Tom,
from the 4x4 group, and I scheduled a "beginners" trail run. Four
others were signed up but only two showed up. Unfortunate as the
weather was FANTASTIC. There is rain coming to the area and I was
on the fence - put the top and doors on or leave them off (for
wonderful views) and take my chance. It seemed, from the local weather,
to be a favorable odds of not getting wet. On the way home, about ten
dots of rain hit the windshield - but yet there was blue sky overhead
(blue sky rain... a Colorado oddity?)
The group of us met west of Central City and took an hour to chat about
some basics of trail riding. In my book, knowing the whereabouts of the
person behind you is significant (and is something I need to reinfoce
with myself). Aside from that, having a a tow strap and two or three
hard or soft shackles would be the minimum bit of kit. We looked at
each of the two new vehicles for tow/recovery points - the grey pickup
had no factory recovery point - but it did have a receiver hitch so a
hitch tow point block would be on the list. It's a chunk of steel or
aluminum that slids into the receiver and the business end is a hole to
attach a hard or soft shackle (and then a tow strap).
I followed the group as Tom had a plan for which trails.... trails with
some difficulty but generally easy. At one point the grey pickup was
spinning its rear tires, and not moving forward, but neither front tire
was turning - a solid key that the truck was not in 4x4 mode. That was
quickly tended and it was able to get up the slope with ease.
Traffic on the trails, in my opinion (I do not travel these trails too
often), was fairly sparce - which was nice. The area wasn't packed with
people.
At an optional, more challenging, area - the loose rock section up to
Yankee Hill - the new folks each decided to give it a go and each made
it up w/o issue. Near the base of the hill, a Toyota pickup - a solid
trail truck - pulled up. He readily rolled up the hill and the group of
us chatted for a moment. He headed back down while the four of us
finished the loop up top. The Toyota was at the bottom, a large
intersection area, and waved me over. His left rear was flat. I had air
so I pulled out the air hose and filled up the tire - and as quickly as
it filled it leaked out. He had no spare and the wheel pattern between
my jeep (it's spare) is different - so no loaning my spare for him to
limp home. He lives very close so he was going to limp it home. I said
I'd follow behind once I wrapped up with the group - we were at a
reasonable spot where I could split off.
He had a bit of head start (~15 minutes) and there is a reasonably full
set of trails up there - I wasn't certain I'd find him. At one section
of sandy soil I knew I was on the correct path as the flat tire makes a
distinct pattern (photo below). He was eventually able to phone home to
family and knew a spare tire was to be delivered to a nearby spot so I
headed out. I trust everything worked well for him.
Near the end of my trail for the day I came across a dual sport
motorcycle with a flat front tire. The rider and I played hopscotch a
few times through the day. I asked how fast the leak was - fast. So no
bother trying to fill it with air. He had a tube but didn't have tools
to remove the tire - and I do not either. His bike had out of state
plates. I told him there was a parking lot / air up spot nearby and not
but a minute after I arrived to that air up lot he rode in too. He
found a couple other motorcyclists and they apparently had tools and he
was set to get it fixed. If not, family - with a trailer - was only
twenty minutes away.
The rest of my day had a thought to visit some other "on the way" trail
but that did not happen. I also had a thought to get a cinnamon roll at
Glen Haven - but it'd be about 6pm before I'd get there and I think
they'd be long closed. Riding in the mountains was getting a bit cool
so at Raymond Colo I started to drop down to Lyons. Rolling through the
Raymond area I saw two moose in the lawn at one home - stop for a quick
photo to round out the day.
|
