Mountain Wilderness Adventure

[CovertRunning]

This is from my overseas adventures this summer.
It was quite a time, I hope you enjoy my journal of events...
I should let you all know that my 'true' username is Watch Ryder, not covertrunning (an older name), so if you wonder who the hell Watch Ryder is in this story. That's me
MMM is the guy I end up meeting and helping out.

Excursion to America…

Arriving on my quest to reach my buddy’s land in the mountains was not easy.
Going through all the ‘Gatekeeper’ areas of airports on both sides of the Atlantic was a bit of an ordeal.
I had the paperwork for temporarily exporting my trusty Benelli shotgun.
The customs folk at the British Airport were most intrigued!
I had all the necessary paperwork, yet a few questions were asked.
On arriving at the first airport I had to pass through the auspices of the DHS!
They didn’t like my passport as it was quite rough and tumble in appearance.
After asking me a barrage of questions I made my answers back. I’d wrongly assumed that as other country’s were ok with my passport’s condition that the USA would too. How wrong I was
I was sent into ‘secondary inspections’ with a red flagged folder!
Was I now in Team America’s bad books?

The secondary inspections area had a sign outside it that assured being treated with respect and courtesy etc. That looked good, although the somewhat shabby waiting room, manned by another 3 DHS guys, had an edge of oppression, even fear to it.
Sat down were a few roguish characters, Black, Mexican and of course Watch Ryder who now was in their midst…
I walked right to the front.
Nobody said anything to me, not even the DHS dudes who were wordlessly tapping away at computer screens. They were almost in another world the concentration they had.
As I looked around for some ticket machine like some banks have I saw nothing.
Then a fourth DHS guy came in through a side door and, without a word, snatched the red folder containing my passport and other papers from my hands.
He walked around the counter, threw it in an ‘in-tray’ then told me to take a seat.
I asked him was it ok to go get my bags from the carrosel area.
“Nope, wait here until you’re called forward. Don’t worry about your bags, they’ll be kicked off to the side when it’s done moving.’
Rough and tumble indeed!
After watching a Mexican sounding lady get the third degree it was my turn to be assayed before the gatekeepers of the USA.

He asked me similar questions to what I’d been asked earlier. I answered again, honestly, in my chirpy, happy go lucky manner. Or at least as best I could given the long flight over the Atlantic!
‘Ok go get your bags.’ He said neutrally after the barrage was over.
I did so, noting the sniffer dogs being brought out nearby.
The DHS certainly isn’t for show that’s for sure!
As I walked back in the door with my Bergen on my back and jumbo-bag trundling in the young DHS dude’s eye’s were astounded at my set-up.
The guy wondered, after marvelling at 120 litre capacity Bergen, short haircut and style if I was going to join a militia! LOL.
I told him I was ex-military doing some adventure travel around the US, which is the truth of course. This seemed to set him at ease.
Is there some kind of a hidden-license having a military background with government / federal types I wonder??
Just prior to starting on my bags I told him the jumbo one had my shotgun inside with all the trimmings, tags etc.
Before he had chance to grill me I showed him my approval paperwork from the ATF gatekeepers.
<The ATF they did a rapid 1 week processing of this when I‘d applied for my shotgun to be temporarily exported. They also do this for free too!>
He looked at it briefly and seemed ok with it but asked some of his companions for a second opinion.
They were talking about getting the ATF to come and look at it, but in the end he did his own check, comparing the serial numbers on the paperwork to that of the Beneli.
One of his companion’s amusingly said they’d seized 2 firearms yesterday.
If I hadn’t of gotten the approval papers from the ATF I’m sure Ryder’s would of made a third!
After the first few items of specialist equipment bags being searched I reminded him of my ex-military background, otherwise he really would of reckoned me to be a rebel militia dude. He chilled out a bit then and one of the DHS was an ex-marine chirped up a few friendly comments (as I was Army not Marines).
After pulling all my stuff from my Bergen and jumbo-bag I had to put it back in. He did apologise for having to search my stuff and as I put my stuff back in the bags he went back to the computer counter and began tapping away at the keys.

I was told to sit down again, after a few more minutes he called me forward again.
‘You’re good, have a nice trip.’ He said, slamming a stamp into my battered passport giving it the mark of approval for a few months, then the Ryder was free to fly again into Mountain Man Mike’s (MMM) neck of the woods…

---

[BArrival[/B]

I arrived at the city retreat exhausted but happy to of made it.
I was in Mountain Man Mike’s neck of the woods now.
I got to a motel not far from Mike’s place having arrived at the infamous Denver Airport.





