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Hiked, of course. Cheated and drove over to the Joint Trail trailhead and did as an out and back to avoid Chesler Park. Also hiked in the evening the trail behind Devil's Kitchen. The way to the Joint trailhead has a pretty tough section with a tight turn. We'd taken the 99 so the 96 didn't get to do that one.
Gotta go do MORE laundry, make breakfast and all that what-not. More later. From here we headed to the La Sal mountains to camp below Burro Pass...hubby rides the Whole Enchilada while the kid and I hang out and I take the opportunity to change the burned out headlight bulb and the rear right swaybar link.
We should have done more wheeling here...Fins n Things and what-not....but were short on time. We did do an easy loop on the Shafer trail. Neat scenery and there are pools of water here and there along the way that are dyed a crazy blue to make the water evaporate.....potash ponds...
The trail takes you into the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands...we have a parks pass...
That's prolly the best pic of the bike rack. I had the swing-out arms each extended by 5" so the spare carrier could be opened and the mast up a foot so the bike wheels wouldn't hit the ground when wheeling. Unfortunately the swing-out arm was not spared a number of hits and while it did admirably it did eventually bend a couple of inches. Still works and still took more hits. Well, we knew it would be having a hard time, but darned, it's SO much more convenient than the rack we used on the 99.
We will prolly extend the mast on that rack too, because the wheels on the bikes occasionally hit on steeper stuff. Luckily the rubber straps and bungees that holds the bikes on allow the wheels to not get damaged.
That is great that you got to take both trucks and sure it was a blast having both out on the same trails. You got some great looking pictures and looked like a great time you had. I am sure the time flew by while out.
As every good vacation does, it seems like it was June just yesterday. We are trying not to stare too hard at the gas receipts, but both trucks do add a certain amount of security- not that the blue one's ever stranded us.
So. Hot. Got used to those mountain temps and even the desert is at least a dry heat. Feel. Like. Going. To. Melt.
Moseyed over to Hermosa Creek near Durango CO next. Could live with what we woke up to right about now:
After breakfast at Brown Bear in Silverton we headed over to Black Bear Pass. Alas, only open to the pass. We did pass a bull dozer on their way to clear the other side, apparently we were a week too early.
We did meet this guy at Black Bear Pass. He had a home-built long-travel front end on his 3rd gen utilizing Tundra oe stuff that had been modified. He's been doing a lot of testing, and building his jigs and hopes to sell a kit at some point that will be less in cost than the Toy-Tec and like. OE ball joints, I thought that was a nice touch over the other brand. If any of you are looking for long travel, keep an eye out for him, see what you think.
So on to Ophir to get to Imogene from Telluride. Ophir is easy enough, there is a shelf road that could be tricky so you wait for your turn. Couple o' cars can be seen squashed down the slope, one is pretty flat and the other is about buried in scree.
From Imogene we went to camp near Clear Lake. Both 4Runners set a code here, mine that evening, and the 99 the next morning. The most noticeable thing for me was that the air filter (True Flow bought in '05) was degrading. Didn't look dusty beyond it (LOTS of dust, especially on the way to Clear Lake) but I went ahead and cleaned the slightly dirty MAF. Didn't seem to run any different at all. Some of you may remember that the 96 NEVER throws a CEL. This was actually its first check engine light in the 11 years I've had it. Actually, it has thrown two other CELs I know of. On a test drive before I bought it I got a CEL that turned out to be the o2 sensor. A second test drive threw another CEL- they'd tried to put a non-Cali sensor into my Cali truck. A Cali-specific sensor fixed it. They have since superceded the number, but back then they were different.
Anywho...
The 99 had started running a little not quite right just before the CEL. By the time we were done with Mineral Creek and Engineer its get up and go seemed to have got up and quit. As in during certain parts of the pavement part of the drive it couldn't keep up with the 96. Which is unheard of.
We decided to stop at the first Autozone/Advance/Whatever parts place to get the codes read soon as we passed one.
To Lake city, then on the road to Crested Butte. The road is where the 99's troubles became obvious. Not keeping up with the old 96 on hills? Unpossible! We found an O'Reilly north of Gunnison and got our codes. Mine was p0146, his was p0171.
