Chores and Relaxation on the Rampart Range.

I like my current campsite, it being atop a hill and at the apex of a switchback, it provides nice sight lines for approaching traffic. 

Here's a view with a campsite with some background rain clouds just prior to Sunset yesterday, Wednesday: 

Sunset was meh.

One thing about not using a real camera with a adjustable shutter is the inability to capture sun rays.  My camera phone just makes it out to be a blob.

Thursday, August 21

Spent the morning working on fixing the case on the Predator 2000 generator.  It had gotten bent and bits had to be reinforced due to my using straps to secure it to the rear bumper when traveling. 

It proved to be a warm day, with a high of 83° f.  I just relaxed under the awning with associated shade screens since the breeze wasn't very strong.  I couldn't quite motivate myself to go riding in the heat.

My view of Pikes Peak this morning:

Tonight's sunset was "mo better":

Displacing to a new site along Rampart Range Road

Martha returned home this morning, I'll be here till Friday morning I think.

Here's Tuesday's sunset display:

Had an interesting experience in the afternoon. A guy walked up into my campsite, I didn't hear him calling out as he approached because I had a Bluetooth speaker going with an audiobook. 

Anyways, I finally heard him when he was perhaps 15 ft away. He was asking for help in charging his car battery jump starter. He needed it to jump start his car, which he was carcamping in the next spot over closer to Rampart Range Road. 

I was a bit rattled that I let someone get that close to the campsite without knowing it, must be more vigilant apparently. 

Anyways I told him I could help, he brought over his jump starter and I hooked it up to the small generator to charge it up for the next 2 hours. 

He returned in two hours, thanked me and left for his campsite. 

He wasn't sketchy at all, just looked like a middle-aged man down on his luck. He said he was waiting for payday to get a new battery for his car. Not sure what he was doing car camping in the forest but what can you do?  I did ask if he was good with water and food and he said he was fine 

Wednesday, August 20

I decided to  displace to a national forest spot along Rampart Range Road 15 mi from my campsite. 

Two reasons, the view and to get some distance from yesterday's car camper. 

He was still there as I drove by in the VR RV so I'm not sure what kind of work he does.  

Anyways, 15 miles of dirt road later I was at the new site: 

Can you spot Uma?

As you can see, the view of Pikes Peak is pretty good since we are closer to it. 

It's a hilltop site so pretty easy to monitor my surroundings. 

The site is at 9242 ft altitude.  Supposed to get as high as 80° today and tomorrow so it should be nice and warm. 

Coming around the rig after some work, I saw a young black bear, checking out a drainage pipe about 200 ft away from the campsite.  By the time I got the phone camera ready, he'd spotted me and run off.  

Shoot Meet

My view from bedside towards the kitchen:

Today, Thing Two and a neighborhood friends couple: Jacqui and Bob, joined us for a little target shooting.

I have to tell you, pictures of people shooting at targets don't make riveting footage.

Jacqui coaching Martha 

On a .22 pistol

Bob W.

Trying a .22 Rifle

We were done sometime after 3:00 p.m., a good time was had by all.

Jacqui, Bob and Thing Two left soon afterwards, trying to get off Rampart Range Road before more possible rain came in.

The sunset proved pretty good once again.

A Relaxing Day with Martha in the Rampart Range

A good day of relaxed camping today.

First, a drive to the Farish Recreation Area to show Martha the sights.

Wedding Hill

We explored FR 320 afterwards, dodging morons speeding around blind curves on a narrow road.  Fun, not!

In the evening, some of the locals and their brood came by....

Sunset was pretty good tonight:

Replacing Uma's Generator Fuel Pump and Filter

Thursday, Aug 14

I fired up the VRRV's onboard 4KW Onan/Cummins generator to fix lunch via the air fryer.

The generator died shortly after I had it running.   Hmmmm.

Did the usual checks, plenty of fuel in the main gas tank, generator air filter was clean.

Much cranking of the generator went nowhere.  I then thought to check for the presence of fuel in the generator's carburetor fuel bowl.  Opening the drain plug screw showed NO fuel.  Dammit.

Unplugging the input gas line from the generator's fuel filter showed NO fuel dribbling out.  Not good.

I traced the whole fuel line all the way back to the fuel tank.  No crimps or bends or crushed portions.

I cranked the fuel pump so much trying to draw fuel from the tank that I think it finally gave up the ghost.  

Belatedly, I thought of a simple test to prove whether the pump worked, it did fine once and then nothing, no sucking.  Dammit.

