Colordao Adventure 2007

[L8 APEX]

I am getting excited about our trip to the mountains coming up in just over a month. We have taken last years trip and improved it ten fold. We weeded out the weak so we can do more riding and less whining:D. I have spent the last two weeks researching maps, trails, all kinds of GPS and mapping software products. I picked the Lowrance GlobalMap 540c Baja unit. It has a large 5" color display and is specifically designed for the rigors of off road use. We have been prepping the ATV's with heavier tires, gear bags etc. We are going to be packing in and camping out on the mountian with the bears and wildlife. It should be a great trip. Three of the guys going are TALON members! That is a great benefit of TALON is a brother hood of people with similar interests. Almost every weekend I talk to or hang out with someone from TALON. Even after the trucks are sold the folks are still here:beer:. The Gooch is also going which is great considering all he has been through with a broken back and such. I am all giddy over my new Lowrance GPS it just arrived! Sweet!
file:///F:/DCIM/100CASIO/CIMG7822.JPGhttp://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/500/medium/CIMG7822.JPG

[tiffo60]

thanks for the invite fag:throw:

[L8 APEX]

Your getting married instead, that was your choice:tongue:

[tiffo60]

Your getting married instead, that was your choice:tongue:

if i would have known about this i could have postponed it a little bit:evil

[my2002lightning]

Don't forget about bear and keeping large-bore pistols on hand.

[STooPiD]

So if we went camping, and you woke up with a... nevermind.

That sounds like a hell of a fun time. If you see any stray bears, walk right up to them and lay down. If they start to sniff you, that's a good sign. If they start to bite, you're in trouble my friend. Grab a pole.

[Ohmsby]

Colorado in the summer is awesome and remember you don't have to outrun the bear just Jimmy:D

[L8 APEX]

Yeah we have two guys on 450cc bikes, which up there equates to about 300cc of power. So the bears or cops will definately catch them first.:D

[L-Fever]

Don't forget to pack the portable dvd player and Brokeback Mountain!..:d

http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/500/images.jpg

[tiffo60]

Don't forget to pack the portable dvd player and Brokeback Mountain!..:d

:rll::rll::rll:

[L8 APEX]

There will be no DVD's on the mountain. eeww.

[Ohmsby]

:rll::rll::rll:

+1

[Shiner1]

Buy new toys for a trip is always fun:tu:

[wesman]

Sweet...take lots of pics and don't tempt any big bears :beer:

--wes

[L8 APEX]

I need you to get my new GPS software hacked;).

[charlie]

I went this time last year. Had a blast. We put 3500 miles on the Harley that week.
Look up Molly's mine. If nothing else you will like the old equipment sitting out side. If you go up Pikes Peak, go @ 7 am or you will get rained on coming back down. And some where around there is the fire line. Take the dirt roads up to Denver (it follows a river). You will be glad you did.

Charlie

[L8 APEX]

I got the GPS mounted today, I still need finish the wiring. There aren't a lot of places to mount this thing. I hope the mount holds up in the mtns. I may bring spare parts just in case. It is just as nice as I expected.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG7854.JPG
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[tiffo60]

thats pretty sick:tu:

[dboat]

thats pretty sick:tu:

+1

[L8 APEX]

I just couldn't go out like this. When I do something I have to do it my way. Which I am learning tends to be twice as difficult and three times as expensive:hammer:. But the little handheld screen just isn't going to be good enough in the mountains where you need to see in detail a 20+ mile radius. On a hand held that resolution is just not possible.
http://www.rinconriders.com/memberphotos/rincon/3521/gpsinmount2.jpg

[STooPiD]

I just couldn't go out like this. When I do something I have to do it my way. Which I am learning tends to be twice as difficult and three times as expensive:hammer:. But the little handheld screen just isn't going to be good enough in the mountains where you need to see in detail a 20+ mile radius. On a hand held that resolution is just not possible.
http://www.rinconriders.com/memberphotos/rincon/3521/gpsinmount2.jpg

You can't put a price on fun... It's only money... you'll make more of it.

