jakeharr

We ventured back east from Colorado in our new GMC truck, barrels full of waste deep fryer oil filling the bed. We made the trek straight through without stopping for anything more than a bathroom break and to stretch our legs while grabbing a quick bite to eat.

While in Maine we got harassed by the police 2 times for not having the truck inspected and having a cracked windshield. We got to spend some time with Adrienne’s family, including close relatives. We visited with some college friends, went sailing in the ocean with my college professor, advisor, and good friend, and Adrienne got her motorcycle license.   We went to the Liberty Tool Co., one of my favorite places, and bought some low priced, high quality old tools. We visited with Adrienne’s brother in Portland and got to eat some of the best donuts I’ve ever had at The Holy Donut. We went up to Moosehead Lake and spent some time at Adrienne’s family’s camp while replacing all the plumbing in the house due to many broken pipes from the harsh winter.

After our nice long visit to Maine, just as we thought our summer was on track, damn truck let us down for the first time since our major repairs in January after buying it. Headed from Maine to PA to pick up the Studebaker and we made it just out of the state of Maine. Broke down in New Hampshire 120 miles from where we started…good old AAA 100 mile limit.

It was my first opportunity to take a diesel injection pump apart. Found a broken fuel fulcrum inside the injection pump. Bosch of North America and Germany are out of stock and back ordered; only 1 pump repair house in the country had the part on hand.  (A year later I find out that the part they ordered was so hard to find because it was for the wrong injection pump! Some goofy 3 cylinder diesel that they never made many of.)

After 2 weeks of waiting for the fulcrum to show up, I took the pump apart to put the new fulcrum on and realized we need more parts. Not being thrilled with the design of the Bosch VE injection pump (now that I have one apart) we got coerced into buying a whole new Cummins 4BT engine with a P-Pump instead. What a joy. And now, after waiting a week for the new engine, we got word that it didn’t ship last week when we got billed $3K for it, it shipped today and will take 1 more week to get here.  Amidst all the delays and setbacks, we took a boat trip in the bay with my childhood friend who happened to be visiting Maine for a wedding, went strawberry picking with Adrienne’s mom and Aunt, explored many of Maine’s ice cream shops, and got silly on the coast.

We decided, while waiting for the new engine to show up, not interested in just sitting around, to take a trip up to Moosehead Lake. During this trek back to Mooshead Lake, we took Adrienne’s grandmother up so she could enjoy summer in her favorite spot. While in the north woods this time around, we talked Adrienne’s brother and girlfriend to meet us up at the camp for some good ol’ time family fun. We enjoyed some water skiing with a broken tow rope, explored around Mt. Kineo and some of the smaller islands around the lake and road around the dirt roads on some old nostalgic banana seat cruisers.

 

Finally, it was time—we packed up and headed back to Sidney to put our truck back together and get on with the remaining plans for our summer in Colorado. We spent the next few weeks putting the engine back together and installing it in the truck before eventually heading south from Maine for the second time.

Quads on cars, boats in lakes, picking strawberries in fields with shoes with loose soles, mud-slaying monster trucks, and moose — of course, moose!
THIS is Maine…

After we decided upon the 1985 Alpenlite 22 we found in Woodland, CA a whole bunch of work was set into motion in preparation.  The weeks leading up to us leaving to pickup our new RV seemed to take forever and drag on and on. Here are some of the reasons why:

We had to design and build a custom 5^th wheel trailer hitch to save money and make sure it would work with our airbag suspension. We had to install an electronic brake controller so we would be safe stopping with our new trailer. We needed to replace our 4×4 transfer case since we destroyed our previous one on our trip back to Colorado from PA. We had to figure out how we were going to install safety chains to our 5^th wheel to gooseneck adapter to be DOT legal. We had to move our WVO tank to the front of the truck bed so that the new trailer would clear the top of the tank when making sharp turns. We had to fix our dash light dimmer switch and pack for the trip. As the time neared, we made a trip out to Gunnison to pick up a 55 gallon drum full of WVO, which turned out to be 50% garbage. By the time we were done, we had scoured both Montrose and Telluride for all the WVO we could find. We spent almost a full day filtering oil and a couple days helping our friends get their VW Westfalia ready for a similar trip they were taking to Las Vegas and California.

