Day Twelve

Well I was finally outside of Colorado making my way home, although it sure didn’t feel like it. I had spent the night sleeping at Big Tesuque Campground in the Santa Fe National Forest, sitting at 9,600 feet. Along with the morning sun being blocked by the mountains and the frigid temperatures of the morning I was convinced I was still in Colorado.

With my previous two days of non-stop travel and lack luster sleep I was in no rush to go about starting my day and waited on the sun to crest the top of the trees before starting my day.

With no real agenda for the day I walked around Santa Fe for the afternoon, mainly taking photographs of the unique architecture of the area and checking out the various artist shops that the city offers.

The adventure machine enjoying the pueblo revival architecture.

After words I had planned on meeting up with a friend in Albuquerque later in the evening, so once I had grown tired of walking around Santa Fe I headed out and made the hour drive into Albuquerque. Nothing compared to my 12 hour of driving yesterday. After we grabbed some food and drink we walked around the University of New Mexico, predominantly designed by John Gaw Meem, as it was nearby and I love to shoot architecture as well.

The campus has quite the scenic view as well.

Overall University of New Mexico is a gorgeous campus

By the time sunset hit I headed back to Santa Fe as I had left my camp setup at the campgrounds. The area I was camping in was quite busy, with it being a Sunday after all. I was concerned with leaving my camping equipment left out in the open while exploring a different city an hour away. I took my valuables with me but ended up zip tying the zippers together. While this won’t prevent anyone from cutting the tent open and making off with my sleeping bag, I hoped it would deter any petty theft. The zipper was thankfully undisturbed when I had returned. The plan tomorrow was to head out to Marfa and finally return to Texas.  

Day Eleven

Sleeping in the car, while honestly isn’t horrible for me, leave quite a bit to be desired. I often wake up multiple time throughout the night and can hardly sleep past 6:30am. Despite that the sun had yet to crest the horizon. Given I still had a some 10 hours of driving to reach Santa Fe today, and that wasn’t including any stops, I promptly rearranged the car for driving and headed out.

It had been raining since last night with no signs that it would be stopping anytime soon. The whole weather cell appeared to cover the north west of Colorado. The Drive from Parachute to Ouray was an uneventful 3 hour drive under a gray wet sky. Weather is always hit and miss on a road trip, and even with all kind of various weather apps you can only outrun the weather so much. This was also the first really rainy day, eleven days into my trip, so I wasn’t too upset. Besides the weather in Santa Fe was looking promising.

I finally arrived at Ouray, which sits on the northern side of the 45 miles mountain pass stretch of U.S. Highway 550. I purposely took a ridiculous detour heading to Santa Fe as I wanted to drive 550 just one last time before I left the state. Now Red Mountain Pass is the first of three passes you summit driving south, and also the tallest. While Ouray sits at around 7,800 feet, Red Mountain Pass sits at 11,000 feet, a hefty 3,000 foot climb over 13 miles. At this point I was beginning to wonder if this was a good idea.

What started as rain turned into freezing rain, then sleet, then snow…

There was a group of cyclist descending the mountain into Ouray that day as well. I think I'll stick to my car when it comes to winter conditions.

Ride on you crazy Coloradoan

Mmmmm snow

I’m from texas driving a sports car on summer tires, which can be dangerous to drive on in winter conditions. The last thing I expected to see was snow in June yet here I was driving through a snowstorm. Thankfully the road was warm enough that nothing was sticking to the ground, and the previous three hours of driving had adequately warmed up the tires so that traction was not an issue. Although I stuck to a grandma pace through the pass and would often test the brakes a couple of times before going around each corner. Under steering off the mountain was quite the concern, and something I wish to never experience. The downhill only made my fears worse, as the snow dissipated and became sleet again, however this time the sleet wasn’t melting on the road. I opted to take my ever so sweet time coming down from Red Mountain Pass. Compared to about a week earlier where I was passing people on this road, I was now the car everyone was passing.

Thankfully by the time I got to Silverton the sleet and snow had resumed to just being rain again and I was able to drive the southern part of 550 without seeing winter weather conditions again.

Molas Lake Park & Campground, quite a different view compared to when I had stopped here for sunset.

After my eventful drive through the mountains I stopped in Durango for some R&R. Ended up taking a shower at the gym I belong to and eating lunch off of highway 160. From there I headed east towards Pagosa Springs to take US highway 84 into New Mexico. While in Pagosa Springs I stopped for supplies as well as I was now familiar with the area having spent the day here at the beginning of my trip. As I was loading my car up I once again found myself unable to escape the the rain as it started pouring on me in the middle of my packing up. Not wanting to get soaked I threw the rest of my stuff in my cooler and hastily closed up the car. I try to keep the car organized as my space is quite limited but I don’t mind making an exception if it prevents my supplies and myself from getting drenched.

