Writen by Lloyd Swartz - Edited by Ray Sala
Frost on the beaver ponds and the vegitation greeted us in the morning so we packed up quickly and headed up Taylor River Road towards Taylor Lake.
Hmmm... funny the road is looking less used... Things are getting mighty tippy... Wow, look at the view, but where the hell is the roade!!??? It had slid over. Only a little ways from the main road.
Everybody started to hit the panic button on me so we headed back down 740 to Crested Butte for some of their lovely High Dollar gas. After fueling up, we headed for Tin Cup.
Everyone gave me a hard time about the promised "hard spots" the day before so I figured we needed something a bit more challenging and I figured Old Tin Cup and Grizzly Lake would be appropriate as Greg and Alex had not been to Grizzly Lake.
They insisted if Grizzley was the best campsite in the state that it would be filled on Labor Day. We stoped in Tin Cup for lunch at Frenchy's, a historic business burned down numerous times over the years.
Greg said that he had been over Tin Cup numerous times and never heard of Old Tin Cup.
I said "Allow me to show you!!"
Here was a section that has certainly gotten better and more challenging with much bigger rocks exposed.
After idling up, we spent some wheel spinning, rock stacking, open diff'ed good fun getting Greg and Alex up the worst section. Tin Cup was crowded and the guys again doubted my promises of one of the largest, most beautiful lakes around all to ourselves on Labor Day Weekend.
I got the usual "Do you know what's up ahead?" and "Walking seems easier." from some hikers. We found out two parties of maybe 10 vehicles total were ahead of us. Darn!!
The hikers also said they watched on group of Jeeps have great trouble getting up the Grizzly Guardian. Upon our arrival at the obstacle, it was obvious they had indeed had trouble since wheel spin had scrubbed all the rocks out.
Without the rockpile, I was unable to get up the easy route without high centering (the biggest problem with this obstacle). I did make it up the harder line though. After the troubles with the Sports earlier during the trip, and my general experience with this obstacle, I had little hope of Greg and Alex getting up, so I turned my 2 door around with great difficulty to winch them up. While I turned around, Greg and Alex stacked rocks, and before you knew it, they drove right up!
They sure made me look silly. The rest of the scenic trip to the lake was uneventful and we passed all of the vehicles that had gone up!!
When we got to the lake, we took our time picking out the best of the best camp sites and got set up early to relax.
Lake, all to ourselves as promised!!
We talked around the campfire long into the night, mostly about Russia. Imagine, just how long ago this would not have been possible? We decided enemies around the world should be made to go camping together for peace talks.
Olga and Alex also mentioned that if anyone likes Gore for President, they could straighten them out quickly as Gore favors Socialism.
It was one of those nights you wished would never end.
