Hey, Look what I found!

Retrieved it this morning less than 30 miles from my house. Here it is on the roof of my 96 Dakota.

Need a hint?

The Gen II Dakota Travel bug Jon dropped in CO during the National Meet. Ray's 92 Dakota is pretty fast.

Now I have to figure out where I'm going to drop it. Hmmmmmmm.


Quote of the day: "I Use A Multi-Billion Dollar Military Satellite System To Find Tupperware In The Woods, What Do You Do?"

Track logs updated

I've been going back and updating the track logs that I had previously posted. I'm caught up with our westbound trip, through July 14. Now I can start filling in the logs that I had saved from the actual meet.

Blogger allows for the dates of posts to be modified. I've been changing my posts about each day so that they appear on the actual days. That'll make it easier to create an overall meet report from this blog, but it makes it more difficult to find the posts since they won't appear at the top of the blog.

So, I'm going to post links to my recently changed posts for convenience. Here is what I've updated so far:

http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-10-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-11-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-12-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-13-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-14-track.html

Walt-n-Ingrid's Blog

This is a link to our personal Blog. Now that were home again, I've made it public. It has a lot of the same posts at the DML National Meet Blog and some additional. I'm working on updating both right now.

We are home!

Rolled into the driveway about 9:45PM last night. 6322 miles doorstep to doorstep. 473.58 gallons of gas at a cost of $1,413.27 with an overall average of 13.349 mpg.

Had a small problem in PA, yesterday, that required a 3-4 hour visit to a dealer. The hard line for the rear brakes ruptured. The line itself was all rusted up and of course it had to pop right behind the fuel tank so they had to drop the tank (which of course was full) to replace it eating up about 4 hours on us. Was able to slowly limp it to a nearby dealership since we had no brakes. Because of the delay, we skipped 3 final stops on out itinerary Centrailia, Cabela's and OCC.

I also have to take a look at the AC. It quit working sometime after I was cleaning on Sat morning before the DTW NGTG show. The compressor kicks in and has enough pressure (50-60 psi on the low side according to the gauge I put on it), but it just blows at outside air temp and not cold. However, the line running from the condenser to the firewall gets cold enough to have condensation on it. Sunday, it was cooler to run with the windows down vs. up with the AC (even in the 100 degree weather). I'm hoping I just knocked loose a connector for the blend door or something like that. I think it quit after hitting the engine compartment with the hose at the car wash. I'll have to poke around a bit and see if anything stands out.

Met up with Gary Hedlin in St. Louis. Both he and I took "Top 10" trophies at the DTW event.

I stopped updating the blog just before leaving CO, so I have some catch-up to do. At one point, I couldn't update my personal Blog because it would time out while publishing over the cellular connection. I had to open a Remote Desktop session with my 2000 server at the house and publish to the blog from it, however, that was a time consuming process so I just gave up after a few times. Give me a day or two to get situated and I'll get back on that.

Just got home

My odometer says 5090 miles traveled, I'm betting Waln & Ingrid will have that beat significantly but that was quite a bit of seat time. Truck behaved quite well, but I've got a long list of maintainance and quirks that I made to take care of over the next... well.... lifetime :-)

I'll deal with my pictures some time this week, in the mean time, thanks again everyone.

Home again, home again

We've actually been home for about 25 hours now. We've been in recovery mode trying to catch up on lost sleep and work out all the various aches and pains that we got from sitting in one position for four days. We had a pretty uneventful trip home, although I've decided once and for all that Michigan is the most annoying state I've been in (sorry Dave and Jan and anyone else from Michigan). More details to be posted over the next several days as I go back and fill in our perspective on the meet before I forget it all.

The GPS trip computer says we traveled a total of 4178.6 miles over our total vacation. Stopped time 58:28:18, moving time 96:42:44 (clearly spent a lot of time stopped looking at stuff). Moving average 43.2 mph, overall average 26.9 mph. Keep in mind that includes all of the Colorado sight-seeing, off-roading, etc. We also didn't get much high-speed travel in to improve the average while pulling the trailer. It's not conducive to moving very quickly, particularly with a headwind (I thought the jetstream was supposed to move west to east, how did we have a headwind out of the east the whole way back???)

Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

Thursday, July 20, 2006
Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

Random Amusing Meet Photos

We all took a lot of pictures during the meet, but here are a few of the more amusing ones that have not yet been posted...

Adam blatantly disregarding the "No Rock Climbing" sign

Jon's mobile home

Evan enjoying a fresh cold beer (cup) at the Coor's Brewery

Mike admires the Enchanting Goddess of Beer

Walt shares his good fortune with "Mike" the travel bug

Jan discovers the compactor's seat is wet

Tom enjoys his chance to tower over Ed

The Henry's are Home

We're back, and didn't even loose any more parts along the way. We'll do the edit thing and fill in a few more details later.

Last post from Lone Duck

Norah and I are enjoying our LD breakfast, and I thought I'd log in and make a quick post. We're the last stragglers left in the area. My parents left for home yesterday afternoon, Walt & Ingrid and Mike left the day before that, and everyone else was gone by Saturday. It's weird to be around camp without any DML shenanigans going on. There's a large church group pulled in to the group area. They've built a virtual city in there, but as near as I can tell they don't have any plans to do anything other than hang around camp. Our setup was elaborate enough for the amount of time we spent there. Oh, and they do have a pop-up trailer in there. When I talked to LD, they told me the group area was for tents only, but I guess pop-ups count as tents.

I have lots I want to post, I just haven't been very dilligent about logging in to post it while on vacation. I get in to "unplugged" mode pretty quickly, and given a choice between sitting around a camp fire and walking up to the office to use a computer, I've been taking the fire. I'm going to go back and fill in the details from our perspective after we get home. Blogger allows for the date of posts to be altered, so I'm going to fake the posting dates in order to keep the overall record in order. That'll make it difficult for anyone to find the new posts, so once I'm done I'll post another post linking to my previous posts. Posthaste.

We're already looking forward to the next meet. Any ideas? :-)

The Henry's Trip Home

We'll edit this later, but here's the highlights.

Stopped at Grease Monkey in Colorado Springs to check the Trans / TCase fluid. Trans was fine, TCase was a quart low. No charge for checking or adding the extra quart. Gotta love that.

Made it to Topeka for the night. Got in around 1AM or so. Crashed and then got up and left.

Stopped in St. Louis, and did a quick tour of the arch.

We're in Terre Haute Indiana now, and are leaving for Indianapolis to see the Zoo and Botanical Gardens today, then its off to home tomorrow.

We forgot a couple containers of ice cream at Lone Duck (You reading this Jason & Norah?). Inquire at the desk if you're interested and it's still there.

Korey's Closing Comments

Dusty, Evan and I arrived home at 1:00am this morning after a 800 mile day of driving from Colby, Kansas. Obviously we didn't make it very far on Friday before stopping for the night. Although our time with the DML passed too quickly, it's still nice to be at home.

I have a somewhat unique perspective on this meet, as an outsider, basically. Before this meet I had never spoken to or met any member of the DML, though I've been lurking (and rarely posting) since 1999. I was nervous joining the meet, not knowing exactly what we were getting into or who we'd be camping with.

My nervousness was unfounded. Hanging out with the DML was a great time. You're a fun group, and made us feel very welcome. As I’ve read about in the past and experienced on this trip, you do anything you can to help each other.

I enjoyed meeting you all, putting faces to the names, and being a part of your adventures. We did a quick survey, and discovered that nearest participant traveled 700 miles and that the furthest was 2000 miles. I for one can say it was worth the journey. I hope we can meet up again in the future.

