorgeous back-country and back and forth over the Continental Divide a few times. The campfires at the end of the day were always a pleasure, and we got to know a bit about the man's life and background. My favorite Bill story doesn't have as much to do with off-roading, but with telling a world-class driver not to drive like an idiot. We were chatting by the campfire about different automotive sports and the discussion reached Formula One, a sport both Ellen and I enjoy following. Bill starts telling us about when he was hired to take the Renault team out for a spin in Moab, with some Nissan trucks (Nissan owns or owned Renault, which I didn't know). "Probably two or three years ago," he said, "can't really remember any of their names." "Well," I said, "if it was two or three years ago they were probably Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr." "Yeah, I think that was it." I can't really remember how we got into it, but I was telling him of my dislike for Fernando (who's a two-time champion and comes across as a douche sometimes) and how the Renault team crumbled last year amidst cheating accusations in previous seasons, when Bill says something like "Yeah, Fernando Alonso, I held him by the collar of his shirt at the top of Rose Garden Hill! He almost flipped a truck over and I had to talk down some sense into him. The team principal was there and he couldn't believe it!" My jaw dropped. Bill Burke held Fernando Alonso by the collar of his shirt, over atop Rose Garden Hill, Moab, Utah. For driving like a moron. Someone should erect a plaque at the place to commemorate this. I may just have to start collecting donations.
This was a fantastic, epic trip. Colorado is a state of awesome beauty. I'm seriously trying to find some way to move there, maybe buy a ranch in the mountains and telecommute via satellite, or maybe raise sheep. Erik and Dana were great traveling companions, we couldn't have asked for better people to spend two weeks with. And the FJs, boy did we beat the crap out of those trucks! We did some pretty hairy stuff with them (some of it due to driver incompetence or inattention), and they held up amazingly. These trucks are fantastic off-roaders, no question.
The FJs are possibly still lingering in some storage area in Denver as I type this, but hopefully will be back on Friday, if we're lucky.
Erik, my fellow FJ expéditionnaire and best spotter there is, posted an excellent overview of the trip [had to remove the link because it went to a restricted area of the FJ Bruisers forum. See full text in newer post in this blog.] in the FJ Bruisers forum. He left a few funny/embarrassing bits out, like for example when we spent more than two hours winching my truck up the lower stages of Rose Garden Hill because my truck was performing like crap. And it was performing like crap because I forgot to engage 4-wheel drive... Now, in my defense, I have just installed a new transfer case right before this trip, and it has two gear selection sticks instead of the single-stick set up with the old one, and neither stick has any markings on the nobs -- one stick selects 2wd/4wd, the other selects between high or low gears (there is no mistaking between those). So I usually remember if I'm in 2wd or 4wd based on what I was running before (and some dash indicator lights, but who pays attention to those?). So I beat the crap out of the truck and tires trying to climb half way up this very difficult, steep hill with lots of large, loose rocks, ledges and whatnot, in 2wd, all the way irate with the poor truck because it was not performing up to snuff, or so I thought. At least we got to practice some winching...
Bill Burke, our guide through the Colorado trails, did an exceptional job taking us through five days of gorgeous back-country and back and forth over the Continental Divide a few times. The campfires at the end of the day were always a pleasure, and we got to know a bit about the man's life and background. My favorite Bill story doesn't have as much to do with off-roading, but with telling a world-class driver not to drive like an idiot. We were chatting by the campfire about different automotive sports and the discussion reached Formula One, a sport both Ellen and I enjoy following. Bill starts telling us about when he was hired to take the Renault team out for a spin in Moab, with some Nissan trucks (Nissan owns or owned Renault, which I didn't know). "Probably two or three years ago," he said, "can't really remember any of their names." "Well," I said, "if it was two or three years ago they were probably Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr." "Yeah, I think that was it." I can't really remember how we got into it, but I was telling him of my dislike for Fernando (who's a two-time champion and comes across as a douche sometimes) and how the Renault team crumbled last year amidst cheating accusations in previous seasons, when Bill says something like "Yeah, Fernando Alonso, I held him by the collar of his shirt at the top of Rose Garden Hill! He almost flipped a truck over and I had to talk down some sense into him. The team principal was there and he couldn't believe it!" My jaw dropped. Bill Burke held Fernando Alonso by the collar of his shirt, over atop Rose Garden Hill, Moab, Utah. For driving like a moron. Someone should erect a plaque at the place to commemorate this. I may just have to start collecting donations.
