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September 14, 2008 - Sunday
Sunday was the final day of the Jamboree, but really the last day only consists of breakfast and the rest of the day is reserved for travel. I don't think
the Jeep Jamboree website was very clear on that as the Jamboree is
presented as a three day event. The itinerary I received after signing up; however, was clearer about this tidbit.
Mark is the Man
I mentioned in my prior post that one
of the trail guides, Mark and his wife Terry Chriss (I hope I spelled this correctly - this is how the
Jeep Tales site spelled it), were nice enough to lead a group of us out on a trail ride that day. This
was entirely on their own accord and had nothing to do with the official Jamboree. All I can say is that in many ways this was the best day of the Jamboree
and that Mark and his wife are a class act to take us out after the Jamboree had commenced and they were responsible for one of the best days of my trip.
Alpine Loop
We decided to travel the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway. The Alpine Loop
is a longer trail than the one's we traveled the previous two days during the Jamboree. It took us through Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass which are both
at elevations over 12,000 feet. In addition to these passes, the loop took us from Ouray through Lake City, Silverton and what appeared to be abandoned ghost towns.
The loop consisted of technical trails, that require a 4x4 with decent ground clearance, as well as dirt trails, gravel roads and a few stretches of pavement.
The best map I can find that shows our route can be found at
www.alpineloop.com.
Everyone in our group was driving a newer JK Wrangler, except for Mark who was driving a
white TJ Wrangler Rubicon.
There was a mixture of 4-door Jeeps and 2-door Jeeps,
and most of those were Rubicon editions. We started our journey just up the road from Ouray and headed towards Engineer Pass. The first part of the trail
was very rocky and consisted primarily of rocky outcroppings and loose rock. The trails offer ample opportunity to scrape a differential if you're driving a vehicle
without adequate ground clearance. Later in the day we actually encountered a Dodge Neon about half a mile from a paved road on the trail with a couple of drunk
kids driving back towards the road. I can't imagine what the undercarriage of that vehicle looked like.
Engineer Pass
Eventually we made it to Engineer Pass which offered stunning views. From the pass it felt like I could see the ends of the Earth.
There is a distinctive, iron stained mountain
next to the pass that you can see in my photos below. I was also able to locate the mountain on Google Maps as you can see in the following map.
Engineer Pass was definately one of the highlights of the entire trip, which is saying a lot, but we had a lot of ground to cover for the day if we were going to
complete the entire loop. After hanging around on an overlook by the pass, we continued over the pass. There was a herd of free range sheep roaming just below
the pass that we went by on our way towards
Lake City, CO.
Lake City
There were some higher speed gravel roads on the way to Lake City that were kicking up dust that was filling my Jeep since I had the top down. I'm still finding
dust and dirt from that ride, four months later, but having the top down was still worth it, in spite of how dirty I got.
Lake City was the home of the cannibal, Alfred Packer and now has a restaurant
named after him. We took a break in Lake City where we ate lunch and stopped at a convenience store for snacks; however, we did not make it to The Cannibal.
After taking a break in Lake City we were on our way to Cinnamon Pass.
Cinnamon Pass
Cinnamon Pass was, not surprisingly, cinnamon colored. Driving to Cinnamon Pass was a less technical drive than the drive to Engineer Pass, but once again
the pass was incredibly scenic. From there we drove to Silverton where we aired our tires up at the gas station and then took the highway back to
Ouray where a group of us was going to meet at the local Mexican restaurant. I took my time on the way back and took some beautiful photos as the sun
was setting on the San Juan Mountains.
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Location: San Juan Mountains - Alpine Loop
Date: September 14, 2008
Vehicle: 2008 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (JK) 4-door
Video: Alpine Loop
Location: Ouray, Colorado (San Juan Mountains)
Date: September 14, 2008
Vehicle: 2008 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (JK) 4-door
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