4X4 Camping Trip

This post is a little late, but last weekend we headed out in the Jeep for a camping trip. Tucker, David and Alex joined us, making 3 Jeeps and David's BMW Dakar motorcycle. We met up at Camp Dick in Peacefully Valley off the Peak to Peak Highway and headed out around noon. We went out the Middle St. Vrain Rd and came back on the Coney Flats road. The outward section of trail paralleled the Middle St Vrain Creek and was very pretty. There were a couple of interesting obstacles along the way, but we all made it through fine. I got hung up on a rock for a few minutes, but got free without much trouble. Here's a short movie.

Alex went through this obstacle in his stock height Wrangler with no trouble at all using a lot more finesse than either Tucker or I.

This was David's first real off road trip on his motorcycle and we were all both excited and worried for him. He started off a little tentatively, but soon enough was practically running circles around the four wheelers.

We camped at the end of the Middle St Vrain road. While Tucker went fishing and Erin and Xander took a nap, David, Alex and I hiked up to Red Deer Lake. The lake was beautiful, but further than we thought, the sign said 2 miles, but really it was about 3.5.

We had a great evening camping, Tucker brought out some halibut and salmon that he had caught in Alaska, it was absolutely wonderful. After a big day we all went to sleep early. Xander did wonderfully camping, and was a pretty happy little dude all night. I think his favourite part of camping is getting to sleep in the sleeping bags with us!

The next day called for a number of deep stream crossings with one that was supposed to be up to 3 ft deep that is characterized more as a "lake" than a stream. We were a little worried for David on his motorcycle. It turned out that before we even got to the lake there were more obstacles to be overcome. There was a steep and rocky hill right out of the campsite. Our Jeep did incredibly well, but it was sufficiently scary looking that Erin hopped out before I drove up. Again, some good video.



After the big climb we got to the "lake". It really was pretty big and deep. I went through first and the water came up to the undercarriage, but no higher. After that Tucker came through. Next was David. The water really was pretty deep, but he did very well. He sure did get wet though.


Alex came last and we were a little worried about how deep the water would be on his wrangler. The good news is that the stock wranglers have air intakes that are all the way at the top of the hood. The water was up over his bumer, but he came thorugh just fine.



It was a fantastic trip and everyone had a great time. I feel like we got a chance to get some real use out of the Jeep. Xander was wonderful on the trip and seemed to enjoy himself. I think that he likes the Jeep, but he also thought David's motorcycle was pretty cool.