Big Blue's Trip To New Mexico

[Gary Lewis]

In Octoberish my son and I are going on the first true overlanding trip with Big Blue and I want to use this thread to plan for that.

But I do need to explain the plan a bit first.  Janey and I will drive out to Santa Fe and I'll check her into a hotel where she can walk or use public transportation to explore Santa Fe.  Then I'll run to the airport, either ABQ or SAF, to pick up our son and come back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning he and I'll head to the trail, which is currently expected to be the Carson-Santa Fe Backcountry Discovery Trail.  That's a 227 mile trail on mostly forest service roads through, oddly enough, the Santa Fe and Carson national forests.  And while that site says "3-5 days" we aren't sure how long we'll take as it also says it has an average trail rating of 2 and a peak of 4.

So I contacted the gentleman that created Overland Trail Guides and told him I'd taken Big Blue on all of the passes around Ouray and he said "If you did trails like Poughkeepsie Gulch in the Ouray area, this route will be a cakewalk for you."  (We did, but we took the bypass around The Wall.)  So it will be easy, but it will give my son time to get used to driving Big Blue in less than scary conditions.  And the length of time will be dependent on my son's time off, so we shall see how long and how far we go.

With the background done let's switch to preparation mode.  I'm thinking that I need to create a list of tools, spares, and camping equipment to take.  I'll do that, probably in separate Word doc's that I embed here so I can keep track of them..

But I also need to keep track of my methods for navigating.  Heretofore I've used Gaia, but it froze on my phone at the worst possible times and was almost always lagging behind when we got to a turn so we had to stop in order to let it catch up.  Given that I've purchased a Garmin Montana 750i and added a bracket for it on Big Blue's transmission hump.  Hopefully it will both keep up as well as not freeze.  And I've downloaded the trail file to Garmin Bootcamp to do the planning.

But I've also ordered the USGS paper maps for both forests, and will probably print paper backups of the route.

So, what am I missing?

[Nothing Special]

Sounds to me like you have things pretty well thought through (for a change ).  One navigation item I like to have is a compass.  I've never needed it for navigation, but sometimes it's nice to be able to line up a map on your hood as accurately as possible so you can try to figure out which mountain THAT ONE is.

And something you were probably going to do anyway is play with your new GPS a lot.  Use it to navigate to church, or the auto parts store or something, just to get familiar with it.  And play around with saving tracks and waypoints.  I find that to be a fun way to log trips, and even switching from one Garmin hand-held to another I found that I needed to practice a bit before I found all of the new locations for everything.

[Gary Lewis]

A compass is an excellent idea, Bob.  I hadn't thought of that.  I wonder if my son still has my Silva from my time as a Boy Scout?  If not, I need to get one and put it in Big Blue.

As for playing with the Garmin, you are spot on.  I've been doing that some, including at the tire shop today, but since it couldn't lock onto the satellites it didn't work very well.

However we have a trip planned for Thursday to go to a restaurant we've heard about that's ~100 miles away and I'm going to program it for that trip and hope to get turn-by-turn through the Sony.  But I hadn't thought about saving tracks, so I'll do that.  

I was impressed with it today as I had it in the cradle and when I'd turn the key on it would acquire satellites and then tell me exactly what road I was driving on.  Turn the key off and if I didn't tell it to stay powered on it would power off after a few seconds.  Turn the key on and it followed me.  So I think it is going to be very helpful, not just on the trail but also getting to the trail.

Apparently Garmin is an acquired taste/language.  Kinda like HP's RPN, which I never learned.  But I need to learn Garmin, so I'd better play with it.

[Gary Lewis]

Bob - How right you were to say "play with your new GPS a lot".  We are taking BB on a jaunt today and I want to know if the turn-by-turn is going to work via the Sony stereo.  So I set up the route.  Multiple times.  And each time it insisted on straight-line routes, across fields and lakes and the Drummond Ranch.

I checked what I thought was every setting and still when I pressed GO it gave me an error message saying in Driving Mode with the map I have selected it can't do turn-by-turn.  And then it routed me in a straight line.

Finally I called Garmin and Christopher had me poke around in all of the settings.  Sure enough there was one called Automatic Maps which "Enables maps based on route activity".  It wasn't turned on and the system was using the Topo Active map.  But that map allows people to contribute and since Garmin hasn't validated all of the updates they don't allow t-by-t in Driving mode for fear of being sued if someone has an accident.

So I'm starting to get familiar with the Montana.  But boy, is it complex.  And capable.  

[Gary Lewis]

To finish this thread, we didn't go on this trip for several reasons - including both Janey and I coming down with COVID in early October.  That punted the trip down the road and, we thought, into January or February.  But after I had a conversation with a lady in the Santa Fe National Forest's main office I discovered that many of the roads we planned to take are closed as of Dec 31st until April 1st.

