Posted by bruce in CO on Friday, August 02, 2002 at 6:24PM :
The only full-week participants at the 2002 11th annual Rocky Mountain Rendezvous were Carl Buckingham from Aspen, CO with the truck-of-legend the elusive & mysterious 11T3, the brothers Ausley (Terry & Jody) from Caldwell, TX with "Scruffy" a stock M37 (along with an ATV & dirt bike), and Michigan's own Lyle VanWert a full time passenger/cameraman with no 4X4. The remainder of the participants drifted in and out throughout the event.
My perspective is from Wed & Thurs only. On Wed AM Chris Godfrey from Canton, GA departed with his M37 after a few days of trail riding. Wed's ride included several trail branches and abandoned mine exploration in Governor Basin accessed from Canyon Creek and Sneffels Creek drainages. This run was to be repeated on Fri for the newcomers. Wed evening saw the arrival of Noel & Henry (last names ?) driving an open-top M37 down from Denver and Drew Reed and his son Nile also with an open-top M37, but trailered from Malibu, CA. Drew arrived just hours after the t-shirts which he Fed-Ex'ed the previous day.
Thur's ride was repeated from earlier in the week up Poughkeepsie Gulch branching off of the Engineer Pass Trail. Several club outings along with vehicles in the area from a big Jeep event in Silverton resulted in record-breaking trail congestion. In spite of a few displays of ignorance; patience, good trail etiquette, and high spirits prevailed. The negatives of trail gridlock were balanced by great weather and the chance to see (and be seen by) a wide variety of vehicles in a show where our old Dodges were the stars. Newcomers on Thurs night included Joel Taylor from just up the road in Montrose, CO in a late model pickup, Ken (last name?) from AZ in a '51 flatfender with a fire body, and an unidentified trailed red flatfender which I passed on my way out of town (possibly John Eickhof???).
Campfire yarns at future events will go back to the 2002 RMR in attemt to answer the following questions:
Why should the Ausley brothers move to Ouray and open a brake shop?
Why should tall rubber boots and headlamps be required items to attend any future RMR?
Is Dr. Cranium's area of specialty really gynecology, and where are the photos proving that he provides mobile backcountry service in this field?
In spite of how I and others poke fun at my Jap stuff, I maintain that the '91 4-Runner for a stone-stock SUV is a well engineered, well proportioned and balanced off-roader. It will never earn a "Rocky Mountain Hard Corps" decal, but its always a joy to use for traveling and substancial offroading with prudent driving ability and realization of limitations. Sorry for the long post!!! Bruce
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