August 20-23, 2023 -Buena Vista Camping
20-23 Thu-Sun – Camping Crested Butte ( Mike) (E, M, D)
Marilyn, Doogie, and I headed toward Buena Vista on Wednesday morning. In Divide we met Paul and Cindy and their cat, and his friend Dave. We continued on to Nathrop and the Browns Creek Trailhead, where we hoped to find a large campsite that could accommodate an undetermined number of campers and tents and car haulers and tow rigs, oh my! As we approached the CR272/CR274 intersection, I asked Paul and Dave to wait near the portapotties while I took CR272 a mile or so, just to see if the campsite that we’ve used many times over the years was available. I noticed a single white Toyota Tacoma parked under the trees, and I approached a guy walking toward me. His name was Craig and he said he was glad to have a group of yahoos invade his campsite. Little did he (or I) know just how big a group we would become. We claimed our areas and settled down to wait for the rest of the club to show up.
Thursday morning we decided to take a short trip up Mt Princeton Road to the town of St Elmo. I rode with Craig in his truck; Paul followed with Dave as his passenger. We spent some time looking at the old historic town, shopped at the mercantile, and then we went up Hancock Pass Rd until we reached the old mining structure that tilts precariously over the road. At camp that evening, Brian and wife Alicia showed up with their dog Nike. A little later, Russ also pulled into the campsite. So far, so good, still plenty of spots for folks.
On Friday morning we planned to hit Wheeler Lake trail. About 7:30am Bob pulls in with his rig in tow, and now we had four capable rig for the trail ride. While we were getting Bob’s campsite situated, Russ went on ahead since he was the only one towing. With Craig as my passenger, Paul as Bob’s passenger, and Alicia as Brian’s passenger, we drove back to Johnson Village, back up Hwy 24 to Hwy 285, the a left at Fairplay, and finally down to the Montgomery Reservoir and the trailhead where Russ was waiting for us. Aired down and on the trail by 10:30.
We motored along, no drama at all until we reached the V-Notch. A young lady in a red Gladiator outfitted for overlanding was sideways right in the notch, with no winch and no way to extricate herself. I climbed the ledge on her left, pulled in front of her and after a simple tug with a strap she was up. She asked to follow us, rather that going on ahead, so we put her behind Brian and ahead of Russ and continued on. Just about 12:15pm we were already at the lake where we had a leisurely lunch and marveled at the spectacular waterfalls and solitude of the high alpine tundra. Soon it was time to head down (Sydney in the Gladiator stayed).
We could not have been more that 50 yards down Bowling Ball hill when Russ called out on the radio, “I think somethings broke!” Yup, his front tires were pointing at each other and it didn’t take long to see his driver side tie rod end snapped at the threaded shank. There were already rigs at the bottom wanting to come up, but we were convinced that it would take literally hours to get his rig just the few hundred yards to the bottom of the hill. BUT, Russ digs around the back of his rig and pulls out a spare tie rod end! While he spent roughly half hour fixing the steering, someone’s big dog walks up in front of us with a dead marmot in its jaws, plops it down in the water and starts gnawing on a leg! Damn! Russ is now rolling and we head back down without any more issues. Once we put some air in our tires we decided to take Mosquito Pass over to Leadville. But after making the turn just past Alma onto Mosquito Gulch Rd, a sign said the pass was closed, so we pouted all the way back to BV where we filled our fuel tanks, got some ice and grub and met back at the campsite.
Mike Borum
