Everyone pretty much had this
one decoded long before the trip left Denver. “Anything with a name like Family Fun
Trip, was gonna be a real gear jamber.”Please visit our Sponsor, CLICK on the Banner above
Family Fun at Spring Creek
Everyone pretty much had this
one decoded long before the trip left Denver. “Anything with a name like Family Fun
Trip, was gonna be a real gear jamber.”
We left town with Boss & U-Boat Commander from Texas, Red Rover from California, Happy Jack from Kansas, Trap Door, Slowpoke, Programmer, Snap Shot, and me. More than half the vehicles had lockers and winches. Those with the lockers used them numerous times and most of the group got to use their winches.
Of course we got in the way
of other folks who didn’t like the pace we putt along at, but we just moved over and
let’um pass. One group that went around us was in such a hurry, they banged, clanged,
and scraped just about every rock that dared poke its top above ground level. Our group
managed to make the entire journey without any new dents or serious scrapes. A few skid
plates got autographed but that was mostly ignored.
Some of the group turned out
to be good road builders. I reckon they didn’t like the angles I put ole Trigger in.
Might have looked a bit too threatening. The next thing I knew, they were carrying rocks
in by the dozens and putting them in the exact spot where they wanted them. Then a fella
who was deft came spinning, slipping, and sliding up the trail and knocked the entire pile
of rocks back down the hill. Oh well!
After our group went up one difficult spot, a fella in a Jeep came up behind us and decided the road was too easy so he threw out the rest of the rocks our road builders put in. To his surprize, his Jeep wouldn’t climb that obstacle no matter what angle he tried. He was kinda embarrassed when he had to put some of the rocks back to make it through.
I used one obstacle to
realign my TJM bumper. Last week, I was pulling out of the apartment lot and stopped
behind a woman at the stop sign. I’m not sure why she did what she did, but my guess
was she had run a stop sign earlier in the day and decided to make it up by stopping at
this one twice. While my wife and I sat patiently in ole Trigger, this woman put her car
in reverse and backed right into that TJM bumper. Of course, it would take a lot of muscle
for some street car to put a scratch in that shiney polished aluminum hunk of metal but
the back end of her car was looking a little messed up. She got out all worried that I was
gonna hit her with something but the only thing she had changed on ole Trigger was the
alignment of the bumper on the drivers side. There was just enough play in the bolts, that
she pushed the bumper back about an inch. Of course, the proper way to fix such a problem
is to loosen the bolts, realign the bumper, then tighten it back down. That’s the
proper way. But for those of us who are too lazy to do that, the easy thing to do is to
get the vehicle into a situation where it has to be winched out. The torque from the winch
pulling on the bumper popped it right back in place.
It took us a long time to get
through the trail. We finally had lunch about 2pm and then headed off for Saxon Mountain.
For those of you who wondered who that little fella was ... the one Boss called U- Boat Commander ... his past does have a little color. Here’s the way Boss describes U-boat Commander. Excuse the spelling. Boss is a Doctor and he is used to writing prescriptions.
“I may bring the U-boat Commander on Pearl. He has had the best time of his life on these trips. I might relate a little of his story - when Hitler came to Vienna, Fred was elected to serve on the U-boats when he was 18 years old. He was shot out of the water 3 times on U boats - and survived. Twice he had to eject out of the torpedo tubes at 150 feet under, and was blown off the deck by a 500 lb. bomb dropped by a Spitfire. Was in the north sea for 35 minutes before being picked up by a German destroyer.
He subsequently became a citizen of Canada, and helped build the French naval station in Tahiti. He ended his career with Brown and Root and Fleur designing off-shore oilwell platforms, for 60 wells + in the north sea (ie.1 billion dollar rigs). He is a no nonsense kind of guy with a great sense of humor - pretty good for being an unsolicited player for the fuhrer!
His wife was a telephone operator for Hitler in Berlin. She came home one day, turned the corner, and the whole block was gone thanks to our B-17's. You need to meet her sometime. They have both setteled in Bastrop, Texas - 30 miles from Austin, in a pine forest.”
