Failed attempt at Red Cone Pass Road and another displacement

Wednesday, July 15

Discovered this early this morning as I worked on getting ready for today's riding:

The pic shows what I had after removing the torn up TP rolls from the shelf you see in the cabinet under the bathroom sink.  Little sucker just dug through the two rolls, digging through, apparently looking for something?  Martha thinks it was taking away material for its nest.

Spent some time checking for evidence of rodents having taken up residence, couldn't find any.  Only opening I could find was where the 30 amp power cable went into the RV within the compartment where its stored when not in used.

My theory is one of the many small squirrels/varmints in the camp site had finally gotten brave enough to approach the URRV and enter it seeking whatever.  I'd been at this site seven nights you see, pretty long time for me.

So, I sealed up the hole through which the city power cable runs, and taped up the opening through which it is run when deployed.  I'm hoping that's how the varmint got in.  The bottom of the RV is pretty well sealed, where there's openings, the manufacturer filled in the cracks with some kind of hard rubber sealant.  I'll have to check for new openings I guess.

The above done, I geared up to try and ride up to Red Cone Pass about 20 miles away.  You access the entrance to this road via Park County Road 60 and then turning onto FR121.  I didn't get very far.  It had looked doable in the video link I published before; but that video didn't cover the first mile...holy crap!

The first mile or so is apparently a dirt trail heavily strewn with loose boulders and large gravel.  I didn't even get 1/4 of the way before hitting a boulder wrong and Yagi ending up on her left side agaisnt/up the left bank of the "trail".

After some dragging, I got her upright again and checked for damage, none evident so I continued hoping to see an end to the boulder field.  Nope.

As soon as I saw what was in front of me, I found a flat spot to stop:

This is a view of was behind me, lower down:

So I pivoted Yagi on her centerstand, allowing me to turn her 180 degrees and pointed downwards.  At this point two Jeeps showed up and blocked the way down so they stopped and we conversed.

The lead jeep's driver had been up Red Cone Pass before and he said the trail actually got much tougher just a bit further on; then it would turn easy until near the top when it became really steep and a lot of loose gravel and another boulder field.

Hearing this, my decision to turn around was confirmed for me.  The Jeeps moved to create a path for me to walk Yagi by them and I wished them a good day as I left.  Red Cone Pass will have to wait for me to come back in a more capable vehicle such as a Jeep or a Side by Side ATV!

Coming back down the 1/4 mile I had achieved wasn't pretty as I was a bit shaky.  Still, no more falls, and I got back onto the county road.  There I discovered I couldn't shift up from first gear, the pedal had gotten bent upwards in the fall.

I pulled over and using my booted foot, pushed down on the pedal enough to achieve clearance.  It had gotten bent a bit more and when I tried to up shift, it would contact the engine case before engaging the next gear.

Also noticed the left front turn signal mount was slightly bent as well, luckily, the light fixture itself was fine.

Once I could actually cycle through all the gears, I continued on back to US 285 and slowly made my way back to camp.  Yagi's performance really suffers at above 10,000 ft even though I've checked and she's got the larger jet in her carburetor.  She acts like the engine cuts out and immediately cuts back in, repeatedly, while trying to maintain speed.  I was lucky to make 45 mph going up towards Kenosha Pass.

The above behavior had been happening the least few days each time I tried to make highway speeds going to and from trail heads; so not part of the latest crash.

Got back to camp and noticed that the spot the next hill over from my camp site was open now, so I hurriedly packed things up and displaced to the new site.  Hoping the rodent who was brave enough to crawl into the URRV would be left behind in the old spot and the rodents in the new spot would take a few days to be brave enough to try and get in!

I unbent the clutch pedal a little more, and using a wrench, unbent the mounting bracket for the left front turn signal....all good.

I originally parked the URRV all the way to the left of the picture below, facing towards the path that led to the campsite.  After two separate camper rigs stopped and looked for way too long before moving on, I decided to make it more obvious that this site was full:

Does the site appear to be at full capacity?

A closer up view

At Martha's suggestion I also ended up dragging a log or two across the entry path, clearly showing a perimeter which I hoped wouldn't be challenged.  I'm not here to meet new friends through camping you see.  I'll see how it holds up as the next weekend's worth of campers shows up.

Yes, I've become quite the curmudgeon in my old age.  Perhaps I should have a sign made up to post at the entry to a camp site:  Disgruntled Vet, Leave Me Alone.