4th Annual Taylor Park Ride

 
Time for the 4th Annual Taylor Park Ride RZR Rally!!!!  Definitely a highlight of our summer!!! 
We were prepared for terrible weather as it was predicted to be in the low 60s and 60% chance of rain.  Now, low 60s and sun=great, 70s and rain= great.  But the combo together is pretty miserable!  I am pleased to announce that we completely lucked out!!!  The only time it really downpoured on us was on the way to and during the big dinner!  Funniest part about that is as we a re getting drenched and freezing on our evening ride to the dinner (we camped about 12 miles from the main gathering place) we realized, duh, we could have taken the Jeep!!!!  Oops!
 


 Just getting down from the pass to our campsite, we got coated in mud.  Take a look at our BLACK trailer and our BLUE RZR!








Besides the spectacular scenery, trails and pure beauty, one of the greatest things about the rally is the friendships that we have made over the last three years.  We look forward to catching up with people who have a passion just like us.  Jim (J to the B) is one of the guys who arranges the whole event and is truly a great guy.  He welcomed us again and even let us rearrange our ride schedule so we could go on one with him that was already full (more on that later).  We spent some time with Jeff and Kim who we convinced to go to Moab with us earlier in the summer.  And then a whole bunch of other people who are just so wonderful.  Its amazing how many people remembered us and commented on how big Jadeyn is getting!


Our first ride was run by DesertVet to Napolean Pass.  This trail has so many fun spots in it.  Rocks, boulders, slick tree roots and awesome views!




 

Our second ride was with Jim and Mike as the tail man to American Flag Mountain.  There was a little something extra going on for this trail.  It was the wedding party trail!  A couple got married at the summit.  Complete with Bride and Groom t-shirts and even wild bird seed to throw at them after the ceremony!  Way cool!  This is a trail that we will definitely do again.  It was our first time and it was awesome!




The group did do an evening ride in honor of one of the members who passed away this summer.  It was a good reminder that even though this sport is safer than a 4-wheeler, it still can be dangerous depending on how you drive it.  He was killed with a buddy doing a night ride and they hit a tree.  His wife came to say hello to everyone.  She is a pretty strong woman and very impressive to accept everyone's condolences.

Raffle.  We usually have so-so luck when it comes to raffles and this year we really wanted to win some tires!  Ours, with over 3200 miles on them, have some pretty pathetic tread!  We crossed our fingers and hoped, and ended up winning the next biggest ticket item of the raffle: a complete sound system for the RZR!  Sweet!! Its one of those things that would be a lot of fun to have, but we would never have spent the money to buy one!  Pretty lucky!  Then we also won two LED lights to mount on the front.  Nice!

Getting from our campsite to the main dry camp area is always a blast. There is a small section of road that is paved so the OHVs have to take a little side trail around it.  You can tell that this community is full of thrill seekers, because just this little side jaunt is whoop-de-whoos over and over again!  We catch air on every one!!! Cool!


Even with all the activities and rides, we still had some time to hang around our camp and have some fun!   I'm not to coordinated handling a cell phone camera and squirting canned cheese in my boy's mouth!!

 We got sooooo dirty!!















Oh, last but not least: the new Polaris XP 1000 came out a few weeks ago so Polaris sponsored our dinner and were nice enough to bring quite a few new 1000s for us to drool over!

 We don't have the final count yet on the number of people or the number of RZRs, but what a great time!

 ....And I had a bit of fun messing with some black and white photos...

Grandma and Papa are Visiting!!!!

Happy Day!!!! My parents came for a visit!  We were so excited to see them and to show them the new house.  We somehow found a small window of time between their trips and our camping trips when it worked out to get together...so with about three weeks notice, they booked their tickets!!!
Just having them here with us and with Jadeyn was such a wonderful thing.  Jadeyn loves his grandparents so much and it never ceases to amaze me how there isn't any adjustment period or shyness.  He just attached himself to them the instant he sees them!!

