Since I've decided to leave Sunday morning for Tincup, today is another day of loading up, fueling up, and catching up on things I need to do before I go.

Next month before I can get my truck tag renewed the truck needs to pass Denver's emission control test, which to say the least is very strict. The truck runs great and doesn't smoke at all, but like any other 10-year-old diesel truck the diesel particulate filter [ DPF ] is on its last legs and doesn't regenerate as well as it should and Denver doesn't like that.

So in an effort to hopefully help my situation I've been running various snake oils in the fuel in an effort to clean the engine and the DPF but since I'm not putting many miles on the truck sitting here at my daughter's house, this trip to Tincup should help with that. Because of having to go the back way to Tincup this is going to be about a 500 mile round-trip.

And since that's going to be 500 miles of mountain driving including two round trips up and down Monarch pass I'm figuring that I should come back from the trip with the DPF about as clean as its going to get if the snake oils work. And if the snake oils do work I'll be happy to post their names on my blog.

                                                                             theboondork

I spent some time this morning putting some of the camping gear into the truck, in preparation for my hopefully upcoming minivacation to Tincup Colorado this weekend.

For you backpackers out there that think loading up to go camping means throwing your backpack in the back seat, its not quite the same for us car campers, or truck campers as the case may be.

Since were not constrained by the size and weight of things that we can carry on our back, we tend to buy the biggest and heaviest camping gear we can find. So Gossamer high-tech fabrics, titanium, and 800 fill power Canadian goose down is not in our vocabulary. We tend to go for, canvas, iron, and surplus army blankets. And if my Serta Posturepedic mattress would fit in the truck I would carry that too.

You see, us truck camping geezers have long since proven our toughness, resiliency, and lack of common sense by backpacking and sleeping on the ground many many years ago before our brain cells had coalesced into anything capable of a cogent thought, and we have the nagging lower back pain to prove it. So now we do not have the need or the desire to "prove" ourselves to anyone, especially ourselves.

I can't count the times that I woke up wet, cold, and miserable, in a leaky tent on a flat air mattress in a $20 sleeping bag. But I do know I've done it enough to prove I'm impervious to pain, immune to the cold, and totally bereft of the ability to make a rational decision.

So now, even though I have to dump some of my brain cells out of my shoes at night, I have still retained enough sense to realize that enjoying the outdoors while camping requires being comfortable at night. And being comfortable means waking up warm, dry, and with your favorite slippers under your cot.

                                                                           theboondork

I'm thinking of taking another minivacation next weekend. There's a tiny semi ghost mining town up in the Collegiate mountain range named Tincup that I have stayed in many times and always had a great experience, camping, fishing, riding my dirt bike, and sightseeing for two or three days and have lots of good memories associated with those trips.

One of the problems this time is, the way I've always gotten there which is by way of Buena Vista and up Cottonwood Pass is not going to work because Cottonwood Pass is closed all this year due to roadwork. So about the only way to get there that's not a four-wheel-drive trail is to go around the back way to Gunnison Colorado and take the road from Gunnison to Tincup. It's longer but still doable .

And the road from Gunnison to Tincup is also a lot better than Cottonwood Pass. there are a couple of RV parks in the Tincup area and I think most folks pull their trailers up the road from Gunnison because even though Cottonwood pass is doable in an RV it would be very rough on the equipment.

Tincup has a handful of people that live there during the summer in the old 1800s houses that they've restored, and from what I understand there's actually a few people that spend the winter there. They must be hardy souls because at a little over 10,000 feet the winters are cold the snow is deep, and sometimes the road department can't get Cottonwood Pass open until the 4th of July because of the snow. But it's a beautiful place with two lakes in the area, Mirror Lake and Taylor Lake and lots of national forest to boondock in.

I hope it works out because I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be a bit chilly at night, and I don't have a way of carrying my little motorcycle yet, but the fishing is good, the scenery is incredible, and the drive there is also pretty exciting. So it sounds like a great test for my camping equipment, and if I still have the ability to breathe above timberline.

                                                                   theboondork