February 11th to 13th scouts from all over the Bighorn District of the Adventure West Council BSA (formerly Longs Peak Council) spent the weekend at the Klondike Derby hosted at Camp Jack Nicol located at Ben Delatour Scout Ranch outside of Red Feather Lakes, Colorado.
It was a coooold 8 degrees overnight Friday into Saturday, and the wind sure didn’t help those “feels like” temperatures. Scouts had a fun day of activities and Troop 184 took 1st place in First Aid! Overnight lows Saturday into Sunday were only 28 due to the winds that persisted overnight, but 32 frost points on the weekend was a good add to the season total and goal of 100.
Saturday night we had a pretty huge bonfire that thawed out some boots and scouts after a day of sweating into clothes. Aside from the wind it sounds like most slept pretty good with it being 20 degrees warner than the night before.
Thursday the 27th, a team from Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery pulled off a double header in the Red Feather Lakes Area.
Operation #1 took place along County Road 82E which is unmaintained in the winter months. A Nissan Xterra got hung up in a snow drift pointed downhill and had to be evac’d by Larimer County Sheriff a week or so prior. Once on scene, the vehicle was rigged for a rearward pull. We had to break the suction the ice had on the bottom of the vehicle, and winch backwards about 100 yards through some snow drifts that had formed after getting stuck. Once back on top of the hill, we were able to turn everyone around and drive back into Red Feather Lakes.
Operation #2 took place a little further northwest of the 1st operation, right at the junction to forest road 169 and County Road 80C. 80C that far west is totally unmaintained in the winter months. The Ram 3500 wasn’t stuck in snow per say, rather disabled from a few mechanical issues that occurred while driving. The parties in this truck were also evacuated by Larimer County Sheriff earlier in the week. It appears the driver side tire chain cast off, and in the process tore the brake line and wheel speed sensor clear off, causing multiple faults.
While trying to get or keep the truck moving, the front driveshaft also appeared to break at the transfer case, which took out a major wiring harness and multiple transmission/brake lines along the driver side frame. The team pulled the front driveshaft and worked to turn the truck around in the snow, and proceeded to pull it out 20 miles until we met a tow truck that was headed up to look for the truck. While making our way out, the team had multiple very steep hills to traverse which required a “double truck” pull up the hill. A Power wagon and Raptor had to tag team the steepest hills to lug that disabled truck out.
The day after Christmas I took my brother out in his Defender for some 1st dirt offroading. It turned out to be an icy crap shoot on our first trail choice of Bunce School Road, but we dropped south to Switzerland Trail and found some more conducive trail conditions to a 1st offroading trip with the Defender. We certainly didn’t want to damage anything or blow tires, as this needed to be drove home 6 1/2 hours the next day.
December 23rd I took the day off and went up to Red Feather Lakes to flog the power wagon in some snow! We’re gonna have to go back, maybe with the jeep next time, cause about 2 feet of snow has fallen in places up there in just the last 7 days!
Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery was in the 2021 Lyon’s Parade of Lights. It was a great parade with tons of people loving all the vehicles decked out in Christmas Lights. Some of the floats were pretty spectacular!
November 30th I took The Fast Lane Car up Miller Rock trail in Boulder County, Colorado with a good friend of mine for a head to head of the OEM Bronco 1st edition on 35s vs the Jeep Wranger Rubicon also on 35s.
Both are rocking a factory optioned 2 inch lift (mine just happens to be dealer installed) but it’s as apples to apples of a comparison as it gets as of this year.
The TFL crew is super awesome to hang out with, and I had a great time videoing this comparison of the two rigs. Roman and Tommy (along with cameraman Alex) were great and drove the obstacle with ease. We had dinner in town at Georgia Boy’s BBQ after just chit chatting about offroading and all things outdoors! They are as down to earth awesome people as they seem in videos! What a fun day!
The 1st weekend in November I went back up to BDSR outside of Red Feather Lakes, Colorado for a weekend of shooting sports instruction for scouts in the Longs Peak Council. These are always super fun events and I enjoy using my NRA Instructor credentials to teach youth the safe handling of firearms.
In October of 2021 I got super lucky with my deer hunting. I had a private land Doe tag that gives you about 3 months to hunt, and a public 2nd rifle Buck tag that you only have 1 week to hunt with, on public (or private if you choose) to do so.
After sitting a few days in the hunting blind on property 1, a beautiful white tail Doe popped up out of the grass and presented herself for the taking! I’ve always wanted to shoot a super rare Colorado White Tail. We don’t have many of these here.
When it came time to start the public land buck hunt later in the month, we were working a haunted attraction the night before when I happened to ask the owner if he’d seen any buck’s on the property yet. In fact he had!! The night before! I was given permission to take a buck opening morning and low and behold, one presented himself about 15 minutes after sunrise opening morning! Freezer full of meat is a great feeling!
I’m blessed to have great friends who like to go hunting with me, and help process all the meet saving those butchering costs!
In August of 2021, Team Red Rubicion spent 4 amazing days in Buena Vista, Colorado! We explored trails that we hadn’t been on before, had epic camping nights, awesome food with awesome friends! We did multiple trails but the key ones were Grizzly Lake and Williams Pass over to the Alpine Station.
July 31st Team Red Rubicon went up Kingston Peak to check out the views! Well… the views were pretty foggy, but we still managed to get some great pics and make a day of it.
