Spooky Night Run 2015

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The 15th annual Spooky Night Run with the Rising Sun 4×4 Club was my first introduction to night 4x4ing and 4x4ing in some significant snow (aside from last spring).
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This awesome land cruiser was decked out like the Ghost Busters station wagon!  Next year we’ll definitely dress up our 4runner.

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Rigs lining up and ready to go up the hill.  Surrounding us was all the old cemeteries of Central City.

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He isn’t afraid of no ghost.

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Bogie was rocking a cute costume.

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Most of the trucks lined up and airing down tires before heading up the hill.


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Snowy, muddy road.


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Beautiful moon rising in the east.

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Up at the turnoff to the dinner spot.


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About half of the rigs at the dinner spot.

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Someone even brought a fire pit!  We need to get one of those.


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Heather prepping our contribution to the potluck.

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Little carrot mummies and little hot dog men with bacon coats.

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Rigs lined up in the night.

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Heading up the first big hill after the dinner spot.  A 40 series had some troubles getting into 4wd.


IMG_2308We made it part way up to Yankee Hill before it became too icy to keep people on the road.  We ended up having to turn everyone around on the hill and get out of the way of the sheriff who was heading up to pick someone up who got stuck in the snow further up.  It took about an hour to get everyone pulled out (someone ahead of us had to be winched out) and turned around (I think we had 30 rigs total).  There was some delicate backing down the road that was involved.  The slush turned into a nice hard pack of ice with all of our trucks driving over it.

In spite of not making our goal, it was still a whole bunch of fun driving at night in the snow with the Rising Sun 4×4 Club!

Rampart Range Road

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Heather and I went out to Rampart Range Road to check out what all the fuss is about.  A few of our 4×4 books showed the road and connecting side roads as something that we should do.  Based on all of the dust and traffic, it wasn’t that great after all.  Pretty scenery though.
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Rocks poking up between the trees and beaver ponds.  This is a low elevation road.


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Down at the bottom of one of the side roads.

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Next to the balancing rock.


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We even saw a few fall colors!

Caribou Flats

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Heather, Carl, Jessica, and I went out to see the scenery on the Caribou Flats trail from Eldora up to Rainbow Lakes.  Oh my what a beautiful trail it was!
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Heading up toward the shelf road.

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Looking down toward the Rollinsville Valley.

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Those beautiful lakes!


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A narrow, golden trail.


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So narrow, so beautiful.

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A pretty little dried out wet meadow.

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Heading up the road.


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Up, up, up!


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Beautiful.



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This road wouldn’t be very good for a wide vehicle.


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A wonderful truck on a wonderful road.

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So gorgeous!


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Ahoy, Carl!

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We stopped to put the top down on the 4runner in this little enchanted spot.

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Onward, 4runner, onward!

DSC_0741Look at this gorgeous view at the top!

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The lowland fog rolling in to Nederland.


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Stopped by a mine site.

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The remains of an old boiler.


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Pipes and an old mattress sitting over the top of a hole of indeterminate depth.


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Beauty and adventure until forever.




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Carl: our man with the camera.

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Onward to adventure!


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Amazing lowland fog rolling in just like the sea.


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Colors stretching forever.


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An old abandoned mine access point.  It was caved in at the end.  Alas.

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Over the river an through the woods…


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A big abandoned winch.


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Such colors!