We camped on Schofield Pass north of Crested Butte. In the morning I was sitting in the truck listening to a book (nerd) waiting for the others to wake up when this guy sauntered past:
We cleared our codes and the hubby cleaned the 99's MAF, which was a little dirty. Next we rode the 401 trail.
After another night on the pass we spent the next day going up and down hills. Cumberland, Tin Cup, Hancock, Tomichi, and Old Monarch pass.
Pics later.
Cumberland pass had a neat little mine area a bit down from it but this time there were atvs being driven all over it as well as a 4 door orange jeep when we went by. You can tell it's been messed over a lot. That part was disappointing.
Tin Cup is more fun on the Tin Cup town side, than St. Elmo, but both are pretty.
Next is Hancock pass. Very rocky on the Tincup side, less so on the Tomichi side.
And Tomichi. Another one of those stop, shut off and listen spots is here. Too narrow to pass. A very off camber spot here too, this time the edge was better defined with rock which was nicer.
My solution for the glare off the cracked glass- electrical tape. It stayed put the whole time, and was still there when the windshield was replaced.
Old Monarch pass is easy gravel. We camped near the top in anticipation of riding the Monarch Crest Trail the next day. When next day came my shifter on the bike died. Being a SRAM x9 1:1 is apparently a bit out of date. After trying all the bike shops in Salida (all very nice people) we came across one that had a trigger type shifter. My achy fingers much prefer the twist type. BIG shout out to the Salida Bike Company!!! Awesome guy took pity on my hands and dug around until he found a used x9 grip shift. In way better visual shape (and, obviously mechanical shape) than mine. He could have gouged me good but gave me a deal. Thanks to him I got to ride. So I did! Hubby rode the whole thing, me and the kid rode to Marshall Pass, then down to where we parked. 22 miles for us, 11 of it singletrack.
Once again he showed awesome handling skills with the 24" wheeled hard-tail.
Another night at Monarch Pass, the next at Wilson State Park in Kansas, the next in my own bed.
It rained one day and the timing didn't affect us at all. Really it needed to rain more- so dusty! The trucks were absolutely filthy! Other than Winter Park there was not even afternoon storms. It was weird.
The swing-out bike rack finally bent on Mineral Creek....well, so not for anything above mild wheeling unless I can figure out some sort of skid. Will definitely be handy around town and on non-wheely trips. Will need to get it bent back and maybe reinforced. Where it was modified held up perfectly.
96 4Runner 286,300 miles
Repairing and maintaining.
Oil change
Replaced tiny nuts on front sway bar links with shouldered nuts
Blew more dust out of paper air filter until I could get no more
Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned the condenser and radiator as best as I could. Lots of junk came out, more than I expected. Still not as much as I would think would cause it to run warm though....
Replaced abraded holey right steering rack boot with the Beck Arnley boot I had on the old rack in the basement. Cool thing about the BA boot- it's rubbery and stretches. I have to separate the outer tie rod from the spindle, but not remove it from the rack as careful maneuvering allows the BA boot to go over the OTRE.
How did I miss this?
Any way very cool pics.
Sounds like cleaning the MAF did the trick.
There is a cool lifted 3rd Gen with an ARB bumper for sale in my neighborhood but my wife shot it down really quick before I could even ask...some BS about already having the 94....
Thanks dropzone! It was a great time. No more CEL for either truck, MAF clean and chuck the old filters for new FTW.
What? Not all the yotas for you??? Wives!
More cool things come along than there is money, time or parking space for, yes? At least you have an external voice of reason, this internal wife voice is aggravating sometimes!
Tell her they're different and each has its pros and both of them need to be in the driveway....
(but really that is a VERY nice 94 you're building up for yourself)....
and no, my own dearest, don't try this at home!
Changed out my bike water bottle coolant overflow for the original overflow tank. Want more room for more coolant for when it does it's puking out coolant thing. Which I still have to figure out.
Anywho...
It fits. Kinda sorta 'permanently' attached to the air box so I made sure I'd be able to get said box in and out of the truck with the tank attached. Hopefully that's enough room for the engine to move without the tank hitting the power steering. Not like it's some v-8 or anything with vroom....
And the air box needed an artificial foot so I made one for it.
07-21-2016, 04:59 AM
