As a youth, our family always went camping in the summer in one of two places. Either it was the Boulder Mountain year or it was the Beaver Mountain year. This tradition starts way before my time, much like my dad's deer hunting, which is for another time. I always enjoyed going to these places. Boulder is red rock, Ponderosa pines and long jeep rides to the watering hole and Capitol Reef. Boulder is three wheelers and motorcycles down the rosebud trail with hair whipping into a tangled dusty mat at the end of the day. This year, Boulder was introducing my memories to my children and to my husband. Toby has only heard of the adventures in Hardy camping and I was excited to share this beautiful mountain and lake with him and our family.
We left around 9:00 am and arrived around 5:00 pm. Whoa you say. Well we had a little truck trouble around Torrey (the town at the base of the mountain). We stopped for some final provisions and Sundance notice that a liquid was leaking from the truck. I hopp
ed out and took a peek for myself and sure enough, oil was hemorraging out of the truck and making a large puddle in the dusty gravel. We quickly asked for the nearest mechanic and drove as fast as we dared to Bicknell. As we came smoking into town we feared the worst. However, our silent, slowmoving mechanic hopped up into the motor and flashed his little light around and had an "ah ha" moment. Twenty minutes later, he produced the problem and the solution.
Apparently there is a high pressure oil pump that runs the fuel injectors on this truck (I am assuming that there is such a machine on other vehicles as well). It turns out that there is a nut on the back of this device has a seal that keeps the oil in under the high pressure. Well, ours failed, causing the subsequent river and puddle of oil under the truck.
Five quarts of oil later and we were on our way up the mountain. We stopped at the Wildcat Ranger Station to fill up our fresh water tank (a Hardy tradition at least as old as me) and the rangers were more than happy to share their knowledge and trinkets with the kids, at least those who were still awake.The rest is pretty much history and fond memories. Who can forget canoeing and fishing in Lower Bowns reservoir. Try as we may, we still cannot get the image of Kyle Hardy's backside (I'll spare you the image) peeking out of the water during his Au' natural swim in FRONT of his extended family. Our boys have new heroes in their cousins Kyle and McKay as they fished and rode doughnuts in the jeep. Our boys and Toby now know about the watering hole and skull rock. We also know that a Ford F-250 can indeed make it to Capitol Reef through the back door, although you may have a few rocky mountain pinstripes customizing your ride.
Here are a few more pictures of our adventure on Boulder Mountain.
Just above the infamous watering hole
Enjoying the ice cold water
Our Rig loaded to the gills
After a quad ride in the rain
Fishing, fishing, fishing
Skull Rock
Riding with cousin Roger Hardy
On the trail to Capitol Reef
(the jeep is Kyle's doughnut making machine that our boys adored)
Our Rig loaded to the gills
After a quad ride in the rain
Fishing, fishing, fishing
Skull Rock
Riding with cousin Roger Hardy
On the trail to Capitol Reef(the jeep is Kyle's doughnut making machine that our boys adored)
