Kremmling, CO - Day 4: Field Repair for Scarlett, Gore Pass and views from Kremmling's Cliffs

 Friday, August 14

The issue with Scarlett having a wandering steering in the face of strong headwinds yesterday caused me to wake early and check the tightness of the front and sidecar wheels.

The front wheel was fine, did another field check of the steering head bearings and it seems solid enough...I rocked so hard that Scarlett came off the jack!

The sidecar wheel was another story though.  It had quite a bit of wobble once I lifted the tire into the air and grabbed the tire at 9 and 3 O'Clock and moved it!  Could this be the cause of the wandering?  It had been feeling like the sidecar tire had been pushing the rig to the left at times yesterday and last week or so.

So, I removed the sidecar wheel, cleaned up all the dirt/gunk that had built up between the axle hub and the wheel hub, found there's a bit of play with the axle that's not associated with the u-joints.  I'm going to have to take the axle stub out when I get home and see what's damaged or worn.

In the meantime, I went into town with Yagi and got some spacers to put under the castle nut which holds the wheel onto the axle.  It applied enough pressure to correctly align the cotter pin hole with one of the slots on the castle nut.  Before, the hole was outside the rim formed by the castle nut so there's some wear somewhere.

Gearing up, Scarlett and I went for what turned out to be a 100+ mile test ride.  Everything went well, nothing fell off and she felt much better in terms of steadiness of steering!  I went both on dirt and highway and at speeds up to 60 mph.  She did fine with the wind and against it in terms of holding a steady track so I'm optimistic the field repair will "hold" till I do a closer examination of the axle stub and associated bits.

As part of the test ride, I rode the 18 miles or so to Gore Pass, northwest of Kremmling:

Gore Pass isn't much of a scenic location, in fact, I blew past the sign without even noticing it, wondering where the pass would be.  Once I backtracked, I posed Scarlett for the requisite picture of the sign and a pic of the nearby historical monument plaque:

You know, for a guy who did such wanton killing of wildlife back then, he sure got a lot of places named after him.  Gore Canyon, Gore Range of mountains, Gore Pass, Gore Flats....and I'm sure there's more that I've not ridden by yet!

More info here: LINK

I retraced my route along Colorado Highway 134 which is where Gore Pass is located, and got back on US 40 southbound.  Briefly stopped just outside the pay booth of the Wolfort Mountain Reservoir Recreation Area but decided not to go in.

It was indeed a large reservoir with campgrounds; three that I could see, with RVs jammed into tight little clusters and boats cruising the water.  Not for me.  Saw the dam as well, named Richard, but it wasn't very photogenic.

Since it was such a clear day, and this was around Noon now, I went back onto Grand County Road 227 and took pics of Scarlett:

A closer view of the part of the escarpment/cliffs where CR 227 ends

Cliff side, looking towards Gore Canyon

Looking towards part of the meandering Colorado River just

north of Kremmling

Near the spot where CR 227 ends, it's all sloping surface to 

Scarlett's right front....

Rode back towards camp, carefully hopeful that it was a worn axle stub component that had been causing Scarlett's wandering ways usually in the face of head winds.

Spent the rest of the afternoon cooling out in the shade of the URRV's awning, doing some minor fixes for Scarlett such as re-securing the basket mounted on top of the passenger step, replacing a missing sidecar tarp tie down.  I also replaced the courtesy light for the trailer's license plate which had burned out.

Lots of RVs seen going both directions in my riding today....I wonder how it'll affect the site I'm currently boondocking on?

As sunset approached, I spotted a big column of smoke to the east.  Checking the fire reports on the news, I surmised it was part of the fire near Sulphur Springs, CO.  They've mandated evacuation of the nearby campgrounds but the good news (at least for me) is that the fire is burning to the east, away from Kremmling.

The view from CR 22, just before Kremmling

Telephoto view, seems pretty bad.

Kremmling, CO - Day 3

 Thursday, Aug 13

Today's objective was to find a closer up view of Gore Canyon:

Shot from top of escarpment north of Kremmling

So, though I did try for several hours, I didn't find a closer up location for the above shot of Gore Canyon due to private property restrictions mostly.  It was also very hazy today, am sure a byproduct of the fires currently burning to the west of here around Grand Junction I hear.