I've put the pictures I took online at:

http://www.atterberry.net/photos/?lzkfile=Events%2F2006+National+DML+Meet%2F

Made it home from the meet

To make a long story short, the plane from Colorado Springs to Chicago was about an hour late in leaving, then O'Hare got socked in with thunderstorms so we circled Peoria for a bit and then landed at U of L in Champaign/Urbana for some more fuel and to wait out the storm before heading back to Chicago. There was wifi access there, but restricted to university staff and students only unfortunately, so I couldn't send an update at that time. There was supposed to be a 4 hour layover in Chicago, but with all the delays, they were actually beginning boarding of the connecting flight to Buffalo as we were getting off the plane from Colorado Springs. I was a bit worried about the checked baggage making it over in time, but 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, I saw my bags being loaded onto the conveyor. Nothing left to do now but recover from the meet. :-) I'm a bit tired naturally but I think I caught something at the campground; had a bit of a scratch in my throat on the last day, I thought it was from breathing too much bonfire, but the grogginess and sniffles have started to hit me today.

I don't recall who came up with the suggestion (Adam or Mike maybe?), but I would definitely be up for making a meet of this type a more frequent event. It would be an interesting way to see parts of the country that we might ordinarily never have the opportunity or motivation to visit. The scripts and such that I wrote to do the voting for the national meet could certainly be recycled to determine the next location. Maybe if you're watching the travel channel or stumble across a location which might make a good meet spot, keep it in mind to throw into the hat for the next time. I hope you'll forgive me if I don't put quite as much effort into future meets though. :-) I think I learned my lesson with this one; plans seemed to change faster than the weather did last week, and I do regret spending so much time and effort in preparation for things that never came to be. Not that I'm complaining; it is what it is... It seems like the DML in general prefers to take the "fly by the seat of your pants" route; I probably should have recognized that sooner, but that's fine by me, I can adjust and will just plan on winging more stuff myself. :-)

One thing that I hope we can incorporate into any future meets is the geocaching. I have done some of it myself in the past, but always by myself. Doing it in a group really does add a new dimension of fun. Plus, the caches are easier to find with all those extra pairs of eyes. :-)

Leaving the meet

This week went by *way* too fast, I've got some catchup posts that I should probably make - though I'll bet Walt will fill in most of what I would, so perhaps I won't have much to add. I'm sitting in my truck at Lone Duck freshly showered and all packed. I'm headed to Fairplay, CO to cross Mosquito Pass to Leadville. This was on Thursday's agenda but we didn't get to it and I'd very much like to. I'll be staying in a hotel in Brighton tonight and tomorrow night before heading for Minnesota - all for work.

More later, but "happy trails" to all in the mean time. Thanks to everyone for making this a fantastic week - especially to Jim Ward for his efforts without the ability to enjoy them in the end. I didn't catch you on Friday when you were in camp, but thanks very much for your efforts Jim, sorry you couldn't make more of it. Thanks to the rest of the organizers too, Jon, Jason & Norah and Tom as I recall. I definitely would like to make this more of an every-ten-years thing, and that seems to be a pretty common sentiment.

EDIT:
Just for the record, after a mechanical problem on the road in (lost brake caliper key; found on road and pounded back in; still holding), taking a few wrong (but extremely interesting, unbeatably scenic, and slightly technical) wrong turns in the Fairplay-side valley, I did make it up and over "on my way" from Lone Duck to my hotel in Brighton.

Dakota Hideout

While driving down CR-123, we passed by a gate that we just had to get a photo of. Since we are in CO to attend the DML National Meet, the gate marked Dakota Hideout, on Dakota Lane, was just about a perfect close to the week. Here are a couple of photos of Mike's Dakota by the gate.

Leaving the meet (by Jon)

I'm sitting in the Colorado Springs airport at the moment (hooray for free wifi access!) We cut it REALLY short getting to the airport. When checking bags, you're supposed to have them checked in a minimum of 1/2 hour before the departure time. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:22 and we were standing in line to check our bags at 1:50. My bag was the last one to go down the chute. For some reason the baggage handlers had already closed the flight, but the people at the check-in counter contacted them to tell them there was one more bag for the flight. In something of a lucky break, the flight was delayed due to the plane we are supposed to fly on being late. Its supposed to land at 3:00, so we've got something of a wait. Better than rushing though. I've got a scheduled 4 hour layover in Chicago for the connecting flight, so I should be OK there; it'll end up being more like a 2 hour layover.

