Alpine Loop, Tuesday Afternoon
We stopped for a lunch break at Lake San Cristobal which was very cold and clear and very enticing after a warm, dusty morning of trail-driving. Most of us, in fact all of us, except one, figured we would die of a heart attack upon hitting the water and so refrained from taking a swim.
Lake views with Jack & Lorri in the middle.
The one, Chuck Roberts, executed a beautiful dive into the semi-shallow ice-cold water. I'm happy to say he survived, although I don't think the shock truly wore off until his second beer at the Trails End in Silverton on the way back to camp.
The scenery on the Loop was spectacular. All I can say is you had to be there because I could take a zillion photos and never do justice to the place. That doesn't mean you don't have to look at them.
A couple rigs on the road ahead.
Here we are at Engineer Pass, the second of the high passes on the Alpine Loop
Some vans, some of our group and the a view.
Heading off from our rest at Engineer Pass, we were the next to last vehicle heading down. Thank god there was someone behind us because just after leaving the pass but still at about 13,000 feet on a skinny rock-strewn road, we got a flat tire! A renegade rock reached out and neatly sliced through the sidewall of the driver's side rear tire. Behind us were Scott and Debbie and their son Cameron. Fortunately Scott's CB radio was powerful enough to reach the rest of the group to inform them of our situation and even more fortunately, Scott had an all-important piece of the Ford factory jack that I seem to, ahh, have, er, misplaced somewhere. Anyway, with Scotts help, and despite our wives laughing and pointing and taking photos, we were able to change the tire and head on down the grade.
The grade looked something like this. Those tiny dots below are 20-foot long Sportsmobiles.
As fate would have it, we caught the rest of the group because there was another flat tire on one of the lead vehicles. After that we got headed back to Silverton without further incident and mellowed out a little at the Trails End Public House.
Here we are at said Public House (David Green, Lorri Hill, Lee & Chuck Roberts, Dan from NY, John (our leader) and his lovely wife and daughter. A nice view of "downtown" Silverton on the right.