A field of cows grazing, just east of Pagosa Springs

From there is was more butt time in the driver seat, the only dislike of my trip are the days where you just drive. I was finding my lackluster collection of CD to be getting old and my leg muscle growing tired of holding the accelerator down, my car lacks any kind of cruise control being a base model.

Finally made it to the Santa Fe National Forest, right at sunset. When I had first pulled up the campgrounds I thought about setting up camp and eating dinner but found the light to be far too good to pass up. I drove further up the mountains and came across a beautiful scenic overlook of the Santa Fe area.

The cost of getting that shot was setting up camp and eating dinner in the dark, a small inconvenience to pay for such a breathtaking view.

Day Nine & Ten

I found myself waking up before my friend did so I took a quick walk around our camp site. The joys of camping in new spots is being able to walk around in the early morning light. The scenery was breathtaking as we were right on the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park after all.

Once we both had eaten breakfast we headed out to Rocky Mountain Park to go for a Hike. Now I’d figure we’d go maybe a mile or two and planned according to that. However Ryan was up to a 5-10 mile hike and I hadn’t realized that as we never discussed just how long of a hike to do. To make matters worse Ryan drove his car and I left my car at the campgrounds along with my more appropriate camelback backpack instead of my shoulder sling camera bag with 1 bottle of water in it. However Ryan did bring a water filter kit, thus I was able to keep my small half liter bottle filled.

Our hike went without any problems, although we did lose the trail at one point. I never realized just how long until the snow melts at the high altitudes. Despite it being early June the Rocky Mountain National Park was still covered in a good amount of snow, and so were the trails. We did have a basic trail guide map, although it was worthless when it came to trying to find just where the path split off. If there was a sign for the trails, it was still snow covered.

I never have seen such clear water in my life, while not obvious in the photographs I could not tell where the water line was when looking down at the rocks. That is how clear the water was! Also it was damn cold too.

In the end we did about 5 miles around trip, tired from hiking through the mountains at the high elevation we headed into town to find some food.

Ended up stopping at The Wapiti Colorado Pub where I was able to try my very first elk burger which was absolutely delicious, and they had a chocolate porter as a beer option on their menu. Colorado sure does have quite the selection when it comes to craft beers.

Mmmm beer.

We called it a day after we were done with our food and we headed back to camp for the night.

Day Ten

This morning I found myself to be the one sleeping in late. Ryan had woken up early to pack as he had to head back home and had a 10 hour drive ahead of him. So after joining me for four days I was back to my solo trip which felt odd as it was nice to have my friend join me on my trip.

I packed up my stuff shortly after Ryan did and headed into town. My car had decided it was time again to break down on me. I noticed my car was a bit louder the day before and after investigating realized that my exhaust was somehow missing a bolt. My car is fairly low so crawling under it wasn’t an option and the area we had camped in provided no options unlike our last option. I figured all it needed was a new bolt and I would be good as new.

Ended up driving into town and finding two local mechanics who were right next to each other in the same area. Both refused service saying it would be a week before they could work on my car. I honestly think the fact I mentioned it was my exhaust scared them off, as being up in a snow country the exhaust systems are likely nightmares to work on when it comes to older cars. Being from Texas rust is not a major issue.

Feeling disappointed I drove around a bit looking for an area to repair my car at and ended up in an old defunct Sinclair gas station. Just my luck the curbs were low car friendly, and there happened to be a rock retaining wall with loose rocks on the ground. Between the curbs and the rocks I was able to get the car just high enough so I could work on it! After I got access to exhaust I realized I needed a new gasket and bolt. Thankfully there was a Napa auto parts store down the street within walking distance. Well in the worse case I did have a bike with me.

After grabbing a new bolt, gasket, and zip ties, as I was running low on them, I was able to repair my car in about twenty minutes, only took two hours of running around till I was able to get to it...

Good as new!

With my car now back to normal I headed back to Rock Mountain National Park to take the scenic route and as a bonus was quite the fun road to drive as well. Even got to spot a coyote making his way through the park as well.

View fullsize

After the park I initially was going to drop down to highway 50 in order to camp in the forest and I wanted to drive 550 one last time before heading back, however I ended up driving on I-70 and was glad I did. Glenwood canyon is a beautiful drive and the rest stops double as park which were quite pleasant.

I drove until I was tired enough to finally call it quit for the day, pulling into a rest stop area to spend the night. While I would have much rather spent the night camping, I had no luck finding a spot for the night.