Sorry that I had to leave so abruptly; I was looking forward to having one last lunch with everybody before heading out, but between having to wash the Jeep, running on fumes, and being behind schedule to begin with, there just wasn't any time for that. :-( I had a lot of fun, and the week was over *way* too quickly.

Friday's ups and downs (by Jan)

After we went UP with the group up to Pikes Peak (yay!) with the group, David and I headed off to try a last shot at seeing the Cave of the Winds. We got tickets to the 5pm lantern tour and killed some time at Garden of the Gods climbing on Balanced Rock. (we have photos, but I don't know how to load them)

The tour of Cave of the Winds took us DOWN into the cool cave which looked like a great place to have a Halloween party, with stone walls and illuminated crevices, courtesy of modern day electricity. Our tour though took us further into the cave where there are no lights, and we had kerosene lanterns to carry. The large part of this tour was stories of the guy and his friend who owned the place, and how they became not-friends over ownership, and mentions of "George sightings" in various forms... life form, ghost form, etc. The guide told us that they've had a tough time getting maintenance workers to go down there; apparently those who have won't return... apparently there have been apparatition sightings. George had a mummy, one of his gimmicks to get tourists to come, and one day the mummy was gone... and when we were led into a certain passageway and told to blow out our lanterns into complete darkness, we were told that the mummy had been found in this very hall, and that it announces itself nowadays by grabbing your ankle, wrist or blowing in your left ear.... thanks a lot to David, who thought this would be a great time to play a joke on Jan... (made me say "hell" in front of the little girls who were actually doing quite well).

The tour felt a bit short though it did last the appointed 1.5 hours. It was enjoyable. I could do a better job at this story, but we've got to pack up and head out this morning.

Thanks for being a fun group and for the great ideas and roads we traveled!

Friday, July 21 (by Jon)

Early this morning, we headed out to Pike's Peak; leaving camp just before 8am. Upon arrival, we were dissapointed to hear that only the first 13 of the 19 miles were open, due to "fog". (read: clouds) On the plus side, we were told it could burn off, and the admission was half price. We decided to give it a go, killed some time in the gift store, etc. By the time we reached the closed section, they had opened it again, and we could drive all the way to the top. There were still sections obscured by clouds though, and the entire summit was covered in clouds, so unfortunately there was absolutely no view from the top. However, we were greeted with some very nice views on the way up and down. Some of those views are included below, although naturally the pictures simply cannot do justice to the real thing.

Tom got his truck back today, fixed and ready to go, so that is a good thing. After Pike's Peak, we were going to meet up with Jason's parents at a shooting range to punch some holes in paper and also possibly get in some paintball, but due to the time and distances involved, that didn't work out. Walt, Ingrid, Mike, Ed, and myself went out geocaching in the afternoon to find some caches with travel bugs in them. Unfortunately we did not locate any travel bugs, but we did find a couple of caches, one of which required a hike of about a mile and a quarter or so. Although the cache didn't contain the travel bug which was supposed to be there, the scenery was very nice. Along the way to this cache, we stumbled across some signs of recent bear activity, but didn't actually see anything more dangerous than a rabbit and a gaggle of Canadian geese.

Afterwards, we all met at the Black Bear restaurant (www.blackbearrestaurant.com) at 8:30 for some dinner. The food was excellent! Afterwards, we headed back to camp for the evening bonfire. Actually, I'm just headed for the bonfire now. It has been a week of long days and short nights, which I think is starting to catch up to me a bit as I am really tired tonight. I might turn in (relatively) early, and sleep in a bit tomorrow morning before packing up to catch my flight home. Unless of course we decide to do some more geocaching in the morning, which might be a possibility.




Following are a few pics from the day:


A picture of our campground, since I just realized I had forgotten to take one. My tent is the red one to the left.




Another campground pic.





