Things don't go so well on the upper end of Yankee Boy Basin, above Ouray, Colorado. Trip almost ended here...
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey
Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Things don't go so well on the upper end of Yankee Boy Basin, above Ouray, Colorado. Trip almost ended here...
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey
Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I think the sign refers to buffalo, but... a lotta wild things happened in the old days.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
After crossing the border in Coutts, Alberta into Sweet Grass, Montana, the I-15 conveyed me to Great Falls. Felt like America. And that felt strange.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The Rainboffalo of Great Falls. Half rainbow trout, half buffalo, all weird.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
After earning my stripes in Cadomin, I applied my stickers. Shout-outs to Rugged Ridge, MudBudz Wheelin, Factor 55, Barlow Adventures and patron saint Nena Barlowe, Lenser, and Leatherman.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Ah, Montana. The view from Travis Creek Road in the Helena National Forest.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Climbing higher, overlooking Park Lake in the Helena National Forest.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Another road closed on the Grand Continental Divide Trail. This happens a lot. America stands still for no one.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Early afternoon on Highland Road outside of Butte, MT. I had a feeling this was going to be a fine day at the office.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Still on Highland Road, more of Montana's mix of narrow, tree-lined singletrack that opens into broad brown valleys and grazing land.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
No road names anymore, only GPS points near Mt. Fleecer, MT. Even in the general, omnipresent near-solitude of Montana, I felt like I was a long way from anything. A short rocky stretch atop this ridge led to...
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
This ridiculously slick, steep, rocky section of shale, 27 degrees at its steepest. This was even lonelier than being at the top, until...
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Cattle emerged from the bushes, followed by cowboys. The vaqueros all had one question: "How did you get down here?! This ain't a road!" If you find a cowboy with homemade blackberry brandy, sip wisely. They need a potent kind of special sauce to live in the Montana woods for weeks at a time. This was a good day at the office.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The cows also wanted to know what I was doing there.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Just turned onto Montana Hwy 87 from Hwy 287, this is what we call foreshadowing. Nasty things ahead.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
On the Yellowstone Branch Line Trail on the bank of Henry's Fork (of the Snake River). A web of black-rock trails begged me to explore, but they were only wide enough for ATVs. The sign prohibits crossing to any vehicle wider then 50 inches. These are regular reminders that my route was made by a motorcyclist, for motorcyclists.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
A good time for a walk, then. Looking upstream of Henry's Fork.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Looking downstream of Henry's Fork.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I poked the Rubicon's nose as far down a trail as I could, before the passing side-by-side drivers started asking hard questions and calling rangers.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Back to something approaching civilization, outside Marysville, ID. The Grand Tetons line the horizon.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Fall colors fill the gap between myself and the Tetons on North 4500 East in Idaho.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Evening begins over John D. Rockefeller Junior Parkway, Jackson Lake, and the Tetons.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I had to pull off the road to get a hero shot of the Grand Tetons, since tour buses and rental cars filled all the pullouts.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
A laundromat, public shower service, and car wash in Dubois, WY. This is just up the road from a jackalope as big as a horse that you can sit on.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
