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Triple Bypass Run - Bruce Miller Memorial

Romer

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I just got back from a run I have wanted to do since I joined the club. It was extra special in memory of Bruce Miller led by his son Ross. Bruce started this run and others with the Club. It was great to see Barb Miller. Barb, Nathanial and Nelda worked to ensure we had a hot meal and plenty of Beer when we got off the trail at 7PM last night. It was really nice to hang out with the Miller's and catch up.

I was expecting a medium run over three Mountain passes. This trail was harder than I expected, and as a result the challenges made the trip even more meaningful. Fortunately there was no breakage with our crew. Jackson showed his skill in repairing a ripped sidewall on an ATV. Why don't they carry a spare tire, at least within a group? Jackson used a record amount of tire repair products to get the tire to hold air and get off that pass (Pearl) and do most of the next one (Taylor) He had a buddy with him with an air compressor who passed us on his own coming down Taylor and he had been drinking . . . a lot. He went off trail to get around us.

It was a great group of people on the run. Many of them are old and dear friends who it seems I have known for ages.

The campground was great. Very isolated so not crowded. You go there to hunt, be alone or do these passes as nothing else is around there.

I didn't take a lot of pictures. Perry has quite a few. Hopefully he will post some of the river we had to drive through on huge rocks near the end of Taylor. Obviously the hardest part of the day

The first picture was interesting. I had to drive through a Cattle Drive

Second is the view from my camp site

Third is after we started coming down Italian Creek

The next three are Pearl Pass

The final is Ige making the summit on Taylor Pass
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wesintl

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Fantastic run Ross. Thank you for getting us all together again for this run in memory of Bruce. Thank you Nathaniel and Barbara for the delicious meal beer and desert! It was great to see some familiar friends!
 

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jps8460

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What a great time! Thanks Ross for putting this together. I can’t tell you how awesome it is to get off the dusty trail and have a hot meal, ice cold beer, and desert that were all out of this world. Thanks Nathaniel and Barb.

Fantastic trip. Nick and I were too busy jaw jackin to take too many pics. I can’t wait to get back.
 

RayRay27

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Huge thanks to Ross and the entire Miller family. What an amazing time, couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
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Hulk

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I've been wanting to do the Triple Bypass Run for many years and was finally able to do it. It was 11 straight hours of wheeling with only a short break for lunch. It's a whole lot of seat time with few breaks, and the hardest part of the route was the last hour. It was super special to be a part of the tribute to Bruce Miller, who was influential to me when I first joined the club. Thanks to @Ross Miller for putting this together and leading all day (one handed!).

Here are some iPhone photos. I never broke out my good camera since I was focused on driving and Perry was head photog for the run.

Perry @bh4rnnr - my copilot for the day.

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#1 Pass: The view headed up to the Italian Creek pass.

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There's a nice house up at high elevation. The gentleman that owns it is not interested in surprise visitors.

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Getting close to the top...

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Great views from the top!

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Michael Fyffer's 60

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We stopped at the bottom of the other side for a 15 minute break. Here's Mike Koons @baileyfj40 walking his friendly dog.

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We had 11 trucks (of which there were six 80s).

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The crew

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Hulk

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#2 Pass: Pearl Pass. This one is the most dramatic of the three passes. It's also the highest of the three passes at 12,700 ft.

When we finished Italian Creek, we popped onto a paved road a few miles from Crested Butte. Four of us drove to town to fuel up. Then we quickly headed up the trail to catch up with the group who had stopped for lunch.

The views get dramatic as you head up.

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Here's Perry shooting a photo of @wesintl. You can also see a bit of @nuclearlemon Ige's truck.

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Mountain lakes are so cool. I bet this is frozen more than half the time.

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This is just before we crested the pass. You can see the sign at the upper right of the photo. There was a GX that had to back up to the top to allow our group of 11 trucks to pass.

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The views from the top of Pearl Pass are unbelievable. I could have sat up there for hours taking it all in. Unfortunately, with a group our size, we had to keep moving. Here's a shot of @Herring Chris' GX near the top on the way down.

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Switchbacks make for good photo opportunities. Here is @fyffer in his 60.

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Here's @Romer in his 200.

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And Wes @wesintl in his 70-series diesel. He was tail gunner for the day.

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We found a guy on a side-by-side with a hole in the sidewall of his tire. He had no spare tire. Jackson @jps8460 got the hole sealed with a bunch of tire plugs, filled it with air, and got him moving down the trail behind our group.

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Perry took photos leaning out my 80 like this all day long.

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Hulk

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#3: Taylor Pass. It's a long way down from the top of Pearl Pass. You pop out near the tiny town of Ashcroft. Within 2 minutes, you're on the trail up to Taylor Pass. The west side is an easy climb of 5.5 miles on dirt roads through tons of aspens.

Aspen leaves had just started turning yellow. In a couple of weeks, this whole area will be amazing.

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The view from the top of Taylor Pass is nice.

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While going up the west side was easy, coming down the east side was GNARLY. It was super rocky and bouncy the whole way. This culminated in the creek crossing / rock garden that required spotting for many of us. Wyatt, Wes' 8th grade son, did some excellent spotting.

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Here's a video of Mike Koons @baileyfj40 navigating skillfully through one of the big obstacles. You can also see a bit of @fyffer and @RayRay27 headed down as well. Spotting by Wyatt and Jackson.



