Wow, did we have an adventure! Hold on tight… there are a lot of photos and video in this one.
So a couple of weeks ago I caught my dad suspiciously collecting things and putting them in travel bags. Some boring stuff like clothes and shoes; but, also important stuff like my toys and our kennels and even FOOD. I knew something was afoot but didn’t really know what.
Since dad sneaked away last month to ride motorcycles in South Dakota, and he didn’t take me, I decided to be extra vigilant so that wouldn’t happen again.
Sure enough, one morning we got up early and loaded everything into my jeep and off we went. Once we were out of the city we stopped at a gas station where we met some other people, and we all formed a little caravan headed west.
Go west, young dog!
Then we drove for weeks.
Eventually we stopped at some small town for the night and dad brought all our stuff into a hotel. He even set up our kennels, so I thought maybe this is it? But then I heard them talking about “being there the next day” and “hoping the house was nice.” I wasn’t sure why we’d be talking about a house since we already have one, so I figured I should keep watch in case we were on the run.
The next morning we got up and drove for several more years.
Eventually I noticed a funny sensation in my ears. I mean, I was just riding along occasionally rubbing my nose on the window for effect, when all of the sudden I felt somebody squeezing my head in a weird way. I looked at Raven, thinking maybe I needed to pounce on her and push her away, but she was asleep. The squeezing continued, so I stretched forward to put my head on dad’s shoulder (he was driving) and ask him why I was being squeezed. While he was scratching my squeezed head, I accidentally swallowed and pop the squeezing went away. Huh.
As we kept driving it happened several more times. Squeeze – nuzzle – skritch – pop. It also got cooler and cooler and just when I thought maybe we were in a time machine heading backward to winter, we stopped in a little town called “Denver” for lunch.
That’s when dad explained to me that my ears were popping due to elevation changes, and we were going higher and higher. Sort of like flying, but without wings. Or moving through the air, or anything else like flying.
The lunch place was in a historic district near a big park, so after lunch we went for a walk. I saw several dogs that I didn’t get to run and play with, and several people that I didn’t get to run and jump on, so all-in-all a pretty social event.
After lunch we got a tip (from one of mom’s relatives who used to live in the area) about a really cool brewery that mostly only locals know about, so we went. It was really neat and had a gigantic dog park next to it complete with trails and trees and hills and a giant muddy creek! (Dad wouldn’t let me get into the creek for some reason.) It also had a couple of big dogs who weren’t very friendly, so we only stayed for a few minutes before returning to the table where mom and Raven were waiting.
Then we left and drove for a couple more weeks until FINALLY we went up a big winding hill and stopped in front of a little place outside of Silverthorne, Colorado. Mom and dad got out, picked the lock, broke in, brought in our stuff, and we made ourselves at home. (I tried to claim one of the bedrooms but was voted down.)
The place we took over was awesome. It backed up to a huge wooded alpine field (the town sits at almost 10,000 feet and we were up above the town) where we took walks almost every morning.
Often there were other people walking dogs out there, and I got to meet them occasionally. But normally it was just us and the birds and other critters.
Dad talked to a neighbor who said a few days earlier they woke to find a moose standing on their back deck. Our house actually had instructions about what to do if we encountered moose, bear, mountain lion, and/or foxes.
After a couple of days, dad was comfortable enough to let me run off-leash. We didn’t run into any mountain lions or other exciting things, though I did scare a big magpie once.
Oh, dad says I need to quit saying we broke in. I guess it was legit somehow.
So the real reason we came to Colorado was to do some off-road trail exploring (wheeling) with the jeep club. We were a little nervous about it because my jeep was the only one that was basically stock (i.e., stock tires, no lift, nothing special but the ability to disconnect the sway bar).
Everyone who went was staying somewhere in the Summit County area around Breckenridge, Frisco, and Silverthorne. So the first morning, we all met in Breckenridge to head out to a trail called “Red Cone”. This trail is considered one of the most iconic trails of Colorado, so we definitely wanted to do it.
Trails in Colorado are labeled sort of like ski slopes:
- Green: “easy” trails are still unpaved and very low maintenance. Often they are forest service roads. You need a four-wheel drive and higher clearance than a normal car. You can still expect water crossings, dramatic dips, mounds, holes, rocks, etc. The ability to air down tires and potentially disconnect sway bars for greater suspension travel to keep contact with the ground is also useful.
- Blue: “medium” trails are as above plus bigger tires and higher clearance are strongly recommended. Roads are more challenging and may require winching to get through/over obstacles.
- Red: “hard” trails are as above plus they run a high risk of damage to the vehicle. There are large boulders, a risk of rollovers, etc.
- Black: “extreme” trails are as above plus they require a total loss of sanity.
Anyway, Red Cone is a blue-rated trail. It climbs 3,000 feet in 6 miles to the mountain peak, and technically our jeep was probably not qualified to drive it. (By the way, 6 miles takes several hours to drive.) The guys leading the ride said they would put us between vehicles that had winches so if we got stuck, someone ahead or behind would be able to help.
We didn’t take a lot of pictures on the trail because it is really hard to do it justice. But imaging driving through a LITERAL boulder-field of rocks one to two feet in diameter, climbing between trees over deep holes, negotiating hairpin turns on shelf road at the edge of a cliff with no guardrails, etc., and you get the idea.
Here’s a photo of somebody on the Red Cone trail I found on the internet, to show the trail a little better:
We stopped around the halfway point to take some pictures, eat snacks/lunch, and do nature’s business. (Hey, out here everyone gets to go outside like me!)