[L8 APEX]

We have exactly one week before the adventure begins! I finally got three of the guys together for a last weekend bike fixing party. After hundreds of dollars, 12 hours of labor and lots of BS'ing I think the machines are ready. I tore my bike down last week and rebuilt the suspension. I added grease zerts where there were none. I swapped springs to a stock spring from a lift spring. We changed oils, filters, brake pads, air filters and set valves. We bolted on our waterproof hard cases, fuel racks and GPS systems.
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[L8 APEX]

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[slick-svt]

Throw that GPS crap away, watch some Man vs. Wild on the discovery channel, a compass and your good.......:icon_question:

[L8 APEX]

Well the short story is we all survived and returned home safely. Nobody got video of the real scary riding as usual. Here is a vid of Donnie blazing over a snowy patch of Pearl Pass. It was still blocked by 3-4ft deep snow in 3 spots. I am not sure how or why now but we blazed a trail all the way through all of them. It took us 4 hours to go a few hundred feet through the pass. Yes mountains can be very harsh, unforgiving and even deadly. Challenge them with caution and a lot of gear...
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/Donnie_Pearl_Pass.wmv
Not sure which link to use.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/thumbs/Donnie_Pearl_Pass.wmv (http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=21886)


http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/thumbs/Donnie_Pearl_Pass.wmv (http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=21886)

[PUMP]

Glad to hear that you returned in one piece, or at least none of the pieces were broke.:icon_razz:

[L8 APEX]

Here is a pic crossing the first flat and easy snow blockage. Harv's Polaris wasn't running well at 12,700 ft. So he was stuck in the snow. We hooked his and Jimmy's winch cables together and hooked two more straps to the back of Jimmy's bike and pulled the two of them to the other side.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8074.JPG

[L8 APEX]

Then the next blockage was at a good slant on the side of the mountain. We shoveled snow in the rain and cold for hours and managed to get one bike with a winch across. From there we used winches, shovels, man power and 5 tow straps to get the other 5 bikes across this section. The snow was very slick and had a few inches of ice and melt underneath. I didn't get a lot of good pics as it was late, cold, starting to rain, and not looking good in general. This blockage was at least 3-4 ft deep in the middle and about 110 ft across. We are trying to get the first bike across here. You could not use any engine power from the bike it would just slide down the hill or bury up.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8079.JPG

[L8 APEX]

By now we were exhausted from shoveling, crawling, and pushing 5 bikes through 300 ft of snow blockages. All of this at 12,700+ft altitude, 40 something degrees and intermittently raining going on 6pm.. So we made it over the pass jokingly saying, I hope there isn't another blockage... Well here it was, the most treacherous yet... Very steep and narrow bitch here..
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/CIMG8087.JPG
Now you may ask how did Jimmy and I get to this side of the trail... Well that is what I wish we had video of... Jimmy had the bright idea to ride down the side of the mountian, across the valley and up the other side to setup and winch the other guys across. If you look at the trail behind the bikes on the far side you will see a green grassy looking strip the goes to the bottom of the valley. I can can tell you it didn't look that steep from the top, but that was a gross under assumption. As soon as I tipped over the edge I knew I F'd up! That was not a grassy path! It was mearely grass grown up through a huge boulder field just like the rest of the mountain wall! It took every ounce of riding skill and luck I had ever accumulated to survive this ride to the bottom...
I had the rear brake locked from the first 5 feet and grabbed all of the front I could I still accelerated to over 40mph down this slope! I had to modulate the front brake to steer, keep from flipping over the front, it was the dance of a lifetime. I had to pick the best path I could by working the front brake, rear brake, throttle and steering all in the right amounts. The guys up top said it was amazing to watch, but nobody thought to video it... They said they could see my ass in the air, my skid plates and bottom of the machine, front tires, rear tires off the ground etc all the way to the bottom... I occasionally looked for a place to jump off but there wasn't one on this ride... When I was able to bring it to a stop on a huge boulder field I looked back up holy shat it was a long way back up! I had to cup my hands and yell just to communicate with them at the top. Jimmy came down after me and it was a very scary thing to watch. He made it and we rode up the other side and set up to bring the others across. We knew nobody else needed to try and go down the side of the mountain...
Even at full frame my camera doesn't capture all of the down slope, it was a long long ride down! It felt like it was never going to end...
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/CIMG8086.JPG

