East fork/Elwood pass. Being lucky and sorta prepared (1 Viewer)

[Dumpolina]

Had an unexpected afternoon off.
2:30 pm I unloaded the 30 year old, questionably reliable, 178k mile wore out 4Runner at the East Fork road on the San Juan forest.
Just before the first stream, brakes failed. Somehow I managed to break off a line at the caliper, which is odd because the trail to that point is not super rough.
Managed to plug the line with a bolt from my random assortment of spare hardware.

Wheeled the whole rest of the trail and back with three brakes. Excellent day in the very dry forest.

Two separate Jeep guys passed without even rolling down their windows. Two different packs of UTV’s stopped and offered assistance.

 

[Dumpolina]

 

[Dumpolina]

Plans to wheel more later this week, hopefully will fix it this afternoon. Anyone up here want to go along give me a shout

 

[Chompers]

Nice job, MacGyver....

 

[alia176]

Grant - I'll be up at the East Fork campground starting tomorrow. I think I've wheeled in that area in the past but not quite sure. I know that I've gone over Elwood Pass, then camped at Kerr lake so I must've been on FR667 at one time in the past.

 

[evanz80]

Nice job, MacGyver....

That just about covers it!

How did you know you had a problem? Did the brake pedal go to the floor? You must have had some extra brake fluid?

Pretty country up there...

 

[slimbuddha]

Did they reopen the forest? I thought it was still all closed.

 

[alia176]

Did they reopen the forest? I thought it was still all closed.

Stage II, camping allowed but no fire.

 

[Dumpolina]

Grant - I'll be up at the East Fork campground starting tomorrow. I think I've wheeled in that area in the past but not quite sure. I know that I've gone over Elwood Pass, then camped at Kerr lake so I must've been on FR667 at one time in the past.

@alia176 ya 667 is east fork road. The river and stream crossings are very low. Didn't look like a whole lot of campers, even on the river spots up stream, hope you have a nice quiet time!

That just about covers it!

How did you know you had a problem? Did the brake pedal go to the floor? You must have had some extra brake fluid?

Pretty country up there...

@Chompers I got lucky, it was the only bolt soft enough to cross thread in and actually seal. Its been on my list to make some brake line plugs, need to push that to the top.

@evanz80 the brake warning light actually came on, as I stopped the pedal faded. Yep got lucky, I threw in the large bottle instead of the small one that had been in my gear. Lucky again.

I managed to find a sorta correct brake line at the inbred wrecking yard on 160, so should be operational this afternoon. Probably hitting La Plata canyon areas Thursday, maybe Dolores area Friday and/or Saturday

 

[OkiCruiser]

@Dumpolina was cruising back from Farmington on Sunday and saw a strangely familiar Dodge with a Yota attached heading up 550...

Bummer about the Jeep dudes though. Figure they’d at least stop.

 

[juane]

Drove Elwood twice in the last two weeks.
My backyard.

 

[evanz80]

Drove Elwood twice in the last two weeks.
My backyard.

If/when you ever get to Abq, let us know. It would be great to see you and catch up on Cruiser stuff and otherwise. If it happened to be around the second Saturday of the month, we could even get you to a Cruiser breakfast/meeting and introduce you to some of the newer members of the club. At this point, they probably think Tobascofish is just a Cruiser legend who never actually existed in the real world!

 

[Dumpolina]

Operational... old junk up high

 

[Dumpolina]

Today’s fun at old mines

 

[evanz80]

Beautiful! Where was that?

 

[juane]

Evan,
Would love to reconnect!
But makes more sense for folks to come to the San Luis Valley - Lot's of exploring to do around here!
Angie and I have a place in the country with lots of camping space.

 

[Dumpolina]

Beautiful! Where was that?

La Plata canyon. The opposite side as the previous image

 

[TOYOTARIG]

Operational... old junk up high

Do you mean the person taking the pic, or the 4runner?

 

[Dumpolina]

Do you mean the person taking the pic, or the 4runner?

Funny guy!

 

[alia176]

We ought to do a club run to Kerr lake via Elwood Pass this summer. We had a stock TRD Taco with us and he did well.