2025 San Juan's & Yampa Bench Road
|
1
Camp, 2 Side deviation to the Golconda Boarding House - we turned back
before the end but the trail is now on the ToDo list. 3 Lake City with
an impromptu air filter modification project. 4 ?. 5 Animas Forks
townsite (and helicopter traffic) 6 Hurricane Pass*. 7 Corkscrew Pass*
(* I think) |
| Camp had a small stream making noise for us
last night. |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| We're off to check out a dead-end spur,
Golconda Boarding House, before processing down mountain to Lake City
and trails beyond. |
| Heading up a nearby valley on the Golconda
trail. |
| We
went up a bit and after checking distances decided to not travel to the
end of the trail - it was an unplanned turn that would take too much
time. Further research puts this on the "make time for it" on another
trip. We're heading down to the main Engineer Pass trail to head down to Lake City. |
| Close to Lake City Zero photos of some nice sights. The 2015 visit has them. Here's the main trip page if you wish to view them: www.JimWilliamson.net/automobile/2015-08-01-five-days-in-southwest-colorado/ |
| Down
in Lake City we did some air cleaner modification for the Montana Jeep.
This is an oil bath air filter. It is heavy. The single fastener that
holds it onto the carburetor is failing at the carburetor (with a
chunck of carb body metal disappearing down the intake - issues to
happen???). The heavy oil bath assembly will be drained and stowed for
the remainder of the trip. We are side-of-the-road fashioning a new air
filter for the Jeep... |
| The
bottom end of the fastener at the carburetor. The white material is
fast set epoxy -
placed atop other epoxy from a prior trip where it had issues. |
| Out comes last night's soup can - the diameter
fits the carb PERFECTLY. Punch a hole for the fastener... |
| Grab the pre-filter from Jim's Jeep...
Yep - it'll work... Progress... |
| Oil it up... |
| Pull out the angle grinder with cut-off wheel
and plug it into the Jeep's power... |
| Cut three slots in the can for airflow... Good
care was made with a pen for "cut here" lines. |
| Air passages cut - without slicing a finger
off of the assistant! |
| The plan is coming together... |
| Done! |
| Heading out of Lake City towards Cinnamon Pass. |
| Avalanche paths (no standing trees) |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| Heading
down - we'll pass through the Animas Forks townsite in a bit to head up
California Gulch on the way to Hurricane Pass and camp. |
| There was a helicoper carrying materials, I
assume, to a mountain mine site. Here it is, flying lower that us, the smaller red circle is the end of the tow line - nothing attached. |
| Animas Forks townsite just ahead with
California Gulch going up the far valley. |
| The helicoper made a quick trip and it's back
to hauling materials. |
| White mineral coating to the rocks. |
| A tailings pile. It likely had rail tracks
atop it for the ore carts to roll on. |
| I can't tell - could this be a jet powered
(larger) fire fighting water tanker? |
| Looking back at the Poughkeepsie Gulch trail
we came up yesterday. We're deviating to Hurricane Pass. |
| Hurricane Pass with a tour group. |
| We can see our trail snaking along the
mountainsides. |
| At
the intersection we'll turn right and stay high and jump over Corkscrew
Pass. A left turn would be down valley to the town of Silverton. |
| Looking back. We came from Hurricane Pass at
the top left of the picture. |
| Another mine with the "tan fan" of tailings
rock hauled out of the mountain and dumped downslope. |
| Corkscrew Pass |
| Moving down to camp - another higher elevation
camp (but it wasn't cold). |
| Corkscrew Pass campsite It offered a formal outhouse - bonus! Nothing for photos tonight but some grand photos in the morning. |