[L8 APEX]

Needless to say we were the first people on ATV's to make it through Pearl Pass this year and possibly the last for the year. Doing a little reading I saw this pass is usually blocked by snow year round during heavy snow years like we had this year.

[L8 APEX]

This is about the highest we got, I hoped to break 14000 but the trail was washed out and I had enough adventure for one week...
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8186.JPG
The Baja GPS ran like a pro I used the piss out of it!

[L8 APEX]

Here is a pic of my friend Marlin the Marmot. He is really cool!
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8224.JPG
Snow packed wheel
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8084.JPG

[dboat]

Amazing, just amazing... looks like a good time though.

[L8 APEX]

Gooch and Brad did some gold panning and found a decent amount of gold flakes.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8233.JPG
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We camped at base camp two nights and out on the trail for three. We tried to pick well secluded spots just under the timber line close to a stream. Here we are on the day it rained all night and day... Brad and Donnie washing up and cleaning dishes in the stream.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8249.JPG

[L8 APEX]

I was grateful for all the quality gear I took with me. My Glock E Tool was responsible for getting us through Pearl Pass. One guy had a $6 surplus shovel but it broke half way through the first blockage. My Gerber Camp Axe cut a lot of wood for the fire. Especially when rain made all of the ground wood wet. My MSR (Mountain Survival Research) tent and Cabelas -20' sleeping bag kept me dry and comfortable in the rainiest and coldest weather.
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We carried a 20ft tarp and rope to stretch out and have a dry place to congregate and cook during the rainy weather.
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We visited many old mining sites and buildings.
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[L8 APEX]

Taylor Pass had some cute snow blockage we made it over. This should have served as a sign of things to come on Pearl Pass.
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There were a lot of nice pics to be had. A little pocket camera doesn't really do it justice. Some low clouds rolling along.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/CIMG8254.JPG

[gbgary]

http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/192348.1020.A.jpg


glad you had a good time there jeremiah johnson.

[L8 APEX]

I am a Grizzly Adams fan myself:D.

[parts truck]

Good times. Did you forget the honey on goochs tent.:evil

[L8 APEX]

We left some raw meat out but no takers came by overnight.. Gooch did buy a 1.50 pool floaty for an air matress and it only lasted one night. So he was hurting after that. Why would anyone with a broke back go cheap like that???

[slick-svt]

MSR's are really good..don't leave home without it looks like yall had a lot of fun, and cool pics.

[tiffo60]

looks like alot of fun, glad yall and the bikes made it back safely:tu:

[Ohmsby]

looks like a lot of fun I need to go on vacation

[L8 APEX]

I was just glad to survive my vacation..
Donnie got a good pic of my bike balls deep in the snow, agh!
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/6130/medium/DSC006971.JPG

[Moonshine]

It does look like a great trip. Glad ya'll survived and had fun. :tu:

[L8 APEX]

Wish you were there, maybe next year!

[99bolt]

Yep, you better pencil your calender for next year.

[L8 APEX]

Here is a little video I comprised.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/colorado_07.wmv (http://www.svtgalleries.net/colorado_07.wmv)

[tiffo60]

cool video:tu:

[L8 APEX]

I had a spellin errer but I can't post the vid so I didn't load the change. Now I need to lay some pimp tracks down on'em.

[Moonshine]

:tu: