“Breaker for the Bronco. Have
you got a canoe in that tank?”
About half-way up the mountain, Mother Nature had washed the trail away
and replaced it with huge boulders and a bubbling mountain stream. The IT Patrol took turns bouncing over the
boulders and sloshing through the water, then continued their journey toward
Tincup Pass. The trail was rough, but
not much of a challenge for their 4x4s.
The only danger was the large rocks along the trail. One wrong move by a driver and a rock could
knock a hole in something that would immobilize the vehicle.
“How bout it C.J. Does that
winch on your bumper work?”
Tincup Pass originally started years ago as a stagecoach trail carrying
passengers and supplies between the thriving gold mining towns of St. Elmo and
Tincup. St Elmo is now a ghost town with
one small store for tourist to buy trinkets and Tincup is a summer resort for
those who want to spend some time in the past.
The IT Patrol decided Tincup Pass had been too easy and zipped away in
search of something toughter.
“Breaker Nissan leader. Are you
sure we haven’t been through here before.
That jogger looks familiar.”
They found Taylor Pass: to be another much-less-traveled stagecoach
trail. It wandered through dense
forests, so narrow in places, the Bronco had to pull its mirrors in. Above tree-line, the trail opened into
beautiful valleys with several unsoiled lakes and gurgling clear-water streams.
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