The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[ryanroo]

I just made the drive through ouray last weekend. it is beautiful this time of year. i was also driving through the mancos fire area pretty much the same time as the pics were taken(a few days prior to the fire being out). and i had a mosesburb sighting in downtown DGO and everyone i was sitting around drinking coffee with thought i was nuts because i bailed out of my chair and ran outside to watch!

ryan

[DirtyLarry]

You really got some nice pictures Nick! I figured you would by the looks of that camera you were using and the time you took snapping pictures. A few times you reminded me of a Japanese tourist in Hawaii.

Don’t worry too much about being 3 months late posting these pictures being it has been a year and a half since 1leglance, Bill and I took the White Rim trail and Lance has yet to send me a single picture even after several emails requesting them. I gave up...

[DirtyLarry]

Speaking of the fire….here is what the Mancos fire looked like as we passed through on our way to meet Mosesburb in Utah. This was on June 30th.









Watched this thing dump water on the fire when we stopped for lunch. Pretty neat to see given the unfortunate circumstance.

[DirtyLarry]

Here is a cool video of us crawling up Corkscrew near Ouray. This is a long GoPro video so fast forward to 6:00 to watch Mosesburb crawl up and around one of many steep hairpins. This trail isn’t very technical but it does offer some beautiful views, steep drop offs and very steep climbs with extremely tight hairpin turns for fullsize trucks. Heavy trucks with rear Detroit Lockers do not like to turn and on what would normally be a simple 1 or 2 point turn, the Detroit helps make it a PITA 4 point turn! I think my sphincter pinched a few new holes in the front seat this day.

Corkscrew

[kikkegek]

oke, I understand. Really nice photos man! I always look forward to your updates.

[DirtyLarry]

A picture or 3 to hold us over until Mosesburb gets around to posting more. As we mentioned, these trails near Ouray were not technical but it were pretty steep with death-defying drop-offs. No shortage of pucker factor or traffic. One would think this was a paved highway by the amount of traffic. I would have rather wheeled and explored more around Utah or even dipped down into Arizona but Mosesburb and family were whining it was too hot in the desert. Meh! CO mountains are for Texan's with rental Jeeps, which is why I typically leave the state when I want to be away from people when off-roading! As much as I love living in CO, I hate it because there are TOO dang many people on any given trail at any given time. You just don't find that problem in Utah.

Imogene


Before the picture above and before we crawled above timberline.

[RINC]

Thanks for the video DirtyLarry ....... Subscribed

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

I just made the drive through ouray last weekend. it is beautiful this time of year. i was also driving through the mancos fire area pretty much the same time as the pics were taken(a few days prior to the fire being out). and i had a mosesburb sighting in downtown DGO and everyone i was sitting around drinking coffee with thought i was nuts because i bailed out of my chair and ran outside to watch!

ryan

Yeah, the "normals" just don't understand. Wish I would have known you were there, it would have been great to meet you.

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

You really got some nice pictures Nick! I figured you would by the looks of that camera you were using and the time you took snapping pictures. A few times you reminded me of a Japanese tourist in Hawaii.

Thanks!! Yeah, I have actually taken pictures of Japanese tourists taking pictures.

Originally Posted by kikkegek

oke, I understand. Really nice photos man! I always look forward to your updates.

Thanks!!

[mosesburb]

So we start down the hill and shortly arrive at the Tomboy Mine area. This was a pretty massive operation back in the day. Many large foundations remain. There are a couple buildings still standing as well.

We'll start with a gratuitous truck shot:









Further down Imogene, Black Bear Pass/Bridal Veil Falls comes into view. Neat looking, but I will never have pics from that trail to post.



Bridge!!



Eventually, after avoiding many brain donors in rental Jeeps, the town of Telluride is reached:



Telluride is a neat town, but has been taken over by big Hollywierd money. We aired up, cruised main street, and split. We went out through the valley and around to Ridgeway.

[mosesburb]

While we were in Ridgeway getting fuel a thunderstorm arose to the south (our intended travel direction). We had to make a quick decision and we decided to get a room in Ouray and Bill and Larry headed down to Corkscrew to camp. We stopped at the Best Western Twin Peaks and got the last room. It is a neat place as it has hot springs on site.



Ouray is surrounded by high peaks and there is really only one place you can look out of town. The day we were there it was rainy and the clouds were lower than the surrounding peaks making for a very neat experience. We wandered around town for a bit, had a horrible/terrible/ridiculous dining experience, did some more wandering and went back to the hotel to go swimming in the hot pool.



The Beaumont Hotel:

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Further down Imogene, Black Bear Pass/Bridal Veil Falls comes into view. Neat looking, but I will never have pics from that trail to post.

