Chapter 1: Fort Collins, Elevation: 5003 feet – part 4 [...contd]

The route is designed such a way that in order to go to Mt Oxford, you have to climb Belford first go to Oxford and come back to Belford and than back down. The climbing of Mt Belford the second time around coming back after Mt. Oxford is the hardest I had ever felt climbing a Colorado 14er even though I was just a freshman in climbing the Colorado 14ers.On the top of Mt Belford, Rohit met Rob B. He is a US Army guy who was climbing alone. This was his 3rd 14er for the day. He was parked close to Clohesy lake where he camped the night before and he persuaded Rohit into climbing Mt. Huron the next day. He said that once we get to the bottom of the Missouri mountain trail-head, there is another dirt road and we need to cross some small streams in order to get to Clohesy lake. I didn’t like the idea as we weren’t planning third 14er in our trip and I was dead tired after all that intense climbing of two 14ers already. I gave in without much resistance once we were at the bottom. That decision to agree to climb Mt. Huron turned out to be costly soon after.

The road to get to Clohsey lake was not what I expected. It was very rocky, narrow with drop-offs and  lots of protruding tree branches. My FJ cruiser was built for these kind of roads but it was the first time I had taken into such off-road adventure. The off-road was supposed to be about 3 miles from the start to the Clohsey Lake. With ½ mile into the driving both Rohit and I were having second thoughts that we shouldn’t have done this. It was already 6 pm when we started and the sun was well on its way to saying good-bye for the day. After about 2 miles into the journey, the road started getting wetter and more muddy. At one point, Rohit couldn’t handle the unpredictable swaying of the FJ cruiser and he got out. He started running ahead to check the condition of the road. Than all of a sudden we came across a wide open area and the road pretty much ended. I saw a jeep track (that’s what I thought at that time) and reved up my engine and went in. The FJ Cruiser barely went 5 feet and it was…..stuck! I couldn’t believe it. I tried every button and function that FJ has (Traction control, 4 wheel, low gear 4 wheel) but just the 4 wheels kept spinning but the vehicle was relaxing in the mud. We got out and as soon as we stepped on the mud, we felt that it was like quick sand. Our feet would go in at least 6-8 inches before we could move it.After about 15 minutes of trying we quickly realized that the FJ cruiser is not going to move without additional help. It was dusk by then. Rohit and Rob took Rocky with them promising to return with help. The three R’s vanished in the evening dusk behind the tree. I was left alone in the car. That was the first time I realized, this is not going to be pretty.

In the next blog I am going to put some pictures and possibly a video of the extraction of FJ from the Mud by the towing and recovery company of Buena Vista.. keep checking

[TO BE CONTINUED...]