So while I would still like to take the New Mexico Back Country Discovery Route, we are now considering the Ozark Overlanding Adventure Trail - OOAT.  So I'm starting a new thread on that subject.

[Gary Lewis]

Well, this trip is back on.  Our son, Bret, now has tickets to fly into ABQ on April 26th and back out on May 1st.  The planned trip to the OOAT didn't happen as Bret was sick at that time, so he changed those tickets to go to ABQ, so we are back in the planning stage.

Janey and I will probably leave home on April 25th and drive to Amarillo or thereabouts to spend the night.  Then we'll get into Santa Fe and a hotel in the early afternoon on the 26th, and I'll head to ABQ to pick Bret up.  We'll have 3 days on the trail and 1 day for checking out Santa Fe before he heads back.

[BigBrother-84]

[Gary Lewis]

We are getting close to leaving on this trip, but there have been some things come up that are changing the plans.

On Tuesday a friend at church was telling me about Vermejo, which is one of Ted Turner's ranches.  He said the 32 mile drive each way to it from Raton is one of the most scenic he's done, and he'd bet we'd see more deer, bear, antelope, etc than we can imagine.

So Janey and I looked it up and our first thought was "Let's stay there!"  Then we saw the price of ~$1500/night, and even with the included three meals we decided that was a bit above our budget.    But we are still going to drive up there and see what there is to see - although we won't be able to go all the way to the lodge since we won't have a reservation so can't get through the gate.

Then today I finally checked into the roads out there.  The NMRoads site shows that two roads we'd planned to take, NM 4 and 126, have some issues - water.  Turns out they've had more than usual snow during the winter and an unusually warm stretch this spring, causing abnormal runoff.  In the case of NM4 the shoulders are closed but the road is open.  In the case of NM 126 the road itself is closed for several miles.

That caused me to call one of the ranger stations and talk to the same young lady I talked to last fall.  Back then she said the forest service roads would open in early April.  Today she said they are closed and they don't know when they'll open.  

After that I talked to Ranger Dave at Valles Cauldera National Preserve.  The vast majority of their roads are also closed, but we will be able to see a bit of it, albeit mostly by hiking not driving.

However, he explained the difference between the national forest management of roads and the way the national park service manages them.  The forest service doesn't set a date, but tries to open their roads as early as they can w/o many people getting stuck and/or tearing up the roads.  The national park service sets a date, which is May 15th, and the roads will open that day.  You might have been able to get through two weeks earlier, or you might get stuck for the next two weeks, but they'll open the gates.

So now we are working through where to go on the roads that will be open, which is kind of hard because it is difficult to tell which ones those are.  But there are roads up into the mountains that appear to be open, and we'll be on them.  

[grumpin]

It's really good you found this out now. Man, the west, well most of the country has got hammered with weather!

Hope it goes well.

Reminds me of some guys that came to where I used to work, they had some spare time and were going to Crater Lake. One said he always wanted to do the rim drive, I said both sides may not be open.

He asks why. I told them the snow may not be melted or removed yet. He looks at me funny and says, but it's July.

They went up, sure enough the east side was still closed.

https://tropecotravel.com/my-guide-to-crater-lake-national-park/#:~:text=The%20West%20Rim%20Drive%20opens,33%20miles%20around%20the%20lake.

[Gary Lewis]

Dane - Hard to believe some places still have snow that late.  Turns out that NM got more snow several times over the last three days.  

But two days ago I spent a lot of time on the phone talking with various rangers and have come up with several options for places to stay.  So we shall see where Bret wants to camp.

As for an update on the trip, Janey are now in Santa Fe and Bret should be here by 11:00 tonight.  We drove 400 miles yesterday and 275 today, and the truck is performing well.  But there are a couple of defugalties to mention.  First, the AEM wideband has quit as it constantly shows an E8 error code after warming up.  It has been acting up lately, so it finally decided to go on strike.

Second, there's something wonky in the HVAC system as when you slide the temp control over towards the hot side the air flow gradually quits coming out of the dash vents the farther you go towards Hot.  I knew that there was something odd going on as when I move the heat control in heat mode it doesn't really give good heat.  So I guess I'll need to dig into it as something is certainly wrong.

As for MPG, yesterday on the Skiatook/Amarillo leg we got 12.7 running 70 - 72 MPH.  Today on the Amarillo/Santa Fe leg we got 11.6 MPG running 70 MPH.  But today we were bucking some pretty severe head winds and climbing at the same time, so that probably accounted for most of the MPG difference.  However, yesterday's run was with pure gasoline and today we had 10% ethanol in the mix as straight gas wasn't an option.  So that didn't help any.

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

As for MPG, yesterday on the Skiatook/Amarillo leg we got 12.7 running 70 - 72 MPH.  Today on the Amarillo/Santa Fe leg we got 11.6 MPG running 70 MPH.  But today we were bucking some pretty severe head winds and climbing at the same time [...]