The fuel filter was looking a bit rusty and old too, so I decided to replace both.

Amazon to the rescue!

The prep work (done on Friday ) to remove the old pump proved the hardest part.  Ended up having to drill out the mounting screw (Torx T27) as I didn't have the right Torx socket bit.

The old fuel filter, a bit rusty looking, but still working.  Probably the original filter as the generator has < 500 hrs on it.  You're supposed to swap it out at that point.

Saturday, August 16

Martha joined me today for a few days of camping and brought the replacement pump and filter with her.

Installation went fine but when I tested for fuel, nothing from the fuel line!

A quick call to RichardM, he suggested blowing some air into the gas line to perhaps unblock it.  

I hooked up the air compressor and since I forgot to uncap the gas tank, managed to introduce enough pressure to force fuel to flow once again out of the input line.  Yay!  

Buttoned everything up, fired up the generator and left it running to start putting away tools.

The generator died within 3 minutes.  Dammit.  Again, out of fuel.

I went to look at it and noticed a small puddle of gas coming from the fuel line about 6 feet or so from the generator!

What I had failed to spot two days ago was a tear in the fuel line!  No wonder the line was empty.  Heck I probably broke the old fuel pump while doing prolonged cranking trying to draw fuel!?  Fortunately, not an expensive item.

Anyways, a drive in the CR-V to Woodland Park's AutoZone and I had a fuel line coupler to repair the line.  I cut out the damaged portion and used the coupler to reconnect the cut fuel line.  Easy Peasy.

All done, ran the generator for a good 30 minutes and no leaks!

I'll me monitoring things closer than usual in terms of generator operation but I'm pretty confident the issue is fixed.  Thanks RichardM!

I'll be some zip tie work later to ensure the fuel line is secure. I wonder how the damage happened.  Oh well.

T'Dubing to a couple of Recreation Areas along Rampart Range Road

The southern part of this rather large forest is one of the easier to reach areas for dispersed camping.

Rampart Range Road bisects the portion adjacent to the crowded I-25 corridor of the Colorado Front Range.

There's fee camping along the northern half of Rampart Range Road, and dirt bike trails throughout.  Narrow, twisty trails which get dangerously crowded with speeding dirt bikers.

This is why I prefer this side of Rampart Range, quieter, less dirt bikes and OHVs are banned from the main road. 

Spent Wednesday day resting and reading between bouts of litter pickup.  So far, 4 full kitchen trash bags   The campsite itself wasn't bad at all, the surrounding area, not so much.

It was a rather hazy day, you could barely see Pikes Peak:

A nice weather day otherwise, ending in a decent sunset:

Thursday, August 14

About 60 mi of Forest Road riding today, my butt was hurting at the end of all that.   Not only am I getting old but the seat on the TW200 is not exactly the comfortable thing in the world. 

First I checked out the Farish Recreation Area, run by the USAFA.  United States Air Force academy. 

As with any Air Force facility, it's way better than a comparable Army facility would be.  Very nice, access to three small lakes for fishing, camping cabins, campsites tents and RVs.  You do have to have DOD access or be a veteran under the VA's care though.

It's another hazy day today, so the views of Pike Peak aren't good 

Why this pic?

Here's why, nice wedding location 

Observatory?

The full utilities RV spots are $40/day!

Next, I rode further South on Rampart Range Road and checked out the Rampart Reservoir Recreation Area.

Not a scenic, it's basically just a reservoir where you can launch watercraft but not swim. 

There's a couple of campgrounds run by the USFS, typical of such most of the sites are pretty small but they do have water spigots and pit toilets I believe. 

Once I was back on Rampart Range Road, I continued south until I went past mile marker 12 and came up on this overlook site. 

That's the town of Cascade down there, entry point to the Pikes Peak highway.

Pikes Peak Highway

There's also a marker stone at this overlook commemorating the efforts of the CCC in building Rampart Range Road, back in 1935. 

It was passing noon at this point and I was getting tired and hungry. So I turned around and rode the 16 mi or so of dirt road back to camp. 

Another view of Pikes Peak from a candidate campsite:

I thought this set of poles was the beginning of a Zipline setup.  Now, not sure....thoughts?

I did locate and map a few new campsite candidates along the road that I might end up using someday.

By 1:00 p.m. I was cooking lunch and I would end up resting the rest of the afternoon away, while writing up this post. 

The afternoon was overcast guys but temperatures in the '70s so nice and cool.