Pike's Peak





Pike's Peak






Pike's Peak







Pike's Peak






The entire group at the summit of Pike's Peak






The DML's very own sasquatch




A problem and a solution. Also known as "is this log too big for our fire ring?" Not with a sufficient quantity of flammable liquid, it isn't... :-)





A view of the northernmost finger of Rampart Reservoir, from the geocache area.

Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

Log by Walt_Felix for How did this get here? (Traditional Cache)

No big loss, it's just an S10

Thursday, July 20 (by Jon)

Today, we explored a very small portion of some of the off road trails in the general vicinity of the campground, had some lunch on the trail, and combined the offroading with geocaching. We found three caches today, two of which were at the top of rather steep hills, so those of us who went up to the top got a fairly good workout. The last two travel bugs were dropped off today (Gen III and Gen IV), so all of the travel bugs are in the wild now! It was rather fitting that Don was the one to drop the Gen III travel bug into its starting cache; that travel bug is based on his truck.

We explored Forest Service road 318 which comes off of Mt. Hermon road. It had been listed as a difficult trail in a guide book that Jason has. It started off rather mild, but did get more interesting towards the end. The trail got a bit too narrow for Walt's full size Ram, so he held back, and Jason & Norah also turned around once they got to some of the more technical stuff, and once the storm clouds started moving in. The two Jeeps (Adam driving one with Jackie, Jay and Korey as passengers, me driving the other with Ed and Tom as passengers) and Mike in his Dak with Don as a passenger continued on. The road kept going and going well beyond our maps, so we figured we'd better turn around and head back to Walt, Ingrid, Jason and Norah. Ed and I walked down the trail just a bit further, past a narrow section that would have been very challenging, even for a Jeep, and were rewarded with a fabulous view of the valley below. We ate some lunch and then headed back out; Jason & Norah went back to town to meet Jason's parents who were driving in and the rest of us followed Walt to find some geocaches.

I must say that I am impressed with this little Jeep. Granted, we haven't gotten into any real hardcore stuff but there were a few technical places, and it has done great, despite being bone stock, on fully inflated street tires. Being used to wheeling a full size, extended bed Ram, this little Jeep is spoiling me a bit with its maneuverability. You have a lot more options for choosing a line, rather than just having to stay between the trees and power through whatever the road might happen to throw at you. Its also easier to fit through the narrow sections. I might have to put one of these on the ol' wish list. ;-)

During the trip, a storm rolled through and the skies opened up on us. Ed and I had to hop out of the Jeep and put the sides back on to prevent the inside from getting soaked. We got soaked in the process. :-) There was thunder and lightning all around (we calculated the nearest strike at 1/2 mile; we were at around 9,000 feet at the time). As seems to be the pattern though, the storm quickly passed. We had some on and off rain for the remainder of the day, but nothing that was a big deal. It stopped drizzling in time for the nightly DML bonfire. We're going to have to ramp up the bonfire a bit though if we want to burn through all of the wood we purchased. :-)


Here are a few pics from the day:


The view from near the end of the fire service road number 318, off of Mt. Hermon road.




Some bolders that were steaming after a rain/hail storm.





Some of the hail that was left all over the ground from the aforementioned storm.





Mike, flexing his suspension in a kind've off-road play area we stumbled upon.





Adam, climbing a rock in the above area.





Searching for a geocache, we drove through a large section of burned forest.





To get to the geocache we also had to drive through a flash flood area. It was raining, but nowhere near enough for there to be any danger.





A bunch of folks heading up to find the aforementioned geocache; the third and final find of the day.





A view of a cloud shrouded Pike's Peak from the geocache area. We're planning to drive to the top of Pike's Peak tomorrow, so hopefully I will be able to share a photo of the view from the top in a bit. Speaking of which, I am going to end this message now as its 2am and I need to be up in time for the 7:30 trip to the peak!

David and Jan's version of Thursday

We returned to the zoo to visit the Shrine of the Sun, which is accessible by a road only available through the zoo. By DML standards the paved road is extremely mild, although the switchbacks might freak some uninitiated folks in cars. At the top, you visit a stone tower -- pretty cool -- that has rooms in it memorializing the actor Will Rogers. The point of the shrine is to have a place for the ashes of a couple by the last name of Penrose. They're responsible for a number of places around here, and lived quite a nice life and they spend eternity there in a beautiful chapel high from the city in peace and quiet. I'm envious! At any rate, the elevation is about 9,000 and the views of the city are just amazing. (David took photos) Unfortunately "they", whoever they are, closed off the observation deck atop the tower which deprived us of the full height but we managed to make our way through a door on the second or third floor, which went out onto a tiny deck and displayed spectacular sights. I'm not sure if we're supposed to be able to exit there or not, but after a bit of toying with the deadbolt, we got the door open and went out onto the little ledge. Sure glad that door wasn't secured with one of those darn Master locks that were everywhere else. But the trip up there was well worth it, I think.

David wanted to go higher up Cheyenne mountain via a road that took off from the paved road, but I pointed out the sign said "no vehicles beyond this point". Shoot. Another road we passed on the way down didn't have a sign saying to get away, but I pointed out that we were solo and the road looked a little iffy. Yes I'm part chicken sometimes... but oh well.

After that we headed down to the nearby World Figure Skating museum, which I know isn't on the hot list of most DMLers, but personally it was like a mecca to me, to actually be near memorabilia from my very elite peers, whom I could never emulate but always admire. I skate for the enjoyment of flying across ice, they skate and earn millions. But whatever.

We had planned to visit the Cave of the Winds afterward, but the last lantern tour was at 5, and we got stuck in traffic. :-( It's on our list for Friday, after we go with the group to Pikes Peak. It's then or never, so I hope we do make it.

The group kinda split up a bit today, and I hope everyone found what they wanted out of the day. At least the lightning around Colorado Springs was the wickedest I've ever seen... lots and lots of cloud to ground spikes, in vivid purple. I can believe now why they warn against being high up when it strikes!!!

Log by Walt_Felix for Mt. Deception (Traditional Cache)

Log by Walt_Felix for Mt. Deception (Traditional Cache)

Fri Plans

Cathy's back, so we're planning to come down sometime Fri PM. Any plans in the works? (Grub, etc....)

Wednesday, July 19 (by Jon)

The plan today was the Coors tour, lunch in Golden, Lariat Trail, Red Rocks, Bandemere Speedway, then back to town. We left a little late, spent more time than expected on the Coors tour and lunch, so we skipped Lariat Trail to head directly to Red Rocks, where we met up with Jason & Norah. Jason W. had arrived at the brewery just in time to join our tour group, so we had already met up with him earlier in the day. At Red Rocks, we basically stood around and looked at the sights in the general vicinity of the ampitheater. I had kinda figured somebody might be interested in doing some hiking and checking out more of the park, but I guess not. :-) I checked out some interesting history and displays in the visitor's area and struck out on my own for a very abbreviated hike and also had a go at jogging up the ampitheater stairs. I only made it about 3/4 of the way up though before I had to pause to catch my breath. This thin air will really take the wind out of your sails!

After Red Rocks, apparently a majority of the folks in the group didn't seem to want to go to Bandimere so we headed for camp. Our "full schedule" day had turned into a relatively weak, content-free day and I was getting a full-on case of cabin fever. We were headed south on I-25, where once we got to Monument, Ed and I pointed the Jeep towards the mountains so that we could take a more circuitous, "back road and 4x4 trail" route to camp. Mike and Don thought this was a good idea and exited as well. After a brief fuel stop in Monument, and a failed attempt to open a locked bathroom door for the gas station employees, we headed west on Mt. Hermon road, which climbs up Mount Hermon, then generally headed west, reaching about 9,000 feet or so before heading south towards Woodland Park and camp. The views weren't as good as they could have been due to the rain and clouds, but it was still very interesting. The whole makeup of the area was completely different than Dakota Hill or Kingston Peak. Lots of large, round bolders and gravel here. There was a pretty good storm system in the area with rain and lightning, and it was starting to get towards dark, but in a way, that actually added to the fun. The day still wasn't as full as I would have liked, but at least that brief, therapudic offroading excursion helped to take some of the edge off. :-)


Following are a few pics from the day:





Part of the Coors brewery tour. They make 1.5 million gallons of beer here every day!