Jadeyn somehow convinced Grandma to play he newest favorite game with him: TankI.  So funny to hear the chatter in the computer room: Grandma, don't you see that tank right behind you!?  Who's shooting me?  Get him Grandma!  Wait, look at my screen, come and help me!   They had a fun time (I think) and Grandma went up a few notches in Jadeyn's admiration scale!

Grandpa always comes bearing really cool gifts!

Papa's pill popping show was a hit again and it was good practice for Jadeyn to work on his counting and numbers!!  One...Two...Three!!!

It just so happened that they were here for Jadeyn's first day of Kindergarten!!  He's such a big boy  now and was so proud to be able to show them jsut how big he is getting, grabbing his backpack and heading out the door.  It was so fun to walk him to school and pick him up with them and let them hear his excited stories.

We were able to squeeze in a trip to the mountains as well.  We hit Pole Hill trail that overlooks Estes Park and had a nice and bumpy time of it.  The weather was beautiful and there were even still a few wildflowers around to enjoy.  Mom joked that she doesn't need to go to the chiropractor because bouncing in the back of the RZR was an adjustment enough!!

While Kevin was at work, my parents and I were able to hit a few stores including Savers (our favorite) and an antique consignment shop.  I love shopping with my parents and Jadeyn survived it just fine.  He only passed out in the shopping cart once!  He was a good sport shopping and running errands with us as well as supervising Grandma's eye exam at daddy's office!

Showing them the new house was a ton of fun.  Pictures are one thing, but to actually be here with us was such a delight.  Yeah, they were surprised at how big it is, and it was sure nice to have plenty of space for them to spread out and relax.  Grandma joined me and Jadeyn in the hot tub a few times for some soaking...wait, I mean splashing!!

We had such a wonderful time with them and are so happy that they were able to come and visit!! Love you Mom and Dad!

A few puddles in Taylor Park!

So, Shawn and Stephanie bought all new rain gear in preparation for a rainy weekend at Taylor Park.  Lo and behold, as soon as they arrived, the rain stopped and not another drop fell!  Sweet!  But....we couldn't let all that perfect rain-gear go untested! So we found a few puddles and river crossings and put it to good use!  What a splash!  Twice as tall as the RZR itself!  Nicely done!  When Kevin and I went through in our RZR it was quite a splash too and filled up the floor of the RZR completely.  We were soaked!  We hung our arms and legs out of the doors for the next few miles to dry out!

Taylor Park, CO with Shawn, Stephanie and Family!

Taylor Park.
Who can resist an off-roading haven a few times a summer!?  We Have the Colorado RZR Rally coming up next month, but just had to go this weekend to truly initiate Kevin's brother Shawn to a really fun time with a RZR.  Shawn's family are renting one so they can see just how fun it is!!  Kevin, Jadeyn and I arrived a day early for a little extra fun!


Aspen.
Would you believe that from Taylor Park, you can take trails all the way into Aspen!?  It took us about and hour and 20 minutes to get there over the mountains, if you drove it by car, it would take just under 5 hour!  Wow!  The wildflowers are in full bloom and the trail was lovely.  Part of the trail took us straight up the river bed!  Good thing we had our guide book because when the trail disappears into a river and you can' see it continue on the other side, well, it can make you wonder a bit if you are going the right direction!  We stopped at the Aspen gondolas for lunch and only felt a bit out of place amongst all the tourists in shorts, t-shirts, yoga pants, etc and us in rain gear and dust! We headed back just in time for the rain to start and once again, we were so grateful for good rain gear.  Once back at camp we were trying to figure out what to do in the afternoon until Shawn's family arrived tonight.  We we partway to Mirror Lake to fish when it started raining again. Humm, what should we do?  We headed back to the trading post just when we finally got through to Shawn and Stephanie.  They wee just pulling in to Taylor Park!!!  We caught up with them and lead the way to camp.  Seriously, at that moment, the rain stopped and didn't drop another drip the rest of the weekend!!!!  These guys are such good luck, we may just take them on every trip we go on!!
 