I don't have any more shots of the run, but I wanted to include this photo of Ige's 80 because it makes me happy.

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subzali

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Great pics Matt! You guys had great weather!
 

bh4rnnr

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@Hulk, great pics and report!

Thanks for sharing. What a blast of a weekend!

:beer::beer:
 

bh4rnnr

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@Ross Miller, thanks for leading such a great run. Like others, this was my first time experiencing the Triple Bypass Run. For some 20 years I've always read about this run and wanted to go, but it never seemed to work out. Super glad I made it this year. For such a long day and challenging trails, you did a great job leading us through the passes. You seem to have a knack for persuading oncoming traffic to pull over and wait for the group.

@Groucho and Barbra, thanks for all the work you guys did for making sure we had a hearty meal and delicious beer waiting for us when we got off the trail. Hanging around the fire after with everyone was wonderful.

Lots of pics for me to go through, managed to take over 260 pics on Saturday.

Two for now.


Pearl Pass.
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Views from Taylor Pass (Aspen Side).
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:beer: :beer:
 

Herring

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Ross - what a great tribute! Thanks for being a part of it - friends & traditions, all the best. It wasn't meant to be easy but it was great fun. I especially enjoyed the people I met. Everybody was great and the support for the rookie was much appreciated. Although after the back side of Taylor pass - a rookie no more. Wondering if Perry or Mike could post the precarious position I was in? A special thanks to Jackson - glad we had a recovery specialist on the team and Romer for encouraging me to join. Looking forward to a class or two.
 

Stuckinthe80s

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As others have already stated, this is definitely a special run for this club and a HUGE thanks to the Millers for continuing on the tradition! @Ross Miller you did a fantastic job leading and what a stud you are navigating that thicc Hundy with one arm AND it being a manual!

@Hulk those pics are AMAZING! I feel like the calendar this year might be made up of pics just from this run!
 

RossM

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We want to extend a great big Thank you! from the Miller Family to everyone who participated and who showed up to hang out, you all made this event extremely special. It was really great to spend time together and see some folks we haven't seen in quite some time. This was and continues to be very special to The Miller Family in memory of my late father Bruce, and we hope special to you all as well. It sounds like we rung the bell on this all around which makes me very humbled and happy to have been a part of it. Thank you for the compliments as well, you're all very kind and I appreciate it.

We're very pleased that we had some of the best weather anyone could ask for and that we were Blessed with no mechanical issues nor real damage to speak of. I want to mention honorably some people who helped out back at camp while we were out driving to trails: my beautiful wife Nelda, my mother Barbara with the dutch oven desserts, Bruce Westlund @Jethro and our friend Duane Teehee who were paramount in helping get fires going and things set up, and of course my big brother Nathaniel @Groucho with the fantastic hot supper and cold beer that awaited all of us upon our return.

We were supposed to line up for a group photo once back at camp with our event t-shirts on before the sun went down, and I blew it- sorry Perry @bh4rnnr . (I was reporting a drunken side by side driver to the Ranger station with Ige @nuclearlemon ) My very sincerest apologies for that special photo not happening, it was my fault Ken @Romer. Next year. :)

Thank you all @Hulk and @RayRay27 and @Romer and @wesintl for posting these fantastic photos, they are a tremendous testament to this run and our beautiful state. Please continue to share them, they are really amazing. Next year, let's get more people shooting photos in the front, middle and rear!

Thank you all again, you're all wonderful people and we appreciate you very much.

Ross
 
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Romer

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@Ross Miller , I am sure Perry has plenty of great pictures to document the event. No reason to apologize to me as I had a awesome time. It was Perry as you said who suggested it and I am sure he is good with how it turned out. It was too dark to get a good photo then in any case

The Millers did hit it out of the park and I for one will count this as one of my favorite trail runs ever
 

bh4rnnr

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@Ross Miller , I am sure Perry has plenty of great pictures to document the event. No reason to apologize to me as I had a awesome time. It was Perry as you said who suggested it and I am sure he is good with how it turned out. It was too dark to get a good photo then in any case

The Millers did hit it out of the park and I for one will count this as one of my favorite trail runs ever

Thanks Ken! Hoped to get pics posted today from the run but not happy with post editing.... So back to editing another 90 pics.

Ross,

I'll play of what Ken said. Having known about this run for so long and now finally being able to make it was wonderful. To be on the run with friends I've known forever, even better. It was pretty humbling to me to know that most of the group, we've been on the trail for some 20 years. My first Cruise Moab trail ride was with Bruce and Barbra Miller on Kane Creek (2002)

Sorry for the delay in getting pics up. One of Ken for now.

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:beer::beer:
 

bh4rnnr

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Ross,

Thanks for such a great run. So fun to finally make this fantastic run. A great trip to honor Bruce Miller. Coming back to camp and have a fantastic meal and delicious beer from @Groucho. We were all beat by the end of the day so that was icing on the cake.

Pics:

Evening sets in. Good to be on the trail with Fat Bastard again.
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Camp. Ross, Ken, Mike and the rest of the group was "just over the hill" and staying in the official Dorchester campground.
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@Hulk
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@fyffer . Think Mike was still mad at me for that old man comet..o_O.
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Typical Ige.
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A fine sunset for our first night at camp.
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Morning warmth.
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Lined up and ready to go. 8am start time.
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Some cool big boulders on this section of Italian Creek.
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:beer::beer:
 
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