Colorado  High  Country

A 4-Wheeling Adventure

Led by John & Rita Ham

and Wade & Linda Myers

August 22^nd to September 7^th, 2005

By Tina Sangalli

Camp Hale, near Aspen, CO is an old military base used by the Army for cold weather training during the Second World War. It was razed by mistake many years ago, only foundations of the buildings remain.  On Saturday evening, August 20, 2005 four Monaco Coaches rendezvoused there and were joined Sunday and Monday by eleven more. What did they have in common? All were members of “Monacos in Motion” and all had an interest in off road four wheeling. John and Rita Ham, and Wade and Linda Myers were co-wagonmasters for a sixteen day, four wheeling adventure. The skill levels of the participants varied from extremely experienced to raw beginners. There were four wheel drive vehicles from several manufacturers including Land Rover, Nissan, Tracker, GMC, and at least a half dozen different Jeep models. Some of the vehicles were extensively modified for off road use, some were just the way they came off the showroom floor.

A typical day on the trail started with a 7:45am drivers meeting. We were at high altitudes and the weather was usually cool at this time, several days we had ice on the windshield. The caravan was formed and we departed for the trail at 8:00am. The caravan was led each day by one of the experienced drivers, usually the one most familiar with the trails we were to travel, and was ordered so that each inexperienced driver had a veteran either in front of or behind him/her. That’s right, him/her! Much of the off road driving was done by the women. Each morning the inexperienced driver who had followed the leader the previous day rotated to the rear of the pack, immediately in front of the tail gunner, all the others moved up one spot with the experienced people staying in place. This gave us the opportunity to watch how an experienced driver did it one day and have that driver watch and coach us the next. That’s a very effective teaching technique. About noon we stopped for lunch, which was eaten picnic style if the weather was good, inside our vehicles if it was raining. Each couple provided their own lunch which usually consisted of either cold sandwiches or gourmet cooking prepared on the vehicle manifold. The afternoon consisted of more trailing and site seeing before we returned to camp about 3:00pm.

The first two days we dry camped at Camp Hale and trailed out of there, then moved to Leadville, CO for two days of full hookups and more trailing followed by a travel day to Buena Vista, CO and a day of trailing. Next move was thirty four miles, thirteen of it over well maintained gravel. It involved taking our coaches over Cottonwood Pass, at an elevation of 12,126 feet and down to Taylor Park Campground. We stayed there for four days before moving on to Ouray, CO, where we remained for five more days. On the way we stopped for a boat ride in the Black Canyon at Gunnison, CO. It is a beautiful trip. The walk to and from the boat is tough, many people don’t take it; they miss out.

The rally was well organized. The trails started out at a novice level and got progressively more difficult as we developed our skills. The experienced drivers were very helpful and we learned much from them. Our driving skills increased each day, we didn’t realize how much so until the last day when the trails were especially high, steep and narrow. We easily navigated obstacles that would have been impossible for us a week earlier. We had the opportunity to view numerous species of wildlife, colorful wild flowers, beautiful waterfalls, ghost towns and many mine ruins. Thousands of pictures were taken, some at altitudes as high as 14,000’, as we tried to capture the beauty and grandeur of what we were seeing. Photographs do not do the area justice.

Meals were catered, eaten out, potlucked and prepared by the caravanners. The women prepared three excellent dinners, the men two breakfasts. Three vehicles had flat tires and a couple received some minor scrapes, none suffered major damage.

This was an excellent caravan, we traveled at least two dozen trails with names like “Mosquito Pass”, “Corkscrew Gulch”, Black Bear Pass”, “Yankee Boy Basin” and “Chinamans Gulch Loop”. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys adventure, nature and history and doesn’t mind looking out their side window at thousand foot drop offs just inches away. Thank you John & Rita, Wade & Linda and all your experienced help for a great adventure.