 We summited Tin Cup Pass, Cumberland Pass, Tomichi Pass and Handcock Pass.  We're used to these high elevations, but still find ourselves a bit winded walking around at above 12,000 feet!

I must say, Shawn and Stephanie both drove like a pro! I think a RZR may just be in their future!  At the end of the trip Stephanie said, "Well, that's the last time we'll rent a RZR with you guys."   Wasn't quite sure exactly what that meant until she added, "He wants one!"  

PinepoleTrail.  
This is a nice smooth trail full of woop-d-woos at the beginning and has some nice places to try and find moose.  We didn't see any, but then, the scenery was kind of all a blur with these boys going so fast!  At the end of a trail are old log cabin remains and some mining structures.  Tons of fun to do at high speeds and to catch a little air!

 At St Elmo, we of course just had to feed the chipmunks!!  We haven't ever been to St Elmo on a Saturday and it was quite busy and those chipmunk were well fed!!!  The hummingbirds were a delight as well!

I love seeing a trail lead up to nowhere in the high mountains!
And yes, I got a little bit close to this sweet little marmot!

 Tellerium Trail. 
Kevin and I had done part of this trail last year and this time we had the time to finish it.  Fun trail with all sorts of various terrain.  Steph and I drove this one.  Kevin didn't tell me that part of the trail was on a skree shelf!  Basically, the entire mountain is loose rock and a narrow strip has been worn level (still kinda loose) by the vehicles.  Its intimidating knowing that one slip and you go tumbling 60 feet down the rocks.  But, we made it and were rewarded by the views at the top.  Peaks all around us, mountain lakes below and even a rather large herd of elk on the mountain across the way literally running.  They looked like a trail of little ants weaving across the mountain face, but going at quite the speed.




 Alpine Tunnel
We explored one of the coolest mountain train tunnels in Colorado.  It has quite the story behind its construction and the years that it was functioning.

 Slaughterhouse Gulch 
This trail is one of the fastest and most terrifying trails I have been.  I'm not kidding when I say frightening, and it's not because of a steep cliff, or a rough trail or any of the expected reasons, its because it so smooth that you can hit it at about 40 mph, so windy, that you can't see around the next bend and so narrow that two vehicles can't pass each other.  Put all those reasons together, and I hope you can see why I'm a happy basket case by the end!!!  This trail winds through the trees and rocks but as it winds it is full of "woop-d-woos" and you catch air about every 50 feet!!!  Jadeyn and Austin in the back of our RZR had their hands in the air like a roller coaster and hollered the whole time!  When we got into the trees where is a steep slope on one side and an incline on the other with no room for error, I made Kevin slow down a bit on the blind corners.  Sure enough, we met some 4 wheelers coming at us and stopped in time before we scared them too badly!  Finally out in the open, still flying fast, we came to the very last water crossing of the trip.  Well, Shawn couldn't let all the brand new rain gear go completely untested...soo...KerSplash!!!!!!  Wow!  A wave twice as high as our RZRs and we all got SOAKED!!!!!  Kevin and I didn't bother with the rain gear, so we really got saturated especially when we filled up the whole cab with water above our boots! (we spent the next few miles with arms and legs hanging out of the RZR to try and dry as much as possible!  As for Shawn and his RZR occupants...dripping and smiling!!  We both went through several more times because, why not, we were already soaked!




We finished off the great weekend with pie and ice cream at Frenchy's Cafe in Tin Cup.  Delicious and then we all got a good laugh over just how filthy we were!!

 Since you can't really read the fine print on these bottles, we found a new delight in Coco Fizz Chocolate Soday, High Mountain BlueBerry Soda, and Frostie Blue Cream Soda!!