richard310's 04 Xterra

richard310

pew pew
Day 2:

Woke up a bit late due to fatigue from driving but cooked a quick breakfast with tea and headed out to Arches NP for the quickest tour of the park. Drove all the way up and out via Salt Valley Road since we had a deadline to get into Idaho Springs to meet Josh for the bumper transaction. So I let the girlfriend drive the fireroad out and let her rip. Pretty fun letting the rear end slip out. Anyways we cross the Utah/Colorado border and took obligatory pictures. Passing Vail and all the other resort towns, we finally meet Josh in Idaho Springs about two hours late. We totally forgot to account for the one hour difference. The itinerary I made for this trip went out the window. I salvaged what I could but we stuck to it as best we could. That's the fun of these trips. Anyways, I originally booked a hotel in Boulder for this night but the girlfriend made a wise comment on how we could save $200 and camp instead! Hell, okay! That's what I'm talking about. This made my afternoon, but it would soon be cut short. We drive up the back road to Arapaho NF and look for campsites along the route since there were a handful. Unfortunately almost all the sites were closed due to snow. It wasn't that high but the NF Rangers deemed it impassable. So we continued and found the Reverend Campground in the Golden Gate Canyon SP around 7:00pm. Barely anyone there. For a large facilitated and electrical campsite, there were only 5 campgrounds occupied including us. Temps dropped below 30degrees. This was our first camp in the cold weather. And we weren't as prepared as we should/could have been. Too much moisture in the air took us quite sometime to get the fire going. We cooked up some ramen and attempted to sleep in this frigid weather. An interesting night.

Campsite along the Colorado River south of Arches NP.


Moab sign pose


Moab behind us now


Arches NP entrance!


Somewhere in those cold mountains would have been Oohwah Campground. Too cold.


A great drive for such a short route!


One of the numerous arches in the park


Speed it up honey!


At the border of Arches NP. Heading back to the highway




At the Colorado border. I'll save the pose for myself. :)


Saw these badboys being hauled somewhere near Vail


Beautiful resort and mountain towns


Eisenhower and Johnson Tunnels


After meeting Josh and bumper in the trunk, we finally made it to the outskirts of Denver.


Sign was fenced off so we couldn't pose on this one. Golden Gate Canyon State Park.


The road to our campsite


It's so damn cold. Fingers and toes were about to fall off
 

richard310

pew pew
Day 3:

This day would be the most relaxed. We slept in till 10am and enjoyed our brunch. Slowly packed up and headed out towards Boulder. Once we got into town, we had some time to kill as my friend we were visiting wouldn't be off of work til 5pm so we headed over to the local Target and resupplied. Then met up, had dinner in downtown Boulder and unpacked at his place.

The morning of






Our usual breakfast everytime we camp


This little guy kept coming in to eat the crumbs. Didn't even care we were there.


Out of focus but meh


Heading out from Reverend


River running alongside the road
 

richard310

pew pew
Day 4:

My buddy took us out to Rocky Mountain NP to explore areas he's never been to. We took his car and went out driving. Stopped at the Stanley Hotel where they filmed The Shining and Dumb&Dumber. We headed towards Bear Lake and it was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on. Weather was perfect, scenary was brisk. Unfortunately along the way, we saw the aftermath of the recent floods that happened in the area. Swept a lot of the land and housing away. The traffic going up was caused by the construction crews cleaning up what was left of the damage and landslides. Well anyways, we hit a few spots to take pictures of the scenary, and play in the snow since we don't really get that here in LA. Finally hit Bear Lake around 5ish. It was quite cold, as cold as the previous camp night. We walked across the frozen lake which was pretty cool. My camera died so I don't have any pictures of the ensuing activities. We found these two large snowballs in the middle of the lake and decided to make a snowman by stacking the balls. I swear the snowballs were probably 60-70lbs as it took two guys to lift. On the way back it started to snow a bit and we ran into a herd of elk and deer. One of the elk got pretty darn close to the car. Exciting day for us urban-ites.

Damage from the recent flooding










Estes Park sign!


obligatory




The Stanley Hotel


View from the hotel






Male elk enjoying the day




Elk poop. We stepped on a lot of it.


It started snowing


Deer!


Herd of elk!




I do what I want.


Among the trees
 

richard310

pew pew
Day 5:

Woke up late. Had lunner and had one last hurrah at the Flat Irons. Said goodbye to my friend and off we went. Drove 12 hours straight and the girlfriend took care of the rest. Saw a deer laid out on the road. Blood, guts and limbs all over the highway. I thought someone had painted the highway red. Interesting sight to see. An uneventful drive back home. Hit stupid Los Angeles traffic in the morning of Day 6. All the stupid drivers were out in-force. Work called as I was having lunch so after finishing lunch and dropping the girlfriend off, I had to head into work zombified. A bummer but I'm all caught up.

I really wish I had at least another day to stay in Moab but I guess there is always next time.

Goodbye Boulder and you hippy hipsters.


After work, I got to enjoy this.


A great end to a wonderful trip.
 

richard310

pew pew
Very very nice, good pictures as always, reminds me of my trips out there haha

I already miss it but I'm getting ready to head into the San Jacinto mountain area with some old friends I haven't seen in probably 7-8 years. A little camping, backpacking, and exploring. I've got a few weeks to prep.
 

richard310

pew pew
Congrats on your new (to you) purchase. If you need a hand installing it on your X let me know. I'm sure its probably too heavy for 1-2 guys to hold it in place and run some bolts.
I'll be waiting for some trip pics as well.

Demo thanks for the offer! I'll be slapping it on this weekend but I think I'll be gtg. Did you make it to the meet this month? I'll be going to the next one depending on location and time.
 

richard310

pew pew
So I finally spent some time touching up the rusted portions and sanding. Spot primered and recoated the entire swing out in bedliner. Might change to more of a paint based since the vinyl type coating comes off pretty easily. But I got the carrier all up and running. Missing a bushing though on one of the swingouts so that'll have to wait till tomorrow morning or at work Monday. Pics up tomorrow!
 

richard310

pew pew
It's so pretty. So, so, pretty.

Only thing I've found bad with the double heim joints is that with the spare tire on the rack, it pivots back and forth a LOT. I'd say a good few inches. Forward/backward movement needs to be addressed. I tried adding a spacer under the swingarm to limit movement but it only made a tiny difference. Might have to weld the ball in the heim together to limit movement all together.

The AT holders barely move at all when locked down.
 

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