This was a fantastic, epic trip. Colorado is a state of awesome beauty. I'm seriously trying to find some way to move there, maybe buy a ranch in the mountains and telecommute via satellite, or maybe raise sheep. Erik and Dana were great traveling companions, we couldn't have asked for better people to spend two weeks with. And the FJs, boy did we beat the crap out of those trucks! We did some pretty hairy stuff with them (some of it due to driver incompetence or inattention), and they held up amazingly. These trucks are fantastic off-roaders, no question.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Back
Got home yesterday, after leaving the FJs at the storage place in Denver for the transport back to the East Coast. Have about 300 or so pictures and a few movies to process and organize, and I will be doing so during this week. Also have some writing up to do; there were some interesting stories and events during the trip that I believe deserve to be properly chronicled, and I'll get to those during this next week.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Kevlar Ain't What It Used to Be
Nice slash on my "Kevlar reinforced sidewalls" tire yesterday, just before Perl Pass, on the way to Crested Butte.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Quick Update
We've had two wonderful days so far, minus some minor (and not so minor) issues. The trails have been great and mostly easy, and on the first day we drove past 11,000 ft to our first camp ground. Bill Burke, our guide, knows this area like the back of his hand.
I had a terrible first night, after bruising a rib trying to set my roof top tent after it slid around. The rib was compouded by altitude sickness (I did not drink nearly enough water); both conditions were entirely new to me and if weren't travelling with a certified EMT (Bill) and a nurse-in-training (Dana) I think I'd have been inclined to request med evac thinking it was something more serious (I was really feeling like shit, and had no idea why). As it is, a steady diet of Ibuprofin and taking it easy is allowing me to enjoy the trip and keep up with everyone else (thanks to my beautiful wife doing all the heavy lifting :) ).
I had a terrible first night, after bruising a rib trying to set my roof top tent after it slid around. The rib was compouded by altitude sickness (I did not drink nearly enough water); both conditions were entirely new to me and if weren't travelling with a certified EMT (Bill) and a nurse-in-training (Dana) I think I'd have been inclined to request med evac thinking it was something more serious (I was really feeling like shit, and had no idea why). As it is, a steady diet of Ibuprofin and taking it easy is allowing me to enjoy the trip and keep up with everyone else (thanks to my beautiful wife doing all the heavy lifting :) ).
Monday, September 6, 2010
Where are we?
Erik has a SPOT device, which is a GPS/satellite emergency phone. It also broadcasts its position to the SPOT servers, from where (in this case because Erik made them public) others can follow our progress on a map.
Here's the link: SPOT.
Hopefully the link works, I'm not able to check it on my phone right now.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Touchdown
We picked up our rental, a Ford Expedition (free upgrade). Drove to Slee Off Road to find our trucks in great shape (in my mind, arrival was not entirely complete until several items had been checked from my mental check list: 1. Our checked luggage showed up at baggage claim undamaged. 2. We showed up at Slee's and found no broken glass near the vehicles (the FJs had been left outside for the niight), and 3. There was no pool of oil under my truck (I noticed a small leak in the new rear diff the night we shipped; looks like Christo's guys took care of it). So, at around 1300 hrs local time, we had made it).
We had dinner at a great little Mexican place near our Best Western hotel. La Mariposa. Great food. Great margheritas. Totally recommend it
I forgot to bring my laptop in the confusion of loading the car this morning. Typing from my phone is a PITA. Oh well.
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
31 hours to go
The last two weeks have been busy with preparations and last minute arrangements, but we're pretty much ready to go (except for packing). Ellen went through a cold and I'm going through it right now, but other than that things worked out well up to here.
The trucks were shipped last Friday (the 27th) and arrived in Denver at Slee Off Road on Tuesday, where my truck will get some service done (diffs and engine fluids). Christo Slee's shop was recommended by Bill Burke and he graciously offered to take delivery of the trucks when he learned about our severely compressed time line. This was a life saver, and we are genuinely grateful for his flexibility in dealing with us. Go to his shop if you are in Denver!
That the FJs actually shipped to Denver on time was no minor feat. Erik was still dealing with a damaged wheel hub on Wednesday. My FJ received major drive train upgrades which were only completed on August 19 (months behind schedule, thanks to a production reschedule for one of the critical parts). The diff fluid change is the last step of that upgrade, and that is being done at Slee's shop, less than 48 hrs before our trip. All in all this trip already feels like a ride, even before it's actually started.
The trucks were shipped last Friday (the 27th) and arrived in Denver at Slee Off Road on Tuesday, where my truck will get some service done (diffs and engine fluids). Christo Slee's shop was recommended by Bill Burke and he graciously offered to take delivery of the trucks when he learned about our severely compressed time line. This was a life saver, and we are genuinely grateful for his flexibility in dealing with us. Go to his shop if you are in Denver!That the FJs actually shipped to Denver on time was no minor feat. Erik was still dealing with a damaged wheel hub on Wednesday. My FJ received major drive train upgrades which were only completed on August 19 (months behind schedule, thanks to a production reschedule for one of the critical parts). The diff fluid change is the last step of that upgrade, and that is being done at Slee's shop, less than 48 hrs before our trip. All in all this trip already feels like a ride, even before it's actually started.
I'll try to keep this journal updated, and will try to post pictures to my Picasa albums as I take them. If history is any guide, what actually will happen is that I'll probably get in a couple of posts, give up, but the pictures will trickle in fairly steadily throughout (and the full album will be up shortly after we come back).
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