The highlight of the trip was definitely the Schofield Pass Trail. This was for two reasons. Firstly, the incredible scenery. I honestly have trouble imagining how anyone could believe there is not a Divine Creator responsible for such marvelous works. The second feature of Schofield that made it so awesome was the fact that it is one of the most deadly 4-wheeling trails in Colorado, and we made it through without a scratch on Shad's Land-Cruiser. The most dangerous part is just after the creek crossing shown below. Supposedly, many less experienced drivers do not take time to let their brakes dry. As a result, when they come to the narrow shelf road that follows immediately, leading down into the canyon, they have no way to control their speed. I should have taken some pics of the shelves, but at the time I was more concerned with spotting for Shad than photographing the decent. However, you can see a little glimpse of the trail over the waterfall below.

This trail proved to provide some excellent camping spots, as well as some beautiful scenery. Although it was not nearly as technical as either of the other trails, it was definitely a fun ride. The lake pictured here was the setting for our camp site. The best part was they had just lifted the fire ban. A good camp fire totally makes a camping trip.

This past weekend I spent 4-wheeling and camping with Shad. We started out on Taylor pass, which runs from the ghost town of Ashcroft to the middle of Gunnison county. We went from this trail to the Reno Divide Trail, which starts near the end of Taylor Pass, and continues to the Crested Butte area. After camping near a lake in the middle of the Reno Divide Trail, we continued on to Crested Butte, where we got onto the Schofield Pass Trail, which took us to Marble. All I will say is when I got home I started looking at old Land cruisers and CJs on ebay. :)

This has been the most time-consuming (and fun) activity I have been working on these past three weeks. I am posting a picture now so that you can all be awed by how much better it will look when I am done, not because I will necessarily do a great job on it, but because it could hardly get much worse. Currently, the paint is 97% striped, and it has a new fork and new cables (thus making it sort of temporarily rideable to the CSU library and back (hopefully)). I have a seat in the mail, and a new set of wheels should arrive at the bike shop by Friday. I do not yet know weather the chrome fenders will fit with the new wheels. If anyone has any ideas for a paint scheme, you are welcome to post them. I want it to look vintage, but it will be a glossy paint job, as befits a ten speed.

Two weekends ago was the unofficial team camp-out. This meant we were allowed to play cards and shoot guns, with out violating company policies. Btw, I really suck at hearts, and about any other card game that is not purely luck. Even most of those. However, it was still fun playing in Shad's camper van, listing to the rain outside and being able to stay perfectly dry. The best part of the trip though was easily the four-wheeling in Shad's van (see video several posts ago).

Left; Mark takes careful aim at the water-filled cup while Shad (center) and Sam (right) look on.

So it has been a while since I posted. This is mainly because I have been far too busy in the past three weeks to make the trip to the CSU Library. Out of the past three weekends, two of them were spent camping. The first of these was in the San Jaun National Forest, which is home to what is probably the most beautiful scenery in Colorado. Unfortunately, it was raining a large portion of the time, so I didn't get too many good shots. The campsite I found was not too far from the four wheel drive trail I rode in on. However, to reach it one had to ford the stream at least three times. It was tucked in a valley in the middle of the mountains, which meant there was no direct sunlight until around 10am. Likewise, it was friking cold in the valley until 10am. However the scenery was totally sweet.
Left; my bike packed and ready to go.
Below; the road leading down into the valley.

Below; clouds rolling in over the mountains.

The past two weekends I got to go camping in two awesome parts of the state. I hope to post some pics soon, but for now all I will do is post a video of my mentor Shad Shepston taking his camper van four-wheeling on the way back from the camping trip this past weekend. It was a fricking awesome ride.