On the way to Moon Lake, a good Wrangler test suggested by Bill Riter, the service manager at Lithia Jeep in Great Falls, WY. Marlboro Man weather.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Wyoming is my favorite state. It's beautiful like nowhere else in the world.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The last three miles to Moon Lake to an hour. This stretch of boulders doesn't look like much, but it's waiting to ruin the day for any careless driver - on 33s with 800 pounds of cargo - who thinks he's got better things to do than focus.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Another boulder field, uphill, covered with more snow that hides the worst traps. So first a walkthrough, then two miles an hour and a lot of rocking.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
These were the worst boulder fields. I couldn't see anything but snow. The only tracks I saw other than my own were from two horses. Smarter explorers than me.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Finally, the hill above Moon Lake.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I decided to go down the hill just to see if I could make it back up. Angled down 28 degrees at its steepest, boulders, stumps, and roots didn't skimp on the challenge level.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Worth it - because I made it back out alive. I recommend lunch by Moon Lake, even in the snow.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Had to get back up the hill, though. The trail split around a giant stump. I thought the right fork would be easiest due to the lack of boulders, but slick roots on the inside of the turn and boulders on the outside killed traction. You can see the brown divot where I spun the front left wheel trying to make it up.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
So I tried the left fork, which I thought would be too hard because of the boulder steps in the middle of the trail. I was already staring at the sky before the step-up. But, given enough throttle to leave skid marks in the snow, the Wrangler climbed up and over.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
A final boulder field climbing up the last stretch to the hilltop. Had to spin the wheels a few times to get through, but this was sweetness and light after what came before.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Union Pass Road, Wyoming. That is all.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Lander Cutoff Road, Wyoming, on the way to Rawlins. This was near the beginning of what would be the longest and most mentally exhausting day of driving on the trip.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The abandoned Carissa Mine on South Pass City Rd, South Pass, WY, one of the richest gold rush mines in the 1860s.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Before cresting the hill and seeing Atlantic City, I was sure I was in a quiet nowhere. I don't know why 57 people live here, but that's Wyoming. You gotta be a hard unit to endure year-round anywhere in this state, so why not... here?
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Let the games begin. Riverview Cutoff, not long out of Atlantic City. Between this spot and Atlantic City, there was a stretch of trail that looked like a pleasant, snowless fall day. Then it turned to this. Then it got worse.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Wyoming cooks up a blend of mud and ice that's the worst of both substances, the combo splashing onto everything and crusting up. There's more than a quarter-inch of it on the rear fenders, and plenty everywhere else.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Early into the adventure, I'd soaked the front with a healthy mud-mâché mask. I had to get out occasionally and beat the crunchy goop off the headlights.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The sun long gone, I'm the only dummy still trying to get somewhere on these back roads. The few locals still out had the sense to be on paved roads, the rest were in front of home fires. This was where I checked my GPS to find out how much further to Rawlins. The bad news: 61 miles. Oops.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
This is me, refusing to stop. Driving through constant rain, snow, and large puddles, there was so much crust outside that I had to bang the driver's door to open it when I reached cattle gates, and had to bang off inches of crust to open the back doors. I still had 40 miles to go.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Nasty and unforgettable. But Rawlins. Finally.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
After the photo I took in the dark, I refused to get out and scrape the front again. This is what I got for it.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Back in Utah and Colorado, the front wheels threw dust. In Wyoming, the wheels throw this. If you need to get in the back door, first you must clear the rear fender, then you must excavate the door handle, then pull. Hard.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The next day, Wyoming warmed up as if the mud run had never happened. So I took a walk and came across this near my hotel, a Willys Motors Jeep Forward Control, Jeep FC for short. It features what Car and Driver called an "endearing happy face."