Meeting up with MMM was interesting.
He’d earlier told me he’d often scare the city twin’s he’d had on his land the previous year by walking up silently behind them, I soon realised that MMM’s claim was not unfounded.

As I checked out of the motel (where I’d arranged to meet MMM) I stood talking to the motel woman behind the counter. I’d envisaged Mike waiting outside in his pick-up.
He wasn’t, he was sat about twelve feet behind me in the lobby, I’d not even noticed him sat stealthily there!

Compared to the video footage taken of him he’s a lot taller than I thought, taller even than me in fact!
We had roughly ten days or even less before we needed to be on the road to the Mountain Hold (MMM’s land) so the clock was ticking.

Before we even went to his city location it was off to the sprawling Wal-Mart behemoth for supplies.
I’d taken a fair chunk of change with me and it was a hard temptation to resist buying all the goodies and gigdits they had on offer.
I still needed the essentials though so here’s what I got...

Two tents for both the city set-up and the Wilderness. One small and light, the other large and substantial. I’ll explain more on this later.
Several Weeks Food supplies (various dried foods etc)
Shotgun shells (Various Types)
Propane Gas and Stove
[I]


Procuring a BOV

Getting a vehicle is undoubtably one of the most troublesome and challenging things for most folks when it comes to transport.
Faced with doing this in a ‘foreign’ country was even more difficult.
However I had all my papers and without a decent 4x4 machine we were either walking up to MMM’s place or pedalling!

Mike wasn’t in a position to get a BOV as he’d sold his old truck when times had gotten hard, his resources were tight too.
My last BOV in the USA met a strange demise and it was time for another to replace it.
I’d been scanning craigslist for a while and finally found some possible matches.
Mike was adamant we avoid dealers, I on the other hand had no luck getting hold of any of the private sellers on CL. They either wouldn’t return emails or calls would be days in delay.
The dealers on the other hand seemed more promising…
I was more keen on just using raw instinct and coursework to get a decent one. Hoping some of my Ryder luck might carry the day
I settled on two vehicles for inspection.
One was a Ford Explorer, the other a Jeep Grand Cherokee

I’d earlier done some checking with the Ford Explorer at Carsurvey.org and the general consensus was they were pretty reliable. The Jeep on the other hand was more mixed results…

The dealer was an interesting arab fellow who’d been in the states since 1981!

The Jeep was in ragged condition, as I checked it I found the front bumper was loose while the rear bumper damn near came off in my hand.
The interior was dirty, the fan blower vibrated the whole machine, door trim was loose (you know when the interior door handle is about done).
Nearly all the power windows wouldn’t work.
The engine didn’t start first time either.
It would cost at least $1000 to get it back to BOV standards. The final straw was it had no roof bars.
They wanted $2500 for that one which was nearly 20 years old!

The other one was the Explorer, something my instincts seemed in-tune with.
Everything was mostly ok on this, and it even had on-the-fly 4x4 controls!
There were roof bars fitted also.
For less than 3000 dollars it seemed ok and a good deal.
I was a bit concerned that the ABS light was on and there was the sound of a worn bearing from the front driver’s side. Something I reckoned to be connected.
All in all for the price it was an ok deal. The ‘book price’ for it was about $4700.
One test drive later and the Ryder had his BOV again!
The ‘gatekeeper tests’ aka emission’s evaluation it flew through ok too.
Such a vehicle needed a name so I came up with ‘The Wolverine’ or the ‘Wolve’ for short as it had a kinda wolverine vibe about it when you slammed it into low-ratio 4x4!

---

Mike’s garden in the city was by no means without nature. I set my backpacker tent up...





Big tree squirrels scurried about every morning!





I’d feed them oats on this stump and they’d soon make short work of it!



Getting to the Wilderness Area…

The stove set-up I'd be relying on mostly for food cooking etc.
Mike's place does have a campfire area, but Forestry restrictions mean using it can be dicey with all the fires raging about in Colorado...



For getting up to the Mountain Hold where Mike had his base there we had some challenges.

The Oregon Kid was coming in by bus on the Friday (following an epic 30 hour trip!) which initially meant we’d be going all in one vehicle. That would mean not much space for gear.

