=20 Today, we explored a very small portion of some of the off road
trails in t= he general vicinity of the campground, had some lunch on
the trail, and com= bined the offroading with geocaching. We found
three caches today, two of = which were at the top of rather steep
hills, so those of us who went up to = the top got a fairly good
workout. The last two travel bugs were dropped o= ff today (Gen III
and Gen IV), so all of the travel bugs are in the wild no= w! It was
rather fitting that Don was the one to drop the Gen III travel b= ug
into its starting cache; that travel bug is based on his truck.
We explored Forest Service road 318 which comes off of Mt. Hermon
road. = It had been listed as a difficult trail in a guide book that
Jason has. I= t started off rather mild, but did get more interesting
towards the end. T= he trail got a bit too narrow for Walt's full size
Ram, so he held back, an= d Jason & Norah also turned around once they
got to some of the more techni= cal stuff, and once the storm clouds
started moving in. The two Jeeps (Ada= m driving one with Jackie, Jay
and Korey as passengers, me driving the othe= r with Ed and Tom as
passengers) and Mike in his Dak with Don as a passenge= r continued
on. The road kept going and going well beyond our maps, so we =
figured we'd better turn around and head back to Walt, Ingrid, Jason
and No= rah. Ed and I walked down the trail just a bit further, past a
narrow sect= ion that would have been very challenging, even for a
Jeep, and were reward= ed with a fabulous view of the valley below. We
ate some lunch and then he= aded back out; Jason & Norah went back to
town to meet Jason's parents who = were driving in and the rest of us
followed Walt to find some geocaches. <= br />
I must say that I am impressed with this little Jeep. Granted, = we
haven't gotten into any real hardcore stuff but there were a few
technic= al places, and it has done great, despite being bone stock,
on fully inflat= ed street tires. Being used to wheeling a full size,
extended bed Ram, thi= s little Jeep is spoiling me a bit with its
maneuverability. You have a lo= t more options for choosing a line,
rather than just having to stay between= the trees and power through
whatever the road might happen to throw at you= . Its also easier to
fit through the narrow sections. I might have to put= one of these on
the ol' wish list. ;-)
During the trip, a stor= m rolled through and the skies opened up on
us. Ed and I had to hop out of= the Jeep and put the sides back on to
prevent the inside from getting soak= ed. We got soaked in the
process. :-) There was thunder and lightning al= l around (we
calculated the nearest strike at 1/2 mile; we were at around 9= ,000
feet at the time). As seems to be the pattern though, the storm quick=
ly passed. We had some on and off rain for the remainder of the day,
but n= othing that was a big deal. It stopped drizzling in time for
the nightly D= ML bonfire. We're going to have to ramp up the bonfire
a bit though if we = want to burn through all of the wood we
purchased. :-)
He= re are a few pics from the day:
3D""=-[Copy%20of%20IMG_27=]
The view from near the end of the fire ser= vice road number 318, off
of Mt. Hermon road.
3D""-[2=]
Some bolders tha= t were steaming after a rain/hail storm.
3D""-[=]
Some of the hai= l that was left all over the ground from the
aforementioned storm.
3D""-[photos1=]
Mike, flexing his suspension in a kind've off-road play area we =
stumbled upon.
3D"=-[Copy%20of%20IMG_2=]
Adam, climbing a rock in the above area.<= br />
3D""-[=]
Searching for a geocache, we drove through a large secti= on of burned
forest.
[Copy%20of%2=]-[Copy%20of%2=]
To get to the geocache we also had = to drive through a flash flood
area. It was raining, but nowhere near enoug= h for there to be any
danger.
3D""-[Co=]
A bunch of folks heading u= p to find the aforementioned geocache; the
third and final find of the day.=
3D""-[3D"http:=]
A view of a cloud shrouded Pike's Peak from the geocach= e area. We're
planning to drive to the top of Pike's Peak tomorrow, so hop= efully I
will be able to share a photo of the view from the top in a bit. =
Speaking of which, I am going to end this message now as its 2am and I
need= to be up in time for the 7:30 trip to the peak!
--
Posted by Jon Steiger to National DML Meet at= 7/21/2006 01:25:00 AM
.
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