Bob Ragain's perspective-with photos by Alan Fasick and comments by Ron DePugh
Departure: 1100 from Sedalia, Colorado, October 24, 1998
Destination: Rampart Range Area (ORV designated) of Pike National Forest,
located about 35 miles SW of Denver.
Participants:
Terry Nation and Mike McCoy in Terry's 404 radio truck,
Ron DePugh and Cassidy in his VLF,
Bob Ragain, Dawn Ragain Jewell, Colleen Ragain, and Jessie Jewell, 404 radio truck
Alan Fasick and Robert in Alan's Scout.
The meeting in Sedalia. The fall colors
were really coming out.
Bob confirs with Terry while Ron adjusts his antenna.
After a late departure from Sedalia, we drove trails for 5-6 hours on Saturday. The toughest road section, the badly washed out steep climb just beyond the Jackson Creek fording, had been bulldozed flat and is now passable by "lesser" vehicles.
The forest was in best fall colors and the weather was perfect with temps only in the upper 60's.
While Bob worked on a stuck choke
cable, we played on a huge granite
rock. After Alan tried to climb
the rock in his Scout, Ron gave it
a try. Cassidy stood by to watch.
...and then Terry climbed it too.
The real challenge on Saturday was the high underhood temperatures in combination with the highly volatile fluid the oil companies still call "gasoline". My 404, then Ron's, succumbed to vaporlocking on the long hard climbs. My newly installed electric fuel pump (only a couple of months old) had died and was further restricting the gas flow. It was removed and bypassed while the remainder of the group toured the quartz quarry road. The removal of the pump, and having no more long hard climbs, helped considerably, and there were no more vapor lock problems.
Alan made it to the quarry first
The mountains in the area are beautiful.
Everyone but the Ragains and Jewels had planned for only one day, so everyone else headed home after reaching Rampart Range Road.
I, my two daughters, one's hubby, and her brother-in-law still camped out Saturday night and had a great time. Then Dawn and I spent all day Sunday covering some more area, then backtracked all the trails covered on Saturday. We stopped often and hiked to several hilltops to check out the views. We could see all the way to the snow covered Continental Divide on the west, and out over the Colorado Eastern plains to the east.
We also had time on Sunday to drive down into Watson Park. We did a lot of target shooting on Sunday morning.
There were several other vehicles out there on the trails over the weekend, including ATV's, bikes, and other 4x4's. We helped one biker by refilling his rear tire so he avoided a 10 mile ride on the back of his buddy's little 250 to retrieve his truck and trailer. Almost 400 lbs on that little bike was too much, and an interesting sight, like two Darth Vaders on a bicycle!
For anyone in the Denver area, this is a great area for offroading. It's only an hour's drive from Denver but is still a "best-kept-secret", and is seldom crowded.
To all those 'moggers and 'Pinzers who planned to go, then couldn't, too bad, it was a nice trip. I put about 80 offroad km on HamMog in the two days.
See you next time.
-Bob Ragain
v2.9 Last modified Saturday, February 11, 2017 22:21:50