We finished our day by running over Cumberland Pass and camping near the ghost town of Geneva. It was a beautiful night with lots of Campfire Tales. I got everybody prepared for the following day over Red Cone by telling them that three out of four vehicles in the last group I took made it down without turning over.
You can find directions to the Family Fun trail in our Volume Four guide book.
Happy Trails!
Pass Patrol for '98
Every year, playtime gets a little harder to find at Pass Patrol Outback Publications. I’ve had some real problems getting my work done and still getting out to play as often as I wanted to. I guess I’ve run into the same problem as most of the members of the club. Work just keeps getting in the way of play. This year, a couple of trips had to be cancelled just because I couldn’t be in two places at the same time. Fortunately, they weren’t trips anyone had planned to join me on but that didn’t matter because I don’t mind an occasional getaway by myself. The fact is I wanted to go, I had planned to go, and then I had to work. Sound familiar?
I took a look at the trip schedule I was planning for ‘98 and tried to merge that with what I expect the publishing business to do and you know what? It didn’t fit. So I started trimming the trip schedule down and determined if I schedule 50 days for next year, I should be able to get all of them in. That really shouldn’t matter much to the membership since the most active fella only managed to squeeze in thirty days and I only had people signed up for seventy of the 100 days that were planned for ‘97 anyway. So after a whole bunch of going back and forth in my own mind about what I could do for the travel club in ‘98, I came up with the following changes.
Proposed changes to Pass Patrol for ‘98
Then we gotta decide where we’re going!
Using the following calendar, fill in the blanks. I would like to have your input about where we should go on all those fifty days. I’ve already had requests for Mt. Antero, Alpine Tunnel, Hancock Pass and all that stuff I often refer to as Miner’s Run. Keep in mind that Colorado high country is only open in August and September except for the Alpine Loop near Ouray and Silverton. I have had a request that we do a snow canal trip around Memorial Day right after those trails open so we can get photos of canals through thirty feet of snow. Someone else suggested we do the Sand Dunes in June. I need more member involvement in the planning stage so I can fill up this calendar.
We would like to have your input on all this stuff. Ideas, suggestions, objections, and anything else constructive. The proposed calendar is below. Let me know soon. Use Email if possible.
The Travel Club
4-Wheeling trips to Mother Nature’s best kept secrets.
1998 is the 13th. year for Pass Patrol 4X4 Travel Club. There will be more than 50 days of trips scheduled. Mother Nature will not always cooperate and some trips will end quickly. A few will never leave town. Others will be added. The average group size last year was five vehicles and the largest included fifteen vehicles.
Mother Nature decides where our trips will be. The Colorado 4-wheeling season is extremely short. High mountain passes are normally open only in August and September. Utah has a longer season including March through May and September through November. There is exploring to be done in other states including Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. We will continue to “boldly go where we have never gone before.”
Membership is required to attend club trips.
For the coming year, dues are $200 per vehicle for a 12 month period. Hold harmless waivers and model releases must be signed before attending. The monthly newsletter is free on the internet or you may subscribe and receive a paper copy each month for $32 plus tax for 12 issues.
Trip structure evolved around the feedback from our
members.
The structure for our trips kind of evolved from trial and error.
Basically, the majority of our members: do not like to arrive at camp after dark on any
day, do not like to leave camp until about 9am, likes the flexibility to join a trip
already in progress, leave one before it’s finished, and prefers to commute to and
from the trip at their own pace. That pretty much defines the framework making up the two
trip structures below.
LONG DISTANCE TRIPS
The first day of each trip on the calendar includes getting there and the
last day includes getting back. The first night’s camp or meeting place will be
pre-determined so everyone can arrive at their own convenience. At the end of the trip,
everyone can take off in different directions or go together.
SHORT DISTANCE TRIPS
Trips taking less than four hours to reach the destination will normally
leave in the morning and camp will not set up until 4-wheeling ends that day. We will plan
to arrive at camp by dark.
The trip actually begins the first day on the calendar. In that case, anyone who registers will have directions to the point where the trip begins.
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