Gary's Trip To Ouray

[Ford F834]

Yikes!!! 🥴 3 mpg is a LOT of fuel! At a certain level of backroad difficulty an hour meter might be a better reflection of efficiency than miles though. Hopefully you will share this thread with the previous owner so he can vicariously enjoy the success of the project truck that he was unable to finish?

[1986F150Six]

Jonathan, Gary had tried numerous times.

[Nothing Special]

I'm only a little surprised by the (lack of) economy.  When I was in Ouray with my Bronco in 2018 my mileage on the 3 tanks I checked was 6.7, 4.8 and 5.5 mpg, for an overall average of 5.7 mpg.  You don't get good mileage when creeping over rocks or up hills while standing on the throttle quite a bit.  And running at 10,000 - 13,000 feet elevation with a carb set for 1000 feet doesn't help either.

Still, I got almost twice the mileage you got.  Yes, I have a smaller vehicle and a smaller engine, so maybe that's it.  But I only get about 14 mpg normally, which isn't twice what you get.  So 3 does seem a little surprising to me.

Hopefully your eventual EFI conversion will help!

[Gary Lewis]

David is right, I've tried to contact Vernon and he's not responding.

As for MPG, my spreadsheet is below. Note that I've not filled up here in Skiatook yet, so there's a cell that shows Div/0. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow, but haven't been feeling well today so am taking it easy.

In the spreadsheet you'll see the Total Tank(s) columns in blue and the MPG for each "tank". But in the green columns I've determined how many "highway" miles we put on during those four days in the mountains, such as driving from Ouray to the trail head, and assumed we got 11 MPG for those miles. I then determined how many gallons that would have taken and subtracted that from the gallons for those stops, which gives me the gallons used on the mountain trails. And that let me calculate the info in the tan columns.

Note that the first two days on the trails the guestimate is that we got about 2 1/2 MPG, but after I blew the idle passages out before we started the third day the trail MPG jumped up to about 4. And, the truck ran much better - even though it was still jetted for 1000 feet.

But I do think the EFI will help a bunch, both in the MPG as well as the running. However I doubt that I'll be seeing 6 MPG out of such a heavy vehicle with a big engine.

[Nothing Special]

Gary Lewis wrote

.... However I doubt that I'll be seeing 6 MPG out of such a heavy vehicle with a big engine.

But you're already there, at least by my reckoning.  My calculations were for the total tank, including whatever highway miles we drove.  I haven't bothered to break out the difference.  But if I did I'd probably be close to your numbers too.

[grumpin]

I checked my 94 F250 with the 460 , after driving around town one particularly bad winter, i.e., slow, always in 4WD.

I got 6.6 MPG!

[Gary Lewis]

Sounds like I got about what should be expected.  POOR!  Especially when the 6.6 is probably "on the level" and the 4 is going up very steep slopes in 4Low, frequently in 2nd or 3rd gear.

However, I'm going to guess that EFI is going to make quite a difference as the AFR was way rich at all times.  Maybe I'll get up to 6 MPG?  That would be significant as the 4 gives me a range of 4 x 38 = 152 miles and 6 would be 228 miles.  The extra 76 miles would come in really handy in an overlanding adventure.

Another thing that EFI should do is give me a more stable idle, stronger low RPM power, and easier starts.  The idle was low when at the top of the passes and the engine didn't pull really well if you got it below 1300 RPM.  And if you killed it or turned it off it spun a bit to get started - especially if you were on a steep angle.

But all in all the engine performed quite well, save for the 2nd day when the carb was messed up.  We were pleased with how well it did after blowing the carb out.  We could climb anything, and usually in 3rd gear, although at times we had to go into 2nd just to go slowly enough to safely navigate the rocks.  And cresting some of the ridges we'd go into 1st since we couldn't see over them so wanted to be going slowly in case someone else was coming up the other side.

Having said that, you could hear us coming for quite a ways.  The sweet sound of the exhaust announced us fairly well, but the whine of the cooling fan frequently drowned the exhaust out completely.  The fan comes in somewhere around 206 degrees, but it does so gently enough that you don't notice it immediately.  And then you realize that you sound like a giant vacuum cleaner.  

That and the size of the truck seemed to be a bit unsettling to the oncoming drivers.  They were quick to pull over and give us room!  We'd come around a corner and everyone pulled over, regardless of whether we were going uphill or down.  

