Ham & eggs run, Saturday April 18th

[nakman]

Well all in all it was a successful run. We started out at the Mathews & Winters trailhead, and hung out until about 8:30 when the local guy who lives behind the parking lot demanded we get off his driveway so he could plow , so off we went. Groucho requested an adventure, so we went up hwy 74 Morrison Canyon to Kitteredge, with the plan to take Kerr Gulch up to El Rancho then double back to Genessee. While in transit, we were able to communicate with DaveinDenver on simplex, who was going to head up 40 to Genessee to meet us. We also made contact with Martin who was just leaving his house in Evergreen.

So I missed the turn to Kerr Gulch and figured that's alright we'll just cruise up Troublesome Gulch and turn around. Well that quickly turned into an adventure, as the road went from a couple tracks to no tracks, and suddenly I'm leading a snow run... hey not all that bad but also this could get kind of sketchy so we found a driveway and all turned around. And to fulfill the adventure objective, Groucho promptly found himself in a ditch and needed to be strapped out by Jack Hess.

 

[Squishy!]

Way cool. M dad was so bummed he had to miss that run because he had to go to Breck and snowshoe and do nothing else but relax.. poor guy.

 

[nakman]

during the brief recovery, Dave communicated that he could barely make it up 40 to Genessee, but managed to persevere and make personal contact with a state patrol, who pointed back down the hill. So apparently Evergreen was closed this morning, at least from I-70 and US40, and probably just as well that we didn't try from the Kerr Gulch side. Martin was monitoring all of this as well, so he turned down 74 and ended up following the group back down the canyon, where we met up with Dave at the original meeting place, Mathews-Winters parking lot.

The breakfast buffet was adequate, albeit a little light on flare since no one wanted to deal with stoves or anything. Gmann brought a ham, which was very tasty as well as punfully appropriate, we also had coffee, juice, turnovers, and french toast that was cooked on the the engine, which proved to be the kid favorite.

edit: and since it was snowing/raining sideways, that tarp proved to be a very nice barricade..

 

[nakman]

the weather was downright sloppy. Rain mixed with snow mixed with rain... everyone was pretty much soaked. But we did manage to accomplish our objective- Martin's new FT8800 received a fresh dose of programming, Jack learned how to turn off the "wires" beep on his 8800, as well as picked up a few more tricks. Gmann received some antenna tuning, and most were able to participate in pushing free a rav4 who thought that he could negotiate the unplowed parking lot... he thought wrong.

 

[nakman]

As for the "nets," contact was made with several other RS members on simplex- Rock Dog, Wesintl, Mendocino, and Jaderunner all managed to speak with the group. We weren't able to speak with anyone via the colorado connection, but that's ok, still everyone learned something and had a smile on their face when we left the parking lot. Thanks again for coming everyone, we'll do this again next year for sure.

 

[Mendocino]

...Gmann brought a ham, which was very tasty as well as punfully appropriate...

Nicely done!

Sorry I missed this, but it did allow me to get more work done on my 40 and I enjoyed talking to you on simplex with my HT.

 

[JadeRunner]

Thanks for the prompt wright-up and pictures. Looks like you guys had fun anyway.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Thanks for keeping the faith Nakman, a lesser man would have bagged the whole thing looking outside this morning.

Thanks again for coming everyone, we'll do this again next year for sure.

Just be sure to pick the weekend next year with out a foot of snow/groppel/sleet/rain/slush. Pretty cool seeing the precipitation morph through all major forms though...

 

[Karst8835]

Thank you for organizing the Ham & Eggs Run. I had fun and learned a few tricks about my FT8800.

 

[Rock Dog]

Thanks again guys, i had fun lurkin in from the southern burbs... most of you came in real clear, and i was able to talk a bit with Wes on his new HT...

 

[Rzeppa]

Sounds like fun. I didn't make it - power has been off up here since yesterday morning and only just came back on late this afternoon. I ended up sleeping in. Reminded me of the blizzard of '03 - no power, no phone, no heat, no internet. We made a nice fire last night and heated up dinner on a camp stove, served by candle light.

Troublesome Gulch is a dead end. What you guys should have done would have been to take Grapevine Hill from Idledale - it goes straight to Genessee. Kerr Gulch might have worked, but with I-70 closed they might not have let you on.

I spent a goodly portion of yesterday afternoon/evening strapping my neighbors up the hill. I even got myself into a ditch and ended up winching out. If this storm had been a "normal" and not so warm I bet we would have had 5 feet. I saw on the news just now that Rollinsville got something like 50". I wonder how Terry is doing?

My main complaint about the power being off is that I had a bunch of pre-Moab wrenching I had planned for today which got nixed, but I am so (knock on wood!) glad it has finally been restored!

Happy cruisin'!

 

[farnhamstj]

I listened on the Vail repeater for a little while, thought I might catch someone. I was able to speak to gmann at the event with a similar technology called cellular phone. While not as cool as my Yeasu. It's almost as clear as if he were sitting next to me in the truck. Glad everyone had fun. I wanted to make it but the roads just wern't gonna let it happen. So I had to ski instead.

 

[MDH33]

Just returned from Utah. Thanks Nakman for organizing this, and thanks Dave for helping me learn to program my radio. I monitored the CCR's all the way in to Utah.

I had no power from 6:00am on Friday and still no power on Monday morning when we left for Utah. Brook Forest got 47 inches of heavy wet snow and we lost a few trees to the weight. I was stoked to find power again when we returned last night.