When we finally left the area it was around midnight and we had spent the entire day filtering oil and packing in Montrose, then drove to Telluride to fabricate our safety chain assembly and finish filtering the second half of our 110 gallons of WVO for the trip. Adrienne drove most of the night till we got to Northern New Mexico. We stopped for food at, perhaps, the worst diner we had ever eaten at which was like rubbing salt into the wound after waiting 20 min in the parking lot for them to open at 5 am. We got to Peters house in Albuquerque at around 2:00 pm and managed to average about 40 mpg or better (Adrienne was driving extra slow) I was asleep so I’m not complaining.

While in Albuquerque, we went sailing with Peter on our sailboat that we sold to him. While at the lake, the rangers stopped us and gave us a real hard time for not having the boat registered yet and almost didn’t let us go sailing. We had a great time and when we got home, had a great meal…which is how all stories with Peter end. The following day we went and met up with a guy from craigslist who was selling an industrial air compressor made by Saylor-Beall. It looked like a good deal because I was a high displacement unit made in the USA, in great shape, and had no tank, which I didn’t have the space to transport anyway. We bought the compressor and then had to load it from the guy’s truck to our Subaru wagon. The guy we bought it from, a volunteer firefighter that fit the stereo type, told us that he was not going to help us move it because he didn’t want to hurt his back. He advised us to take everything apart and move it one piece at a time, we didn’t take his advice and the three of us picked up the entire compressor and moved it to the back of the Subaru in one fell swoop. This act earned us the title of “Beasts” as the seller told us that 5 grown men struggled to move it into his truck—not a surprise though weighing in at a bit over 400 lbs. When we got the compressor home to Peters, I coaxed him into letting me wire it up to his service panel for testing.

After going sailing, eating many good meals, buying an industrial air compressor, repairing an espresso machine, giving Peter trailer backing lessons, and other adventures I’m forgetting about, we headed West and stopped in to visit a previous co-worker of Adrienne’s in Prescott, Arizona. The drive was spectacular. Here are some photos along the way. At one point, as we passed by along the side of the highway, I spotted out of the corner of my eye, jugs of WVO. We quickly pulled to the side of the road and ran back to confirm our findings. Sure enough, 3 full 4.5 gallon jugs of filtered WVO. Perhaps the most bizarre find on the side of a highway I have ever seen. We loaded it up and used it to power our truck later in the trip. After talking to my Uncle from Santa Barbara, California on the phone, we arranged to meet up with him and my Aunt the following day and got a tip on a sweet Hungarian meat market along the way.

We stopped for a night and day at Joshua Tree National Park and had an awesome visit before heading on to Santa Barbara. We arrived late in the afternoon and decided to go straight to diner with my Aunt and Uncle after checking into our hotel. We had a fantastic diner of seafood right on the waterfront accompanied by great conversation about our new life in Colorado. The next morning we headed to a great beachfront breakfast café that came highly recommended and ate breakfast before taking a dip in the Pacific Ocean and hitting the road for Northern California.

We decided to drive up coastal RT1 the entire way north from Santa Barbara to the Golden Gate Bridge. The drive was unlike anything we have done yet. The scenery was outstanding as the road wound its way up the coastline. We stopped for a few hours at the famous Hearst Castle for a history lesson and a mind-boggling tour of the estate.

