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Camp Jeep 1998 - Vail, Colorado

Day 2 - Sunday - 1:00 PM - Trail Ride

The second day of trail rides saw us going on what was to be a 
much more difficult day of trail rides.  We were part of a 
group of Jeeps (mostly XJ's and ZJ's) from all over the United 
States; even as far as Florida.  All vehicles were stock with
the exception of the trail guides Wrangler and one other mildly
lifted Wrangler.  The XJ's and ZJ's of similar builds kept all
of us on a level playing field.  

Our trail guide was a great guy.  He was enthusiastic about being a 
trail guide (in later years some trail guides seem more like 
Military Police than a trail guide), cautious enough not to 
take stupid risks and not overbearing in executing his job.  

The first half of the trail ride had us driving up a mountain 
trail until the trail just vanished.  The trail was rock and 
boulder strewn.  Both my father and myself were wincing our way
up the trail and as you can see in a couple of the photos where
my father inadvertently snapped a photo while bouncing along.  

We were at the base of a peak (the peak topped out roughly 
another 250 feet above where we were) and began to look about
for alternative paths back down from whence we came.  We took
note of a very light pair of tracks that appeared to be heading 
down the mountain in a very aggressive fashion, we sent a small
group to scout out the trail.  The scout group (which included 
my father) came back out of wind and recommending to go back 
down the same trail we came up on. Boy was that elevation a killer!

So we began to proceed to go back down the same way we came up when
we encountered a fork in the trail that wasn't visible on our ascent.
The trail guide stopped us and we all discussed whether to try this 
fork in the road or to continue down the original trail and return
back to camp.  Our guide had heard from some of the other trail 
guides about this path that laid in front of us.  He informed us 
that it would be more challenging than what we had just done, but if
we worked together we should be able to safely complete it with our
nearly stock vehicles.

With a bunch of gusto we all agreed to see what this new portion of 
the trail would yield.  Turns out this trail would bring some new 
challenges to our little group and we would band together in 
attempting to safely guide each others Jeep down the mountain.

Along the way we carefully (Tread Lightly) made our way down a 
small creek for about 150 feet avoiding a large boulder or two along 
the way.  Eventually we ended up on this ledge that wound around the 
perimeter of the mountain.  Not wanting to make a mistake and go 
over the ledge I hugged the inner part of the trail as much as I 
could (the path was pretty darn narrow!).  When we first started
on the ledge the drop was severe grade of loose rock that was about
1000 feet high.  As we kept gradually winding around this mountain
we kept getting lower.  Eventually we could see the main highway 
about 150 feet below us!  Across the highway was the main camp of
Camp Jeep!  Because it took us so long to work our way back down the
mountain we could see that crews were working on tearing camp down.

At that point we all got a bit nervous and really hoped that the 
trail we were on would eventually lead us to an exit along the 
highway.  We kept going and another 500 feet later we hit the end
of our path/ledge.  At the end was a 15 foot drop that was somewhat
vertical.  We all began generating a bunch of adrenaline thinking 
about having to go down that ledge!  Our trail guide went first and
made it safely but was pretty nervous/excited about the feeling of
the ledge.  The next person in line was the other built up Wrangler.

He decided he didn't like the idea of going down such a sharp ledge.
So he tried to turn hard right and go down the side of the ledge/trail
in a different spot that wasn't as steep but a little longer in length.
Well as I said earlier the trail was extremely narrow so as he turned
he didn't stand a chance on squaring his wheels up with that part of 
the ledge.  What he didn't realize was his right front wheel was about 
to drop in a large hole causing his Jeep to teeter and almost roll.

Fortunately two things worked out for him above his wife's screams. 
One was he landed the right front corner his frame on a rock that
probably would have completely stopped him from actually rolling the
vehicle.  Second thing that worked out was a bunch of the other drivers
were standing behind him as he was attempting his acrobatic manuevers
and the second it appeared he was heading over a bunch jumped on the
back of his tub to discourage the weight transfer.

So we had him sitting there in suspended animation stuck on this rock
and balancing precariously.  Out came the tow straps.  The Jeep 
immediately behind him (Me) was attached to him via straps and tow 
hooks.  Then my Jeep was attached to the Jeep behind me.  We all threw
our transmissions into reverse and began tugging.  With little fan
fare (and no damage) his Jeep popped back up onto the trail.

Faced with no other choice he proceeded to head down the steep incline
the trail guide had already descended.  With a loud YAHOO! he made it
safely!  Now it was my turn in my 9 month old XJ that had just been 
offroad for the first time two days earlier.  To say I was nervous was
an understatement.  I was extremely worried that my Jeep Cherokee with
a longer wheelbase than the first two Wranglers would have the rear end
kick up when going over the ledge thereby dumping me on my lid!  I 
didn't want this to happen and my father didn't want to be in the Jeep
if it did!  So he hopped out and went to the bottom to watch how I 
would do.  Of course this would normally make a great Kodak moment, but 
he must have forgot to grab his camera as we don't have anything to 
document the obstacle.  

So with great trepidation I took the transmission and dropped her into 
1st gear on my automatic.  I still had 4-Low engaged on my transfer case
and I eased my nose over the edge...  rrrrRRRRRRRRrrrr the engine roared
as the RPM's spiked as I descended.  A brief moment of butterflies
turned to elation and high fives as I safely made it onto flat land.  One
by one each vehicle went down the ledge each with a little less stress
after my vehicle made it easily and safely.

Once we were all down and the celebrations died down, We found ourselves
on some rail road tracks.  The highway was still a good 100+ feet below 
down a pretty steep decline of loose rock.  If we went down this section 
it would be a bit hairy again not losing control of our Jeeps.  We 
thought better of pushing our luck and decided to ride on the railroad 
tracks and see where they may lead us.  As we trundled down the railroad
tracks for a good half a mile or so we continued to hope that the 
suspicion of tracks being dead and abandoned would turn out to be true.  
We didn't need any surprises going around a bend!  

The tracks took us over bridge and eventually led to a railroad crossing
that we were able to pull off onto!  The road was a mere 100 feet from
the highway that we had been looking down upon for the last hour.  We
took a group photo to celebrate our amazing trail ride.  Then we all
hopped into our rigs and headed to the nearest restaurant to recount the
afternoon together and to take a poll of any damage encountered.  

A ZJ had bent his cross member which was interfering with his ability to 
take the transfer case out of 4-Low.  He had the vehicle flat towed to a 
local dealer to have the cross member replaced.  My front skid plate was 
a touch bowed after colliding with a good size rock that another Jeep 
unburied during a hill climb.  I was getting a little bit of an occasional
clunking noise that would eventually turn out to be my transmission mount
being a little crushed.  It would appear that the same rock that danced
off my front skid must have made its way around my transfer case skid and
partially compress the automatic transmission mount.  Going over larger 
bumps would gradually cause it to clunk more and more, but in the 
immediate it wouldn't pose to be no real harm.  The only other negative
thing from the trip was that my windows when partially open would rattle 
from this point forward.  Seems the Rockies gave them a good bouncing as 
well!

Thanks Jeep for a memorable Camp!