Adventures in Peryl, a ‘71 Westy

[richparker]

Awesome weekend camping in the bus with the family and Miles best buddy Cannon. We left Saturday afternoon and headed to The Wines of the San Juan’s in Northern NM for a fundraiser/concert/campout. Josh, the head wine maker and also our good friend, wife has MS and the event was to raise money for her to get some medical procedures done. There was a about 60-80 people at the event and everyone wore masks and spaced out at the tables and around the humongous barn fire. The band was good and wifey donated a silver and turquoise necklace she made for the silent auction.

It was kinda chilly at night so we used the Buddy heater, which is da bomb. Miles slept in the top bunk and Cannon slept in the child cot. Man did Cannon think that cot was the coolest.

On the way back we met up with Cannons parents at Sutherland Farms to go pumpkin picking. The place was packed, with only about half the people wearing masks. We tried to keep our distance and only socialize with the people we knew. We ate some food, picked a couple of pumpkins, got some X-hot green chilies and headed home.

The bus crushed it! It had power to spare, got good millage (round trip was around 140 miles and we didn’t even use 1/2 a tank) and the engine temps were perfect! Peryl is really growing on us and I think it’s a pleasure to drive.

Lots of pics.

We had a killer campsite under some huge Cottonwoods.

Temps were on the money the whole trip!

Me and P at the pumpkin patch

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[Manfred58sc]

What fun!!!! Thanks for sharing
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Fat chick owner/operator

[richparker]

This weekend we took a super fun trip to Canyon Lands, feels like forever ago we went on a bus adventure. We left Friday evening after Bailey got off work and drove about 2.5 hours. Just before the entrance to Canyon Lands National Park we turned north on Lock Hart Basin Rd. It was dark when we got there and we didn’t really know exactly where we were going. Once we got on Lock Hart Basin we ended up driving for about another hour. At first the it was just another dirt road, but about 30 minutes in it turned to a mild 4x4 trail. The bus had no issues navigating the road. The suspension, tires, engine, basically the whole bus crunched the road. It was getting late so we pulled off the road into a random location and man was it sweet. We set up the bus, had a quick fire and retired for the night. Saturday we made a nice breakfast, went hiking, shot the BB gun, threw the frisbee and just enjoyed our surroundings. When we got up on Sunday the wind was really strong, too strong to fix breakfast even. So we ate some dry foods and left early. On our way back to civilization we stopped at Newspaper Rock and checked out the 2000 year old petroglyphs. The drive home was crazy, high winds made it difficult to keep the bus to control. But we had plenty of power to push through.

All in all the bus was a pleasure to drive. It was smooth, quite (for a bus), comfortable, had plenty of power, shifted nicely, drove straight and ran cool. The awning is great, wifey says it makes the bus. It easy to set up and take down and a lot sturdier then I thought it was going to be. It handled the winds without and issues.

Total miles: 310
MPG: 18.7
Oil consumption: 0

Newspaper rock petroglyphs

Link

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[71whitewesty]

Killer! The bus in that environment reminds me of the sales brochure. Looks like a great road to explore.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/71campmobile/thirdpage.jpg
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71 Westy 1600 DP, all stock Bus 1
1970's Snow Trac 1600 SP (sold 12/2016)
1968 Tucker sno cat, sold 2021
1969 Tucker Sno cat 542
2017 VW Alltrac
71 tin top stock 1600 DP (project but runs)
Twin 71 White Westy, Bus 2, that I pulled from a 15 year slumber in a dry eastern WA field in 2015.
1966 Sundial Camper "Boomer"

[richparker]

[Mberglo]

I love it! It's great that you can enjoy these precious moments with your family. I can't wait to start our journey in about a month!

[richparker]

Wifeys SLR photos from the trip.

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[richparker]

Rollin’ in the VDub with SJDub. We rode Jones Creek to Pinkerton-Flagstaff to Dutch Creek today. 19.5 miles with 3700’ vert climbing. ⛰ 🚲

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[1970fun]

Great pics
Which brackets did you use for the ARB awning?

[richparker]

[richparker]

The adventure begins…

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[richparker]

What an adventure it was!

We left last Friday on a 9 day 4CORE tour around southwest Colorado that ended at bus camp at Jam Fest at Tico Time resort. On Friday we left Durango and headed to FR578 behind Purgatory Ski Resort. I was hoping to get the site with the waterfall and we did! Everyone was super stoked. We chilled drank, ate and shot BB guns.

Saturday we headed across Hermosa Creek toward Rico, Co over Hotel Draw. Things were going great, but then shit kinda hit the fan when we can across a section of the road that was washed out. I was first and went for it, but I didn’t make it. My bad! I buried the rear passenger side of the bus pretty good in the clay mud hole. I was kinda bugging out a bit, but after some time a local guy came along with a big truck and a winch. He winched me out, once out the guys rocked the hole. Each guy drove as far as they felt comfortable and he winched everyone across. He was super cool and we all chipped in to top him. He came away with $110 and enjoyed awoke beer with us as we winched. The rest of Hotel Draw was totally fine and we decended to Rico just before the rains came and they came hard. Before we knew it, it was dumping sheets of rain. We ran into a local guy I knew in that area and he let us go to his house so I could wash the undercarriage or my bus. Although the engine didn’t get submerged, the sump did and clay was all in the area between the sump and the case. I asked wanted to wash out the wheel I sunk. In Rico we stopped at the gas station and regrouped, I spoke with some other locals there and got some area knowledge of where we’d be going next. Since the rain was so bad we decided that we would cut the day short and try to get a spot in Sunshine campground just outside of Telluride. Luckily There were 2 spots available at Sunshine that fit all 6 of our vehicles and the camp host allowed us to stay.

