August 31 2013 - Ouray, Colorado

Typically I like to drive the Sammi when I am exploring.  I don't get to always take it along.

My son-in-law Scott can't seem to pass up a tall mountain without climbing to the top of it.

He had one last Colorado 14er to climb before he could say he did them all.  I have no idea which mountain it was but we accompanied them to Ouray, Colorado for the weekend where he did what he had to do.

I have to go back to this place with the Sammi some day.  Lots of beautiful places to see here and I understand lots of great trails to ride.

They call this place "Box Canyon Waterfall and Park.  Pretty neat!

August 25, 2013 - There are a lot of reasons to live where we do

Late summer brings with it a lot of natural wonders if you look for them.  All of the animals around here look fat, the flowers are all bright, the tree leave darker.  Even the mushrooms look fat and ready for the cold weather with is just around the corner.

We plant a garden at the house but at 8900 feet it takes a pretty hearty plant to survive.  Mostly we just let the ones that grow naturally here do their thing.

August 11, 2013 - Lunch time at the house

Did I mention that I am blessed with living in one of the most beautiful places there is?  Yah, I guess I did.

Pam and I love to travel, but we also like to stay home where it is quiet too.  Having just gotten back from a week playing in the mountains where we saw virtually no wild life we were sitting in the dining room having some lunch when we noticed out the dining room window that  these fellas decided it was lunch time too.

There are loads of wild raspberries that grow at our house.  Somehow the elk and deer know when they are ripe.  We seldom use them unless the grandkids want to make jelly but the berries were ripe and the kids weren't coming up for awhile so we watched them enjoy their lunch.

There are usually four of these guys that run together.  I wonder where the forth one is today?

We love to watch them eat the berries but it is a totally different thing when they head for the flowers in the garden!  Pamela simply won't put up with that, not at all.

Looks like she has to get her concoction out and spray again!

I'm not sure what the details are of her receipt but I can tell you she sends away for the hottest peppers she can find and buys them by the ten pound bag, boil them up, add a little elk urine, skunk spray and a few other tasty sounding ingredients and the flowers are safe!  Unfortunately we were away for several days and it has been raining so it was pretty much washed off of everything.

A full stomach, time for a little snooze in the shade.

This guy wasn't quite satisfied I guess. He knew we were watching and he knew he was in trouble so I stood there and waited for us to stop paying attention to him so he could finish lunch.

A little grooming now the stomach is full.

August 6, 7 & 8 2013 - Playing around in Taylor Park

Internet and cell service was pretty much totally down for the week and I hadn't printed out the telephone roster for the Zukiworld group so I was never able to get in touch with them again.

The rest of the week in the Taylor Park area was spent with late night card games where I always got skunked, fires and marshmallows when it wasn't raining too hard and tooling around on the trails.  Jered never did find the jets we were looking for in Buena Vista but for some reason the little RZR started the next morning so rather than going fishing like we had originally planned we spent the day playing on the trails. 

A lot of rain this year.  That kept things dust free and cool.  We've been at Taylor other years when it was hot, dusty and dry.  I preferred it cool and muddy.

 

 



A little time in Union Park and right around Taylor Park.

And of course the annual ride up Slaughterhouse Gulch to the Christmas tree cabin.

I think originally it was just someone's cabin or maybe it was a slaughter house since that is the name of the trail and gulch.  Over the years a tree managed to spring up in the middle of it that everyone seems to decorate with a Christmas tree ornament or two every time they stop by it,  Hence the name Christmas tree Inn I suppose.

A couple years ago we made some pretty elaborate decorations for the tree.  This year we didn't think ahead to do that so we used the ties out of garbage bags and made some blue ribbons.  Look at that poor tree.  It died!  As you can see dead or not we decorated it.  

 

Someone took the time and energy to plant a new one there though so that is pretty cool.  I hope they did a good job.  I've tried doing that myself and have never had any luck with digging up a pine and replanting it.

 

 

Monday, August 5, 2013, Tin Cup pass with the Zukiworld crew.

Getting together with the Zukiworld group was real convenient for me.  They planned their first outing to be a ride over Tin Cup Pass on Monday morning.  It was decided to meet at the Taylor Park Trading post.  Right where we were staying.  Nice!  Most of them had to drive in from Gunnison and other places in the vicinity to where we were staying.

By the time we left there were nine vehicles if I counted correctly.  Three Samurais, a couple Trackers, at least one Sidekick and at least one Vitara.  Everyone introduced themselves and we were off.  Someday I have to figure out how to remember someone's name for more than a minute.  The only one I remember now is John.  He was the organizer and the leader.  That's his white Samurai with the red stripe and safari top.

Jered ended up riding with me.  I had asked the group prior to getting together if it would be OK if he, Jaime and the girls tagged along in their Jeep but I was informed this ride was supposed to be Suzuki only so the answer was no.  Pamela decided the day before the ride that it might be a little rough so she, Jaime and the girls stayed at camp for the day.

Our first stop was at Mirror Lake just outside of Tin Cup.  Jered spent quite a bit of time checking out the modifications that had been made on some of the Samurais.  I was excited to hear him tell me all of the things he wanted to do to mine to bring it up to trail tough and a little less stock.  It doesn't bother me in the least that he is excited to help me do some modifications.  He has the expertise, the tools and the facilities.  I don't. 

 

 

We were almost at the top of the pass when we had to stop to wait for one of the Sidekicks that had broken an axle and couldn't make the last couple miles.  The driver ended up abandoning it to return later and retrieve it.

 

The Sammi, being pretty much totally stock except for the new oversized tires, did real well.  I have to admit it was struggling a little.  We were pretty close to the limit of its capabilities.   Although I only bottomed out once on the trail a couple inches of lift and some lower gears would have made a world of difference.  That little engine has to be wound up pretty tight and the clutch has to be played with a little too much the way it is now with no power train modifications.  I reached a couple of spots where the clutch was getting a little sloppy from being worked so much.

 

She did real well though.  Kept up with the big boys like a champ.  I know though that I still need the couple inches of lift and the lower gears.  Maybe by next year.  Nothing will stop me once that's done.

 

 

 

 

The top of the pass. 

We left the group when we reached St. Elmo.  The girls little Polaris RZR wasn't running right and Jered wanted to swing by Buena Vista to grab a couple new jets for it.

The Zukiworld group was talking about a couple of alternatives for the next days ride but I didn't hear any final decisions by the time Jered and I had to leave.  The cell towers weren't working back at the RV park so there were no phone calls or internet access so I didn't hear their final decision and was unable to join them any more during the week.  That was OK though.  I wanted to spend time with the kids and besides some of these outfits were pretty tricked out so I might have either destroyed the Sammi trying or held everyone else back as they went along on their other trails that week.

Maybe I'll have it a little more tricked out by next summer so I will feel better about it.

Thanks for letting me join you guys Zukiworld!