JCCS 2015 Coverage!

I’m currently on the midst of a second road trip this year, this time my point of interest was none other than the Japanese classic car show. My dad was a quite the car enthusiast when I was growing up he owned various datsun 510 and Roadsters. For my first car I was gifted a 1982 Datsun 210,  a car I hope I can own again some day.

I had arrived in LA the day prior with no issues on my trip, well besides the speeding ticket in a small New Mexico town along I-10 that felt necessary to employ four officers enforcing speed. The size of the city was just under 3,000...

However the 240 ran the whole 1,300 mile one way drive without a hitch even with the engine purring along at nearly 4,000 RPM in fifth gear.

The show took Place at Queen Mary in Long Beach, California on a particularly Hot day. Although being from Texas the heat felt like a normal September day. 

The parking lot it self is a small car show in its self with various old school rides coming out. 

This CRX was an imported RHD model from japan with a tasteful list of mods done, and for sale too boot. 

This hot rod used a L series engine out of a Datsun Z

Someone from Canada drove down in this super clean R34 GT-R

Not a regular GT-R either.

And those are just the car I came across in the parking lot!

This Nissan PAO was one of two at the show.

The interior was quite sparse, however it looked like even this model came with factory A/C

This AE86 wasn't the cleanest at the show, but it did pack quite the surprise

A DC motor was the power plant

No fuel cell back here, just a battery cell. 

There was this gorgeous R30 on display.  

Mazda brought out one of two, possibly three Cosmo there were impored in 1967, this one had just around 13,000 KM on the odometer. 

Not really a 'classic car' but Nissan became an offical sponsor of JCCS this year and brought out one of there R390 GT1 race cars all the way over from japan.  Up until now I only had a chance to see this from the scree when playing Gran Turismo, never did I think I would be seeing the real deal today.

These Honda Z600 were super cool, and super tiny.  I honestly think I could fit one in the back of my pickup truck, with room to spare

These honda also had quite a cool full size spare tire location. The license plate should give you an idea of these cars, they are tiny!

There was a huge turn out of all kinds of Celica GT out, this orange one had one of the most eye catching colors of the bunch. 

There were a large turn out of roadster, from stock restored to turbo SR powered motors, I realized now after the fact I spent most of my time gawking over them than taking photos. They brought back memories of my dads old rides. 

This Spoon clone CRX was tastefully done and had some serious work done to it.

JDM Legends brought out there 240Z that was about 95% done and the details on this car, as shown, are ridiculous. It attracted quite a large constant crowd that I wasn't able to get a full shot of the car. 

Toyota brought out there 2000GT, yet another unicorn at this show you'd think that all the rare cars here were relatively normal. 

The toyota sport 800 were quite the treat to see, I was completely unfamiliar with these cars until I came across them. 

This was a privately owned 1986 Prelude with around 50,000 original miles, and looks liked it had rolled straight out of a time capsule 

Black gold, you can never go wrong with black and gold. I should know... 

Along with cars there was a handful of FJ land cruisers out, this FJ40 was fully restored. 

And of course there were quite a few C10 skyline out on display, the front one being a 2000GT that was very well done and Won 1st place in best skyline!

After words I met up with friends from Texas and we headed out to Moon Eyes however we made it right after they closed, still cool to check it out in person.

Over all I had a blast and will hopefully be making the journey again next year. For now I'll press on north along the not so infamous PCH. The Colorado adventure story will resume next Sunday.

For the rest of the photos you can find them here:  thevisualgarage.com/jccs2015

Day Eight

It’s officially been one week since I’ve embarked on this trip. While I have seen a decent amount of Colorado by now I realized that a week just does not give you many choices when it comes down to doing a road trip. Getting in and out of Texas alone can eat up two of those days.

I slept well and finally getting use to the brisk near freezing mornings I no longer had to spend the first hour or so trying to persuade myself to embrace the cold. Although I’m glad I was not in a rush to leave this morning, as my car had iced over at night… in early June. Since when do car ice over in June?!

And yes I'm easily amused.

Before making my breakfast I went on a quick hike up the hills just behind our campsite. I was hoping to make it to the top of the hill, however when I found the top of the hill I was met with yet another hill to climb. After dealing with about four of those I turned back down, the view alone was quite pretty with how short of a climb this was.

Our camp site for the night.

Hiking back to camp I found my friend Ryan still sleeping, although it wasn’t even seven am yet, and I went about making myself breakfast along with a hot cup of coffee. Once I polished off my food I spent the rest of my time catching up on my journal entries as I hadn’t written anything down the past two days. While spending my time writing I had a visitor pop up without as much of a sound. A red fox trotted right by my chair, about 2 feet away. We both turn, look at each other, and the fox seemingly unconcerned with my presence continues on his way. My camera is looked in my car and before I even think about pulling out my phone to shoot a photo mr fox is already another 20 feet away.

