What was your 1st mountain pass you drove on. Or the 1st that scared you!everybody

Sweet corn in a reefer with no Jakes. Glad for the Top ice on the Corn the Water coming out hitting the Drums kept the Brakes cooler and helped. However the trip West was a SOB since I was Loaded no Jakes and no Water cooling on the Brakes.

 

It was meant tongue in cheek, well except for the Red Mtn. Pass part.

Oh and the Monarch Pass I am referring to is US 50 between Gunnison and Poncha Springs, SWIFT, Werner, Stevens have all lost trucks on it in the last 15 yrs, the SWIFT one was the most recent.

 

US 60 in WV/VA before I-64 was built sticks in my mind because I had never been on a road where they added a 3rd lane on the corners so trucks could get around. I guess the hills didn't bother me because I don't even remember them.

I remember going west on I-70 in western CO when it was still a 2 lane road. It was a beautiful drive.

I can't remember where I was now, but this past summer I was headed south in PA after dropping at my last job site and I went up a windy hill about a mile long that pulled me down to 30 mph empty with a 515 hp engine. There were a couple other hills marked 11% and this one was steeper than those. That road would be interesting to drive in the winter.

 

I don't believe monarch was that bad.. Of course it has been 8 years since I have had the pleasure of going over it. Wolf Creeks hair pins would get me nervous back in the day. Now its just the traffic from Walsenberg all the way across.. Red Mountain is fun. Can't recall the name but the one that drops you into Silverton from Durango is a breeze except that last 10 mph curve it can be a doozzy. Cabbage was always fun going west bound. You can see flat land ahead... You just can't seem to ever get there. Having said all that my first pass was Tehachapi I drove on left Dallas and went to Lubbock Amarillo and Santa Fe with a final in Colorado springs.. Trained drove over the Rockies of New Mexico and Raton. Went to Alamosa and loaded potatoes to some market in Pa right off of 80 have been there 100 times since then can remember the name though.. Deadheaded to Baltimore and loaded some soap.. Went to Tracie Ca.. For the life of me I can't understand why he didn't let me have one of those baby mountains in WY. It made no sense. They are great trainer hills fairly easy pulls no real suprises.. But he gave me that one to learn on.. I was scared like hell. I went over it 4 years later in the day time it was winding up and down.. but it wasn't as big and bad as I had remembered.

If I had to vote for the worst one to run.. It would be a tie between Wolf Creek Pass,Co due to the hair pins and campers. Red Mountain Co due to the fact you are 1 foot from your maker. and this one is going to shock everyone but Le Veta Pass Colorado this mountain is deceptive looks flat you will think you lost an injector or a fuel line is clogged looking ahead but look in your mirror it is a steady 6 to 7 % grade one time going down towards fort garland I was letting the trailer do the work and forgot about those curves halfway down, lets just say good thing it was 3 am and there was no one out there.

 

Ah, yes, Durango. Spectacular view.

 

Coal Bank and Molass from Durango to Silverton are fun. Molass they are trying to widen in a couple of places, drove it recently with snow on the sides of the road, you can't see where the drop offs are unless you look closely at the plow lines from the grader.

La Veta is a fun pass, usually drop off the Ft. Garland side at 65 with the jakes on and only tap the brakes in one spot. Now, EB is a different story, that straight away is deceiving, they list it as 7%, it's actually 8% according to CDOT.

 

>>>>and the only one I REALLY didn't like was Black Bear(I think this is the name) thru Telluride..

That's why I said I wasn't sure of the name, it definitely went to Telluride, whichever one that is...

 

I thought everyone posted while they drove, no?

 

It wasnt the pass at all it was the eighteen speed trans that i had no idea how to use. i finally figured it out . boy those were the days.

 

grapevine for me last week but i was going empty. my pickups are in bakers field so comeback loaded to L.A.. put it in 7th and didnt touch the brakes at all the way down