Ranger305
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In Florida, you either like wet, muddy trails or you're pretty much out of off-road luck. Well, this was a wholly unsatisfactory predicament for me, so I packed up the Ranger and drove three days, stopping at KOAs in Benton, Ill and Goodland, KS ( after stopping for the first night at my son's house in South Carolina) and made it to Ouray, CO. Yup, another KOA just outside of Ouray, set up the tent, made dinner then a fire, then went to bed and woke to a 43* morning. Welcome to Colorado, Florida guy! Drove to the Engineer Pass trail access point off of 550 where I met a man and his wife airing down (like I was) their Wrangler Rubicon. A little socially distant conversation revealed that they were headed to Engineer Pass also. This was an amazing stroke of luck as they had hundreds of off-road hours on mountain trails and I had, well, 35 minutes worth. Their guidance and assistance was greatly appreciated - as was the fantastic blueberry muffin they shared with me over lunch. Here are some pics:
The trail up to engineer Pass:
I was pleasantly surprised at how my Ranger handled the rocky shelf roads and rocky obstacles on the trail leading up to Engineer Pass from 550. There were a few steering wheel gripping off camber moments here and there, but the Ranger handled everything with aplomb. I was very impressed, after watching how the Rubicon I was following handled very tight switchbacks, at how well my truck negotiated the same. Glad I had those rock sliders a few times as I used them to 'pivot' around some big rocks at the apex of a few switchbacks. On the final climb to the Pass, there is an extremely steep (at least steep to a Florida guy) climb up a rocky slope. 4L and a locked rear end handled it as well as the Rubicon. It was awesome!
The trail up to engineer Pass:
I was pleasantly surprised at how my Ranger handled the rocky shelf roads and rocky obstacles on the trail leading up to Engineer Pass from 550. There were a few steering wheel gripping off camber moments here and there, but the Ranger handled everything with aplomb. I was very impressed, after watching how the Rubicon I was following handled very tight switchbacks, at how well my truck negotiated the same. Glad I had those rock sliders a few times as I used them to 'pivot' around some big rocks at the apex of a few switchbacks. On the final climb to the Pass, there is an extremely steep (at least steep to a Florida guy) climb up a rocky slope. 4L and a locked rear end handled it as well as the Rubicon. It was awesome!
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