In fact, thinking of that, we only met one other truck our size in 4 days of 'wheeling, and it wasn't on a really serious trail.  People frequently took our picture as we went by, and on top of Engineer Pass a lady took our pic and Mike heard her say "Why?"  My answer would have been "Because!"  

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, the results are in on the last tank of fuel and the spreadsheet has been updated.  (See above.)

For the highway miles we got 11.3 MPG driving 70 and 75 for the most part, although obviously not in the Ouray area due to the switchbacks, climbs, etc.  I then dialed that into the highway portion of the tanks when we 'wheeled and that brought the 'wheeling MPG down a bit, for an average of 3.08 MPG.

But, the 11.3 is probably not accurate for those miles around Ouray, so I played with it a bit.  At 10 MPG on the highway there the average 'wheeling MPG is 3.24, and at 9 MPG on the highway the average 'wheeling is 3.41.  However the interesting thing is that at 9 MPG on the highway, which may be fairly accurate given the amount of third gear climbing done, the two bad 'wheeling days are 2.7 MPG and the two good days are 4.3 MPG.

So I'm thinking that 4 MPG is probably about right for 'wheeling, and 11 MPG is pretty close on the highway - at 70 MPH and with the speed control on.  And those last two are important because at 65 and manually controlling the throttle I'm sure it would turn in at least 12 MPG.  In fact, there are two tanks where we had reduced speeds and weren't able to use speed control much, and those came in right at 12 MPG.

Anyway, 460's are thirsty.  But they get the job done!  

[Nothing Special]

Gary Lewis wrote

....  the whine of the cooling fan frequently drowned the exhaust out completely.  The fan comes in somewhere around 206 degrees, but it does so gently enough that you don't notice it immediately.  And then you realize that you sound like a giant vacuum cleaner.  

I've heard that enough in other vehicles (including new Jeeps) that I refuse to have an electric fan on my trail rig.  I know it can be more effective, but I'll do everything I can to resolve any cooling issues while keeping the mechanical fan before accepting that noise (and I don't have any cooling issues now).  And no, I'm not saying that anyone who goes with an electric fan is making the wrong choice.  It's just a choice I really don't want to make.

Gary Lewis wrote

That and the size of the truck seemed to be a bit unsettling to the oncoming drivers.  They were quick to pull over and give us room!  We'd come around a corner and everyone pulled over, regardless of whether we were going uphill or down.  

In my experience usually people on trails are pretty good about figuring out pretty quickly who will have the easiest time making room, and if it's them they will, even if they "should" have the right-of-way.  Most people are just out there to have fun anyway, and getting in right-of-way arguments is never fun.

Gary Lewis wrote

In fact, thinking of that, we only met one other truck our size in 4 days of 'wheeling, and it wasn't on a really serious trail.  People frequently took our picture as we went by, and on top of Engineer Pass a lady took our pic and Mike heard her say "Why?"  My answer would have been "Because!"  

Doesn't surprise me!  I see a few full-size trucks, but not many.  Most are the "tour busses" that you can get "Jeep" rides in.  You see them on Black Bear as well as occasionally some other trails in Ouray, but a lot more often around Moab (I've even seen an WWII 6x6 there!).  Of course those drivers know the trails and have tons of experience.

But yeah, why take a full size truck on the trail?  The same reason anyone would take any vehicle on the trail: it's fun!  There's really no other point to it anyway!

[Gary Lewis]

Bob - I'm still running the factory engine-driven cooling fan on Big Blue.  And it apparently moves a LOT of air as it has a serious sound to it when it is engaged.  But it isn't as high-pitched as the electric fans on all of the other vehicles, including Jeeps, Toyotas, etc.  In any event, it works and we had absolutely no cooling problems on the trip.

Having said that, we did have a "cooling system" issue.  Several mornings I found the coolant recovery bottle down ~16 ounces, and found tracks in the dust under it.  So it looks like the lid to the reservoir is leaking coolant as we bounce our way down the trail and the coolant splashes around.  I know the lid isn't sealed so I'm thinking about pulling the reservoir, turning it upside down, and running flowable RTV into the lip.

