Use this thread to post pics and reports about the gathering.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the 3rd annual CO4RJ. We had just over 30 vehicles. Other than the Colorado residents, people also came from Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and maybe other states. Thanks for a great time! Thanks to the sponsors of the free raffle, too. In addition to Azrain's skidplate, we also gave away a 10% discount for Slee Off-Road sliders, Off-Road Solutions showed up with really cool free rock sliders for a 3rd gen 4Runner in hand, and Stevinson West Toyota (parts department) gave us a bunch of hats, water bottles, keychains, and pens. If you get to these shops, please thank them for their support and let them know how much we appreciate their promotional donations.

The overwhelming group opinion for next year is to meet in Moab, Utah for the large gathering for this area of the U.S. We'll call it something other than CO4RJ, which started out as sort of a default name anyway. There still might be a smaller Colorado gathering next year, but most of my efforts will probably go toward the Moab event. Note: BLM has strict limits for large organized events in Moab and they have very stiff fines/penalties for exceeding them, so we'll probably have a strict limit in place for our gathering of something like 40 vehicles, but I'll need to check several things with them. Next Fall (like Oct.?) is likely for that event to avoid the heat of the summer.

 

Here's my pics. These are from Wheeler lake, hancock/tomichi and Taylor Pass.
http://www.reapur.com/car/index.html and click on Colorado 4Runner Jamboree August 2003

-Ziad

 

Looks good Mr. Reapur, glad to see some of the other scenery from the other trails.

The pic with Brent's truck hanging a wheel is pretty cool, especially the look on his face.

I belief that I only shot a little more than 2 rolls of film this weekend. It will be processed and if there are any good ones I will post up. Most of the time there were tons of other people taking the same pic. I know Steve and Carole got a bunch plus the crew that watched the start of Iron Thong took a bunch too. I would really like to see those after hearing the sounds my tires were making.

Regarding the Fall of 2004 when we hit Moab, come hell or high water, I will be there. In a perfect world, I will be caravanning over from Boulder with a big crew.

Just for entertainment's sake, I think I will start a stuff tht broke thread for the sole purpose of comparing last year to this year for me.

Colorado grows some good rocks and some great people. It was my pleasure to run some of the toughest trails I have ever done with some great people.

 

Great pics, and as Flyg said, great scenery too.

Keep'em coming guys!

 

Was a great time for me. Jeff thanks for getting the jamboree together.

Alan and Scott,

Thanks for the fastest trip up Mt Antero I ahve ever had.

Here are the pics I have now, but will get more up later.

2003 CO4RJ Pics

 

Mine still aren't developed.

 

Well, I got all my pictures from the Jam uploaded and edited.
Lots 'o pictures, so beware.

CO4RJ

 

It was nice to meet a few of you guys. I am not a member of the club but we were the 3 guys behind you guys on Holy Cross in the two 85 Yotes and the 81 or 82(?) Yote.

You all had some pretty dang nice rigs and it was nice to talk to some of you. Hope everything went alright for you guys coming down the trail.

We did well, the only thing we had happen was a seperated front drive shaft on one rig.

Hope to wheel with you guys again sometime.

 

Our pics from wheeler lake and a few from Taylor pass...

If anyone wants the full size image let me know and I'll email it to you.


pics

John

 

oops - somehow my favorite pic didn't make it in the album - so here you go ziad...

 

nice pictures, but what the hell is this?!!?

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...84607597vbNOMv

that big wood thing... what is that!?

 

FatA$$ Toyota,
Your 3 trucks were nice and mighty capable, too. Sorry we were holding you up, but I'm glad you didn't mind watching the "show", too. Going down was more enjoyable for many of us. One guy thought that the rock at the far right when going down at French's Creek would look better with a little more dark blue paint on it. Otherwise, it was fine.

 

Heck, it was a family trip, we didnt mind a bit. The only reason we came down ahead of you instead of runnin behind you is because we had a total of 5 kids between the 3 families and they were starting to let us know it was time to stop.

