If you had 2 nice vehicles, a 2001 Dodge truck and a 2004 GMC, which would you drive for 11 hrs to New Mexico? Neither of course, you take your beat down 95 Jeep YJ. Oh yeah and its got the 4 cylinder with all of 115hp. Combined with the 33" tires and a bunch of crap in it, it has no balls. So we left after work one day and it was about 96 degrees(with no ac of course) But it wasnt too bad with the earplugs in and things went well. It looked like we were going to hit some thunderstorms over Vernon but we missed them luckily. We crashed for the night in Clarendon. The next morning I noticed the trans was leaking oil between the transmission and the transfer case. We managed to find a Napa and I bought some gear oil, added a quart, and kept a couple for spares. While driving an old 4x4 you have to resist the urge to pull over and check out every little noise or vibration or you wont get anywhwere. You just have to tough it out and pray the wheels dont fly off. When we started heading north for Taos from 40 the hills started whoopin the 2.5L. I had to downshift all the way to 3rd gear for many of the hills. We made it without further problems.
We checked out some trails around Red River. We had trouble finding the trail. I think the locals take down the forest service road signs to confuse people on ATVs and such and keep them out of their neighborhood. We saw several signs: "No Goose Lake access!" A hole yuppies. anyhow we found the trail that starts behind the storage building drive and crosses the creek and heads up the mountain. We had the top off the jeep and my arms were red by the end of the day. The trail was narrow but easy. Not too scary. We ran into snow at about 11400ft or so and had to turn back before we made it to Goose Lake.
On another day we went up a trail on the north side of red river. It had just opened for the summer.(closes in spring for elk calving apparently) The trail had some great views at the top.
Later i tried fishing in the river while my wife shopped in town. I didnt catch a thing in the river so i decided to jog down the hill to town. A bus stopped and gave me a ride back. The driver asked me about my luck and said there was a pond in town that they stock twice a day. Score! Of course I was the only grown man fishing there. Everyone else was about 11. There was plenty of stockers and I caught a fat one on about my 3rd cast. The youngsters werent having any luck so I felt kinda bad and quit.
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