As for the right of way, everyone was very friendly.  The side-by-sides were very quick to pull over.  They seem to know that they are more maneuverable than about anything else but a motorcycle or bicycle, so they move over quickly.  (We saw tons of motorcycles and several bicycles - including two young ladies on bicycles that made it to the tops of Engineer and Cinnamon.  )

And you are right, the reason to take Big Blue is for the fun of it.  I'm sure I could have spent some money and made Blue able to do the same trip. Or bought another vehicle and made it capable.  But it is more fun to me to take an "old truck" and make it do it in style.  

And speaking of "style", my brother frequently popped the hood to show people the engine.  And he got lots of "wow's".  I think he was almost as proud of it as I am.  

[kramttocs]

Great updates, analysis, and photos! Really enjoying seeing the photos

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, Scott.

Speaking of photos, I've been working on them to be able to share them.  However, I've also discovered several ways not to do it.  For one, taking two cameras, like my iPhone and a Nikon point & shoot, is a pain because the pictures are stored in two different places.  And merging the two sets of files isn't easy.  So it might be best to stick with one camera.

But wait, there's more!  Gaia, the mapping app, has the ability to take pics from the app and show them on the map.  But it seems have its own numbering scheme separate from that of the device on which the pic is shot, which makes sense because you could use several different devices to access the map and/or shot pics.

Given that, I've been struggling.  But I think I'm there, so let's get this show on the road!

We stopped on the second day of driving on Monarch pass to take a break and get some ice cream.  Note how clean Big Blue is.




But my brother spotted the cable car and wanted to go up, so we did:





And from the top I shot this 180 degree pano.  (The railings are actually in one line.)

[Gary Lewis]

Day One:

I called the days we were in Ouray Day 1, 2, 3, & 4. This is about Day 1.

We went south of Ouray on HW 550, the Million Dollar Highway, and picked up Ophir pass. At the trailhead we aired down and once down into the town of Ophir we aired back up. And that's where we learned not to give each tire 2 minutes as that raised them from 15 to 45 psi! From Ophir we hit a county road and went into Telluride and picked up Imogene Pass, which took us back to Ouray. All in all Gaia says that is a 56.2 mile run.

Here's the route in a pdf so you can zoom in and still have some clarity. (Click on the Full Screen icon on the bottom right of the map to open it up in another window where you can zoom and pan.)

Here's my brother, Rick, on Ophir Pass:

And here's a shot of coming down Ophir pass. Note that this is about the spot where we stopped last year to let a tour truck come down, and where I learned my passengers as well as those in the Jeep behind us were already freaking.

And now we are coming up Imogene. If I were to rate the trails on a 1 - 5 basis I'd probably rate Imogene as a 3+, with Ophir as a 2. Imogene was steep at some points, but the hardest part was in finding places to meet people. There are some parts of it that are tight.

We stopped for lunch at an abandoned mine, and I got a shot of Rick enjoying his lunch:

And the obligatory "we were here" shot on top of Imogene. No, I didn't get out as we'd spotted another pulloff up above and just stopped to get the pic as the place was crowded.

And here's the pulloff. Lot's fewer people but still way up on the mountain at 13,000'.

But it is what we did on that point at 13,000' that I thought was "hot". We brewed two cups of Starbucks from a Keurig and then sat on the tailgate and drank it, looking our over a vast chunk of Colorado. It is amazing what 3000 watts of AC can do.

And then we headed down the mountain.

And towards the bottom at Camp Bird Mine we spotted this cute house, after which we were pretty well back in Ouray. A good day, and a lot of fun!

[Gary Lewis]

Day Two:

The second day was a looooong day. Bob had warned me that it would be, but he couldn't foresee the "adventure" we had. But all's well that ends well.

Gaia says the route is 45.9 miles, most of which is on the highway. As shown below, we got off on Engineer Mountain Trail, or the Alpine Loop, depending on what map or signs you are reading. (The sign on the highway says "Alpine Loop" at the moment.) And we then went up to Mineral Point, Animas Forks, Engineer Mountain Pass, California Gulch & Pass, Lake Como & The Wall, Hurricane Pass, and then Corkscrew Gulch.

But as Bob said, Engineer Mountain Trail is rough!

Things were going well until I slid off the side. What happened was that I thought I could sneak the driver's side tires past the rocks and put the right side tires on top of the berm. But I was wrong and the LH tires hit the rocks, which pushed us to the right and the RH tires slid over the berm.