When we finally arrived at the RV dealership to pickup our new home, it seemed a bit surreal as we hurriedly moved all our stuff from the truck bed to the RV, installed the gooseneck adapter, adjusted everything, and finished paying for it. We spent about an hour in the local DMV trying to get all the paperwork straight for our trip home before departing for Sacramento to visit another previous co-worker of Adrienne’s. After driving the 20 miles to Sacramento one of our 4 trailer tires was flat. Over the next few days we spent in Sacramento, we got all new trailer tires installed, saw old town Sacramento, bought an LED TV at a California state surplus auction, went wine tasting, spent the night at a cabin in the woods in Arnold California, met up with our friends from Colorado who left around the same time and went on a hike with them the following day through the redwoods at Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

After enjoying ourselves thoroughly, we headed back east with our new home in tow. Knowing we were taking some roads less traveled, we didn’t expect what we encountered: very steep mountain passes that seemed to follow back to back, over and over, winding country roads through small towns. It was a serious test of our trucks capabilities. We drove through the night and landed very early in the AM at one of our favorite hot springs in the Nevada desert. We spent the morning at the hot springs and did some exploring before hitting the road again, now with Colorado in sight. We couldn’t help but stop in Moab, Utah the following night and get some great burgers are a highly recommended burger joint so far off the beaten path you’d never stumble upon it without knowing ahead and asking someone how to find it. All-in-all it was a successful trip and a blast of fun. Now, it was time to clean up and setup our new home.

When we arrived back in Colorado from our excessively drawn-out trip east around Christmas, we were faced with a few jobs left hanging. One, we had promised to help deconstruct a house that was donated to Habitat for Humanity. Two, we had to sell our motor home to make space for a new 5th wheel RV. Three, we had to locate and pick up a new RV to live in.

Here is how it all shook down.

Selling Fermin:

Deconstruction:

The house was purchased by the President of one of the country’s longest current standing department stores as a way to get rid of an eye sore in his neighborhood and give his son land for agricultural purposes. After the property changed ownership the new owner just wanted it gone and the man in charge of making that happen asked Habitat for Humanity if they wanted the lumber in exchange for doing the demolition work. A few weeks prior to us arriving on the job site, a crew was hired to remove the large, gangly trusses from the roof. Photos below show what the house looked like when we began our work. In just 6 days, the two of us–a circular saw, two reciprocating saws, a pair of hammers and pry bars, and a sledge hammer–took the house from fully framed to bare foundation. The photos show the progression.

Buying a new 5th wheel:

After lots of searching on craigslist as well as used RV inventories all across the United States we decided, after seeing one locally, that a 22’ long Alpenlite 5^th wheel seemed perfect for what we needed. After doing lots of research we learned that Alpenlite 5^th wheels were some of the highest quality trailers built in the 1980’s, they fell into our price range, they were a manageable weight, and had a very functional layout…including lots of large windows, which Adrienne requested and I didn’t contest at all. The one we found locally was comparable in price to all of the others we found across the country but others looked to be in better shape. Since we were not looking for a project and simply needed something we could more-or-less move right into we decided to look closer at the others we found.

Then, amidst the searching, I found one located in California outside Sacramento that was part of a used RV dealer’s inventory and the price was a full $1000 less than all the others. After some talking to the dealer on the phone and reviewing more photos, we got them to knock another $250 off the price as well as confirm the condition of it without us having to see it in person. We put a deposit on it and spent the next hand full of weeks prepping the truck for the trip West which included installing a brake controller, building a custom gooseneck trailer hitch for the truck, and replacing the transfer case on the truck. Here are some photos of the process I just described.

Here are some photos to show just how monumental of a task it was to move, sell, and clean-out the massive amount of stuff I had setup in my shop. There are some before and after photos to show the contrast as well as a collage of many of the items we sold.

There were two major reasons we needed to make the trek back to my home town.

1. I had a TON of tools and other ancillary belongings that were packed into a 40’ long shipping container. It was setup as a workshop, it saw little use, and after moving to Colorado it saw no use…everything needed to be moved out to Colorado with me or it needed to find a new home.