Don't mind the fox on his morning commute.

Shortly after our visitor left my friend finally wakes up and goes about making his breakfast. My belts are still squealing in the cold weather and with just my luck there is a trench dug out here that allows me easy access to the underside of my car this time. While I did bring a large variety of tools, getting access to the underside of a low sports car can prove to be the biggest issue at times. Now that I can finally get to the underside I find my problem. My alternator bolt is gone. Just a large hole where a bolt should have been. I’m baffled at how the bolt is just missing, however there is no one I can blame. After All I’m the only one who even works on my car in the first place. So with no extra hardware, something I didn’t think to bring, I opted for the most common solution a 240sx owner uses: zip ties.

This slope made it night and day difference in how easy it was to repair the car.

As you can see I really enjoy doing this.

One zip tied alternator coming right up.

With three zip ties now holding the alternator to the car, I go and re-tension the belt for the final time.

With my car temporarily repaired, we both go about packing and head towards Denver for lunch. Looking at our maps we settle on highway 67 that winds through Pike National Forest. I would not want to drive through this area during a heavy rain, the side of the road has frequent warnings to climb to high ground in the event a flash flood occurs. The road runs right along a river with cliff sides on both sides of you. Thankfully the sky was blue and there were no clouds threatening to rain on the journey. That wasn’t the only issue with the highway, for about 15 miles it turns to dirt with one section having a 15% grade. I was quite surprised just how steep of a climb that proved to be as I had yet to encounter anything more than 10% so far.

Driving along the paved part of highway 67

Once off highway 67 there wasn’t much excitement, although Denver traffic can haul some serious butt through the city. Despite the speed limit being posted at 65, the flow of traffic was closer to 85. I personally did not mind, as driving in Austin, Texas people are more concerned with updating their facebook than actually driving. I found the change of pace refreshing.

We finally made it to Denver and stopped at Queen of Sheba Ethiopian in Denver for lunch. A little hole in the wall and the three unit strip center looks like it was built in 1980 and never got a refresh once and it could use a fresh coat of paint. Once inside it was a quaint joint with various types of decorations, I noticed there were framed newspaper articles above the kitchen entrance as well. While we were there it appeared the entire restaurant was ran by the lady who owned the joint. She was super nice and was the cook, waiter, and busser. From what I could gather from those newspaper article the owner had been running this restaurant for quite some time. Given that it was my first time here I opted to try one of the sampler plates with various types of meats. The wait wasn’t bad as we were oddly the only ones in there for lunch. Once our food came out my tastebuds were thoroughly impressed. With Ethiopian food you eat with a type of bread as your utensils no fork and knives here. Overall the food was absolutely amazing with all the difference flavors and spices used in the dish. I truly wish this place was down the street from my house, not a 17 hour drive one way.

With my tastebuds happy with a good meal and my stomach far too full we left the restaurant and I popped over to ACE hardware to grab a bolt to properly fix my alternator. The nice thing after working on your car for so long is that you eventually start to learn what size bolts are used for parts. I grabbed an assortment that felt adequate although in the end I never got a chance to install them, and the zip ties held the alternator on for the next 1,500 miles of my trip.

From Denver we headed westward towards Este Park which sits at the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. The Drive did not disappoint as it wandered along the mountain range and was a really beautiful drive, the like majority of the mountain roads that I had drive so far.

The road heading towards Estes Park.

Once we arrived in Este Park we spent the remainder of our day trying to find a camping spot. So far it seemed that only the San Juan mountain range provided the easiest to find spots for dispersed camping and that luxury had ran out the minute I left that mountain range. We first visited the information center, but didn’t have much luck there. I called around to park ranger stations looking for help. The park ranger who helped me had some serious patience. Probably a combination from the altitude and driving I didn’t realize that while you can set up camp where you please in National Forest areas, National Parks are much more controlled and do not allow dispersed camping. It sadly took me far too long to understand that. With not much luck we headed towards the entrance of the park, only to find it was $20 per car to enter plus a daily fee for a campsite. We opted to pass on that however I talked to the booth attendant who gave some options that were near by. With that information we turned around and headed towards Allenspark just south of Estes Park. It turned into another evening of hunt for a campground and driving down various dirt roads. We eventually lucked out and found a good area near a trailhead, that just happen to be the dead end of the road.

A curious mule deer.

With our camping spot now set up we went about eating dinner and went to bed shortly after.

