Writen by Lloyd Swartz - Edited by Ray Sala
I arrived at the Hancock Townsite at 1:00am, with John and Hans sound asleep. At 8:00am on the money, Greg joined us and decided to ride in my truck since it has very dark tint (to be removed) and Greg's visiting relative has a serious light sensitive skin disease.
To solve a longtime curiosity, we headed for Williams Pass, only open for a rediculous 30 days. Williams Pass started at our camp and was easy to the top. At the top, boulder filled mud bogs occasionally scraped my skid plates, and necessitated spotting for John's Montero Sport. His lack of ground clearance hurt him greatly and resulted in a cracked fender flare.
This trail would be much more fun (read difficult) if driven in the opposite direction from the Alpine Tunnel side. We then showed everyone the Alpine Tunnel; one of several unsuccessful early train tunnels to cross the Rockies. It took 2 years and 10,000 men to build and the tunnel struggled to stay open for 30 years.
We then headed back over Hancock Pass to our camp, an easy trail though a little tougher due to heavy rain and sleet.
Fortunately, the weather cleared for lunch back at camp where Greg departed.
That left myself, John, and Hans to pack up and head for Grizzly Lake. I call the first obstacle on the way there the Grizzly Bear Guardian... a large boulder ledge crossing a big stream was too much for John's Sport. His limited ground clearance left him floundering even with a good rock pile, so I strapped him up. The rest of the trail was uneventful.
After the usual shock of seeing one of the most beautiful places in the country wore off, we took cover in a sheltered camp, just off the lake as it began to rain.
The following morning, I slept in while Hans and John took the opportunity to get some fishing in.
Day 2: Thursday, August 31st
The trip down from Grizzly was uneventful, but scenic as always.
Our next trail was Mount Antero. At 14,000 feet, it's not for the faint of heart. John and Hans rode with me for the last difficult ascent and rock hounded while I ran my business via cell phone. FULL strenth signal!! What a surprise.
While at the peak, it snowed a little. We descended to a lower elevation for lunch and decided the day was running a little long due to the late start, so we would skip Italian Road today. Additionally, Hans and John wanted to see if a friend in Boulder wanted to get together and would call from the top of TinCup Pass to find out.
At the bottom of Antero, I was startled by horrible noises from my front end. I soon discovered a broken idler arm!! Like any good owner it turned out to be the new one (6 months old) I used to recently replace the one that was worn.
I did notice on installation it was different from stock, and on the way back from Tellicon in Julay a blow out left the steering wheel crooked.
Had I been smart, I would have gotten an allignment prior to this trip and the cracked suspension part might have been identified. We called via Radio Phone from the Ghost Town of St. Elmo and at 5:30 PM, NAPA in Buena Vista, said they would have a new one by 8:00am the next morning. "Yeah sure..." we said.
As we were to meet Greg, Mitch and Alex that night, I left a message on my voice mail for them with an ambitious arrival time of 12:00 noon the next day. We then drove ever so slowly to a nearby "pay" campground for the night and I took the old idler off, fixed an ARB compressor leak, and, well... noticed a front axle clip had pulled off.
When I pulled my hub off, the clip went flying and I had to get a cheesy C-clip the next day to replace it.
This seems to be a problem for older Montero's. I suggest new clips with a hub change or front locker. Also I think my front locker was engaged coming down Antero's switch backs which complicated matters further.