2. We now had a new truck that was an enormous redneck collaboration of de-styled, high school teenage boy auto repair, yet paragon melding of ingenious automotive engineering. The point here is: we now had something that could and should be a nice useful truck, but was not yet…in fact, far from it—as we would soon find out. Luckily, our resources in my home town were indispensable for a project of this magnitude.

We started by making a plethora of craigslist ads in which I was able to sell a long list of tools that were just not practical to hold onto which would entail moving them more than half way across the United States. Amidst selling all of this stuff we started to dig into what was to become an enormous, seemingly endless can of worms called a 1992 GMC Cummins 4BT conversion truck.

Our work began with mounting and balancing 4 new tires and at the same time, installing 5000 lb. airbag shocks to the back of the truck. We also upgraded the trailer wire harness to a plug and play type. We installed a rear view mirror since the original was missing, and replaced the broken driver side mirror. Right before we began our work, in an attempt to regain our hearing and sanity when we drive, we had the truck at an old family friends shop to remove the 5” megaphone side pipe exhaust and install a muffler with the proper tail pipe. The results were positive in the right direction but in all honesty, it was hard to tell the difference.

Then Adrienne and I got started by pulling the transmission out of the truck, although that makes it sound like it was a cake walk, which it was not. First hang up was the torsion bars that were practically forged to the adjusting keys and front control arms leading to a broken 5 lb mini sledge hammer, sore hands, and an early end to what would become our late night work routine.

The next day we got the torsion bars loose with the help of a great friend Chuck Eder at Combustion Engineering and kept the project moving forward. The goal here was to replace the leaking rear main seal and repair the leaking oil pan as well. Upon closer inspection, the clutch needed to be replaced, the oil pan had 3 large hole in it that had been poorly attempted to be repaired in the past, and the clutch slave cylinder was only held on by 1 bolt due to a poor retrofit.

After a long night of chipping away at the epoxy and silicon used to try to seal the poorly brazed and poorly welded holes in the oil pan, we finally got it clean and made a good attempt at brazing all of the holes shut ourselves. One of which proved to be more difficult to braze than expected and we left till the next day when we could apply more heat with a rose but attachment for the torch. Finally, success! We got the rear main seal in, the oil pan bolted up, we pressure tested the entire engine for leaks, and waited for the new clutch. In the process we took the transmission bell housing adapter and machined out a space to allow for a second bolt to be added in order to hold the clutch slave cylinder as per its original design. When we got the new clutch and surfaced flywheel back from the shop, we put that on and bolted everything back together.

While waiting for the clutch we took the starter motor apart just to assess its condition, cleaned it up a bit and put it back together. Then we installed a new thermostat that is supposed to improve warm up time and solve an age old problem that Cummins had with temperature cycling. When we finally got the truck back together and started it up we noticed a pretty bad oil leak and we were so delirious and sleep deprived we decided to leave it and come back the following day. The following day we noticed that a new gasket we installed on the turbo oil drain pipe was not lined up properly and oil was leaking past the flange. It was a quick fix for a change and we finally got to drive the truck. The most notable change was how quiet the truck was with the air shocks on the back keeping everything from rattling as it was before.

Then one night on our way home from working over at the farm where the shipping container full of tools was, our headlights went out and our dash went black. I pulled over and had my sister escort us back to the farm and I realized that the aftermarket gauges were wired into the fuse panel via a bare wire that was just shoved into the fuse panel with a fuse. It shorted out, blew the fuse, and burned up the wire. I fixed the headlights and left the aftermarket gauges disconnected till we could wire them up properly.

After all this nonstop work, we decided to meet up with my friends Christine and John from High School. On our way to their house the truck ran out of diesel fuel at a gas station that didn’t have diesel fuel. Now we knew the accuracy of our fuel gauge and threshold for low fuel. We had them come pick us up and take us back to their house. After a good night of catching up we called AAA and had the truck towed to a gas station with diesel fuel. The truck was much easier to start than any of the old Mercedes diesels I’ve ever run dry of fuel, that was a major relief.

