The personal and professional website of Douglas Van Bossuyt
After fixing our front drive shaft, we headed up the road toward Taylor Pass. Part of the old wagon road is actually in a creek bed. It makes for a fun drive splashing through the water.
At the lake below the pass checking out the scenery.
Up on top of Taylor Pass.
Maroon Bells behind us.
We headed out on Italian Creek and the Reno Divide on our way from Crested Butte to Aspen. The route is gorgeous and not often traveled but well worth the trek.
An old cabin slowly melting into the ground. Some lonesome miner once spent a lot of time up here working the diggings.
Up on top of the divide over top of the Italian Creek area.
Somewhere out behind the truck is Hancock Pass and some of the interesting places we visited earlier in the year with the Rising Sun 4×4 Club.
Somewhere behind the truck is Star Mountain below which was an old mining operation.
Old mining cabins near old mines. Some of these diggings were worked until the last 40 or so years.
Heading down the trail.
This is Oliver’s Cabin. There is a sign out front that reads:
This cabin has been known by the owners and neighbors as Oliver’s Cabin since the 1960s. Oliver Ziegler was born December 10, 1890 in Lake City, CO and passed away May 4, 1979. Oliver was a miner and lived in this cabin in the 1950s and 1960s, working with John Lambertson at the Star Mine. During part of the 1960s, Oliver was actually paid by Kate Preiss and Louis Muirhead (who lived just below here for many years) to help John when he was in his 70s. The old miners made a living on Italian Mountain by pulling out silver and lead, but no one got rich.
The current owners have been working diligently to renovate the cabin and keep it alive to preserve the mining heritage that was largely responsible for the migration of people to the West, created the roads and access to the mountains that we so love. Please treat the cabin and land with the respect they desire.
Proprietors: Dennis Larratt, Jennifer Riefenberg, & Steve Widner
Renovators: Steve & Dennis (lead crazies), Dave Widener, Tod & Tyler O’Connell, Diane Dudley, Dan Jennings, Larry Glass, John & Elaine Essam.
Project Donors: Roger & Scott Bowman.
The front porch of Oliver’s Cabin has amazing views. This would have been a wonderful place to spend a few decades.
We found an area along the trail where beavers were very active. There were many recently cut down aspen trees and lots of fresh beaver dams.
Coming down into Taylor Park, we suffered a front drive shaft flange failure. I was able to fix it after a half hour of work and reinstalled it well enough to continue for the rest of the weekend.
Later on we ended up having to have a whole new front drive shaft built. The front drive shaft on the truck when we purchased it was not particularly high quality.
After fueling up in Crested Butte, we headed up into the mountains and onto the Paradise Divide to spend the night camping under the stars.
Mountains in the side mirror.
Looking to the southwest.
Up on top of the Paradise Divide.
Looking down into the valley toward the area where we spent the night.
Big mountains in the distance.
Down at about the 10,000 foot level where we spent the night.
Our campsite for the evening.
Heather cooking some dinner with our propane campfire going. It was a cold night but we stayed warm nonetheless.