Day seven

For the first time since I had left on my trip I had overslept, I was use to waking up in the early dawn, although today I found my tent was a tad too warm instead of a frosty chill. I honestly wouldn’t have minded the extra sleep, however I had planned to meet up with my friend Ryan who had a week off his job. With the sun already high in the sky I hastily packed up my tent and made my breakfast togo. The campsite had shower and while I opted to skip them in my haste I wish I would have taken advantage of them, there aren’t any out in the middle of a forest.

Entrance to the camp site

The car still had squealing belts, they were becoming a nuisance at this point. On my way out I stopped before getting onto the highway, pulled out the tool chest I kept snug behind the passenger seat and tightened up the belt, for the second time. Thankfully the bolts are easily accessible from the top of the engine bay. When I went to start the car I found they still were wailing away, a quick blip of the gas pedal quieted them right down.

After a week of driving, it was quite dirty from all the dirt roads.

With the belts now behaving themselves and my car all packed up I headed out towards Monitou Springs, a small town west of Colorado Springs. It’s where Ryan and I had agreed to meet up and was near the base of Pikes Peak Mountain.

We ended up meeting at a public park in town, just right as I was finishing up my lunch, after packing up my supplies and putting it back into the car we made our way out to Pikes Peak.

The Drive up the mountain is absolutely breath taking as it rises up over 8,000 feet from Colorado Springs. The whole 17 mile stretch of road up to the summit is a toll road, or rather more of a park entrance fee, it cost $12 to get in which honestly isn’t that bad considering the view you get from the top. For me Pikes peak has always been known for the annual hill climb in which rally drivers with near death wishes attempt to climb the mountain in cars specifically built for the race and reach a ludicrous pace of speed. 12.42 miles in 8 minutes and 13 seconds is an all time current record. Taking my time and stopping multiple times for photos, it took close to an hour to reach the end. Keep in mind this is on a mountain pass in which I found myself using first gear in my car on uphill hairpins. Until I drove this mountain, I never found myself needing 1st, unless I took off from a stop.

About 5 miles into the park

This was a blast to drive up

The Visual Garage Office.

However June was still early in the summer season for Colorado and the last two miles were sadly closed, thus I never got to go all the way to the top. The view was still astonishing. You were able to see for miles in any direction you looked. The amount of snow that covered the landscape only added to my amazement.

The end of the roadd, with workers blocking off the last two miles of road.

On the way down they warn you to not ride your brakes, and for good reason. If you keep your foot constantly on the brakes for the entire downhill you’ll overheat them and will be unable to stop. Given that guard rails are sparse and that drop offs wait for you at every chance you really need your brakes!

However there was a truck in front me crawling at such a snails pace I found myself using 1st and second gear, rarely ever needing my brakes. To ensure you don’t cook the brakes, after the steeper part of the road there is a brake check point. If the park ranger find your brakes over 300*, a temperature higher than the wet boiling point of Dot 3 brake fluid, you are forced to wait at least 30 minutes before you can proceed. Conveniently, or intentionally, there is a restaurant, gift shop, and lake view at said point. However due to the truck in front of my brake temp was something around 95*F. I ended up getting smarties for being smart with your brakes. I found it funny.

After the hill climb and descent of Pikes Peak we headed towards Denver, through the Pike National Forest in search of a camp site. And just like the previous day for me finding a good spot proved to be challenging. We drove down a few dirt country roads, with no luck of finding anything. We passed a manicured camping site, although it left a lot to be desired. Not many people were there, but the lots were small, close together, and very open. Swung back around to a day use area, as there was a manned booth there and I figured a park ranger would have the most knowledge of where we could camp. However we pulled up right as they were closing the area for the day and said booth attendant was making their rounds and no where in sight. Damn.

However a couple were leaving, in an older car with Colorado plates a clear sign that this wasn’t a rental car. I asked them if they had any recommendations and gave advice to head down to a road named Rainbow trails. With it now getting late this would be our last option to check before swinging back and camp in the manicured site.

Their advice paid off, there were a handful of spots along the road, most of the closer ones already occupied, however we lucked out and found a small cul-de-sac that had two area various plants, one already being occupied by a woman and her dog.

Night begin to soon fall, and those warm temperatures begin to fade as fast as the sun was setting.

Day Six

The morning was cold, damp, and drizzly so I opted to stay in my tent until around 8am, quite a late start from what I’ve been getting use to.

Rain drops against the tent.

Today was the most uneventful day of my trip so far, I talked to Matt and Brandon for awhile this morning while I begin packing up my equipment at a leisurely pace. Although in my sleep stupor I had spilt my coffee with Brandon promptly laughing at me. Between packing up, eating my breakfast, and talking to Brandon and Matt by the time I had finished with everything it was already approaching noon.