Now that we had the differed maintenance done on the truck we decided to start the waste veggie oil (WVO) conversion process. We had spent so much time taking up space in my dear friend Chucks shop that we had to find a new place to do the remainder of our work. It then dawned on me that the farm had a nice heated garage that was not being used for anything. After a few text messages, I had the OK to use the space and we hit the ground running. We spent the next 2 days straight working furiously into delirium to get the system installed. We made custom brackets, broke tools, utilized new design ideas, and had to get outrageously creative troubleshooting frustrating problems. In the end we got 85% of the system installed, last of which was the wiring.

We started the truck and tried to drive it before we realized that lots of fuel was now leaking out of the mechanical fuel pump. It was now 5 Am and we were hungry and delirious from working through the night, we borrowed my sisters car and went to the diner for breakfast while we waited for the Cummins parts warehouse to open. Luckily they had 1 pump left on their shelf, we went and picked it up, stopped back at the farm to put it on and, success!

We went home and took a long nap and later that night we wired everything up. Our wiring work stretched into the following morning and when we were done we began filtering 55 gallons of WVO to get us up to Maine and back. As soon a we got the truck on the road, we drove back to my parents place and packed our bags. We left for Maine that night, figuring that a 1000 mile round trip would be a good test for our new system. Our trip to Maine was a success although we didn’t get to spend much time before returning to PA.

When we got back to PA, we continued the process of cleaning out and packing up all the stuff in the shipping container. During this process, one night on our way back to my parents house from the farm the truck lacked power and eventually died on the side of the highway. We waited for AAA to tow us to the farm and the following day took a look at it to try to figure out what was going on. I was frustrated, thinking that the new mechanical fuel pump had failed. Upon closer inspection I realized that there was a restriction in the fuel line caused by a piece of debris clogging the orifice of one of our fuel selector valves. I blasted compressed air through the valve and the truck ran just as new.

Amidst the chaos of selling things, I finally had a guy lined up to buy the shipping container that seemed promising. We had met and talked about the details and I had mentioned to him that I had to move an old Studebaker Wagonaire out of the way and find a new parking space for it before I could arrange to have him pick up the container. He then mentioned that he had a heavy duty equipment trailer that would be perfect for my car and that I should come see it and maybe we could make a trade. A few days later we had arranged to go up to his property, about 2 hours North West of Philadelphia.

That morning we started the truck up and didn’t make it out of the driveway before the truck stalled and wouldn’t start back up. Adrienne and I both were ready to set the truck on fire at this point and give up, frustrated beyond belief at all of the trials and tribulations we had gone through. I collected my self and after some deductive reasoning, had a funny feeling that this was caused by the same issue we encountered at the farm a few days prior and was glad that we hadn’t gotten anywhere far from the house before the truck died. I located the proper inline fuel filter, picked it up and installed it, cleaned the fuel lines out again and we we were finally on our way to North Western PA.

On our way to visit this guy and check out his trailer, we delivered a small wood stove to a buyer on the side of the highway. Due to all of our hangups, we got to the property where the trailer was pretty late in the evening. Since he knew we were coming and to look at the trailer, I though he was going to have it ready for us. I then spent the next 2 and a half hours pulling the trailer out of his frozen yard and across a field to his shop where we could inspect it. This entailed using our truck to pull it, which got stuck after breaking our front axle and rendering our 4 wheel drive inoperable. We then resorted to pulling my truck with the trailer attached to it with a large telescoping boom fork lift that had a failed fuel pump. This feat required a driver to drive the forklift while someone ran along side the forklift and pumped a hand pump every 15 seconds to keep the engine running.

