Introduction - This describes our Fall 2003 Ham Radio camping and
caravan trip to Durango, CO to ride the narrow gauge RR and to 4WD near Silverton. We had three
RVs with five people, all Ham Radio operators.
See 2003 Whitney Classic/Campout for the second week of this trip,
to Lone Pine, CA.
PHOTO - Silverton, CO
Travel - We decided to leave on Friday afternoon, September 26, to
shorten the remaining two day drive to Durango. Son Matthew, W6KDJ, and I caravanned to Fallon,
NV with Don, KO6CO, and got three campsites at the Fallon RV park at 7:30. We reached Ed,
KE6AFB, on his cell phone in Reno, and told him that we had a site for him and Sunny, KE6AFA.
They arrived at 9 PM. Our three trailers were my 17' Jayco pop-up, Don's 25' Airstream, and Ed
and Sunny's 24' Rockwood pop-up.
PHOTO - Airtween pop-up, not seen on this trip.
Saturday was a long day, partly because we lost an hour. We enjoyed the usual radio conversation, had lunch at the Hickson Petroglyphs, and got gas (and diesel) in Ely. I called ahead from Delta, UT for campsites in Salina, UT at the Butch Cassady Campground. We talked about stopping for dinner in Delta, but we kept going and got to Salina after dark. After setting up camp, Ed, Sunny, Matthew, and I went to dinner at the Madhouse Restaurant. I had the steak sandwich and highly recommend it.
We had a little more breathing room on Sunday, and stopped at an I-70 viewpoint where some bought indian jewelry. We also stopped in Green River to buy mellons, and in Moab at the Visitor Center. We had lunch at the rest stop by the Hole in the Rock, south of Moab. We got into Durango at a reasonable hour, and took our reserved spots at the Cottonwood RV Park near downtown.
Durango - Monday was a free day so we went to the depot to pick up our tickets for the following day, and
visited the shops in and near the depot. For those on the 1971 trip, I found out why the Nomad
private car is now painted red, at least according to the clerk in the depot gift shop! It was
in an accident a few years ago and in restoring it, they discovered that the bottom layer of
paint was red. The old green was Pullman Green and was widely used when it became Government
surplus. The red apparently makes the car older than they thought.
Train - Tuesday, we got on the 9 AM train, being pulled by #480. Matthew was shooting Digital 8 video,
Ed and I were taking digital stills, and Don had 35mm. The weather was perfect and the trip
was as enjoyable as ever. Unlike last time, we all sat together, on the same end of the train.
PHOTO - Sunny, (Les behind), Ed, Don
An interesting thing happened. They were working on the highway to Silverton, blasting rock from
the cliff, just where you first see the town from the South. They overdid it and closed the
highway for a few hours while they cleared some BIG rocks. This affected the train because the
bus couldn't get through for those ticketed to ride the train only one way. They did have the
bus meet the train at Rockwood for those that still wanted it.
4WD - Wednesday, we traveled that highway to go 4-wheeling but things were back to normal. We had
about a 5 minute delay for traffic control going to Silverton and 15 returning due to waiting
for the next blast. We rolled right through Silverton and took the 10 AM tour at the Old Hundred
Mine near Howardsville. This was a great tour. Matthew videotaped 37 minutes and has most of the
narrative. He was disappointed that he ran out of tape just before the closing explanation
of the honeywagon.
We drove on to Animas Forks. After lunch there, we 4-wheeled up to Cinnamon
Pass. We turned back toward the Engineer Pass road where we took the fork to Ouray. After
checking for another copy of the 4WD book we had been using, for Ed (nope), we got back to
Durango by 6 PM.
Travel - Don, Matthew, and I left Durango on Thursday morning with Ed and Sunny an hour or so ahead of us. Ed and Sunny were returning to Sacramento, but the rest of us were going to the Whitney Classic bike ride in Lone Pine, CA to help with the communications. We talked to Ed a couple of times, and talked to Jim, WB6ZII, and Marsha, KD6TTS, MVRC members who were in Moab, while we were having lunch at the Hole in the Rock rest stop again. We spent the night in St. George, UT at the same RV park as last year's trip. It is a large facility but Don and I had the same spots as Ed and Jim had before! They told us that the new Wal Mart across the street was the 2nd largest in the world. I don't know about that, but they had the 1st longest checkout lines!
We finally got to drive the new north 215 bypass route from I-15 to US 95, which wasn't quite open last year. Other than a trailer flat in Amargossa Valley, and lunch in Beatty, the trip to Lone Pine was uneventful. Although this was only the halfway point in our travels, it was the end of the official Fall 2003 trip.
| This trip was discussed on the Mobileer e-mail group and scheduled by the Mt. Vaca
Radio Club (MVRC).
Radio frequency used - 147.555 MHz. FM simplex. Don talked to a group near Sacramento on 75 meters almost every day. |
.