The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

Cool pics as usual!

Thanks!!

Awesome pictures!

Thanks!!

Love the BINGO sign showing through your window.

It's all about the art!!

Me too! Good job on the lots of gratuitous truck shots!

Thanks!! I'm kind of partial to those myself.

Seems like neither you nor Larry cared much for Imogen pass huh?

Well I can't speak for Larry, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, dealing with people who have no idea of trail etiquette, who has the right of way in a given situation etc can be a challenge, but the trail itself was fantastic. When the Jeep rental joints throw the doo-dahs a set of keys and send them into a situation that they have never experienced before, you can't expect too much from them. I think they should have to listen to at least a five minute instruction session for their own safety, but I doubt that will ever happen. On the trails you watch out for the rental Jeeps and on the road you give a wide berth to the rental motorhomes.

 

[mosesburb]

The next morning was bright and clear. A view of town in the daytime:

Larry and Bill had gone down to Corkscrew Pass to camp last night and we were to meet up with them the next morning by driving down the trail until we found them. To get to the trail, we just went south on 550. Shortly after leaving town you cross the Riverside Slide. It is a chronic snow-slide area that has claimed several lives over the years:

We can't be in the area without some CW McCall: This is a song about the slide.

That's where we are going:

We arrived at the trail and followed it until we found Larry and Bill. It rained all night and they were basically confined to their vehicles in camp. That sucked. I was sure glad we had stayed in Ouray as we ended up having a great time. They were just about packed up when we got there so we were on the trail in just a few minutes.

Up top:

Down in California Gulch: a little surface water contamination going on here.

Don't swing into the passing lane on this road:

This is downstream in Gladstone:

 

[y5mgisi]

Nice pics! Crazy story and song about the slides!

 

[mosesburb]

Nice pics! Crazy story and song about the slides!

Thanks. Yeah, kinda creepy. I found a book while we were there and it was about the plow drivers. I just glanced through it and there have been quite a few incidents that the driver survived. In fact, I think it was Eddie Imel who had another person in the cab with him and the truck went over the slide and the other guy had a small shovel that he bought at Kmart and always carried with him. He managed to dig a tunnel out of the truck and the same tunnel that he dug with his six dollar Kmart shovel was used to recover the body of Eddie Imel. I could be completely wrong on the specifics of the story, but that was more-or-less the story I recall. Crazy stuff.

 

[TREA18]

Thanks for doing such a great job of sharing your adventures. It is greatly appreciated and you really make me want to drive out there see all of these locations. I would Really like to do in my Blazer, but the Suburban is probably more reasonable - Oh some day

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Ah yes another fine Sat morning web trip. That's crazy the surface water contamination, you never really think about it. That overhang looked real cool, kinda like getting tubed from the mountain. I'll bet it was crazy cutting that road and all those port hole style tunnels.

 

[mosesburb]

Thanks for doing such a great job of sharing your adventures. It is greatly appreciated

Thanks for the kind words. I am glad that you are enjoying it. It takes a lot more time than one would think it should to post this stuff up and it is nice to hear when it is being appreciated by others.

and you really make me want to drive out there see all of these locations.

That is my silent goal. Keep in mind, the newest vehicle on this run is over twenty years old. Build it right, then drive the hell out of it!!

Ah yes another fine Sat morning web trip. That's crazy the surface water contamination, you never really think about it. That overhang looked real cool, kinda like getting tubed from the mountain. I'll bet it was crazy cutting that road and all those port hole style tunnels.

Thanks. I bet the cutting of the tunnels and holes was no big deal as you have to figure the guys doing it were used to working hundreds and thousands of feet underground in the dark wheras this is on the surface with ambient light available.

 

[BlazinWhiskey72]

Just got through reading your thread. Awesome build (love the cummins 6bt) and the adventures are giving me the desire to get my blazer back on the road! I love the fact that you and your boy have such a great relationship and are enjoying the burb together. That's something i hope to be able to do when i have kids of my own. Awesome thread man!

 

[pblaze725]

I have to say this is my favorite thread.

For some reason I also keep saying "moose burb" in my head when I see mosesburb.

 

[Big Ray]

I have to say this is my favorite thread.

.

what he said^^^^


this thread keeps me from giving up when it looks like I'll never get my truck finished...

 

[mosesburb]

Just got through reading your thread. Awesome build (love the cummins 6bt) and the adventures are giving me the desire to get my blazer back on the road! I love the fact that you and your boy have such a great relationship and are enjoying the burb together. That's something i hope to be able to do when i have kids of my own. Awesome thread man!

Thanks!! It is a lot of fun. My wife is usually with us, but occasionally her schedule/commitments conflict with fun times and she can't come with, but usually she is with us. Now my boy is ALWAYS there. He will miss a birthday party or a swim party or pretty much anything to head down a trail to somewhere. I am very glad he likes it. When I was his age I wanted to do what we do now, but my dad was not so interested. He and I went to Crown King once. I thought it was cool as hell, but that was it. Hopefully all this exposure to history, geology, odd people met in odd places, scenery, landscape, national parks, bad roads, inclement weather, high altitude, low altitude, etc, etc, will have a positive effect on him.

I have to say this is my favorite thread.

Thanks!! That is very cool!!

For some reason I also keep saying "moose burb" in my head when I see mosesburb.

The funny thing is, there are people who call me that who KNOW the correct name, but still call me moose. Call it what you want.

what he said^^^^


this thread keeps me from giving up when it looks like I'll never get my truck finished...

Thanks!! Yeah, I understand. I found out that once they are finished you can drive them to all kinds of cool places. It *kind of* makes up for the six+ years that I had to step around it to get to my front door--seriously. I was ready to make it go away in one way or another. Luckily(??), my determination persevered and I was able to complete it and enjoy its ability to move itself down the road. Keep after it. Eventually you will run out of "must-do's" and it will move itself.

 

[azblazer]

Those pictures look pretty recent mr....
Somewhere in those mountains is a 3 story
hotel perched on a ledge from back in the day.
I am told they use a helicopter to fly in wood
to keep it stablized for posterity.

DW

 

[mosesburb]

Those pictures look pretty recent mr....
Somewhere in those mountains is a 3 story
hotel perched on a ledge from back in the day.
I am told they use a helicopter to fly in wood
to keep it stablized for posterity.

DW

Not too recent. Around the end of June/beginning of July--I'm just a bit slow in posting. Is that the building above the Old Hundred Mine?? I remember there is a building waaaay the hell up the hill there.

 

[jt512]

As always, awesome pictures , great narration and inspiration to get my cummins K5 finished

The "build" part of this thread was top notch, the "trips" part is even better

 

[mosesburb]

As always, awesome pictures , great narration and inspiration to get my cummins K5 finished

The "build" part of this thread was top notch, the "trips" part is even better

Thanks man!! I wonder at times about posting some of the "trip" stuff. It's just someone else's vacation photos and who wants to see those?? But then comments like this get posted and I realize I am not the only one that appreciates someone else's vacation photos. So people like you are the reason I bore the others with the "non-tech" pics. Anyways, the "build" part of the thread would be pretty boring these days--although that will be changing a little before too long here.....

 

[mosesburb]

So we aired up in Gladstone and headed down the hill into Silverton. We found a place to have lunch, but Larry was the one to request a table and I don't think they liked him so they never called. In the meantime my boy and I went a block west and down a couple streets when we heard the train roll into town. When we got there the sky opened up and we got caught in a deluge of biblical proportions. Luckily there was a tourist store (believe it or not) and we sought refuge inside. While inside I noticed a decal on the window that reminded me of times past.

Ironically, or even sadly, I took the pic with a digital camera. Once the rain passed, we made our way back to the group and Larry found a place that would serve him so we all went over there to eat. We had a nice lunch and after we finished Larry, Lynn and Bill headed off toward home and we proceeded to wander around Silverton.

Gratuitous truck shot in front of the old Masonic Lodge:

We saw some neat vehicles while wandering too.

This is a Toyota of some sort. Not sure what, but it is cool (for a Toyota):

This is a M38A1 with an arctic kit on it.

An old International plow truck with a Coleman conversion on it:

With these markings on it, you know it successfully avoided the 'slide when it was runnin':

Looking out over the town:

Before we left we went down by the Silverton train station:

So with that, we pointed the truck south and rolled on out toward Durango. Along the way we stopped at a lookout and I got a couple cool pics of a storm rolling in:

It was a straight, vertical wall of rain just rolling ever-so-slowly along. We stopped in Durango for the night and stayed at the Caboose Motel again. It is a neat little place. We went downtown for dinner and got some ice cream for dessert. We wandered about a bit then headed back to the room to figure out what we were going to do tomorrow.

 

[y5mgisi]

I love that your trips are so epic that you have to break up the break down into several posts over several days.

 

[Tubaman]

I believe this is my first time posting in this thread and I just want to say I love all the pictures and the stories that go with them! I actually walked all the way out to the end of the Idarado Mine Trestle when I was in Colorado this summer and the view was stunning. If only I'd been in my truck instead of a rental car, maybe I could have seen some of the cool stuff you did!

 

[69BLZR_PDX]

Amazing pictures!

 

[82355]

I just found this thread the day before yesterday, and read the entire thing. Two nights in a row of staying up way too late. Best build thread EVER. The "vacation" pictures make it even better.

Martin