Trip Reports
| Iron Chest & Winfield trails | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date: | Sep 5th - 6th, 2009 | |||
| Trip Leader: | Mike Borum | |||
| Members Present: | Rob Cooper, Rob Kaplan, Bob Novak , Glen McMullan | |||
| Guests Present: | Amanda Cooper, Marilyn Borum | |||
| Picture Link: | Mike's Pics | |||
| Description: |
Paul Beaudean and Bob Novak were on their way Friday morning to secure our usual campsite, when the RV that Paul had spent nearly every waking hour for the past several weeks rebuilding the engine just for this trip, seized the water pump! Paul and Cindy were forced to limp back home, with the help of Mac and his long gooseneck trailer. Meanwhile Bob continued on in his white LJ (sporting new rubber and al larger lift)and found us a spot just a few clicks further down the road than where we would normally be. It was a nearly perfect site.
Rob Cooper and his sister Amanda flat-towed his TJ, Rob Kaplan flat-towed his red YJ, and Marilyn and I flat-towed our yellow LJ. For us, it was our shakedown cruise with our recently purchased slide-in truck camper, so we were feeling our way through things all weekend. It turned out just great. Our three rigs pulled in around 8:45pm and set up our camps, had Jiffy-Pop at the campfire and relaxed. Our trip next day took us up Iron Chest trail. The four rigs just crawled right up the rock garden with nary a scrape. There may have been a few strategically placed rocks for a few of us, but no winches, tow straps, or fretting about a line. Really impressive! At the top, we paused to take in the high clean air and have our lunch with incredible vistas to entertain us. After a short while the weather threatened, spitting some raindrops, so we packed it up and headed back down. Our plan was to do Antero trail next, since it was still early afternoon. But almost to the rock garden we confronted two new JK 4-doors, lifted and locked, but the lead one with a flat tire. So we waited. At the bottom of Iron Chest, someone in the group needed a 10-100 in the worst way, so we sprinted into the little town of St. Elmo to find a place to take a quick break. That turned into a little longer time than planned, with the certain someone running off into the woods with a roll of tp and a shovel. And we waited some more. Finally, we headed up the Antero trail, looking to cruise some more tundra. Unfortunately, Rob Ks Little Red decided to vapor-lock, and no matter what we tried, we couldn't get it cooled off enough to start. So we got him turned around and I towed him back to the road, where it fired right up. Oh well, back to the campsite. Once we got bak to the capsite, both Robs sprung a little surprise that they were packing it up. So Bob, Marilyn and I had a nice spaghetti dinner, huddled around the campfire till late, and planned the next day. On Sunday, we packed up everything and headed to Johnson Village. I drove my Jeep, and Marilyn drove the truck. We left the camper behind the Gunsmoke and then drove north to the Clear Creek Reservoir, just south of the Independence Pass turn-off. We found a geo-cache alongside the road, and Bob gave a a little tutorial on how to use a GPS to find hidden treasures. In the historic town of Winfield, next to Huron Peak, we explored a couple of trails, then came back to the town for a quick lunch and some picture-taking. Soon, Marilyn and I decided to call it a wekend and we headed back to Buena Vista and our rig. Bob spent some more time geo-caching and met us later at the Gubnsmoke. When Marilyn and I got back, we realized that the tow-bar hitch pins were gone! I panicked, thinking they were still at our campsite, so we raced back, only to find some folks already camping there. We scoured the campsite, but no sign of the pins. So we came back to the camper, and Marilyn drove the truck home, while following me in the Jeep. Other than a few minor mishaps, it was an enjoyable weekend. The weather got better as the weekend progressed, and we enjoyed being out in the mountains of Colorado. |
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