Our luck turned though as MMM managed to secure the use of an old pickup to go up there with.
It was an old battlebus of a pickup but it just kept on truckin’.



We’d be going up as a convoy now and we’d be able to take with us everything but the kitchen sink!

---

Prepping gear for the trip into the wilderness.



Mike's new solar array



Filled up!



The waterproof sheeting was pretty easy to secure, bungee's then rope as an added safety factor.



The last time MMM was in his Mountain Hold not that much was done, this time though hopefully they’ll be lots of projects completed.

We met up with the Oregon Kid (OK) without incident. Young, from a large city but quite keen to learn the basics of survivalism. He hadn't made many posts on the S Boards but MMM was throwing him a friendly invitation all the same



After a few more days of getting him sorted out with provisions and the like we were nearly ready!



Lining up for the departure

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Into the Mountains!

Getting to MMM’s Retreat was a bit tricky due to the dreadful forest fire that raged through parts of Colorado in early June. It was so bad that one of the key highways was closed and MM reckoned we’d have to detour via Cheyenne.

The day we were due to travel, the road was re-opened and the way was clear once more.
It was quite a sight too, once we were about a quarter of the way there we could see ash and smoke in the distance!



It was my first time driving at such high-elevations and the ‘Wolverine’ struggled to climb up some of the mountain highway stretches. I feared my engine was about to fail. (I later learned this was to do with the 91 octane fuel I’d added earlier so no worrys).

We pulled in at some awesome views on the Snowy Range.







This is one of the viewpoint positions! It look's like a pocket fort.



Snowy range intel.



The convoy briefly rests...





There was a couple in the area from Indiana who were travelling through, we chatted for a while then, like the olden times when partings must, we headed north and they headed south!

I asked MMM If his old battered machine was suffering from reduced power and he confirmed it,
When we reached the mile-stone of Encampment the power to my engine was back.

Then while making the final move to the Mountain Retreat the ascent saw my vehicle loosing power again, it coped ok with the roads though. (It coped even better when I went back to 87-88 octane)

After climbing up into the mountains once more we made a turn and rumbled on down a private dirt road. The state highway used to be like the dirt road until twenty or so years ago...

Once at the clear dividing line of Mike’s Base Spring which is the entrance I put the ‘Wolverine’ into 4x4 mode and blasted on through.

---

To tell of the land mike has could take a lifetime so I’ll instead talk of the areas without giving an exact layout or tactical map for obvious reasons.
Pictures are hard to show off Mikes Retreat in all it’s glory. Mike showed us around pointing out areas of interest and where might be good to set-up tents.
It was like something off an adventure book; streams of spring water ran down through it, meandering about somewhat but all crossable.
The pleasant scent of forest flowers and pine was in the air while little chipmunks sometimes came out to see what we were up to.
Vast complexes of wooden timbers mike had built single-handed reached up almost as high as the engleman spruces and fir-trees that were EVERYWHERE!
I pride myself on self-reliance, but even I’d be unable to put together the buildings Mike has thrown together over the years.



Decentralised areas of raw building materials were hither and thither. Make no mistake if Mike had the time to do so there would be cabin’s, workshops and tunnels all over the place. As it is there are vast resources that Mike’s accumulated at very little cost over the years.

In detail:

The disused ‘sheds’. I call them pocket-warehouses as they stretch for many yards towards the side of the mountain.
These dominate a small portion MMM Base. Yet to see how MMM has situated it you have to be trespassing as the dense forest conceals much from the eye.
Had there not been a partial collapse of the shed-warehouse due to snowfall it would have been able to catche vast supplies.
I looked at it as a project but it would require such a concentrated effort to rebuild all other work would have to be suspended.
Indeed a previous shed area had suffered a similar, more complete collapse and it made me think of Mike battling it out by building structures against the winter elements. Two of his battles were partially lost during the pounding winter snows.
Yet his third installation, An Underground Bunker was much more successful...



But before I can speak about that we had a lot to do. Gear had to be unloaded and some areas de-winterised for access and use!

This is the sight that greeted me on 'popping the trunk'. I had to get this to a suitable area of shelter deep in the Mountain Hold! My fitness was tested, but stood the challenge



Mike sorts out the 'tuff shed', I gave him a hand as the nails were deep and embedded on the ply-shield.



MMM's mean machine await's, but can it be awakened?