Our
Colorado friends, Harold and Christy, are avid ATV'rs and the Rocky mountains
may be the best place in the world to ride them. There are umpteen miles of
old mining roads remaining from the 1880's boom times. In addition to wagon
access roads, many of the old mining towns were serviced by direct rail lines.
Those old railroad beds are now 4WD roads and the old wagon roads are now
jeep trails. We drove up the mountain to a reviving ghost town called Saint
Elmo where we rented a couple of ATV's and signed our life away in liability
waivers. The rental agent took us on a half mile "training ride"
and turned us loose to join Harold & Christy
on a 66 mile jaunt over three 12,000' mountain passes.
We
started out on a jeep trail over Hancock Pass. The road was rough and rocky
but the ATV's handled it well. Patty soon looked like an expert standing
on the pegs over the rough spots. On our way to the pass we stopped at a few
points of interest. First was the old townsite with the remains of only one
building left (a saloon). Second was a
partially collapsed mine tipple nicknamed "pacman"
for obvious reasons. Finally we came to Hancock
Lake; not much of a lake but it was located in a beautiful cirque valley.
The steep trail down the other side was little
better than the trail coming up.
The
rough jeep trail over Hancock Pass connected with an old
railroad bed that led to the now collapsed Alpine Tunnel. The engineering
marvel that was the tunnel was complimented by a rock wall supporting a shelf
road high on the side of a sheer cliff. When we looked
back up from the switchback below it, the workmanship of the Chinese workmen
was more obvious, especially knowing that the rocks in the wall were hand
fitted without the use of mortar.
We
stopped for lunch at another old mining camp on the way to pass number 2.
The dirt roads leading up and down Cumberland Pass
were the easiest by far. The problem with easy roads is the DUST that fast
moving ATV's kick up. Bob was running in the "sweep" position, and
by the time we reached the remote town of Tincup he could no longer see (a
disadvantage on mountain trails!). Can you see the professional looking goggles
that he borrowed, albeit a little late?
As
we left for the final pass, the weather started to look ominous.
We had one more 12,000' pass to cross and we were afraid we might be doing
it in a lightening storm! To add to our woes, the rough and rocky trail was
back and we couldn't hurry over that kind of terrain. Once we made it over
the pass, the last few miles turned out to be fun. We sailed over the whoop-de-doos
and hit the water problems at full speed.
We beat the rain and even had time for a little exploring around Saint Elmo.
It was a GREAT adventure and we can't wait to try it again.
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