Another early run schedule for 6:30 am turned into a completely different run at 7:00 am. You ranchers in the crowd will appreciate that herds need to be moved from one pasture to another. Well, today from dawn (5:00 am) until noon the local rancher was going to be moving his sheep herds on the Ophir Pass. Sheep have priority over FJ Curisers when it comes to forest service land so we needed a new run. Luckily we slid into the Imogene Pass run.
Boy liked this off-road adventure, there were a number of water crossings and big splashes. The trail also had some interesting obstacles. Being in the back we were able to see others try the obstacle and see what worked and what did not. One obstacle was particularly challenging with even a few rigs backing down and taking the bypass. With the benefit of watching others we were able to walk up and over with ease. Yeah the testosterone level went up a little after that.
Starting early means the trail is pretty empty. Cresting a pass at 10:00 am means going down when everyone else is coming up. Just over the top on the Telluride side of the mountain we found rigs, motor cycles, hikers, snow boarders and a number of tour operators. Weaving in and out of the mess took about an hour to go 5 blocks. You really see people’s true colors when everyone is in a hurry and no one is going anywhere in a hurry and unfortunately some of those colors do not understand that everyone is allowed on public land and their particular usage of the land is not the most important one to everyone else. Tolerance of others extends to even heavily congested mountain trails.
After weaving through the maze we descended into Telluride for lunch. Boy picked out a pizza, taco, bagel, sandwich shop. We rolled with a pepperoni pie. We also hooked up with Bernd and his family as well as Vince and is father. After a little window gawking (notice not buying), Bernd’s, Vincent’s and our rig headed back to Ouray over Ophir Pass. Those of you paying attention will notice that is the trail we were bumped off of earlier.
We notice something was wrong after about 40 minutes. We had missed the turn off. 80 miles later we were on the trail and we were going to make up time. We boogied on this trail like it was the Baja 1000 race. Unlike the Baja, this was on the side of a mountain with edges and hair pin turns. Easy at 5 -10 mph. Not so much at 30 but we were still riding the testosterone buzz of the day. In the end this 80 mile detour earn Vince and Bernd a bunch of Last Great Road Trip tees.
Back at the hotel a quick shower and we were ready to roll again in time for dinner than back to the room and Boy crashed. I moseyed to a little whole in the wall bar with some new friends. It is always fun to hang out with the vendors when they are away from the event. You get the skinny on what is what. But since Boy was alone and child services could have seen, I headed back around midnight… If only I had my room card key.
Do you know how pissed a hotel manager can look when you wake them up to get a new room key. This was after banging on the door and window trying wake Boy. No one was waking him out of his sugar coma. After getting a new key I had to call it… knowing we could sleep in since there was not a run on Sunday… and we did not need a picture of our rig in the group photo. Not at 6:30 am.
Barbie: You can edit anything of mine you want… I usually finish it around 2:00 am and it is all I can do to see the key board. But from now on, I’ll email it to you, give you a call and let you press the publish button… you can have that done before morning right?
Joyce: The kids get their coloring from me… their good looks, brains and everything else came from their mom… And at least I hope their coloring came from me… If I remember the mailman was Hispanic too.