A wise man named Gary said one day:
These trucks make a barn look aerodynamic.»

Gary Lewis wrote

However, yesterday's run was with pure gasoline and today we had 10% ethanol in the mix as straight gas wasn't an option.

How it must be heartbreaking to have no choice but put some ethanol in Big Blue's tank!

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, they aren't aerodynamic, but Ford spent a lot of money trying to make them so.  Didn't work at all.  And I suspect that 65 MPH would make a difference in the MPG that could be noticed.  But it would also have way too many people blowing past me like I was standing still, so I chose to pay a bit more and be a bit less of a nuisance.

As for the ethanol, it does hurt.  But I'll run it out so when I get home he'll be burning pure gas again.  Sure don't want ethanol to sit long in the tanks.

[mat in tn]

on a good note. gas never sits long in these tanks, .unless parked. we had a strange one this week. we had an 86 efi twin tank model that just quit. checked the selector valve filter and it looked to be full of potters clay. about to drop both tanks again to check the new pumps and socks. 500 miles since new pumps. I asked if he had made someone angry. any one ever see clay like mud clog one up from anything else?

[BigBrother-84]

mat in tn wrote

on a good note. gas never sits long in these tanks, unless parked.

[Gary Lewis]

Yup, BB likes to be fed, so on these roads with serious hills the MPG is going down.

But, oddly enough, the AFR isn't.  The AEM wideband decided to work for the run to/from ABQ last night and I noticed on the steep hills that the AFR didn't drop like it is programmed to do.  I think that is just a function of "load", which is % throttle in EEC-V if I remember correctly.  So I'm wondering what the issue might be there.  Gonna ping Bill 'cause we both used the same software to do that.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, sports fans, we are home!  And we had a great trip.  Here are some of the highlights:

Bret and I camped out two nights in a tent in Bandelier's Juniper campground, and while we had fun it was cold.  In fact, the first morning it snowed, rained, and sleeted on us so we stayed in the tent and watched it.  But about 10 it quit, the sun came out, and we took off to explore.

One of the places we explored was Los Alamos, and that was fascinating.  Another was the trail to the Jemez Slot Canyon, but the river was up and crossing it to follow the trail looked risky, so we didn't go the whole way.  Then we hiked the Jemez Falls trail, but again ran into the river.  However this time Bret decided he would go anyway so he donned sandals, rolled up his pants, and waded across - 7 times in all to get to/from the falls.  All in all we hiked ~5 miles each day, with much of it going up or down.

As for the truck, it performed very well.  We drove 1676 miles and got 12.1 MPG average, which I think is very good considering the wind we encountered as well as the putt-putting around we did.  Most of the time we were driving 70 MPH, and almost all of it was on cruise.  Plus we encountered a LOT of wind, which certainly hurt the MPG.  In fact, at one point there was so much wind and, therefore, wind noise that the dummy driving forgot to shift into 5th.  

Turns out that the lighting in the bed is very helpful for camping.  Ditto the "backup" lights under the bumper as we used them to light the camp.  And the charging ports in the back of the bed came in really handy as we liked to charge our phones and watches of an evening and have them with us in the tent at night.

But there were a few minor problems.  As said previously the AEM wideband only worked part of the time, so I need to figure out why.  And there was the issue of the ECU not enrichening the mix down to 13:1 at altitude, but I noticed yesterday that when we got below about 4000' it was working, so I need to figure that out.  And last, one of the plastic keepers broke on the tailgate linkage so the linkage had to be put back a couple of times.  But all in all, SUCCESS!

As for pics, I've not processed them yet, but will post some later - today or tomorrow.

[BigBrother-84]

Pic-tures-pic-tures-pic-tures!

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

In fact, at one point there was so much wind and, therefore, wind noise that the dummy driving forgot to shift into 5th.  

I don't understand how it is possible in BB's cockpit...
Any warning gauge or alarm about RPM/shifting?

[Gary Lewis]

LOL!  You would think there'd be an alarm, but I used the SHIFT window for the EWISSIONS label.  However, what finally told me to shift was the tach sitting at 2500 instead of 2000.  

Does it make a difference?  We got 14.9 MPG on the front tank on that run and 10.2 on the rear tank where I ran in 4th.  BUT, there were major differences.  The rear tank was from Raton at 6680' down to Guymon, OK at 3124'.  And it was in the morning with no wind at all.  But some time after changing tanks, and leveling out, the wind came up very strongly.  Plus, I don't base any MPG claims on one tank as I may fill one tank differently than another.  Still....

As for pics, here are some I have on my phone.

[BigBrother-84]

Boy!  I understand why the spring is so cold here!  Today we got a poor 46ºF, and it was almost freezing last night...

If you have snow down there, we're not going to see warm weather soon up here!