Colorado Colors Run 2000

[dmeis]

MMDM '00

Rick,

I had the opportunity to register but felt that my Explorer is not capable of doing the trails without severe body damage and lower gearing...

The trails are really tight, steep and bolders the size of vw's...A Cherokee did Cactus Ridge with us and blew out a tire, winched over many obstacles, broke both tails lights, and bent up both sides of the bumper...It was pretty bad compared to the small size, high clearance j##ps...this is definitly where they shine. The rock buggies even made the trail look like it was paved...

I wasnt able to investigate any trail options in Montrose. I did meet the people who own/work at McPherson Off-Road though in case we need there assistance...

 

[Sinjin]

Texas People

Well just got off the phone with the Ouray KOA, I made reservations for Fri, Sat, and Sun night in a cabin. I hope others are gonna be staying there as well, the grounds look great, especially to hang out after a long day. I would like to drive up with others, anyone wanna leave Thursday, I get off at 5 pm, and could get into Dallas around 8 or so Thursday night.
Let me know, email me or hit me on ICQ 31157599.
Rod

here is the link for Ouray KOA, ask for Betty, shes great:
http://www.koa.com/where/co/06158.htm

 

[Ray Hutchinson]

June 24 & 25

Rick & Char,

June 24 & 25 :? Pre-run:? Dude, That's FIELD DAY week-end!!!!! There's no prerunning on Field Day weekend.

Sorry guys, It's a ham radio thing, Rick and Char SHOULD understand. :cool

 

[GJarrett]

KOA info

Thanks for the link Rod. That is an awesome looking campsite. It's so pretty I might have wanted to camp out there even if I was planning to hotel it at first. Boy this is gonna be fun.

FYI for those who don't know if they would want to camp out, KOA's have great facilities, showers, most have swimming pools, etc. You can get a tentsite or a one room cabin site if you don't want to "tent it".

I just made my reservation and asked for a tentsite close to Rod G's cabin. Rod, she couldn't find your resv: maybe you'd better call back.

I told them to expect an "Explorer Group" and to try to put us in contiguous campsites next to each other, so everyone planning on camping needs to make resv ASAP to make sure KOA can keep us together. Tell them you are part of the "Explorer Group".

Gerald

 

[Rick]

We can always operate mobile Ray

 

[Sinjin]

KOA

Gerald,
I made the reservation under my girlfreinds name, Kelly Walkins. Im gonna call them back just to make sure though, thanks for letting me know.
See yall soon!
Rod G.

 

[GJarrett]

Rod when you do let them know you are part of the Explorer group.

 

[GJarrett]

"Base" location

Ray and Debbie Hutchison brought up a good point on the other lodging thread started by Wabbit. It looks like the campers will be based at the KOA in Ouray. I'll be in that group.

We need to make some decision as to which motel will be the choice for the majority of the rest of the group, so that we can more or less stay as centralized as possible, and for better fellowship and planning opportunities. The Hutchisons and Wabbit's wife both found several options for Ouray. Somebody that plans on hoteling it needs to step up to the plate and start a trend here and pick a place. Read the lodging thread to get Ray H's insightful thoughts on criteria for determining which place.

Also, the City Market was an easy call for a place to meet each morning at Moab. We need to find a morning meeting place in Ouray to meet and team up each day.

 

[Gofast]

Reservation Made!

It becomes very official when you commit money to a trip. I have made my reservation at the K.O.A. cabins. I told "Betty" I was with the Explorer group. I also let her know that Gerald and Rod ( registered under Kelly ) were real "He$$ Raisers" and to watch them close. ( Smilie thing ICON, when I learn how )

So it begins....

[Edited by Char on 06-20-2000 at 02:40 PM]

 

[Scott B.]

Reservations Made!!!!

I made my reservations last night! I'm staying in a Kabin at the KOA.

I plan on arriving Thursday night (probably late) - how many people will be there for trail riding on Friday?

 

[Char]

Smile icon

Hey Rob,
The big smile is a colon and a capital d, regular smile is a colon and the parenthesis over the zero, a wink is a semi-colon and the same parenthesis. If you want to frown then it's a colon and the parenthesis over the nine.
Hope this helps.

 

[Gofast]

I can grin now!

Big help Char

Next thing you know I'll even have a web page!

Ryan sent me some advice via Private Message ( cool the way it works )but I was missing it. Once I edited the message and saw how you put the in it all made since.

Thanks

 

[wabbit]

Imogene & Engineer pre-pre run

As I said earlier, my Explorer is mostly stock but I'm trying to get up and check out some passes prior to the run. A few days ago, I did Ophir Pass and Last Dollar Road in my Explorer. I'm reluctant to head up some of the others without a little more clearance. Honestly, it's been a few years since I've been up on these passes and I don't know what to expect.
However, tomorrow I plan on doing Imogene and part of Engineer with a friend in his FJ Land Cruiser (at least it's not a j**p).
I'm hoping to scout out some routes for all likings. Some of these passes are only technically challenging in spots, aside from the road be narrowly etched in the mountainside. And there are some places that most would not refer to as a road for the rock crawler bunch. Bear in mind, this isn't weathered sandstone, these rocks have teeth.
I will update my findings hopefully with a few pics in the next day or two...
Warren

 

[wabbit]

No pics yet but here's the scoop...

