Berthoud Pass and Back Home

Once the temperature outside reached 50°F, I headed off on Yagi, my TW200 towards Berthoud Pass.

The pass was only 5 miles away but a steep climb at times on US 40 as on heads towards Winter Park.

It's paved highway so no real challenge, mind you.

Here's the view from near the summit sign, looking North.

Heading back down:

I decided to check out the road to Urad Valley on the way back to Jones Pass Road.

The valley is home to the Henderson Mine Complex where Molybdenum was and apparently is mined till this day.

It's also home to the Urad SWA (State Wildlife Area) and Urad Lake.

I rode Yagi to the end, where the trailhead parking into the SWA is located.  

It's a pretty rough 3 miles or so but the lake seemed nice:

The lake appears to be on private property owned by the Henderson Mine company.

I dimly recall a large reclamation effort resulted in the current valley conditions and the creation of the SWA.

I returned to camp and had an early lunch.

The weather clouded over again and I decided might as well head home a day early.  The weather was actually nicer at home you see.

So I broke camp and was home by 4pm or so.  The Jones Pass Road has several small campsite; though accessing them can be tricky.  

Saw a couple of RV sites even further up from where I camped, bet it gets cold at night....

An Attempt to Summit Jones Pass

I rode yagi, my TW200, about 2 mi up Jones Pass Road this morning trying for the summit. 

Alas, it was not to be, the last half mile or so is still blocked with snow, pretty deep snow. 

Views of Uma and the campsite from Jones Pass Road.

Things clouded up pretty good by Noon so I spent the afternoon hanging out in the VRRV.

Maybe I'll ride to Berthoud Pass tomorrow if the weather is warm enough.

Boondocking on Jones Pass Road

Monday, June 23

After 4 days of high heat conditions in the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area, it was time to seek relief.

I drove Uma, the VRRV, fully restocked and topped off with consumables and headed for the mountains!

The drive up had a couple of sections of slow heavy traffic on I-70 due to construction.  I found the previously scouted site and would be almost done setting up by Noon.

The nearest town is Empire, CO. US 40 is the main highway to it and one turns onto Jones Pass Road from it.

After lunch I indulged  in a bit of a police call to pick up litter.  Once I cleared the immediate around my campsite, I decided to clear a nearby trail too.

Not much litter but enough to make me glad I'd brought the litter gear along.

Then, I stumbled onto something unexpected!

Guest Book for recording one's visit

Tibetan Prayer Flags?

I'm guessing it's an ad hoc shelter of sorts for hikers and possibly cross-country skiers in Winter. 

This curiosity is perhaps a 10th of a mile from my campsite, down a narrow path that seems to go up the nearby hill.

It rained briefly around 4:30 pm, clouds moved in around the campsite.  I am after all, located at 10,850 feet.

I'll be riding tomorrow to Jones Pass I think.  The deafening silence and solitude is broken infrequently by passing cars headed to and from the pass.

Home and VRRV Chores/Upgrades

 Thursday, June 19

I noticed traffic picking up along FR 357 and decided to displace to home earlier by one day.

Lucky I did, there were several trucks and trailers inbound with OHVs/ATVs along with many campers!  The day use parking lot was full of offloaded trailers.  The Emancipation Federal Holiday had resulted in a "four day weekend" for a lot of people apparently.

I would see a two mile traffic backup that was heading into Divide as I was heading away from it.  Lots more RVs, OHV-laden trailers and just regular cars seeking to escape into the forest I imagine.

Good time to mention the formalization of Colorado Camping in Summer Protocol for me:  Camp only Sun-Thu, escaping back to home on the weekends when the crowds are out.

Friday, June 20

Thing One and I installed a 16ft propane hose extension on the VRRV.  This to hopefully eliminate the very slow propane leak I'd detected since returning from Europe.

RichardM, as always, helped me diagnose the issue.   The most common being the rubber hoses on RVs just aging and become porous.  Since my VRRV's hoses appear to be the originals, they're almost 20 years old!

Link to Item on Amazon

I followed the path used by the stock lines.  The new line is secured at multiple point by double sets of zip ties, I may eventually use metal zip ties but I think it'll be OK for now.  The stock line components remain in place, just in case.  That's because I could not break loose the rear connector on the 5 ft portion!

Saturday, June 21

After an abortive attempt to go cheap and use the Torque App to get a reading on the VRRV's TFT: Transmission Fluid Temperature, I had bought a ScanGauge II via Amazon.  Both RichardM and another friend, Dan K. use this product and are happy with it.

Yep, supposedly there's "plug-ins" for added functionality for the Torque app, perhaps including TFT but the website linked in the app is broken.

There is a newer model with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) but it was $110 more than the model II.  Me being a cheap bastard....I went with the II for $159.

Installation was easy, followed the setup instructions, watched Linear Logic's video, they're the ones who make this gadget.

As expected, I had to program in what they call a X-Gauge to report on Transmission Fluid Temperature or TFT.  It wasn't a big deal, just a couple of small hiccups.