The packaging area of the Coors brewery tour. The tour was interesting, but what holds the most fascination for me are the automated machines and assembly lines. This was the only view we got of that sort of thing, unfortunately.



A view of Denver from Red Rocks.



The Red Rocks ampitheater



Me at Red Rocks



A view of the storm over the mountains as we were headed south on I-25. Shortly after this pic, we turned west into those very mountains for some offroading fun.

Tuesday, July 18 (by Jon)

We left camp later than planned, which unfortunately resulted in not having enough daylight to actually see St. Mary's Glacier, but we did get in some nice offroading with great views, and drove up to the top of Dakota Hill. We also dropped of the GenII travel bug, so that's 2 down and 2 to go!

Some random pics for the day:




Tom comes up Dakota Hill






All of the trucks parked on Dakota Hill






Jason & Norah on Dakota Hill





Adam & Jackie on the trail between Dakota Hill and Kingston Peak.





An alpine meadow between Dakota Hill and Kingston Peak. We stopped here to find a geocache.




Walt & Ingrid near the same location as above.




A small herd of elk, spotted from the Kingston Peak trail. There were about 20 or so. Later on, we saw a herd of around 100, but unfortunately they left before I had a chance to snap a picture. I think Ed might have gotten a shot with his telephoto lens though.



A view as we are nearing the top of the Kingston Peak trail, at around 12,000 feet. The view down into this valley with its snow fields, glacial pools and waterfalls was amazing. It was also amazingly windy, and very cold. As you can see, we are well above some of those patches of snow. Its amazing to think that on the drive up, we saw temperatures in the 90s. Pictures just can't do it justice, but this view alone was worth the drive.




The trucks heading further up Kingston Peak.





When we got back to camp, we discovered that our small pile of firewood had been delivered, and that Korey had stacked it. No more scrounging for us - flame on! :-)

David and Jan's Wednesday antics

David and I took a different route on Wednesday and explored the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. As far as American touristy sites go, it's pretty good. Avoid most of the foreign-made unrelated junk in the store, but certainly enjoy the range of freedom you get with this site. The "doors" into the various rooms are open for you to enter, if you fit. I felt like a kid again as I crawled through small door openings into the rooms. Hot day, but pleasingly comfortable inside. David took some liberties with the freedom though... we thought it would be fun if he hoisted himself upward using the wood beams spanning the small rooms. He will post photos I took of him standing up there. After the dwellings we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The animals there don't seem to like each other. I've never seen a bear charge another bear in the habitat, until today. Ditto for the tiger. That was worth a scream. The poor tiger was relaxing in the water in their habitat, and the larger tiger slunk around behind it, easing itself into the water until it was just behind the resting one, and then lunged at it, grabbing its hind leg in its mouth!!! The attacked one responded with a great roar. Good show, guys. Oh, and guess what, Patrick has an example of him at the zoo! Yes, they've got a quaker there in the bird room. He wasn't as neat feather-wise as Patrick though -- a little picked on the head. We missed the trip to the Will Rogers Shrine up there, because they closed the road early but our receipt was validated so we could return Thursday. David hopefully will post some photos of our antics in the kids park... the spider web was just too tempting for David to leave alone. We've got Thursday and Friday to get the rest of the sights in. Our plan next is to visit Cave of the Winds on the lantern tour, return to the Shrine so we actually see it, stop by the World Figure Skating Museum and of course go to Pikes Peak with the group. All in Thursday and Friday. We leave Saturday at noon, so the National Lampoons trip is in full swing.

Guess I should get around to posting!

I havn't had time to post anything since I left for Colorado friday. Its been interesting heh. I didn't leave wisconsin until 7:10 pm central on friday. I made it as far as Winona, MN where I grabbed a room at a best western for the night. After a restless night sleep, I hit the road the next day at about 9 am or so saturday morning. The drive was long and mostly uneventful except for rendering some roadside assistance. I responded to a truck driver saying that there were two women stranded on the side of I-80 in Iowa, trying to change a flat tire, which turned out to be a woman and her 6-7 year old daughter. I helped them change their tire and got them back on the road. She was very appreciative of the help and thanked me over and over. That was a good feeling :)

The drive seemed to drag on a very long time and I made it into Lone Duck at 2:30 am MST... with approx 1200 miles on the clock. Thats about 1050+ miles in a single day over an approximate time of 17-18 hours. I slept in the cab of the truck when I got to the campground. Woke up at 6:45 sunday morning after no where near enough sleep. We bummed around camp most of the day and went to Seven Falls waterfall later that night and saw some really awesome rock formations and waterfalls.

Monday was pretty awesome too. We set out for Garden of the Gods rock formations. Adam Jackie and Mike and I went walking around a few of the many trails in the area - seems like every where you turn around here theres one skyline or another thats more awesome than what you just saw. We met up with Jon and Ed afterwards and hit some trails for some great photo ops.

Tuesday we set out in the morning for Dakota Hill and other areas which I can't remember the names of right now. Dakota hill was pretty cool actually. The only signs of civilization was the communications and cell towers that were posted up there. I was able to get some lightning strikes on video. The trees up at that elevation are all very thick and stubby and short. There were what Mike guessed to be, mining test holes, dug out and filled in, with 20-some year old trees that had taken root, all over the top of the hill... adding to the eery landscape.

We set out for the highland afterwards and eventually topped well over 11,000 feet elevation. We made it to the top of this particulat mountain range, the name of which escapes me... at the top the wind was blowing something feirce and it was cold. We were well above the tree line and had spotted a couple herds of elk on the way up. The trail was moderate/easy. With lots more bumps than really difficult sections. Jason and Norah's stock quadcab made it over them just fine. The views were more than breathtaking. Its a sight I will not soon forget and one that I hope I'll see again. Everyone remarked that they had a wonderful day.

Wednesday decided to throw me a curve ball. A sound I was hearing tuesday night, turned out to be both front axleshaft joints on the Ram's front DANA axle, grinding their rusted, non-greaseable, factory OEM u-joints to peices. After runing around town all morning fetching u-joints and having to buy and entire craftsman socket set just to get a single 1-11/16ths socket for the spindle nut, I started taking stuff apart and saw that the bolts that hold the wheel bearing units to the spindle, are a funky ass 12 point dealy. A bolt head that I do not have a socket for. I am pondering if I should run all over kingdomcome trying to find that socket, or just have a shop change the joints and be done with it. As it is I can't get any parts. I'll have to put everything back together again to go look. Everyone else is out in town. I missed the brewery tour this AM and unless someone comes back to camp, I'm going to miss the drag racing at Bandamire, to say nothing or participting. Somthing that I had *really* been looking forward to - as I have never done that before. Anyway... I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I think I'll make a few phone calls and see what a shop will ream me for to change the joints.

Log by Walt_Felix for THE TEDDY BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUMTAIN (Traditional Cache)

Log by Walt_Felix for THE TEDDY BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUMTAIN (Traditional Cache)

We dropped out 3rd travel bug,

Walt-n-Ingrid's Virtual Roadtrip #3 - Mustang

Log by Walt_Felix for Ghost 4 - American City (Traditional Cache)

While Off-Roading, I saw the Ghost 4 - American City Geocache on my GPS and decided to stop quickly. Dropped one of our vacation travel bugs. "Walt-n-Ingrid's Virtual Roadtrip #4 - Dodge Dakota".


Log by Walt_Felix for Ghost 4 - American City (Traditional Cache)

We are at the Summit of Dakota Hill