I wish we could have met you guys earlier but maybe another time.

Aaron

 

That is a semi colapsed building that was used to load gold ore into railroad cars on Hancock Pass around 100 years ago. I have more pics of the inside of it from both my pre-run and the real run. I'll upload them as soon as I get the prints.

 

I didn't take many stills at the Jamboree. (But I probably have 2.5 hours of video!) The stills are at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/sandman_02

Many people have requested a copy of the video. I am going to look into how I might do that. It would sure be nice to edit it down a little bit to make the viewing experince less tedious. (Who wants to watch vehicles backing up to re-approach obstacles?) And I'd prefer not spending a month dukplicating tapes.

I just bought a Pinnacle video capture card for my computer, but from what I read, my computer may not have enough horse power to do proper editing. I have yet to try it. Hopefully I'll get to it next week. Tomorrow we're off to Nebraska for a weekend of boating with a friend (who has a boat)...

 

Brown-

You need to keep that 4Runner off the harder trials until you get some type of hardware traction device. Tearing the metal on the crossmember is crazy. That vehicle is worth alot of money and you will destroy it. Don't run the hard stuff until it's more built up.

With the Marlin, I was able to go really slow, 100 to 1 over that Cheesewiz Man obsticle and do no frame damage, I got more scrapes on top of the many I already had, but structualy nothing was damaged.

Pay now or pay later. A new frame would probably total the vehicle.

 

I actually wouldn't mind seeing that. It shows what didn't work and why it didn't work. That's a good learning tool. Of course, I can imagine the files/tape would be pretty big.

 

No worries about editing it on my account. If you threw all the footage on one tape and sent it off when you had a chance, that would be fine by me. It is neat to hear some of the banging and grinding on the re-approachs.

I really want Steve to see the line that I took after I got him high centered. The spotting was better and the line was right, no thinking involved.

I can't imagine wheeling a 5 spd. without a crawler. Now the crawler just needs some protection from faulty spots.

 

Marmot and I went over to Brown's last night to see the video. I must say Steve, you looked mighty impressive crawling over those rocks on Holy Cross. So did Jeff, Adrian and Hunt for that matter. But, you really made it look smooth.

Personally it bummed me out. Because it was obvious from the video that gears, a front locker and a rear bumper were absolutely necessary to do those obstacles on Holy Cross without looking like and idiot. That would have made me a "looser".

Thanks for giving that optional obstacle on Chinamans a go on my behalf. Most of the dirt has eroded away making it much harder. Glad you finally found the best line. You ended up looking like a pissed off dude in a floppy hat.

The footage on Hunt breaking his axle was cool. That was an extremely violent break. Also, good footage of Adrian launching a rock like a canon with his rear tire.

The dump bump on Chinamans was painful to watch, it took everyone so long. Matt should have kept you guys moving and only let you give it 3 chances before the strap. We had to fast forward you Steve, as you were making love with the upper rock. Adrian spanked that obstacle. After the dirt erodes away around from that obstacle, I doubt any of our Runners will be able to do it.



I agree it must have been nice to go so slow when contact was inevitable (when it was dry). Browns crossmember is bent at the frame mounts like mine now.

 

I agree. I was considerably concerned when I examined my undercarriage back in camp. I'm not sure anything less than crawler gears is going to provide me the sort of protection you have. A big problem, though, is that some of these obstacles require bumping/momentum, which really increases the potential for damage if you don't have a lot of clearance.

We see a lot of guys on these trails with Wranglers, 35 or 37" tires and huge lifts. They seem a lot better suited for these types of obstacles.

I have considered maybe steering clear of some of these harder trails until I'm willing to make the financial commitment.

Another aspect: Some of these trails in Colorado, the potential damage of a roll off the trail is huge. Like you said on the Jamboree, in Arizona, the tough obstacles are in the bottoms of canyons. In Colorado, there's a lot of tippy sections on the sides of hills or mountians. You screw up on those, and it's "GAME OVER, YOU LOSE."