But that was fortuitous in a way because it caused us to meet Mike. We'd just passed him while he wondered if he should go on since someone coming down the mountain told him he should NOT go up in his 4Runner. He came up and we discussed the situation, with all of us realizing that just pulling it forward with my winch would probably cause the rear end to slide down the hill more. So Mike brought his 4Runner around and positioned it above us and ran his winch line to the rear of the step bar on Big Blue. Sure enough, when we ran Big Blue's winch the truck went straight forward and came right out.

After that, still wondering if he should go on, Mike asked if he could tag along. (And he did so for three days.) So we headed up the mountain and stopped at Mineral Point. (That road was rough and later Mike said he didn't want to go back if it meant going to Mineral Point.) Next up was Engineer Pass, and here's my brother, the engineer, pointing at the sign.

From there we went back down to Animas Forks, where we had lunch and toured one of the houses. Here are some pics from that, starting with Rick and Mike on Big Blue's tailgate with the mine in the background.

And here's the sign outside the house that we toured:

This pic is a pano from inside looking through the bay window of that house:

From there we headed through California Gulch and over California Pass:

From there to the junction with Poughkeepsie Gulch and then down the gulch past Lake Como and to The Wall. No, we didn't try to tackle The Wall. First, there was a serious ~2' step that we'd have to get over in order to even get to The Wall. Then at The Wall the less difficult side on the left was cabled off. So we decided to give it a pass.

And last, on to Hurricane Pass and then to Ironton and back onto 550 and up to Ouray. It was a looong day, but turned out very well. I learned one thing not to do, we got unstuck nicely, and we gained a new friend - Mike.

[Nothing Special]

Gary Lewis wrote

....  Speaking of photos, I've been working on them to be able to share them.  However, I've also discovered several ways not to do it.  For one, taking two cameras, like my iPhone and a Nikon point & shoot, is a pain because the pictures are stored in two different places.  And merging the two sets of files isn't easy.  So it might be best to stick with one camera.

I need to leave for church choir practice so I don't have time to digest your reports right now, much less comment on them.  But they were fun to scan through and I'm looking forward to taking more time!

But a comment on this, when I've tried to combine pictures from multiple devices, what I've found best is to put them all in one folder on my computer and sort the folder by date.  IF I remember to change the time on our digital SLR camera for the correct time zone (big if) because the cell phones automatically do, then they all get sorted in the order they were taken.

[Gary Lewis]

Bob - I'm headed out for Bible study momentarily, but I will comment on the date and folder idea.  Basically that's what I wound up doing.  But I created folders for each day and sorted the pics into those.

However, I was a bit taken aback by the pics taken on the iPhone but inside Gaia.  Their differing numbering scheme threw me off.  Then I discovered that I was set up to sort by name, not date.  When I changed that it all cleared up.  

[grumpin]

Very nice! What an adventure!

[Sac79]

Looks like an amazing trip! Can't wait for day 3&4. I'm quite envious, I wonder if Eddy could do this...

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, Dane!

Rob - I'm not sure Eddy would have the clearance to do it. Big Blue's clearance had us hit only 4 or 5 times, but Mike's 3" lift and larger tires on his 4Runner had him hitting the rocks several times a day. However, he has skid plates installed so there was no damage other than to the skid plates themselves. Other than that I'm sure Eddy could do it.

Day Three:

After the long day on Day Two we decided to take it a bit easier. In fact, Rick and I met up with Mike at his favorite breakfast place, Camp Bell's, at 8:30 instead of hitting the road at that time.

During breakfast we discussed where to go that day and I suggested we go back to Animas Forks and take Cinnamon Pass and then go up to American Basin. I think this is when Mike said "If that involves Mineral Point count me out." So we went through Silverton instead, and that was a much easier trip, even though it 78.9 miles long.

Doing it that way the road is very easy up to just south of Animas Forks. In fact, we didn't even air down until we were half way between Silverton and Animas Forks. But we did see many, many people who apparently didn't have on-board air as they didn't air down at all, and their vehicles and their heads were being pounded unmercifully. However, the drop to 15 psi smoothed out Big Blue very nicely.

Here's a shot of the road out of Silverton as well as one of some mine works along the way:

And here's a shot of Animas Forks from above as we started up the Cinnamon Pass trail. In the right center you can see the William Duncan house, the one with the bay window.

