Trip Report: Our Alpine Loop Expedition with Adventure Built
A couple weeks ago following the Overland Expo Mountain West Event in Loveland, CO, we squeezed in a 1.5 day expedition to the Alpine Loop with our friend/TRUKD Ambassador Kelly from Adventure Built, his brother Trevor from Lifestyle Campers, Shawn from Guild Outfitters, and Adam from Otzi Gear. What an adventure! The five rigs we all brought couldn't have been any more unique and it was a great experience to see how they would all handle...or not..the rugged trails in the San Juan Mountains. This was one of the most fun groups of guys I've had the pleasure to adventure with!
In addition, our truck was not the only one that got TRUKD! Kelly's Super Ute has a 24.5" TRUKD on it with two of our Long 64" Accessory Panels, and Shawn from Guild is rocking an Overlander rack on his Tacoma. Between my loaded up 24.5" rack with dual hinge kits, accessory panels and our new MSP's, it was great to see 3 different rack builds all on the same trip.
Our trip started Sunday night after we all packed up our booths from the expo. We didn't all leave at the same time so our plan was to meet at a restaurant in Buena Vista, Crave BV. Unfortunately I was the last to arrive, since I had to make a quick pit stop at the airport to get one of our team members home. After inhaling a delicious pizza with a lot of meat and some very tasty hot honey, we jumped back on the road with the goal of reaching a camp spot close to Lake City. By this time it was getting pretty late and after going up and over a few paved, but very dark, mountain passes, the caravan was getting extremely tired and safety was becoming a larger concern. We decided to stop early near Gunnison for the night and continue the rest of the way to Lake City the next morning.
Luckily the spot we chose at random to stop happened to be right next to this great little coffee shop in Gunnison, so the next morning we all woke up and fueled our caffeine fix before heading off to Lake City.
Doing the drive during the day between Gunnison and Lake City was full of great views, so I was not sad that we stopped early the night before! We made it to Lake city by 9 or 10 AM and we all pulled over to air down before jumping on the trail. This was an unusual experience for me since I usually am the one planning the post expo excursion, but this time Kelly did the honors and had the whole route put together. All I had to do was keep up!
The TRUKD Tacoma was weighted down pretty heavily with all the camp and show gear and was probably the least prepared vehicle out of the bunch. With a stage 3 Icon lift, 265 RT tires, upgraded rear leaf springs for the added weight, we were missing the added protection of sliders, skids, and bumpers. Most of the trails I do with the truck I try to avoid potentially damaging obstacles or cross them very carefully to avoid damaging anything.
The trail started out with a winding road up to Engineer pass. There was a little bit of traffic that became heavier, the closer to the top we got. What amazed me along the way was the volume of waterfalls coming off the peaks in little streams. It was absolutely gorgeous. The Tacoma made it all the way to the top of Engineer Pass without too much drama. The only interesting thing compared to the drives I typically do in the West Virginia and Pennsylvania mountains was that I found the engine to start to struggle with the altitude. The lack of air at that altitude had a noticeable effect. Luckily the fix was relatively simple. just switch to 4L on the really steep stuff and there was plenty of torque to go where I needed.
After Engineer Pass we made our way with a couple stops along the way at view points to Animas Forks. Unfortunately on this leg of the trip, I misjudged an obstacle and my lack of a steel rear bumper came to haunt me. As I rolled down into a hole, my departure angle wasn't enough to prevent the plastic bumper from contacting the ground and pushing up into my taillight breaking it...or maybe more precisely...ejecting it. Luckily one of the tabs was still intact and securing it with a little duct tape allowed me to make it all the way back to PA before getting it fixed. When we were stopped there we watched a fox run right by us hunting for critters in the alpine fields. Other than the occasional Marmot and bird, that's all the wildlife we saw this time around.
Leaving Animas Forks, we climbed back up to California Pass, but it was full with others so we quickly passed through and went to a beautiful stop at Emerald Lake. This is a place I hope to come back to in the near future because it is where the Poughkeepsie Gulch trail intersects the Alpine Loop. This trail looks like a great time, and I hope to be able to complete it on another trip in the future...maybe after a few more armor upgrades.
The way down to Emerald lake was steep and a little loose, and the convoy made it down with some hesitation about the way back up. We were most concerned with the Otzi Gear Van and Trevor's Titan pulling the Lifestyle Camper. Adam made it back up like a champ, but that wasn't quite the case for Trevor. With a little tug from the Super Ute we got him all the way.
Light was starting to fade as we made it to Hurricane Pass, and the views were absolutely stunning. We all were getting hungry, so we stopped for a couple pictures before heading to our last pass of the day, Corkscrew Pass.
We followed the shelf roads as golden hour was hitting its peak and climbed again up to Corkscrew. We met a lost stock Jeep Wrangler on the way and they followed us back up the pass to get to where they were going. This was a good reminder to be aware of the conditions, time, and capability. They continued back to Silverton while we headed towards Ouray to find our campsite for the night. With a combo of leftover food from the expo from everyone's fridges, we made a campfire and reminisced about what we saw on this one day trip. I know that I'll be back to this area as soon as I can to keep exploring!