We got the trailer out and realized it needed tires, brakes, and wiring and that we couldn’t take it with us that day so we made a deal to trade the shipping container for the trailer + $300 cash due to the issues with the trailer. When we eventually came back up to pick up the trailer, we installed 2 new tires that we bought through a craigslist deal along the way, and wired up the lights after flipping the entire trailer onto its side with the forklift and welding new steel conduit to the bottom of the trailer to chase the wires through. On our way home the lights started to dim and we realized that the alternator in the truck was failing. We unplugged the trailer lights that we just repaired in order to save our battery and we hung a blinking headlamp from the back of the trailer for safety before continuing down the road. We made it home with our headlights barely lit, no radio, and no heat. We spent the next few days driving the truck only during the day after charging the battery at night while we waited for a new 50% larger alternator to show up in the mail.

Once we finally got the shipping container on a trailer and on it’s way to it’s new home, it started to feel like we might actually eventually make it back to Colorado. We packed the enclosed trailer and moved all the rest of the loose items to new homes, parked the trailer with the Studebaker on it over at my friend Guy’s house. We departed from Langhorne, PA with a 2,950 lb GVWR trailer that weighed in at around 5,500 lbs and a truck that started at 6,200 lbs and now weighed in at around 8,000 lbs. Pulling it with an engine that was designed to pull a maximum GVW of 11,000 lbs, we were around 12,500-13,000 lbs. It was a slow and scary at times drive. Stopping was mediocre at best making you grit your teeth and have a white knuckle grip on the the steering wheel going down long mountain passes and around sharp curves and acceleration took patients. We eventually made it back to Colorado in 1 piece and were glad to be home.

 

A few months back we made the long and arduous trek back east to pick up our new truck and to tie up many loose ends. The following is an account of the adventures that ensued.

We hopped into our beloved 2004 Nissan Frontier and departed on our last long trip in it together – headed east to trade it for something different, quite a bit different. A few months prior to this we had flown to the east coast of Florida to pick up a diesel Mercedes and immediately following this transaction we headed up to Tennessee to decide if buying an early 90’s GMC with an old bread truck engine in it was a good idea…turns out, we thought it was a good idea. Here are some photos of our drive to Gunnison Colorado only 20 or so miles east of where we live in Montrose

After a very long and largely boredom filled ride across middle America we made it to Sevierville Tennessee where my uncle lives and were we left our new truck to pick up on our way back east for the Christmas holiday. We spent a day or so at my uncles and then left on Christmas Eve giving our selves just enough time to make the 10 hour drive to Langhorne, PA with a few spare hours to nap along the way in order to make it there at a reasonable hour Christmas morning. We made the 10 hour drive without stopping and ran out of money for tolls along the way – a thrilling way to start Christmas. We made it to Langhorne by 9:00 am Christmas morning and surprised my whole family as they never imagined I would come home especially for Christmas this year.

 

A few months back a great friend of mine who owns and operates the Telluride Colorado local coffee shop, The Steaming Bean, asked if I was interested in helping fabricate some new furniture for the shop.  I agreed and as I got started with the project each day we talked the project began to grow.  Here are some photos of the shop before the remodel and some photos of the new furniture we fabricated as well as much more custom work that got thrown into the mix.  In the end we completely remodeled the coffee shop over a long weekend and gave the business a whole new feel.

After finishing up with the Bridal Veil welding project, Anton was approached about an interesting new job for us.  People from the town in Telluride were interested in having Anton build a holiday Christmas tree out of old skis.  I was brought in to work on the project and helped Anton with a large portion of the welding and fabrication.  Anton brought a design to the table and we worked on creating a simple bracket that we could reproduce and make subtle modifications to that would create the variations necessary from on ski to the next and one layer of skis to the next.

In order to make the tree mobile, we made it out of many modular pieces that get assembled on site.  The final tree comprised of a base made of ½” plate steel with a center column to hold the main pole, a main pole that stands 14’ tall, and 6 center sections that hold the skis.  Due to height restrictions inside the mine, we were unable to build the entire tree inside at one time.  As a result we resorted to building the tree in two pieces, the first 3 layers and then the last 3 layers.  In the end, when we finally assembled in outside before delivery, we noticed some thin spots between the two halves that we never saw assembled together as we were building it.  The day the town workers came out to pick up the tree for its debut we added a dozen skis around the midsection to help fill in the gaps.