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Made from 1957-1966, this is a short wheelbase version. This was another option for post-war veterans looking for a handy truck around the farm less intense than a Power Wagon, with power takeoffs and implement attachments.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The Jeep FC was based on the Jeep CJ-5, but open, roomy, cab-over cockpit stressed efficient use of space. Industrial designer Brooks Stevens penned the FC, as well as the original Willys-Overland Jeepster, the Jeep Wagoneer, and the 1949 Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide. According to Hemmings, the FC would inspire Ford to create the Econoline pickup, Chevy to create a Corvair pickup, and Dodge to create the A100 pickup. Jeep created a Mighty FC concept for the 2012 Easter Jeep Safari.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
After a weather-related highway closure, and a micro-fuse incident, I was on my way again down Sage Creek Road toward Colorado. Tests in the high mountains awaited.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Wyoming had plenty of variety left for me. After a trek through wet, boggy trail, the ground dried up through this stretch of Forest Road 807.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Then more snow as I climbed to the Colorado border on Forest Service Road 551 in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Dry land again in Colorado, over forested hill and through treed gullies on Forest Road 551.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Country Road 129 as the sun goes down on the way to Steamboat Springs, Hahn's Peak in the distance.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Some people are real serious about their barns.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The only bear I've seen on the trip so far, in Fairplay, CO. And I'm fine with that.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Departing Fairplay, CO on the way to Montrose, CO. Colorado must have a million awards for the quality of its vistas.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Here's another, looking back into the valley before cresting the hill to Breckrenridge. These kinds of views make breakfast taste so much better.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Overlooking Breckenridge on the way to Boreas Pass. Not long after pulling out, I crept up to the bumper of two older women creeping up the snowy trail in a Ford Focus with Missouri plates, and followed them to the 11,482-foot summit.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Just over Boreas Pass, headed a long way downhill to Como, CO.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Back down to thicker air on Country Road 53 between ranges, near Agate Mountain.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Ute Trail in the Pike and San Isabel National Forests & Cimarron Comanche National Grasslands, with the Sawatch Range in Gunnison National Park in the distance. I think the cows and mining engineers in Colorado might have the best views.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The McDonald's in Montrose, CO. Although this looks like a pirated version of McDo, or the Eye of Mordor, it's actually based on motifs used in early McDonald's stores, which used one arch.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I got to Colorado too late to do Poughkeepsie Gulch, so I settled for Yankee Boy Basin above Ouray. Camp Bird Road begins the steep, beautiful journey to the top.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Break right onto County Road 26 and crawl under a cliff shelf next to a vertical drop.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
On Yankee Boy Basin Road, cut by deep gullies in a few places, pocked with puddles and boulders elsewhere.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
It got high enough and cold enough for snow to stick, and I decided I wanted to get to the peak in the distance, or at least reach the pass, wherever that was.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I can't say I wasn't warned. I was ready. I thought I was ready.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The base of the switchback where it all went wrong. I'd struggled a bit to reach this point, but was still committed to the pass. Bogged down one hundred feet up, I decided I only wanted to go further than the other set of wheel tracks.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The trail didn't want to let me beyond this point. So I decided to lock up and put the left side tires on the rocks for traction. Those rocks form the left lip of the trail, and they're soft, not hard. I pushed off, getting further than the other wheel tracks. I backed up to do it again. The rocks, on soft dirt underneath, gave way. I dug in and got stuck. Then I tried to back up...
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
And couldn't get back on the trail. The rear left slipped over the lip, pulling the rest of the Jeep with it. Any time I tried to move, the Jeep slid further down the face. Doesn't look so steep here, but for a long moment I suspected my 800 pounds of gear would end this trip by shifting, sending me head over heels sideways down the hill. By reversing - and sliding further down every time I did - I was able to saw my way down the face.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey
Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
This was the mess I made half-falling down to the lower switchback.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Looking up from the lower switchback. I started a long way up the hill to make it back to here.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The view on the way back down looks that much better when one is alive to enjoy it.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Back on Camp Bird Road. Time to get to Silverton, CO.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
This is the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton. Anyone with vertigo should keep their eyes closed on the run up out of Ouray, up Uncompahgre Gorge to Red Mountain Pass - narrow roads, 1,000-foot cliffs, no guardrails. Headed down to Silverton, keep your eyes open. Spectacular views.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Climbing up Eureka Gulch above Silverton. I'd met a California firefighter and his wife in Ouray, they recommended this trail.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