Matt and Brandon

For lunch I had yet another can of delicious soup while I joined Matt and Brandon at there site where we talked a bit more. They really did have a sweet setup for long term camping. Whole setup felt like a small home.

It was already well past two by now, and I needed to get on the road. I planned on meeting up with a friend near Pikes Peak, which was on the other side of the state, tomorrow morning. After saying my goodbyes I hit the road. I was still having belt squealing issues, however they weren’t as bad as I had now tightened up the belts. Only lasted for a second or two on startup. Still concerning although I did have rescue tape, a self fusing silicone tape, that could be used in a pinch. It can be real lifesaver when needing to make quick repairs to an item that would otherwise leave you stranded.

Although I was honestly wanting to leave too, there was still a 36 mile stretch of mountain pass that I was itching to drive and I still had a lot of state too see! Highway 550 was total blast to drive along with highway 50, and I’m sure some of the locals were wondering why a Texan was hauling butt through the mountains. I found the majority of Texas drivers I came across on mountain passes drove exceptionally slow.

In other words: 23 miles of fun ahead.

I hardly covered any ground today, just under 190 miles, or about 3.5 hours of driving at this point.

I was having difficulties finding a campsite in the area I was in. I was east of Monarch pass along highway 50 at this point, while I was still in a national forest there were few and far between roads off of the highway. The San Juan range was quite the opposite with plentiful amounts of forest roads. There were few valleys and most of the roads just seemed to go up into the mountains but provided no good areas to camp in. Between nearly getting my car stuck on a path, and having to drive down a slope in reverse, I only found two options. One right near a trail head, uncertain I could even camp there, and the other spot while decent was surrounded by dead trees waiting to topple. I did not care for either.

Highway 50 Colorado. The 'Office' view of my journey.

With the sunlight disappearing over the mountains I gave up on finding a spot in the forest. I had passed a RV campground sign a few miles back and opted to head there as a last resort. While I could press on and sleep in my car, I’d rather not.

The site itself left things to be desired, this was obviously a more RV type place than camping. A river ran right by on the other side of an embankment which separated out some of the camp sites. The ground was quite soft and muddy. I was bit concerned about parking in the grass, as I had summer tires that would be useless in mud and the differential does not lock. Good recipe for getting stuck! Thankfully there were no other cars so I left my car on one lane gravel path

The ground around the sites wasn’t flat either, the ground was covered in mounds from the clumps of grass growing and took me a bit of walking my site to find a suitable area for my tent. Well at least the tent stakes went in without a hitch.

Cars n Camping

Day Five, Photo edition

Gray skies and snow capped mountains were the norm at close to 10,000 feet above sea level.

This was further down old lime creek road, an etremely rough road that requires high ground clearance, 4wd is good insurance to have on this route. Or a mountain bike if, like me, are driving around in a sports car.

Inline six engine block makes for a nice option for planted pots.

Brown Bear Cafe, where I had ate the previous night. Damn good food.

The least likely set of car I'd expect to see in a small ex mining town. The yellow car in the back ground is a four door Seat hatchback with Mexico plates. And yes Seat is a name of a car manufacture.

Snow capped mountains surrounded this tiny town in every direction you looked.

Hey man, need a lift?

I have feeling that the lift and upgraded tires on this EMS vehicle are a necessity up here in the mountains.

Only a moderate chance of avalanches today.

This B&B looks like it had been closed for quite some time.

All of the streets in town were dirt roads. The only paved road was main street, which ran right down the middle of town.

Main street.

View of Silverton off of 550 heading south of town.

On my way back to my campsite I noticed a turn off for a day use area and went to check it out. I was promptly met by a snow covered road.

Yeah that is a lot of snow. The area closest to me was nearly a foot deep, well there is a road somewhere under all that white stuff. My car, which doesn't have much ground clearance to begin with, was also equipped with summer tires and I can say good bye to any traction when it comes to this weird stuff.

The infamous current coverage page, parked at Lake Molas camp site.

Comfort is always important, waiting for the sun to set. Said picture can be seen at the end of the first Day Five post. Equipment pictured: Nikon D300, First gen Tokina 12-24 f/4, Manfrotto 410 head on Induro AT 8M 214 legs.

Moon rise in the forest.

Day Five

Woke up early as usual. I really wish I could sleep in past sunrise the tempurture in the early mornings is far too cold for my liking.

Well after about two hours, just a little before seven am, I finally forced myself out of my tent to make up breakfast and coffee. However I wasn’t quite awake yet and ended up spilling my first cup of coffee, awesome start to any morning. The majority of my morning was spent catching up on my journal writings and enjoying the scenery around me.

