Vaughan and Julie - Crazy Trips: Westward 2013 - Part 2 ( 8/9 to 8/10

Friday was the first day of the the Westfest ride - not very organized. I'm glad Brooks came up to ride with Vaughan. Everyone else was just milling around trying to find someone to ride with. Brooks & Vaughan road some of the Four Mile Trail we scoped out yesterday. It was pretty sandy with elevation changes, rocks, whoops, tight and open. Although Vaughan took lots of videos with his GoPro, including one in which he fell, I accidentally deleted all but one of them before uploading them. Sorry, guys.

Sally, Brooks' Yorkie, and I went to the Contin-Tail Rock & Gem show down at the rodeo fairgrounds. Lots of rock hounds for me to talk to and real hounds for Sally to meet. We later went downtown to Punky's for some BBQ.

Brooks joined us for dinner at El Paraisio's Mexican where we met a number of mountain men (turns out they are part of the Gold Rush Days entertainment this weekend).

Saturday, the guys went riding again while Sally and I went down for the Gold Rush Days festival in town. There were lots of folks dressed in traditional costumes and lots of great music, including the Mountain Men.

(Vaughan here now) Brooks and I planned a 60 mile loop covering 3 mountain passes with 12,000' elevations (Hancock, Cumberland, and Tincup). Only really have picture of us at each of summits. Along the way we took a side trip to visit the "Alpine Tunnel" (now collapsed) but since it involved a 1/2 mile walk we didn't go all the way to the end of the trail. Hiking in motocross is no fun.

I was able to take some great videos of the more difficult rocky climbs at Hancock and Tincup Pass along with more scenic videos of Alpine Tunnel and Cumberland Pass with my helmet cam.

Hancock Pass http://youtu.be/tLO2ZaMUv5o

Alpine Tunnel Alpine Tunnel Spur Trail

Tincup Pass Tin Cup Pass

Later we went to the Westfest BBQ. Lots of items raffled - we won a bottle of Deerhammer Whitewater Whiskey. They had a nice band, Full Moon Float, but most of the riders didn't stay long.

Buena Vista's town blacksmith.

Buddy hiding from Sally in the towels - seriously? - he's twice Sally's size.

Pictures from Vaughan and Brooks ride on Four Mile Trail - too bad I can't show you the videos.

Buena Vista Gold Rush days.

This is the train depot.

Story-telling at it's best. By the way, he called Sally a "Grizzle Mouse" and said they go after grizzly bears by jumping in their mouth causing a huge hairball. He also said he is not willing to give the bear mouth-to-mouth to get the dog back.