Edit: Due to the road closure of Highway 115 south of Colorado Springs, and no one signing up for this trip, We are changing the destination to Mosquito Pass and the East side trails. Meet at the Exxon Station in Fairplay CO at 9:00 am.
Meet at the Coyote Coffee Den ( Coyote Coffee Cafe - https://www.coyotecoffeecafe.com/ ) in Penrose, Show up at 8:00 to eat a great breakfast. or arrive by 9:00 leave at 9:15 and then drive to Cloverdale Mine. If time permits, explore nearby trails depending on the group's decision.
5 vehicles with 9 people attending.
129 hours total
This trip turned out pretty good for most of the people. I had the unique experience, but more on that later.
One of the problems that showed up was the change of destination. This is a long winded discussion of how we need to have a better way of notifying members of a change of location for an event. On Thursday (two days before the event, only 1 other person expressed interest in attending the event on this website. Both of us were not that interested in going to Cloverdale mine (the original destination). I texted the persons that declined the trip on the website to find out if they would like to go to a different location. Neither of them wanted to attend. With that in mind, we changed the destination to Mosquito pass and I edited the original Post to reflect the change about 6:30 pm on Thursday. That has been the accepted procedure that we have done in the past. On Saturday a member texted me and inquired where we were and gave his location as on the trail near the trail head. I texted back that we were on the road and heading to the trail. We texted a couple of times as coverage permitted. It ended up that the other person went on the original destination of Cloverdale mine and did not know of the change to Mosquito pass. This was a long winded discussion of how we need to have a better way of notifying members of a change of location for an event. his topic will be discussed at the July meeting. If you have any ideas, please bring them up.
The day turned out to be another Blue Sky day with normal seasonal temperatures. We met at the Exxon station on Highway 9 on the edge of Fairplay and hung out until the rest of the group showed up. We ended up with a LX470, FJ200, LX450 and a FJ Cruiser. The road to the trail was a little dusty and had some washboards and potholes. Our first destination was the mine site. Shortly before the mine we saw a cow moose heading across the hill side. We made it to the pass and after the required pictures got the trucks started, well everyone else got started my truck just cranked over. The truck was smelling rich that orning so I figured the engine was flooded. Hmmm, how do you flood and clear out a fuel injection engine at 13,185 feet? I tried pulling the EFI fuse and opening the top of the aircleaner. It worked, so we headed back to find a place for lunch. The agreed on site was on a spur road out of the wind. While we were eating lunch we saw a mountain sheep on the peak above us. Soon the herd followed him away from our location. Next a couple of Pika popped out and had to inspect us. Just as we were packing out we saw a pair of cyber trucks heading west to the pass. On the way back down the hill the leader saw a Marmot. As we headed downhill we started taking the trails to the North and saw Oliver Twist and Cooney lakes with some fun water crossings.
Just as we were getting back to the main Mosquito pass road, one of my fan belts let loose and got tangled in the fan and sliced some radiator tubes. I ended up coasting down hill and then riding back a strap back to a parking lot next to route 9. The owner of the FJ Cruiser was nice enough to give us a ride to Canon City where we picked up a truck and trailer. We headed back to Fairplay and beat and bent a trailer ramp to fit. We got back to Colorado Springs about 2:30 am Sunday morning.
5 vehicles with 9 people attending.
129 hours total
