Life above 10,000 feet . . .

RyanC

New member
Living in the mountains of Colorado I had thought I had been 4 wheeling before. But after getting back from my first serious trip with a friend of mine I realize just how wrong I was. And much like RiDE said in one of his posts, once you get out there and see what these vehicles are capable of you're hooked. After a great two days just north of Glenwood Springs I am hooked. And I completely understood the benefits of many of the mods (lift, tires, CB & winch) before hand but I now have a new understanding of why I might want (well need) skids, tire deflators and some sort of air system. Let the shopping begin.

With the heat and the fires here in Colorado it was great to head up to the high altitude of 10,000 feet and above for some cool air.

And with that let the photos begin:

At the trailhead, too clean, fueled up, getting ready to air down the tires:
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Heading up Coffee Pot road to the 4WD trails:
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"Not found" and "Not found" . . . I like it:
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Not two miles in to the 4WD trail and someone is already stuck:
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Great, a chance to test out my winch and wireless remote:
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A small stream to wash off the windows:
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Making camp:
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And watching the sun go down:
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To be continued . . .
 
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Day 2 started with a decision . . .
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We went left and were quite happy with the choice:
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It was proving to be quite entertaining:
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There is a trail here, trust me:
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Now it's really getting fun:
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Can't let Frank have all of the fun in the mud (although he did need to be 'rescued' twice to my zero):
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Not so clean anymore but the end of a great trip:
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All in all an awesome weekend and a great introduction to what our vehicles can do . . . I can't wait to get back out there.

For all of the photos: Wheelin' with Frank - a set on Flickr
 
What kinda winch u got?

I have the Warn M8000 mounted on the Bud Built hidden winch plate. I have synthetic line and the Factor 55 thimble. Pulling an FJ out of the mud isn't really a good test of it but everything worked great. :thumb3:
 
great pics and post!

great pics and post!

love to see some mtbrs getting dirty out there, even without bikes. is moontime cyclery your buddy's shop? is he a big widespread panic fan?

either way, keep the adventures up, us flatlanders are jealous.
 
Is that up by Adams Lake? I hope to head that way with the family for some camping later in the summer. Great shots, thanks for the post.
 
love to see some mtbrs getting dirty out there, even without bikes. is moontime cyclery your buddy's shop? is he a big widespread panic fan?

Yep, Moontime is Frank's shop here in Edwards. We have a number of good shops up here but Frank's is definitely one of, if not the best - top service team bar none. (Coincidentally enough, he is also from Austin). After spending my entire summer training for and racing Leadville last year, this year is a bit more well rounded. :)

Edit: And yes, he is a huge Widespread Panic fan and that is where the name of the shop came from.

Is that up by Adams Lake? I hope to head that way with the family for some camping later in the summer. Great shots, thanks for the post.

Great call. Our original intent was to camp up by Adams Lake but we missed a turn so camped at White Owl Lake. It was an improved campground which was nice as it meant we could have a fire in the permanent fire ring there.

The third pic from the bottom of the second post is the approach up to Adams Lake. A great location that is definitely on the list for future camping trips.
 
Yep, Moontime is Frank's shop here in Edwards. We have a number of good shops up here but Frank's is definitely one of, if not the best - top service team bar none. (Coincidentally enough, he is also from Austin). After spending my entire summer training for and racing Leadville last year, this year is a bit more well rounded. :)

Edit: And yes, he is a huge Widespread Panic fan and that is where the name of the shop came from.

That is great. The moontime reference took me way back! I'll have to drop in his shop next time I am up CO way, we were looking from the top of Keystone towards Vail and talking about hitting it when we were there last year. So much good riding, no matter what the discipline. Unfortunately, CO isn't in my schedule this year (NM is though!).

Hats off to you for riding Leadville too, fwiw! Quite a feat.
 
And I completely understood the benefits of many of the mods (lift, tires, CB & winch) before hand but I now have a new understanding of why I might want (well need) skids, tire deflators and some sort of air system. Let the shopping begin.
All good things to have. Also add sliders, a couple D shackles, a recovery strap, and a receiver shackle - it may not always be possible to recover forward. Make sure you check out Trailhead deflators.

Looks like you guys had a great time. I may need to add CO to the list after I cross off Moab.
 
All good things to have. Also add sliders, a couple D shackles, a recovery strap, and a receiver shackle - it may not always be possible to recover forward. Make sure you check out Trailhead deflators.

Looks like you guys had a great time. I may need to add CO to the list after I cross off Moab.

I already had sliders, I picked up a receiver shackle right before the trip (and used it twice) and I have a recovery strap that I picked up at Home Depot quite awhile ago, not sure that its of a very good quality. I really need to get my act together and put together a true recovery kit.

As for the deflators I agree 100%. I used Frank's this time and they are just about awesome. Of course that also means that I need to do something about air so have been spending time investigating what I need/want. Duty cycle, tank vs no-tank, tank size . . . my head is starting to spin quite frankly. I think for the near term I would only use the onboard air for the tires (and perhaps getting the odd tubeless mountain bike tire bead to seat). Air lockers or power tools aren't currently on the horizon as far as I can tell but knowing me . . . perhaps I should plan ahead. ;)
 

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