I even tried going on Trough Road which leads to Pump House and Radium Recreation Areas, but they are basically on the other side of the gap shown above.  Only way I see, besides rafting down the Colorado River (not sure its allowed anyways); since the river is what carved the canyon in the first place.

The  only thing that crosses that gap besides something on the river is the railroad:

Overlook enroute to Pump House Rec Area

If the haze/smoke clears up in next day or so, I might try the telephoto lens at the top of the escarpment to see if it can be better than the shot above.

Here's a shot of Scarlett earlier in the morning when I went to check out visibility from up there.  It was too hazy of course and the light was against me.  Here, Scarlett is returning to CO Hwy 9 using CR 227.

CR 227 and Wolford Mountain

I rode back to the previous boondocking spot, still looking for the thermometer station I'd not seen since I moved yesterday.  It wasn't there, sigh.

Got back to the campsite, to temperatures in the high 80s, and ransacked the URRV one more time looking for that stupid thermometer station.  After going through the whole URRV one more time, it suddenly hit me to check the bag where I was storing all the crap I've picked up since the last two campsites.  I'd brought it in, you see, when prepping to move to the present boondocking spot.

Well, as you probably assumed, there the damn thing was, atop the pile of garbage I've collected.

Rest assured, the darn thing is now mounted to the wall, no longer just sitting atop the furnace thermostat, subject to being forgotten in a hasty move and lost.

The fires currently raging in and near the state are still causing very hazy sunsets:

Kremmling, CO - Days 1 & 2

Tuesday, Aug 11

Broke camp and left that wonderfully isolated boondocking spot on Independence Mountain this morning.  Got down the steep parts with no issues, using lowest gear and the occasional tapping of the brakes.

It being the cool of the morning still and a short driving distance to Walden and the propane dealer there; there were no issues filling up the propane tank on the URRV.  Often, when its hot out and I've been driving a while, the tank apparently heats up enough to cause enough opposing pressure within the tank that it prevents a propane vendor from pumping more in!  

Got gas at the station in Walden and then I drove down to Kremmling, CO and stocked up on groceries, dumped tanks, filled up with fresh water and went to check out the recreation areas about 14 miles away run by the BLM.  Oh, and speaking of small world, I ran into a former manager when I was doing contract work at United Airlines!  I'd not seen Steve in years.  We chatted for a bit, exchanged emails and hopefully we'll be better at keeping in touch.

Both the Pump House and Radium Campgrounds proved unsuitable!  The spots are really for tent campers and also for folks who plan on boating on the Colorado River!  Oh, and no signal either.

So, I returned to Kremmling, picked up CO Highway 9 South and less than ten miles later I was at a BLM boondocking spot I'd stayed at before just north of the Green Mountain Reservoir.

I discovered the mirror on the vanity cabinet in the bathroom had broken, when the door came open and the mirror struck a towel ring on the side wall, during my travels this morning:

Hopefully it's not seven years of bad luck eh?

Got camp set up in pretty warm weather, I think it got as high as 85°F outside and almost 89°F inside the URRV before things started to cool down with the onset of evening.

The fires to the west made the skies gray and hazy and there was the faint smell of smoke in the air.

I went to fire up the small generator and it kept going into "Overload" condition.  Hmm.  Tried a different power cable, same condition.  Checked oil and air filter, both seemed fine.  Tried different outlets for the power strip, same condition.

Finally examined the power cord of the AC adapter for the laptop and found a frayed section where the wires' insulation was worn off and they were touching!  Sigh.

Got the frayed wires separated and re-insulated, and no more troubles with the generator.  Although using the weBoost got me three bars of 3G, the Internet wasn't accessible though I could text and make calls so all good for one night.

Wednesday, August 12

After dealing with some issues with stuff in the URRV, all caused by me being careless, finally got geared up to ride towards Kremmling which was less than 10 miles away.

I wanted to check out the BLM areas just outside of town to the north.  I also wanted to see if I could find a specific spot to replicate a picture I'd seen at the grocery store yesterday.

