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mizedog
08-10-2009, 09:37 AM
Well, I took the XJ on it's second official trail run with me as an owner. I took the family on the Miners' Loop run here in Colorado. This started and ended in the ghost town of St. Elmo and includes three passes over 12,000 feet in elevation:
Hancock Pass
Cumberland Pass
Tincup Pass

We saw the Allie Bell storage building which looks ready to fall, two old RR watertanks (one was collapsed, but the stand was was still up), what's left of the Alpine Tunnel, the "ghost" town of Tincup, and Mirror Lake. Most of the road is on old train beds. It was kind of cool to imagine you were on a train in 1881. You could even see some of the old telegraph cable poles (just like the robbers used to cut to keep victims from sounding the alarm. Some with cable still dangling.

The whole trip thing would have to be rated as easy. I did the first 5-8 miles in 2wd, high range. Going up Tincup Pass trail pass Mirror Lake we had some small rocks, but nothing difficult. There was a bone stock ZJ on street tires in the group (driver was probably 75) and he did great!

I'll definitely get back up there, but with a smaller group that can take the time to explore the old cabins and mines. Our group was so large that we felt rushed through.

My XJ did fine. The 4.56 gear let me stay comfortably in 2wd for miles. However, I REALLY missed the option of locking in 2nd gear when in 4lo. The Turbo 400 in my old CJ did this flawlessly and was a used much more than 1st. Unfortunatly, the XJ's AW4 drove me crazy. I was either crawling slower than anyone else, or riding the breaks to keep from dashing down the trail. One day, I'll have to get the Baja shifter upgrade.

I'll add picturest to this thread this evening. In the mean time, www.traildamage.com gives great info on these trails.

Mudderoy
08-10-2009, 10:58 AM
Modifying your AW4 Transmission to lock-in 1st or 2nd gear.

Maybe you've read about this before, but from what you are describing it sounds like this mod might be a good one for your AW4.

:link: (http://www.fourwheeler.com/techarticles/drivetrain/129_0606_aw4_jeep_cherokees_transmission_lock/index.html)

Or this mod at goJeep :link: (http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoAutoSwitch.htm)

mizedog
08-11-2009, 08:10 AM
I'm not posting these in the any particular order.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010004.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010007.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010009.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010010.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010011.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010020.jpg
See, Jeepin is a family thing...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010026.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010032.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010034.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010045.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010048.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010052.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010058.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010080.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010094.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010098.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010103.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010111.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/P1010126.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/Mizedog/Jeep%20pics/Miners%20Loop%2009/Turntableandmountspano.jpg

Mudderoy
08-12-2009, 12:58 AM
Very nice, thanks!

Melissa
08-13-2009, 01:16 AM
Very very neat pictures!! Thanks

BlueXJ
08-13-2009, 01:54 PM
Did you take any pics of the Palasades with the closely fitted stone work? That would be very interesting to see. Great pics and a beautiful trip.

ol"blue
08-13-2009, 04:00 PM
Great pics, thanks. Looks like it was a nice trip.

COSXJFAN
08-13-2009, 05:36 PM
Did you take any pics of the Palasades with the closely fitted stone work? That would be very interesting to see. Great pics and a beautiful trip.

Yeah, I'd like to see that too!!

mizedog
08-14-2009, 04:31 AM
Did you take any pics of the Palasades with the closely fitted stone work? That would be very interesting to see. Great pics and a beautiful trip.

Sorry, we didn't get any good pics of that. It's a section that's too narrow for two-way traffic and there were others waiting for us to come through that section so they could move along. Because of this, we just kept going past the spot where you can get a pic from a distance. I can tell you that when you're on those sections, it's a straight shot down the mountain. I don't know how stone just 2 feet wide can contain all that ground material - let alone full loaded trains. Thank goodness they held the Jeep!

It was really fun driving the old RR beds and imagining you're riding a train through there in the 1880s. Today's RR beds are really wide with nothing close to the tracks. This was completely different and very cozy.