We summited Imogene and it was breathtaking! At 13,114 ft., it is the second hightest pass in Colorado. As far as technically challenging obstacles, it was not that bad. Clearance and good tires are the areas of concern. In my opinion, a stock Explorer would make it. Pick a good line and crunches can be avoided. The challenge is keeping your cool while traversing a very narrow road etched across the side of a very big mountain.
We also went part way up Engineer Pass. The first couple miles are the roughest. Again, in my opinion(disclamer), stock Explorers would do fine.
I took lots of pics with my digital camera but I'm having trouble getting them E-mailed to Photopoint so I can share them. I'll keep working on it.

 

[GJarrett]

Wabbit you're killing me. I wish I was there right now.

On the previous page in a post Joe Dietz offered the link http://www.ouraycolorado.com/

Non-campers: you can go to that site and request info to be mailed to you from the Ouray chamber of commerce. I got it in three days and it has so many places to stay I cannot list them: eleven bed & breakfasts, twenty cabins/condos/townhome links, eighteen hotel/lodge/motels, and eight guest ranches/rv parks.

Somebody oughtta be able to figure out a place out of all that. Depending on how friendly some of you may want to get, I think getting one of those condos that sleep six or eight and splitting the bill would be a pretty cool idea.

Gerald


[Edited by GJarrett on 06-24-2000 at 12:19 PM]

 

[Rick]

Char and I just got back from our Colorado trip. We stayed one night in Durango and two nights in Ouray.

Durango is a massive tourist town. I thought the Arizona towns were tourist traps, but this one topped them all. There was even a guy walking the sidewalks with a sandwich board with advertisments for probably a dozen shops.

The best site that I found was Avalanche Engineerings Extreme Jeep which was setup for the ARCA rock crawling contests. It was in front of a Hummer tour business. They had their hummer on an RTI ramp and from the front it looked like it had some incredible wheel travel...until I saw the back tire was 3 feet off the ground!!

Ouray is an amazing town. There are only about 800 year round residents there. The town is little more than the main street with very few building and houses scattered on the side streets. We stayed at the Comfort Inn which was a very nice motel. Ouray has nothing in the way of support for off-road equipment. No auto parts stores car dealers etc. As Wabbit said, Montrose is the closest place that would have those amenities.

Char and I drove from Durango to Ouray on the "Million Dollar Highway" which was named because of the amount of gold left in the gravel road bed. The road took us over two passes, one over 13,000 feet and through the town of Silverton. Silverton is even smaller than Ouray. It's a great place to walk through and get the feeling of the old west. Very little has changed in Silverton and Ouray over tha past century, it's like stepping back in time.

Char and I met Wabbit (Warren) and his girlfirend Christine for dinner in Ridgeland. Ridgland is a small town in between Montrose and Ouray. It was great to meet them and put a faces to their names. Warren gave us a lot of advice on what to see while we were in the area. BTW, Warren, we went to Black Canyon and took the road to the East Portal down the 16 percent grade. That road was a blast in our VW! Lots of S-turns! We also checked out Telluride, we didn't go for any of their $10.00 hamburgers though! It was great to get out of the 100+ temps here in Phoenix. Warren and Christine, thanks for showing us a good time while we were out your way... or is that out Ouray.

I'm still not sure if we'll be out there for the Colors Run, but I can tell you that anyone who goes will have a great time in Colorados beautiful mountains.

 

[Brian1]

I will be going to check out the Ouray area on July 5, 6, 7, and 8th. Tenative schedule with trails in order: 6th is reserved for Engineer Pass, Cinnamon Pass, Minnie Gulch, and Maggie Gulch. The 7th is reserved for Ophir Pass, Imogene Pass, and Yankee Boy Basin. I will be doing these trails in my mostly stock Explorer. If any of you would like to come and do the same trails on the same day we might meet on the trail! I will be on CB channel 14 most of the time. I will let you know how it went after I get back.

[Edited by Brian1 on 06-30-2000 at 06:53 PM]

 

[mattadams]

Rick- sounds like a good trip. One little correction, the million dollar highway has many supposed reasons for being called that, i've heard the one you said, as well as heard on PBS that it was called that because it was the first road to cost a million dollars per mile to cut away and make travelable. It's also been called that because the views are worth a million dollars .

Brian- Sounds like a great trip, wish you were doing it over the weekend but I have to work, and too many people have already requested next week off, I can't get it off .

Matt

 

[wabbit]

Imogene Pass pics.. finally!!

Here are a few pics from my trip to the top. Seems my cheesmo ISP mail server will only let me send four at a time. Between that and my phone lines being made of wood, it took awhile.
Go to:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=934722&a=6993209

Brian, We might try to get together with you for your pre-run. Thanks for the heads up. I'll let you know..

 

[Ray Hutchinson]

Colors Run: Lodging

Rick & Brian,

Rick: Aside from the Great wheeling, albeit with a (v-dub) and the stay at the Comfort, did you see any places in Ouray that might meet our needs for a group base: parking, meeting places, etc.?

Brian: It woujld be great if you could scope out some places. Please check Wabbit's lodging thread for criteria, ier parking needs etc.

Any advance scouting info we can get will help make things simpler and more organized.