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| 4x4 Trip | 7.40 Miles |
5,537 AEG |
| | 4x4 Trip | 7.40 Miles | | | |
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| 5,537 ft AEG | | | |
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| no partners | | The long day.
Started out the day hiking out of Ice Lakes Basin, met up with the nonhikers and led them up Black Bear. We'd been waiting to hear if they were going to open it and that morning the gas station had it listed confirmed open. So up we went until we got to the pass and saw the bulldozer still moving snow. I went down and talked to the guys and they laughed about it being listed as open. "We haven't even been able to get to the rockslides on the switchbacks yet." So we turned around.
My plan B was Ophir so we took it to reach Telluride. No issues just great views, until we got to the pavement and one Jeep's distributor went kaput. Towed him to Telluride but of course no one had the part. We ate at the Llama Bar & Grill and I think their Llama (name not meat) burger may have been the best burger I've ever had. Unfortunately I had cell reception there and ended up getting a call and having to deal with a bad work issue that took way too long to bandaid best I could from as many miles away. Paul, on his phone was able to find a town with a part that took his CC info and hid the part out back for him. Minus his and another Jeep, we began our way up Imogene.
Halfway to the townsite of Tomboy, Alan's Jeep started giving him transmission trouble, hemorrhaging fluid. Not fun with a stick shift giving not much in the line of gears on a cliffside. It was either turnaround or try to make it to Tomboy for camp. My plan was for us to camp on Imogene either way so it didn't really matter where we made it to but there was no pulloffs until Tomboy so I advise him to try to make it to there.
Oh, cliffsides, not so scary to me. Driving across a gap in the world, bridged only by chain length fence laid down with some narrow boards where your tires are supposed to go... little tiny bit puckery.
It turned out only dealers had the special tranny fluid Alan's Jeep needed so we figured if we left in the morn when it was cool, we could get him to the pass and then he could just coast down.
We go to Tomboy just as the sun was setting so of course after finding a spot that would accommodate everyone, I ran around trying to take pics in the fading light.
They got the fire going with the aid of battery powered mattress pumps to feed it the extra oxygen in the thin air of the 11500 altitude. However it began, in the dark around the fire, we ended up doing Christopher Walken impressions and all of sudden we heard a noise right behind us. Flashlights went on and we found a deer 20ft away coming into camp to what we now all believe was because he was a-pparent-ly a ha-yuge fa-yn.
The deer actually stuck around a couple hours, trotting off and then coming back soon after.
In the morning we got up, did breakfast and then summited the pass and the great views. The way down was uneventful but we did some stops and of course played in the water. Once we finally reached the bottom, we ate a lunch together and then the hikers drove down to the end of Yankee Boy and started the Blue Lakes Pass hike. |
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May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;
May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;
Armchair Crisis Design |
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