Hagerman Pass and a New Altitude Record

I'll start off with a Land Rover update. I received all the parts around 1:00 PM today. Thanks again to Ami's Acres for facilitating the UPS delivery. Had the new carburetor, plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor installed by 2:45. I'd say its running better but still has a terrible missfire at idle. I'll have to figure out what is causing that now now as it seems to be getting worse. I suspect an intake manifold leak. Unfortunately I don't have a manifold gasket set with me (not a complete one anyways).

Having a mostly functional vehicle I set off for Manitou Springs, Colorado, my next sample location. However, I decided to take a more direct path between Glenwood Springs and Manitou Springs, straight through the heart of White River National Forest. Little did I know at the time I would traverse Hagerman Pass.

The trail starts out a civilized gravel road with a few potholes and washboard. The grade is moderate to start as the trail follows an old railway bed of the Colorado Midland Railroad. In the late 1800's a fellow called John Hagerman built the railroad to connect Colorado Springs to Grand Junction across the continental divide. The railroad was very difficult to build and operate due to the high elevation of the pass and the steep grades. Two tunnels were built to circumvent the upper, steepest part of pass. The tunnels were used for train traffic until 1922 when the lower tunnel was converted for usage by automobiles. The tunnel was closed in 1943 following a partial collapse. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Midland

Having no tunnel I had to drive over the pass. The upper portion of the trail is a rugged unimproved track. Here's a couple shots of the west side of the pass.

The trail is not difficult, rating a 3 out of 10 on most offroader websites. I was in constant fear of insurmountable snow or a locked gate. It took about 1 1/2 hours to climb the west side of the pass and I didn't want to have to backtrack. Overall it was far easier than some of the trails I've taken in Maclean Creek near Calgary.

A sign marks the summit of the pass and informs you that you are at 11 925 feet. This, by a long margin, sets a new altitude record for Grover and surpasses my personal best of 11 453 feet on Mt. Athabasca. To put this in perspective Mt. Temple is only 11 624 feet. Crazy high. The photo below is one piece of a panorama which I haven't stitched together yet.

Just over the east side of the pass you cross through a snow drift (perhaps a cornice but not very peaky) that tells me they bring equipment up to clear snow and open the road.

Grover, of course, took all this in a stride. Not phased at all by the rough road, although somewhat crippled by the lack of atmosphere. By the summit of the pass I was noticeably short on power.

Tonight I'm staying at the Lone Duck Campground just uphill of Manitou Springs. Tomorrow I'm off the Manitou Springs to do some geology. After collecting samples I will need to decide whether I will address my idle issue. The truck runs great on the highway and even got some great mileage today. We'll see what tomorrow brings.