Of course we needed a picture to prove Raven and I were doing this…
Then it was time to head for the summit.
To get there, we drove up a steep trail full of boulders and broken rock, through several twists and turns and then… we were there! Red Cone Peak… 12,801′ above sea level. For us in our stock vehicle, it was a major achievement! (Dad promised to let me drive next time.)
The peak area is only big enough for about 5 vehicles, so we went up in small groups. And then of course, once you’re up there, the only way forward is down, and down is really steep…
I made the mistake of looking out the window and noticed we only had about 3-5′ of slippery gravel on either side of the jeep, and then a long, long, long drop. Dad said not to worry. If we rolled down, any scratches would probably buff out.
I asked Raven if she wanted to go outside to potty and she just glared at me.
We went one vehicle at a time over the top, just in case. It wasn’t exactly a high-traction area.
In case the view out the window wasn’t nerve-wracking enough, my jeep has a display that shows pitch and roll degrees (i.e. the tilt front to back, and side to side) in real time. You can see in this picture that we were at 12,639 feet the grade was 27 degrees!
They start warning trucks in the mountains at about 6% — we were almost five times as steep. No pressure.
Fortunately, dad took it nice and slow and kept us rolling, and since I’m writing this you can tell we survived. In fact, we sort of amazed everyone because we did the entire trail without needing any assistance or winch-pulls or anything from anyone except the occasional spotter that guided everyone through really tricky spots where you had to be sure to put certain tires on certain rocks to avoid getting stuck.
Apparently a lot of the other drivers thought we were going to need a ton of assistance and would slow things down, if we could make it through at all… but we did it. Dad was pretty proud.
As soon as we got back to our cabin Raven kissed the ground and took a nap out on the deck.
For the rest of the week we sort of split into different groups. A bunch of people planned to head for the red trails, which we definitely couldn’t attempt. But some others had kids with them and wanted to stick to easier trails, so we went with them or on our own.
One day, since we had our own house in the mountains, mom and dad decided to leave Raven and I to stand guard while they went “shopping”. When they returned, dad showed me a video of a hidden alpine lake they drove up to with two other couples.
Apparently one guy brought a fishing pole and was catching mountain trout with almost every cast.
Dad hiked up to a little snowfield above the lake and took this video. He says what sounds like heavy breathing couldn’t possibly be him in the thin air… it was probably a yeti standing behind him. 🙂
Talk about being lost in nature — I’d have loved to run around up there!
The next few days we drove some “green” trails that were challenging but unlikely to leave us stuck alone on a mountain. (We always told someone where we were going and checked back in when we returned, just to be sure someone would bring my dinner if we got stuck.)
These pictures are from the Peru Creek trail…
We drove the trail until it became closed to vehicles, and then we hiked further up the “hikers only” path along a neat creek flowing along the Pike national forest.
Dad and I couldn’t resist climbing down to the water.
We posed for a lot of pictures…
In the photo below, it’s a little hard to see but I’m drinking the stream water from dad’s cupped hands. It was really cold but really refreshing. I told dad we need a mountain stream in our back yard at home. He said a mountain wouldn’t fit in the back of the jeep. Rats.
And we did a little hiking…
Another day we drove the Boreas Pass trail by ourselves. The trail is only 21 miles and 90% of it is easy driving, but it took us over a hundred miles from home! (The trail went over the mountain, but to get back we had to go around the mountain.)
At the continental divide we found an area that used to be part of the “High Line” railroad and still functions as an outpost where you can rent the cabin for a night.
On the way back down the mountain, we startled a fawn who just didn’t know what to do. It ran from one side of the road to the other but didn’t seem to want to either go up or down the hill.
Oh, back in Breckenridge we heard about a big hand-made wooden troll near the ice arena, so of course we had to go have a look…
Isn’t it awesome? The pine tree the troll is holding is very much alive.
The last trail we did was called the West Beaver Creek. It was basically a forest service road, but it wound way up into the mountains in and out of private land (there were signs that basically said, “if you stay on the trail you aren’t trespassing”) until it just… stopped.
The satellite view made it look like there may have been another road that continued down to an actual highway, but no, once you reach the end you have to turn around and go all the way back.
It was really scenic though.
This was a walking trail bridge that wound its way across part of the area where the beavers had their dams. (The trail was very aptly named!)
We found a lot of interesting structures. The water bowls on the trail are huge!
This was at the end of the road.
It was a nice place to just sit and listen to the wind and water.
Oh, and smell the flowers. Wildflowers were everywhere!
It’s funny, in the mountains you can always see rain clouds somewhere, but we didn’t get rained on anywhere for more than a minute or two.
One night I noticed mom and dad were packing up a lot of stuff, and I knew we’d reached the end of our stay. Raven and I helped pack by staying right in the middle of everything to be sure they didn’t forget our food.
When we went outside the next morning to do our business, we had a pretty amazing sunrise view.
We did the entire drive home in one shot, so rather than the multi-month drive getting out there, we were back home in just a few years. I slept a lot of the way though, so it might have taken longer than I realized.
Dad put a special sticker on the jeep to commemorate how well Raven and I did bouncing around on the trails. We’re official Off Road Dogs!
OK dad, now it’s time to get to work… I’m thinking a lift, bigger tires, etc. What do you think?
Dad?
I think he’s pretending to be asleep over there. Wonder what his online shopping password is…
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