Red Cone - Buena Vista - Pitkin - St. Elmo - Oil Pan Hole
| We'll
pack camp in the dry weather - to have rain shortly after we were back
into the jeeps. We're headed up to Tin Cup Pass but on the west side
there is a second path that can be taken - the old / original Tin Cup
path that we'll take. It is a bit more difficult with some larger rocks
to navigate. With rain everything is wet adding to some difficulty. I
tried to get over a rock and couldn't so I tried a different route. The
different route had some difficulty and in the end the jeep's oil pan
set down on a rock causing a drip. That changed my day as it became and
item to tend. The jeep was driveable (drip was not too severe) so I
headed to town for oil, brake clean, and epoxy while others visited
Pomeroy Lake trail. I was able to get it patched but I'm surprised
there is still a very slow drip. The oil pan will be replaced. With the
slowness of the drip I'll be able to join the group for Friday's trail
- Grizzly Lake. |
| Things are a bit wet but there's no rain
falling now - appreciated. |
| It seems the lake does rise with water run-off
in the spring. |
| Here comes the rain |
| We're
at the difficult, rocky section. There are several paths that can be
taken - the far left is level 1 easy (I could have taken that route) |
| This is the easy route - it's an up angle with
some slippery but no big rocks to move over. |
| Montana's jeep is through the difficult
section. Colorado is next. |
| Now for Wyoming |
| My
turn. No pictures from me for the event. I had my hands full. The group
also had their hands full - helping me when I became stuck. THANKS FOLKS!! I'm sorry my attempts and the recovery took so much of your time. While I could have gone straight to the easy option I chose some difficult routes. With wet tires and wet rock the jeep did not go where I wanted it to go - and forward motion stopped. In the end, my Hi-Lift jack was used to lift me off of the rock. |
| Lifting the front to get the oil pan off of
the rock. Once it's high enough, I'll back away and the jack will fall
away. |
| Tin Cup Pass |
| Rolling down the east side. I wanted to get
moving along so I headed out solo with the rest of the group staying
together. |
| Coming into St. Elmo |
| We
met as a group at St. Elmo and found campsites. We discussed what I
would do and what Florida would do. In the end one of the other
Colorado people was leaving today to head east to home and I was headed
east to get to Buena Vista. Florida folks with belongings would
be ferried in the two jeeps to their pickup / camper-trailer at Nathrup so they
could retrieve their jeep in Pitkin. I'll visit Buena Vista for
repair items for my jeep. |
| Working on my drip... The camera caught a drip in action and it looks like a stream - it was not a stream. In purple, top right in picture - I also bent the cover on the bell-housing. A couple aluminum ribs on the bell housing were snapped. I plan to have the engine rebuilt this winter as it is blowing by the rings fairly heavily and oil is finding any way out of the motor (thus the very wet oil pan above where the leak is). |