1.  The default timeout for the ScanGauge is RPMs.  That is, it turns itself off if it detects 0 RPMS as in engine not running.  This timeout interval proved to short for me to enter the X-Gauge codes for TFT.  (The codes are available from scangauge.com).   

I set the timeout trigger to be COM, as in loss of power from the OBDII port.  That kept it on as along as the ignition key was in the ON position, engine not running.

2.  The second hiccup was inputting the correct X-Gauge codes for a 2006 Ford OBD system.  Mine uses the CANSF system.  The first one listed on the website didn't work, so I had to work my way down through to Method 3.  That one got a reading for TFT.  I was happy.  I will of course have to check it against actual temp via a touchless thermometer while the VRRV is running during stops to see how close it is.

Inputting the X-Gauge values, takes some initial practice, but otherwise easy.

Here's the displays I now can activate while driving:

TFT - Ambient Air

Intake Air Temp. - Average Fuel Economy

CYL: Cylinder Head Temp.

HPR: Horsepower

VLT: Battery Voltage

GPH: Gallons Per Hour

LOD: engine load

MPG: Miles Per Gallon

RPM, self-explanatory

You can have up to 25 custom X-Gauges!  Some of the stuff available I'm going to have to research as I don't know what it's really reporting.  For now, I have what I wanted.  Oh, and Engine Coolant Temp, which is a standard gauge.

Oh, and when your check engine light comes on, you can read the code and clear it as needed.  For instance, the VRRV occasionally pops a code for Fuel Rail Pressure Sensor.  I'll be replacing that soon.

In case you're wondering, the gadget below the ScanGauge is the TPMS monitor.

My thanks to RichardM for his help on the propane issue and suggesting the ScanGauge II.  Thanks for Dan K. for his input and info as well, he's got the III.

Tornado Warning Produces Big Hail

Yesterday, June 17

A rather eventful day, weather-wise.  It got a bit too exciting.

The morning started off with heavy overcast skies, eventually turning to mostly cloudy as Noon approached.

Got the severe thunderstorm warning on my phone, went outside the VRRV to see the sky not looking good: 

The 4G signal wasn't working so I fired up Starlink to check the weather radar, not great.  You can see the northern edge of the storm passing to the south of the blue dot. (That's me)

We had a few minutes of light pea-sized hail, no big deal.  

Things got serious after I had lunch.

At around 12:35, the tornado warning was broadcast and with it soon came very loud banging noises on the roof of the VRRV!

This shot shows the thunderstorm passing through my position.  (Blue dot).

This hail lasted perhaps 2-3 minutes and was quite scary.  I wondered how the CR-V and VRRV would come out of it.  Full of dents?

After the hail and rain stopped, I went outside to check the CR-V and the exterior of the VRRV.  Fortunately, no damage to the vehicles or the solar panels.

This is the largest hail I've ever witnessed:

No tornado near me, apparently there was one sighted further to the NE.  The skies slowly cleared towards evening, but things remained quite cool at 50° F at sunset.

Ah, camping above 9000 feet in Colorado, it can get exciting this time of year.

Displacing to Escape the Barrio

Yesterday, June 14

Happy birthday to my branch of service, the US Army.

Not quite a happy day for me though, I woke to a travel trailer and a pickup truck pulling a long cargo trailer with OHVs in the site next to me!

No problem, I told myself, it's public lands.  The trouble began when more large pickup trucks with trailered OHVs, two travel trailer rigs and several cars joined the first people.  By noon it was perhaps three generations worth of people including kids and 3 dogs.  I guess it was perhaps at least 20-25 individuals.

All, mind you, in a space suitable for perhaps two campers at most.

It became quite a Barrio.  

Then to give it the final Barrio touch, one of the pickups was blasting music, suitably loud to overcome their generator and what must have been perhaps 10 OHVs.

For whatever reason, the OHVs were sometimes left idling, I guess for background noise, between outings.

Best part was a couple of young punks on OHVs, spinning donuts in the space between the barrio and my site.  Thanks for the dust clouds, amigos.

So, Saturday dragged along where I kept hoping they were day users (nope).  I was treated to their music late into the night too, I guess their kids didn't need to get to sleep at normal hours when camping.

Sunday, I woke to quiet.  This lasted until they woke around 730 AM or so, then the music started up.

Fortunately, I spotted the Class C belonging to a separate set of campers further down the trail, leaving!  

Yes!  I knew the spot they'd been at, and it had been my mistake not to shift to it before the weekend.

I drove the CRV to the spot and claimed it.  Returning to the VRRV, I did a hasty displacement from the "still rocking the times" barrio.  It's not even a quarter mile but the no more music!

There's only one way to get to the new site and the CRV stands guard to keep the OHV swine from racing up to my new campsite.

Nice big site, only drawback is no shade for the VRRV but that's fine.

I'm guessing the barrio will be gone by Noon, but the new site is better and I don't have to move somewhere else for at least a week!

Oh, and no way for another barrio event from occuring with this site!

Anti- social, that's me.

I went later to check, they were gone between 2 and 3 pm.  They left trash all over the site.  Nice, huh?

Some interesting clouds in the afternoon:

Here's today's post-sunset views: