We’ve got some other things to write about that we need to get though as we’ve spent the last five days in Colorado, but I wanted to write this one up while its still fresh in my increasingly unreliable mind.
Chan and I left Durango, Colorado this morning to make our way across to Colorado Springs, which is where we are now. En route, we popped into Silverton (remote and largely unchanged mining town – we’ll write about there later) to get some info from the visitor centre about the various scenic routes through and around the mountains in the direction we were going. Ultimately we decided to take the Alpine Loop ‘scenic route’ through the hills. It features several ‘ghost towns’ of previous mining settlements and some rather spectacular views.
Looks simple enough
Now, I’m no fan of the great white donkey we’ve been driving around these past few weeks, but it is notionally an off-road vehicle, so we thought we’d drive on up through Engineer Pass (a phrase historically not associated with me) and on to Lake City before re-joining civilisation on paved roads. Just prior to Animas Forks, the signs recommend that you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle with high road clearance. I figured our bullshit 4WD-SUV crossover wagon -designed for mounting the kerb next to the ATM and dropping off the kids on the hatch markings outside school - probably qualified.
Then we noticed what everyone else was driving:
Triumphant hard rock anthems playing in background
Versus:
Sad trombone plays
When we rounded the first couple of corners and saw the up-‘till-now dirt and rock road had turned into a series of greasy boulders and several thousand feet sheer drops, I admit it was squeaky bum time. But to be fair to an otherwise boring and thoroughly abused nag (4100 miles and counting), it did really well. Evidently Jeep know how to do the off-road part, according to the otherwise toss reviews this vehicle gets. True, we got particularly familiar with the smell of burning clutch on the way up and similarly toasted brakes on the way down, but we got up there with aplomb. Hurrah for the donkey!
Commence photo-dump:
We were looking down on snow. What is this madness?
For reference: Ben Nevis is 4409 ft.
And today’s variety of roadside mammal that told me emphatically to fuck off was the Yellow-bellied Marmot.
“I will cut you”
Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: Heute gingen wir versehentlich ein Offroad mit einem ungeeigneten Fahrzeug. Ich ärgerte auch ein Murmeltier.