The climb up to Cinnamon Pass was much like that to Engineer Pass - steep and with tight switchbacks. But we made it. However, so did these guys on bicycles! Turns out that the one on the left, Jeff Delmedico, is from Fort Gibson, OK and knows people I know. And he's wearing a Pittsburg State jersey, and Pitt State is where Rick went to college. And the guy on the right, Larry Bowles, is from Tahlequah, which is where I went to college. Small world!

On the east side of Cinnamon Pass the road is much easier. This is the Alpine Loop and is billed as something that almost anyone can do. But bear in mind that the really rough section that we did on Day Two is also part of the Alpine Loop, as is the section where we slid off the side. So there are easy sections and rough sections. This is one of the easy ones.

And then we turned off the easy road to go up to American Basin.

And the road got a bit steeper, narrower, and rougher. But still not bad. It was an easy but fun climb.

From there we headed back to Silverton. Mike, ever the knight in shining armor, stopped to help a couple that were having trouble with their OHV and discovered the lug nuts were stripped and the wheel was about to come off. So he took them back to Silverton where they got their truck and trailer and went back after their OHV.

Rick and I went to Smedley's Ice Cream Parlor and had ice cream and coffee. Then we wandered around Silverton and found what looks to be the perfect vehicle! Can't you imagine coming around a bend on a narrow trail and meeting someone with one of these?!?!

[Gary Lewis]

Day Four:

This was our last day in the mountains so we thought we'd take it easy. We met up for breakfast again and discussed where to go. One suggestion was Last Dollar Road and then Imogene Pass back to Ouray. But LDR was thought to be too easy and Imogene was closed for a foot race.

So Mike suggested Porphyry Gulch and we parted ways to meet up again at the trailhead. Here's the map, but this time I've zoomed in on the trail bit and excluded the long highway run from Ouray, up north, to the trailhead.

Unfortunately our "let's meet up here" plans didn't work too well and Rick and I got to the trailhead ahead of Mike. So after some time calling him on the radio (he had one of my handheld GMRS radios) and texting him on the phone, all to no avail, we went up Porphyry Gulch trail. It actually comes off of the Black Bear Pass trail part way up the mountain, but for whatever reason there was no sign at the highway to tell you of either the Black Bear or Porphyry trails, so we had to double back a bit. But here's a shot of the start of the Porphyry Gulch trail:

In the shot below Rick is talking to his wife, using the one bar of signal we got as we rounded that corner. And we were alerted to having a signal by the text & voice messages rolling in from Mike. But unfortunaly when we tried to call or text Mike he didn't have coverage at that time. So we broke out the other GMRS handheld (the built-in radio apparently has antenna problems) and called Mike on it. Turned out he as in the highway construction queue and would be there in a bit.

So we waited at that spot with the view below of the valley and Highway 550. After while we spotted Mike's 4Runner, but just as we did he got past the trailhead and had to backtrack. However, in a bit here he came and we went on to the top of Porphyry Gulch, although I don't have a pic for that somehow.

Once we'd seen Porphyry Gulch we turned around and headed back down the mountain for the Black Bear trail. Mike had convinced us that Big Blue would be a bear to get around the first of the switchbacks, so Rick and I agreed we'd just go to the pass itself and not any farther. Here's a view of the Black Bear Pass trail:

And here we are at Black Bear Pass. The motorcycle was ridden by Luis Sanchez. I need to find a link to his Youtube account as he got out his drone and shot videos while we were there. Perhaps Big Blue is in them? (I've found him at the newspaper in Santa Fe and sent him and email.)

Here's a view of the trail off Black Bear Pass down to The Steps. Note that there is no white 4Runner in any of the pics as Mike stayed down below at the gate to the pass trail. He told me later he just knew we were going to tackle The Steps and he didn't want to be around when we did.

And here's Rick in his Top Of The World shot. (You really have to see it on an iPhone as it was shot in Live and his arms are waving like he's trying to fly. )

At that point we went back down Black Bear Pass trail and picked up Mike. Here's a shot of the trail:

And here's a closeup of that colorful mountain, which I'm assuming is Red Mountain.

After getting back down to Hw 550 we crossed the road and picked up CO 825, which goes on the other side of the valley and gave us the view below of Porphyry Gulch Trail on the left and Black Bear Pass Trail on the right:

After that Rick and I went back to Ouray and took in Box Canyon. It is amazing as the water comes in at an angle and splashes down into the stream. It was a fitting end to our four days in the mountains, and allowed us to decompress a bit.