BRECKENRIDGE 4 WHEELERS RALLY PART 1

 

THE RALLY

We enjoyed  the week of Sept. 18 – 25 attending  a rally of the Family Motor Coach 4 Wheelers in a very nice RV park in Breckenridge CO. It was the group’s first rally there, but advance scouting and creating GPS tracks resulted in many trails being planned for the approximately 80 people attending. Before the rally began, the weather was cool and rainy, with some snow dusting the higher peaks. The aspens just began to turn yellow early in the week, but as it progressed more turned yellow and some even orange tinted.

The unusual cloud at the right suggests to me that a snow squall may be going on. The picture was taken looking north from Hoosier Pass.

This Jeep has run Rubicon, about the most difficult trail in the West.

The owners of these Jeeps were just bragging!

This lineup is more typical of the Jeeps driven by those attending. There also were some very Plain Jane Jeeps in the group, as well as a handful of Grand Cherokees such as ours. 

OUR FIRST DAY’S RUN

Our first run was up Peru Creek to the ruins if the Pennsylvania mill, with corresponding mine up the mountain. Below are parts of the machinery still at the mill ruins.

The whitish line in the upper left is the Argentine wagon road. It has been closed many years due to slides blocking the road. One can nearly get up to the pass from the other side.

Lunch time on the ridge of Glacier Mountain

Here is our road running the top of Glacier Mountain. We are above timber line, maybe around 12,000 ft.

Here is our little caravan making the run. Ours is the third vehicle. Lifting it 2 inches and putting on taller all terrain tires (it is otherwise a stock vehicle as it came from the factory) have helped its performance remarkably, as well as  boosting my confidence considerably!    Note the dusting of snow on the far peaks.

 

Our descent from Glacier Mountain was down the canyon of the North Fork of the Swan River. (Sorry that the dating system in the camera suddenly became a day fast!)

The most challenging part of the run was descending the right fork of the Y of the road nearly on the horizon to get into the valley of the North Fork of the Swan River.