Red Cone - Buena Vista - Pitkin - St. Elmo - Oil Pan Hole
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We'll
have a short sprinkle of rain on the tents but it stopped which made
for a dry(er) time of taking them down. I'm not packing the wet tent
but rather I'm laying it out inside the jeep on top of the other items.
It should get a better chance to dry. We'll continue down the Alpine Tunnel roadbed to stop at Pitkin for gasoline (91 octane, ethanol free is the only fuel offered). The burger stand next to the general store had wonderful burgers and fries. "Florida" commented on an odd sound in his jeep so we went for a short drive. Coasting, engine off, transfer case in neutral, hubs unlocked, the noise was still there. The only rotating items (near the sound) was rear axle or driveshaft or maybe in the output of the transfer case. We parked near the general store and I pushed on the rear driveshaft looking for U-Joint motion. A bearing cup at the rear of the D/S moved too much - bad U-Joint. When he was removing the D/S he then noticed the pinion yoke to the rear axle also was moving with excessive slop. The U-Joint moved into second place with the pinion bearing being of most importance. The decision was to leave the rear D/S out of the vehicle, put it into front wheel drive only, and park it. Florida and passenger and belongings were divied up into other jeeps. Their jeep was moved to an out of the way spot the general store recommended. They folks will continue the trip as passengers for the next two days until they can get back to their truck/trailer. They will then drive the highway back to Pitkin to pickup the ailing jeep. They'll miss out on the last day of the trip to Grizzly Lake. |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| Info Sign Click for a larger size |
| Rolling on old railroad bed |
| Williams Gulch Water Tank |
| Info Sign Click for a larger size |
| Info Sign Click for a larger size |
| This is a wonderfully green vista - very few
dead patches - a rarity |
| Tell-Tale-Railroad
bed - uniform, gentle curve and a nearly level grade. The ground has
been removed on both sides for the level grade. |
| Info Sign Click for a larger size |
| Info Sign Click for a larger size |
| Info Sign Click for a larger size |
| Nearing Pitkin - clear water with fish |
| Entering Pitkin |
| General Store with one fuel hose. Burger tent
to the right. |
| Dining area for the food truck. Good good - I'd stop again. |
| Where Florida's jeep was set out. |
| Headed out to Napoleon Pass |
| At Napoleon Pass |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| Steam
engine with drive pulley. The raised bed behind it, with bricks
scattered about would be the boiler's location. Unknown what was driven
(a stamp mill most likely) as I didn't see any concrete footings nearby. |
| Boiler location? |
| In the broken shed we see the radiator of an
old truck - wheels removed. They were used as stationary power plants. |
| Iin
this shed is an old truck, wheels and body removed. They are found at
mining sites where I think they motor and possibly transmission were
used as power plants. |
| The
route maps showed two tracks in a few places. The maps showed the
in-use route as not preferred and the "stub" route as being the
"formal" forest service approved route. It seems the forest service is
abandoning their re-reoute in favor of the lone used route. |
| Rolling through the town of Tin Cup. |
| Mirror Lake Forest Service Campground Panorama Click for a larger size |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| We had a bit of this on the trip - no long
full day rain but patches passing through. |
| State Two fire ban in place. Charchoal / wood
fires are not allowed. A fire with an on/off valve is allowed. |