First I explored the BLM areas accessible from near the Red Mountain RV Park.  Didn't go very far in but I did find a nice flattish area where there were already four RVs boondocking!  Bonus, it had good cellular internet signal!

Retracing my steps back to town, I got on CO Hwy 9 North and found the entrance to Grand County Road 227.  This road allows one access to the road on top of the rocky escarpment:

Google Satellite Image of Kremmling

Following CR 227, I eventually was at the edge of the escarpment, looking down on the town and searching for the spot featured in the old photograph:

I believe that's Gore Canyon in the distance

Then, near the end of the road, I found the spot!

source: Kremmling Mercantile

What do you think?  Did I get it?

No, I didn't want to sit and let my legs hang over

the precipice.....

Yagi at the spot

From near the above spot, I spotted the open area where I'd spotted the four boondocking RVs.  A bit dusty but not too shabby eh?

I retraced my way on CR 227, and got this shot of the precipice where the spot is located:

Wolford Mountain

I rode back to the campsite and after some dithering, decided to break camp and move to the BLM site I'd spotted during the morning's riding.  (You saw that coming, didn't you?)

By 3PM, I was onsite and set up, my URRV basically finishing the circle of RVs:

Independence Mountain - Days 8 and 9

Sunday, Aug 09

Yet another sunny but not too hot day here in North Park, CO.

Still atop Independence Mountain, gauging how things change during the weekends in the summer.  I must say, it doesn't really get too busy.  I think the largest group of ATVs/Razors was perhaps 7 vehicles and they were moving sedately.

As I sipped my first cup of coffee, I saw a Pronghorn looking back at me from part of the road below me:

Look in the middle of the picture....

So I went back and grabbed my camera, putting on the telephoto lens.  At 200 mm, it's not really suitable for long distance wildlife shots, one has to use magnification and software to enlarge the Pronghorn and so quality suffers.

After breakfast I swapped the worn shock absorbers on the front of Scarlett for the still functional ones on the rear.  Trying to eliminate a swaying motion I've been experiencing when riding into the wind and on gravel trails.

I rode down to CR 6W and did a couple of runs headed both east and west, things seemed fine.  Then I turned onto CR 7 to head towards the Lake John SWA and noticed the behavior return though not as bad as before.

I stopped, changed the preload from second to lowest to highest (max preload) and this seemed to help even more in terms of the wandering front end.

Note: I have performed the head bearings check, no movement with the front wheel off the ground.  Still, I am planning on doing the check once I'm home with all my tools and a nice garage to take things apart in.  I also plan on verifying the sidecar's alignment.  All this shock absorber changes has changed the alignment I'm suspecting.

Rode on with no issues to the Lake John Resort's General Store and got some bacon and eggs.  

Then I rode the perimeter of Lake John to see what I could see.  It's apparently quite the fishing spot as there were many fishermen trying their luck along the shore.

South of Lake John, there's this interestingly named SWA:  Perhaps worthy of a visit by RichardM?

 It's a walk-in SWA, this sign is in the small parking lot

 A view of the southern end of Lake John

I cruised slowly with Scarlett down the narrow causeway/border on the eastern side of Lake John, managed to capture some of the birds:

 Not sure of the name, this bird would dive for up to 30-40 seconds

at a time, looking for fish I assume.

 A pod of Pelicans

This one decided it didn't like me shooting his picture

The other three remained unconcerned.

That was it for Lake John exploring this morning.  I had eggs and bacon to get back to the URRV's refridgerator!

Got back to camp with no issues, still a tiny bit of wandering but not bad.  I'm really hoping it's an alignment issue which would be an easy fix.

Monday, August 10

Woke early enough to wander up the hill where the antenna is located and catch this view of the rising sun:

As I ate breakfast, the view of the mountains to the east were quite scenic:

 My view from the URRV

The rest of the day involved no further riding, just cleaning things inside the URRV, relaxing and listening to an audio book.

Saw one ATV and one pickup truck the entire day.  Nice to have the mountain basically to myself again but it's time to move on and see other things.

Tomorrow, will move south towards the BLM areas south and west of Kremmling, CO.  I want to see how crowded conditions are as I near the I-70 corridor through the mountains.

Last sunset for this site, this trip....I'll be back.