It was a good recommendation.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
This, I must admit, is where I did the same thing I'd done 24 hours earlier: tried to force my way up a snowy trail, got stuck, started to get pulled down, and rescued it. I had to get out of Colorado. Another beautiful place to almost die, though.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
In the men's stall of the Silverton Conoco. You won't find posters dedicated to the evolution of any other four-wheel drive in any other men's room in all the land. The power of the Jeep legend is real.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey
Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
So is the struggle; the poster lists Jeep's previous owners at bottom. From left, Willys Overland Motors (1941-1953) founded by John Willys in Ohio in 1908, Willys Motors (1953-1962), Kaiser Jeep Corporation (1962-1970), Jeep - actually American Motors Corporation (1970-1987), Chrysler (1987-1995), DaimlerChrysler (1996-Present). That last "Present" lasted until 2007, when Cerberus Capital Partners took over until 2009, giving way to a consortium of the UAW, Fiat, and the U.S. and Canadian governments. And ever since 2014, Fiat alone.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Las Cruces, New Mexico, for a day of wheeling in Prehistoric Trackways National Monument with the Las Cruces Four Wheel Drive Club. I told them I had a stock Wrangler Rubicon on 33s with 800 pounds of gear. They said, "No problem, we'll do easy trails." Then they showed up with rock crawling monsters.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The monument is full of what the club calls the "Chili" trails. This was on the way to the easiest trail, Bell Pepper. Just getting to Bell Pepper wasn't exactly easy.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I wouldn't call Bell Pepper easy for the rock crawlers leading the way, never mind my own steed. My rig's had its wheels, suspension, rock rails, and skid plates full trying to clamber over obstacles.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
If it wasn't the holes, it was the camber angles and juniper trees. The softtop turned in a gold star performance after I did my accidental best to shred the canvas.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
This was how the day went: I'd watch trail guide Lance in his chopped 1989 Laredo with the long-arm suspension and 40-inchers rumble through rock obstacles...
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Then spotter Tim would get out and guide me though the same, my rig making a lot more noise about it.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I mean really. I distinctly said, "I'm in a stock vehicle with 800 pounds of gear." They said, "We'll do easy trails."
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The 2018 JL was just tall enough to ride the ride. Just.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Lance told me more than once, "It's better if you close your eyes." It would have been best if I could have closed my ears. Glad I signed up for full insurance coverage. I would not be returning this Jeep the way I found it.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Another sample of the day's obstacles -
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
With club member Ernie getting through it in his 1992 Wrangler with stock 4.0-liter straight-six, stock transfer case, four-inch lift on Zone springs plus a two-inch body lift, Dana30s, 4:56 gears, 1998 Ford Explorer 8.8 rear end, custom front and rear bumper, and double beadlock wheels on 35s.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Followed by Barry in his 1981 CJ-7 built by local legend Jeff Wood. The rig sits on a custom chromoly frame, with a 350 cu. in Chevy V8, 5:38 gears, Ford Dana 60 front axle with an air lock dif, GM 14-bolt rear axle with a spool diff, and 40-inch tires.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Yeah. That's life on an easy trail in Las Cruces. I crawled the high side in the foreground.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Still not a bad day at the office, though.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
A closer view of Ernie's rig.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Another view of another giant hole I had to cross. I made it through, thanks to my excellent tour guides and the deep potential of the 2018 Wrangler Rubicon.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
I didn't know it yet, but this mound of rocks is where I'd break my first component.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Came down on the wrong rock and bent the steering stabilizer shock. The Jeep wouldn't turn right.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Barry grabbed his tools, Ernie got under and pulled the shock before I'd had a chance to open the back door for my own tools.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
One of the waterfalls on one spur of the trail. We didn't climb this. But notice the rubber-smeared rock face. Some in the club have climbed it.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
And right back to it. The lack of a stabilizer didn't pose any problems here, but those juniper trees...
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
First time I'd been stuck since Alberta. Now, as then, I took a bad line. If I'd driven two inches to the right, I'd have got over the ledge without issue.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Since I didn't, I had to get rescued by a 2007 FJ Cruiser with a four-inch lift, 35-inch tires, and the ATRAC hack to disable the rear locker. Oh, the ignominy.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Another mine field. Another chorus of howls from every metal surface under the Jeep.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
The gang on Chile Canyons Loop Trail. And another great day of wheeling with a great group of gentlemen.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Followed by a sensational bowl of posole at Andele Restaurante. And the chipotle salsa? Legit.
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Rubicon Alaska Cannonball
Taos, here we come. And we're bringing a little death wobble with us...