After a bit my neighbor, who had a campsite about 50 yards away, walked by and I finally got to talk to him for a bit. Matt and his son brandon had been camping out here for about 10 days so far, and week ago the whole area was covered in snow, there were still even drying up snow melt patches covered by the shade of trees out here. Talk about lucking out.

After talking to Matt and Brandon I learned they were camping out for the summer, spending 10-14 days in each spot before packing up and moving onto the next one. That is one heck of a way to spend your summer break! Not to mention they had an awesome camping set up

I went back over to my site for lunch and hopped on my bike to ride down the forest service road to see just what was down there. There was a rough road warning sign right before you start heading down the road, that sign was a bit of an understatement to say the least. There was no possible way my car could make it down this road, good clearance was a must, something my car lacks.

Ventured about 3 miles down the road before turning around. I did find a secluded camping site that was tucked away off the forest service road that had great scenery and could fit a few tents back there. I could pack up what I needed and biked in, although I wasn’t really prepared for that and I’d have to leave my car abandoned. Not something I was willing to do, as it was my home for all intensive purpose.  

By the time I made it back to my site I was quite exhausted and plopped down on the ground.

After recovering for about an hour I ended up spending more time with Matt and Brandon throwing a football with them, however I lasted all of 10 minutes before I was out of breath again. Curse this elevation.

With plenty of daylight left, and no more energy for physical activity I headed into Silverton to restock on supplies, gas and to walk around the town.

The town had one gas station and one grocery store that wasn't much bigger. Apples here were close to $3/lb, and there was only one kind as well. Not surprised given how small the town was. However I was surprised to learn that it had been an active mining town for over a 100 years up until 1990.
 

After walking around and taking photos I was begging to get hungry and headed back to my site of dinner as I was now stocked up on supplies.

At this point I was really enjoying the 11 mile stretch of 550 and was begging to get familiar with the route. I wouldn't mind driving a mountain pass everyday for my commute. Sure beats I-35 which just goes straight forever and ever.

Ended up eating soup of course, I was getting use to my camping diet by now.

With sunset approaching I grabbed my camera equipment and headed out to lake Molas to capture the mountains at sun set. Although as I go to leave my belts start to squeal on my car. Odd they're still relatively new and have been fine for the past few days. I'll just have to tighten them up before I leave tomorrow.

The thoughts of belts being an issue quickly disappear as they quiet up and I hop back onto the pass to go capture sunset in the mountains.

I waited around until sunset turned to dusk and packed up my equipment. The night driving conditions made me thankful that I swapped out the old sealed beam units for more modern H4 light housing, the difference between them was a night and day difference. I may as well been using a handheld flashlight with the old ones.

Part 2 with more photos coming this Tuesday.

Day Four

After a blissful sleep I spent the morning packing up the car and rearranging my belongings. I had let everything become quite a mess with various items spread out and not put away, along with the fact that I had quite a bit of stuff shoved into my tent as well. After slowly eating my breakfast I began to reorganize all of my equipment into the 240sx as I was unhappy with how it had been. With everything neatly packed up into the 240sx it became much easier to grab what I needed.

Things were much more travel friendly now.

Packed up and ready to head out.

Before I headed out I talked to the campsite host for a bit. Through our conversation I learned that the forest service road went about 20 miles in, with it being a dead end, this was the only way in and out. She also mentioned there were difficult parts to cross that required a 4x4 vehicle. So being a reasonable person I decided to see just how far my car can make it down the road, besides I did bring my mountain bike with me as well.

I crossed over one water stream and a rock garden that my car was thankfully narrow enough not to get stuck on the various rocks jetting out from the ground. Inevitably I came across terrain that was impassable in my car, but I was able to make it much farther than I had anticipated.  

A shovel always come in handy. Some rock removal was necessary to cross the stream.

This was no problem really and one of the main reasons that I brought my bike. I simply pulled off onto the side and parked under the shade of a tree. I took the parts of my bike out of the car and   began the assembly. Afterwards I was able to continue further on down the forest service road.

From where I parked I went about another five miles down the road, it was a shame the terrain was impassable with my car as after the rough section it was back to smooth roads that posed no problem for a lowered sports car. There are hiking trails that lead off the road and I stumbled across one that climbed up the side of a mountain. I was really wishing I had a better gear set on my bike, as the small 26” wheels and large gear ratios made climbing exhausting. Turns out mechanical advantage wasn’t in my favor, so I just walked my bike up the trail. After hiking up on the trail for about 10-15 minutes I turned around and headed back down. Downhill was far more enjoyable as I could just coast down the entire hill, even with the questionable stopping power that my measly bike brakes had to offer.

