Today, I went with my folks to the Arapaho National Forest in Georgetown, Colo. to do a little Jeepin’ with my new Wrangler. We entered the forest by way of Guanella Pass and traversed Argentine Pass. The views were spectacular, almost majestic if you will. I’ve lived in Colorado most of my life, yet I’m constantly amazed at how beautiful it is. Even in Highlands Ranch, I get amazed; especially on clear days.
Getting to Argentine Pass was hard as it wasn’t very easy to find. Guanella Pass is under construction, so there are no signs and construction traffic is everywhere. We ended up driving up to the lake before realizing we went too far — by quite a bit. We just laughed and turned around. On the way back, we ran into a cool guy working the construction site. He talked to us about the Jeep and helped give us directions to Argentine Pass. Honestly, I wish people were more like him. (Thinking about it now, I wonder if he was sent to help us. He really seemed different. I’ll ask later.) Anyway, we finally found the trail by turning up this windy road — if you could call it that. I spooked my Mom at first because she thought I was going to traverse the mountain side. LOL.
The trail started easy enough, but got rough quickly. It wasn’t a gravel road like some of the others I have tried so far. It was basically nothing more than big boulders and large rocks. It was uneven and created for some very sharp approach and departure angles. It was no match for the Jeep though.
Argentine Pass
Later on the trail, we got to some streams where I drove through lots of water. At one point, I stalled it. This would be one of at least five stalls. Yup, access the idiot module. I put it in 4 LO to get some more torque and ended up not fully locking the shifter into position. It popped out of 4 LO when we hit a bump, we got stuck, and the engine stalled. So, right in the middle of all that water, we’re parked. Well, I restarted it, stuck it into 4 HI and off we went. I wouldn’t stall it again until a really high incline. I am so happy I bought an ’09. It comes with Hill Start Assist, a system that prevents the Jeep from rolling backwards until I can get it into 1st and get moving. Without that, I most certainly would have rolled back like crazy today. The manual was cool and the 4-wheel drive system (Rock-Trac) is something else. I just need to get better at modulating the clutch and gas as well as know when to use 4LO versus 4HI. (Couple that with figuring out how to put it into 4LO correctly!)
Streams, Rocks, and More
Overall, the trip was extremely fun. I got to spend time with the ones I love the most as well as have a good time. (I wish my brother could have been there, but I know we’ll go together another time.) This experience taught me I have much more to learn, try, and get better at. Since I’m a martial artist, I like to equate my experience to a belt level. heh. (My Army buddy does the same thing with military stuff). So, for me, I think I’m an orange belt in offroading. I think I graduated from yellow today. We’ll see what my friends say. LMAO. But hey… having more to learn, try, and get better at is what life is all about, right? So for now, the Jeep is in one piece, undamaged, and ready to go again. I’m ready.
For pictures of the adventure in ANF, click here.