On Sunday the plan was to take Last Dollar Road from Telluride to Ridgway, but the rain had been so bad we decided to change the route. We definitely didn’t want to burry any other buses on the trip. So we took a spur of last dollar road instead. It was a great road what was well maintained and offered incredible views. Once in Ridgeway we hooked up with John from KG Distillers in Ouray and had some lunch. John has a sweet ‘78 DC but he brought is some ‘67 (I think) Beetle that Robbie had just worked on. John hooked us up with some local road reports, a great spot to camp and after lunch we were off to cross Oak Creek Pass. Things were great at first, but then the rains came again. John suggested we camp on Rowdy Lake on the north side of the pass. It was easy to find and there was only one technical section before the lake. The buses made it no problem but the Tiguan that was with us had some issues, but eventually made it. I noticed that my break pedal was getting lower and my e-brake was pulling out a lot further. At came we decided to pull the passenger drum and check it out. Good thing we did because it was caked with clay in there. We took everything apart, cleaned all the components, reinstalled everything and adjusted both brakes. Things were back to normal now. Just as we finished the rains came again and it poured all night.

Monday morning came around and spirts were low because of all the rain. We packed up came without breakfast and headed out. John had given us the lowdown that RT50 was only open from 1230 to 130 because of blasting. But we needed to get out of there and figured we’d just wait it out. Once we hit RT50 we decided to go west to the next town and regroup and we were all glad we did. We stopped at an old store that had been in the guys family for 80 years. Once we arrived the sun came out and man it was hot. The store owner allowed us to pull into a dirt lot on his property, dry out a bit and cook breakfast. While we were there we got a new road report that I70 was closed due to landslides and they were now keeping RT50 open for the detour. We headed east on RT50 to Alpine Plateau Rd. Once we go to there Greg decided he was going to break off and go see his girlfriend. Bob, Russ and I continued on to Lake City. Once we got to Lake City we stopped for lunch. Russ pointed out I had a bolt in my rear driver side tire 🤬. After lunch I broke off from the crew and got the tire repaired. Lake City is small and I was glad I was able to get it fixed. Took about an hour and now I have a new $35 ashtray souvenir. We camped on Lake San Cristable that night luck for us it barely rained.

Tuesday we headed out with plans of camping on Wolf Creek Pass. We stopped in Creede for lunch, then Clear Creek falls for some photos, then South Fork to shop at the Rainbow. The Rainbow is a supermarket, gun shop, fishing shop, clothing store, camping store and a feed store all in one. Totally country and totally awesome! The weather on Wolf Creek was terrible so we decided to stay just outside of South Fork on Beaver Creek. The weather was warm and sunny there. Once there I decided to readjust the rear brakes again. We chilled, played frisbee and shot BB guns again. There was a lot of BB gun shooting this trip.

Wednesday we headed out to Pagosa Springs to restock on food and supplies for the festival at Tico Time. After restocking we picked up my wife along the way and headed to New Mexico. Tico Time is a RV resort/music festival venue, it’s pretty much lawless there. We went for Jam Fest with was featuring uses on the River bus camp. This was the first year of this event and there were 29 buses at camp. The time there went by so fast, we chilled, laughed, partied, swam in there ponds, went tubing down there slides and really just kicked it. We saw a ton of people we new and it was just really nice to relax and see everyone.

The bus did great, minus the mud hole situation. Performance was incredible, the Millard was good and the heat was amazing!

Total miles: 500
Oil consumption: 0
MPG: ~18, there was alot of idling time

I have a bunch of photos and videos, I’ll try to post them in order.
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[richparker]

Behind Purgatory

Hermosa Creek crossing

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Hotel Draw wash out

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This was how the road looked, except for that one section

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Rico, Co

Lizard Head Pass

Sunshine Campground

More photos tomorrow, I gotta get some sleep.[/youtube]
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[richparker]

Last Dollar road from Telluride to Ridgeway

The crew

Greg and I, Owl Creek Pass

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[richparker]

Rowdy Lake, north side of Owl Creek

Rebuilding my drum after the mud hole 😳

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[Ry-dog]

Great photos! Sounded like quite the adventure getting stuck in the mud and finding someone to help out. Spent a year and a half in Telluride and hiking a few 14-ers in the area. Banged out the Eulous-Windham-Sunshine peaks back in the day ('94). Camped in my bus at the trail head outside Durango the night before we hit the trail - can't remember the exact location, but I do remember the trail took us along the Animas before heading into the mountains. I do recognize the peaks from your photos and brings back those memories. Thanks for sharing!
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[richparker]

@Ry-dog, it was definitely an adventure. Once we got through the mud hole, everything was pretty good.

Newberrys Store

Lake City

Clear Creek Falls

On the way to Creede

South Fork

Pulling the east side of Wolf Creek Pass

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[richparker]

Tico Time Bus Camp. These are just some of the buses, there were 29 this year.

Link

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[LazyLightning75]

Very cool pics and video. I had to share the creek crossing video with my 19 year old son who drives a 2000 Jeep TJ and likes to rock crawl in the Sierras. Even he was impressed!
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1975 Riviera 1.8L FI

[ImAddicted]