After my hike and bike up and down the mountain I was getting hungry and headed back to the car for lunch. Once I had the bike put away I pulled out my food supplies and ate soup along with some snacks along the side of the river. By now I had become sick of soup and had an intense hunger for a real substantial meal.

I left the forest after lunch and headed westwards towards Silverton which is along highway 550. A 45 mile mountain pass that summits three times; Coal Bank Pass(10,640 ft), Molas Pass(10,970 ft), and Red Mountain Pass(11,018 ft). The weather was nice and the drive was amazing with a very dynamic landscape. In bad weather? Well that’s another story.

While driving through Pagosa Springs I stopped at an antiques museum. When I had passed by the previous day it didn’t look like it was anything special. Not wanting to judge this place on my first glance, like my mother always told me not to, I decided to stop in and check it out. I am glad that I did too as the museum held a wealth of history primarily focusing on the town of Pagosa Springs.  I found out that Wolf Creek Pass was initially a 2 day trip, not a 2 hour trip like today. The pass was also only one lane, and physical fights would often solve confrontational negotiations should you encounter a car attempting to drive the opposite way.

This 19th century camera was quite a surprise to see. The museum was packed with tons of artifacts, and is free to visit as well!

The town is known for its hot springs, however it was quite commercialized and being late in the day I decided to pass on the hot springs. However I was going on day four without a shower and I could use a bath by this point...

Thankfully I have a gym membership to a national chain and there was one that just happened to be on the eastern outskirts of Durango where I was able to unwind and enjoy a nice hot shower.

Well after that nice break I hopped back into the car and continued on my way. There was festival going on that day too but I still had quite some ground to cover and it was already in the late afternoon by this point.

It wasn’t before long I came across a sign I didn’t know I was looking for: Warning mountain pass. Oh yes that is the kind of sign that gets me excited about driving! Now the fun started on the mountain pass of highway 550. Steep grades that go down as quickly as they go up and no guard rails to protect from the multi hundred foot drops of the cliff face.

The campground I had found via my phone app was still closed due to snow. My Texan brain cannot comprehend the mass amount of white stuff closing everything. I had passed by an over look, that was at the summit of Molas Pass and offered a spectacular view. I asked around to see if anyone knew of near by areas to camp. I got some advice and headed back south in hopes of finding a forest service road marker. Worst case scenario there was another manicured camping area on Lake Molas as a backup option but I was looking for something off of the beaten path. Not before long I found the sign I was looking for a small brown sign reading “Old Lime Creek Road” and turned off. Unlike the East and West fork roads this road was far from maintained, thankfully there was a path near the entrance that I was able to drive across, although it almost was too rough for my car and there was a good chance of getting stuck. The plus side was I was right off of highway 550 and could flag someone down if such a thing happened. I lucked out and only had one neighbor, who was about 100 yards away and my site was surrounded by trees and had a firepit built by previous people camping in this spot. You couldn’t even tell that highway 550 was so nearby. Secluded enough you feel like you're in the woods by yourself, close enough to the highway emergency help wouldn’t be hard to get. I lucked out on this spot as this was my first time doing dispersed camping, and alone too boot, perfect.

After setting up my camp I headed into Silverton for dinner. I was really afraid that everything would be closed by then as it was approaching 8pm. Thankfully Silverton is a tourist town and accommodates as such. I found a restaurant called Brown Bear Cafe that was open until 9pm on a sunday night. Score!

I ordered a grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables along with chicken dumpling soup, which I didn't realize came with the meal. When I had order the soup I was instantly thinking that I should have gotten the vegetable soup instead. I’m used to really mediocre chicken dumpling soup. However I was quite surprised and had one of the most authentic version of chicken dumpling soup that I have ever had, it was hearty yet light. Quite the surprise and I gladly slurped it all down.

The main course was on par with the soup, the vegetables were fresh and firm the chicken was moist and tender and the mash potatoes had been made only minutes before. I ate everything and was far too full. The appetizer was bread that had been pulled right out of an over. The cafe was slow that night, myself being one of no more than four customers. The food was fresh and didn’t taste like it was left over from a dinner rush. It hit the spot in all the right ways and I left with a larger stomach.

With my craving for “more than soup” satisfied I headed out from the cafe. I drove back to Old Lime Creek Road, going through Molas Pass to get to my campsite. I noted that Molas lake had a beautiful view and made a mental note to stop back for sunset photos before I left for my next camping spot.

Once back at camp I made a campfire to finish off my long day. My campfire skills already improving I was able to start this one in under five minutes.