In the end, we had to rent a high lift, telescoping boom fork lift to assemble all the pieces.  From the second we finished assembling the tree in town at its final destination, people were taking their pictures in front of it.  Later that week, the town had an elaborate coming of winter/tree lighting ceremony for which most of the town showed up to witness.

Since I’ve been away from writing for a few months now, I’ll take some time here to fill in the gaps and catch up to current events.  A few months ago I was involved in a few projects that turned out very well and were very interesting to work on.  I’ll start with the finale of the Bridal Veil welding job.

After traveling to Florida and Tennessee purchase two new vehicles when Adrienne and I returned, it appeared that my services were no longer needed and that the job up at the Bridal Veil power station was near complete.  After about a week went by, I was called back onto the job to help finish up picking up the loose ends that were left on the project before the first snow of the season shut us down for the winter.  It ended up being too late for that, it had snowed that first week and we were now racing to get the job done before the treacherous switchback road that lead up to the site was impassable for the remainder of the winter.

We ended up finishing the job in the middle of a snow storm and after turning a half dozen pairs of leather gloves soggy we decided to call it quits and pack up for the season.  When we went back to put some of our first loads of gear into the truck we found the truck half buried in a large pile of snow from a mini avalanche that had barreled its way down a gully and into the side of the truck.  Here are some photos of the final product as well as the wonderful weather on our final day working.

 

Yesterday on Adrienne’s day off we decided that we wanted to get out of the house and do something outside while it was still pretty warm and enjoyable during the day—the cold is creeping upon us quickly here on the Western Slope of Colorado. We thought the best way to take advantage of the weather was to take a last hurrah motorcycle ride and explore a part of the area we hadn’t seen yet. Someone affiliated with Habitat had been telling us about a loop we could do that takes you out into the country side on your way to Silver Jack Reservoir and State Park and loops back to Ridgway before taking the main road 550 back North to Montrose—so we decided to give that a try. Geared up for a couple hour drive and about 5 hours of sunlight left in the day we took off. As we neared the top of Cerro summit, our first peak, we were still fairly warm and comfortable, the weather was beautiful, and we were both really glad to be back out on the open road. We turned onto a small State side road that leads to Silver Jack and the road never seamed to stop wandering farther and farther up and around the mountains and hills. The road was all dirt and gravel, an honest-to-god 1885 cattle-drive trail, in fact, scenes from True Grit and How the West Was Won were filmed along this very road, making high speeds a things of the past, even on our rocket ship of a motorcycle. After about hour # 2 on the dirt and gravel we began to get a bit cold, and my arms began to cramp up majorly. Then at about hour 2.5 we made it to the reservoir with beautiful views. With the sun peeking out a bit, we stopped to take a rest and eat some cookies given to us by one of Habitats wonderful board members.

I almost forgot to mention that at the house on google maps we couldn’t find were the road actually connected to create a loop to Ridgway as we had been informed. At mile 42 (mile 48 being our turning around point if we couldn’t figure out where the road connected, since we have a 100 mile range to a tank of fuel) we passed a sign that pointed us in the direction of Ridgway. This is where things got interesting. The trail from Silver Jack to Ridgway was over Owl Creek pass peaking out at 10,114 feet in elevation. As we came around some of our first turns to start our ascent, we noticed a major drop in temperature and all of the sudden snow covered the road. And where snow didn’t cover the road, a muddy gravel slurry did and pot holes filled with muddy water were in serious abundance. We powered our way up and around 10-15 miles of snow covered trails before reaching the summit and descending our way into Ridgway. Luckily the descent was facing the South-West and was not covered in snow and a minimal amount of mud and water were present. By the time we entered Montrose city limits it was getting dark out and we were thoroughly chilled to the bone and adventured out for the day. What fun!