Why not? Looks like a piece o' cake from that shot.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Did you steal a church bingo sign?

[1985-GMC]

Awesome sights!

You need to haul around a dirt bike on a hitch hauler, then you could make that trail!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Why not? Looks like a piece o' cake from that shot.

Way too much wheelbase.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Did you steal a church bingo sign?

Shhhhh!!

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Awesome sights!

You need to haul around a dirt bike on a hitch hauler, then you could make that trail!

That would be a much better vehicle for that trail than a Suburban, but I don't see that happening.

[ryanroo]

black bear isnt that bad! i know several full sizes that have done it. in fact one was a cummins burb one generation newer. i plan to take the jeep over it on the way to blues and brews some year. i just need to get it going again...

Ryan

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

black bear isnt that bad! i know several full sizes that have done it. in fact one was a cummins burb one generation newer. i plan to take the jeep over it on the way to blues and brews some year. i just need to get it going again...

Ryan

That may be, but I know a few full size K5's that have gone over it and the pilots all said never again (with a lot of emphasis on never). I would like to see it, but I don't think I am going to do it in a Suburban.

[rambler]

awesome photos... maybe someday I can take a trip like that

[Average Joe]

Incredible pics and thanks for sharing! I feel the need to hear CW McCall now.

[jbclassix]

Why did I ever leave Colorado?

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by rambler

awesome photos... maybe someday I can take a trip like that

I highly recommend it!!

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Incredible pics and thanks for sharing! I feel the need to hear CW McCall now.

Thanks. You will like the next installment.

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Why did I ever leave Colorado?

Dunno. The fact that you ended up in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia compounds the question.

[mosesburb]

The next morning was bright and clear. A view of town in the daytime:



Larry and Bill had gone down to Corkscrew Pass to camp last night and we were to meet up with them the next morning by driving down the trail until we found them. To get to the trail, we just went south on 550. Shortly after leaving town you cross the Riverside Slide. It is a chronic snow-slide area that has claimed several lives over the years:







We can't be in the area without some CW McCall: This is a song about the slide.

Riverside Slide - YouTube

That's where we are going:



We arrived at the trail and followed it until we found Larry and Bill. It rained all night and they were basically confined to their vehicles in camp. That sucked. I was sure glad we had stayed in Ouray as we ended up having a great time. They were just about packed up when we got there so we were on the trail in just a few minutes.









Up top:



Down in California Gulch: a little surface water contamination going on here.



Don't swing into the passing lane on this road:



This is downstream in Gladstone:

[RINC]

^^^ No Passing Zone ? I skeerd just looking at that pic

Been said before, I'll say it again ........ I Need To Make A Trip Like That

[justcuz]

Interestingly while in Silverton I picked up a Western Colorado off road guidebook. This covers all the trails/roads in the photos plus more. So when I get back to our hotel in Silverton I look through this book and the photos show a 92-99 3/4 ton Suburban on all these trails! This includes the one that has the falls in the backround. My understanding is that one is a one way trail, however I could be wrong. It sounds like the major hazard may be the novice drivers of rental 4x4's driving these roads, a situation that by the end of summer is kind of a moot point...barring any early snow that falls. I know a lot of these roads/trails close early due to snow so the post summer window of travel could be quite small and dicey.

[FrankieD]

I Googled Corkscrew Pass to see where it is at and found this web site that has over head virtual tours and maps pretty cool plus some history

http://www.alpineloop.com/HTML/index.html

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by RINC

^^^ No Passing Zone ? I skeerd just looking at that pic

Been said before, I'll say it again ........ I Need To Make A Trip Like That

I highly recommend it.

Originally Posted by justcuz

Interestingly while in Silverton I picked up a Western Colorado off road guidebook. This covers all the trails/roads in the photos plus more. So when I get back to our hotel in Silverton I look through this book and the photos show a 92-99 3/4 ton Suburban on all these trails! This includes the one that has the falls in the backround. My understanding is that one is a one way trail, however I could be wrong. It sounds like the major hazard may be the novice drivers of rental 4x4's driving these roads, a situation that by the end of summer is kind of a moot point...barring any early snow that falls. I know a lot of these roads/trails close early due to snow so the post summer window of travel could be quite small and dicey.

The hairy portion of it is one way. I don't doubt that I *could* do it, I just doubt that I *will* do it.

Just out of curiosity, you mentioned staying in a hotel in Silverton--which one did you stay in?? There are sooo many cool buildings in that town.

Originally Posted by FrankieD

I Googled Corkscrew Pass to see where it is at and found this web site that has over head virtual tours and maps pretty cool plus some history

http://www.alpineloop.com/HTML/index.html

That is a very cool link.