CID
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Met this guy 4 days ago in Lake City, Colorado. We got along good enough and neither of us wanted to ride the new area alone. First day was 78 miles, the full Alpine Loop, a bucket list trip for off roaders as @100Acre can attest.
Next day he’s beat to crap and whinny - this thing rides like a dump truck he says. Well, it’s rocky, the kind embedded in the trail and about softball size. But I’m in a Talon on 30” tires and not known for their supple suspension. He’s in a PooPoo sumtin ‘er other with 35’s, good grief, he’s rolling over crap I’m falling into. Stopped 4 times to lower his tire pressures.
For 3 days we looked for new trails, not wanting to backtrack; I had heard about Corkscrew Pass, talked to a local and he said it’s one of the prettiest - iron red mountains. So I planted that seed and he’s all up for it, I told him it’s ‘way out on the far side’ from here. Ok, I’m good, let’s doit. And we’re off, except his idea of we’re off and my idea of we’re off are two entirely different concepts. He had no effin’ idea of distance = time. I swear that PooPoo had a 10-15 mph speed limiter.
I told him ‘we need to pick it up’. His reply “You’ve been doing this for a year, I’ve been doing it for 8 - don’t tell me how to drive.”
I replied - “I’m not telling you how to drive, I’m saying don’t go 10 mph if you can safely go 15.” Didn’t sink in. Anywho we got close to Corkscrew Pass and I told him - “If you still want to do this, we need to pick it up.” I got in front to set the pace and took off, safely but briskly, we had a long way to go and a short time to get there. The west side of Corkscrew is a steep, fairly smooth, twisty downhill run to Hwy 550, about 5 miles (guessing). We got to the bottom, he pulled up - “Something broke, first a clank then more clanks.” Then - “We don’t have to go all the way back the way we just came, do we?”
Dude, you’ve been looking at the same map I have - yes, this entire trip is an out and back - 38 out = 38 back or thereabouts. He about wet his pants. Short version, we took a flatter, longer way back (Silverton, Animas Forks, Cinnamon Pass not Hurricane and Engineer Passes). He found his front diff was leaking when we got to Silverton. I told him to put it in 2wd and we’d limp back over Cinnamon Pass where he was camped at the bottom. Before we got to the summit, he said something clanked loudly and then it was quiet and smooth the rest of the way. The leak implies he’ll be doing a diff rebuild.
All day he’s telling me - “You drive too fast.” No, I don’t - I understand 80 miles at 10 MPH takes longer than 80 miles at 15 MPH (when safe and possible). I drive too fast but we got back in the dark. The passes here are over 12k feet, it’s late September, the temps drop like a rock after the sun disappears (sooner than official sunset because the mountains block the sun long before ‘sunset’).
obtw: day 3 was cut short because he didn’t fill up with gas before leaving, who doesn’t fill up exploring a new area with 100’s of miles of jeep roads?
We did NOT exchange contact information.
So it’s true, my Talon broke a PooPoo trying to keep up going downhill with no load on the driveline.
Next day he’s beat to crap and whinny - this thing rides like a dump truck he says. Well, it’s rocky, the kind embedded in the trail and about softball size. But I’m in a Talon on 30” tires and not known for their supple suspension. He’s in a PooPoo sumtin ‘er other with 35’s, good grief, he’s rolling over crap I’m falling into. Stopped 4 times to lower his tire pressures.
For 3 days we looked for new trails, not wanting to backtrack; I had heard about Corkscrew Pass, talked to a local and he said it’s one of the prettiest - iron red mountains. So I planted that seed and he’s all up for it, I told him it’s ‘way out on the far side’ from here. Ok, I’m good, let’s doit. And we’re off, except his idea of we’re off and my idea of we’re off are two entirely different concepts. He had no effin’ idea of distance = time. I swear that PooPoo had a 10-15 mph speed limiter.
I told him ‘we need to pick it up’. His reply “You’ve been doing this for a year, I’ve been doing it for 8 - don’t tell me how to drive.”
I replied - “I’m not telling you how to drive, I’m saying don’t go 10 mph if you can safely go 15.” Didn’t sink in. Anywho we got close to Corkscrew Pass and I told him - “If you still want to do this, we need to pick it up.” I got in front to set the pace and took off, safely but briskly, we had a long way to go and a short time to get there. The west side of Corkscrew is a steep, fairly smooth, twisty downhill run to Hwy 550, about 5 miles (guessing). We got to the bottom, he pulled up - “Something broke, first a clank then more clanks.” Then - “We don’t have to go all the way back the way we just came, do we?”
Dude, you’ve been looking at the same map I have - yes, this entire trip is an out and back - 38 out = 38 back or thereabouts. He about wet his pants. Short version, we took a flatter, longer way back (Silverton, Animas Forks, Cinnamon Pass not Hurricane and Engineer Passes). He found his front diff was leaking when we got to Silverton. I told him to put it in 2wd and we’d limp back over Cinnamon Pass where he was camped at the bottom. Before we got to the summit, he said something clanked loudly and then it was quiet and smooth the rest of the way. The leak implies he’ll be doing a diff rebuild.
All day he’s telling me - “You drive too fast.” No, I don’t - I understand 80 miles at 10 MPH takes longer than 80 miles at 15 MPH (when safe and possible). I drive too fast but we got back in the dark. The passes here are over 12k feet, it’s late September, the temps drop like a rock after the sun disappears (sooner than official sunset because the mountains block the sun long before ‘sunset’).
obtw: day 3 was cut short because he didn’t fill up with gas before leaving, who doesn’t fill up exploring a new area with 100’s of miles of jeep roads?
We did NOT exchange contact information.
So it’s true, my Talon broke a PooPoo trying to keep up going downhill with no load on the driveline.
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