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September 13, 2008 - Saturday
Day 5 began in a similar fashion to Day 4.
It was the second day of the 2008 Ouray Jeep Jamboree and everyone met at the Ouray Community Center
where a hot breakfast was served. The day before I had gotten a pretty good sunburn from all the snow reflection, so I brought some sunblock with me.
For the second day of the Jamboree I was scheduled for the Yankee Boy Basin
and the Governor's Basin trail rides. The bad news was that I had already
done the Yankee Boy Basin ride the prior day, but the good news was I was excited to do it again.
Surprisingly, the drive to the top of the basin was rougher than the day before which seemed to make it a little more technical. A lot of the snow that was covering the trail
the day before had melted. Normally I wouldn't consider snow something to help with traction, but in this case I guess it kind of did. The melting snow also changed the landscape,
revealing some previously invisible abandoned mines. Either that or Yeti caves, but our trail guide for the day, Randy, seemed to think they were abandoned silver and gold mines.
Speaking of gold, someone in another group found a small handful of the yellow stuff during a bathroom break which lead many of the participants to walk around with their heads
down during stops and bathroom breaks. Personally, growing up in Northwest Ohio, the views were far more valuable than a few tiny nuggets.
As I mentioned earlier, Randy was our trail guide for the day and he drove a really cool Jeep Scrambler that had a new carborator installed that was running very lean
which was putting off some toxic fumes towards the front of the group. The Yankee Boy Basin was just as amazing the second time I visited. Since it was the weekend there was
quite a bit more traffic and people around, but we encountered less and less people the further we got up into the basin. I did learn from our trail guide Randy a new acronym, "S.O.B.",
which stands for, "Some Other Brand." The further we got into the trails the less SOB's we saw. We stopped and ate lunch at the top and played around in the snow.
I also took my soft top down which made some of the hard top Jeepers jealous, and actually a few of them opened their t-tops after I took my top down. It was a little chilly at altitude,
but the sun was warm and the view was definately worth it. The only thing better than driving around the San Juan mountains in a Jeep is doing it with the top down!
After lunch, we headed back down to visit Governor's Basin.
We didn't encounter anyone on the way to Governor's Basin and I think this was the most technical driving of the trip. If not the most technical, then definately the most heart
pounding. I wish I could have taken some photos or videos of the trip to the basin, but I was focused mainly on not falling off the mountain. The path to the basin consisted of
"roads" made from rock outcroppings that were probably less than ten feet wide from drop off to mountain wall. They were also slightly off-camber, grading towards the drop off. I
can't really imagine trying to back up off of the trail if someone was coming in the other direction. I don't remember any places that we could have turned around if we needed to.
Once we got to the basin we came across some bow hunters who had just tagged an elk. They had a flat tire though and one of the guys in our group, Jimmy, let them borrow some air
from his compressor. The basin offered some pretty amazing views and the trail ended at the
Mountain Top Mine. The only way out of the basin
was the way we came in, so we turned around and drove back down the crazy road we came in on. Mark, one of our other trail guides led us out of the basin, which was nice since
his Jeep wasn't spewing exhaust like Randy's. We saw no one else in the basin other than the bow hunters that were there which
was in stark contrast to the all the traffic and hikers we saw in the Yankee Boy Basin.
Eventually we made it back to the Community Center for dinner where we had a steak and salmon dinner that was quite good. During dinner some
of us talked about organizing another ride the following day, and Mark, one of the trail guides, agreed to go out with us.
<< Day 4 | Day 6 >>
Location: Ouray, Colorado - Yankee Boy Basin, Governor's Basin
Date: September 13, 2008
Vehicle: 2008 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (JK) 4-door
Video: Fast Track '09: Jeep Jamboree in Colorado
I should also add, there was a film crew present during the Jamboree from King 5 NBC News in Seattle
that was with my group on the first day of the Jamboree. My Jeep and I both appear briefly in the video,
Fast Track '09: Jeep Jamboree in Colorado.
<< Day 4 | Day 6 >>
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