We made it to the Rocky Mountains and got our National Park stamp at the outstanding Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. The plan was to meet with Jenelle, Sara’s long time friend, at Timber Creek, the last first come first serve campground open in the Rocky Mountains National park. To get to Timber Creek we needed to go over the mountain to the other side of the park. No problem we had good faith in our 2001 F-350, she could make it. Wrong! At 10,250 feet of our 12,000 foot ascent she started smoking black smoke and it sounded like someone turned on a fan that was working hard to cool. We had just passed a small shoulder area as Wade pressed the gas and she wouldn’t go. The cars piled up behind us and we went into problem solving mode. Sara got out of the truck and started directing traffic. She stopped oncoming traffic so cars behind the truck would go around us and clear the path so Wade could slowly roll the truck backwards down the mountain a few hundred yards to the just passed shoulder area.
With Sara’s new found fear of heights she had terror visions of the truck rolling down the mountain off the cliff and was shaking from fear because it’s not like the pull off area had a guard rail oh no it just dropped straight off. Yes there were a few trees there might buffer or slow a fall but her stomach turned circles. The pull off area was still on a fairly steep incline so one of us stayed in the drivers seat to press the brake in case the emergency brake failed. There was no cell signal.
Once the truck was in a “safe” place, haha, Wade started to troubleshoot. He had noticed as he was rolling backwards the truck was pouring out fluid and he deduced it was the transmission fluid.
To the rescue Connie and David from Rhindlander Wisconsin. They are visiting the Rocky Mountains to celebrate their honeymoon and pulled off the road to take a picture. When Sara asked if they could get a message to Jenelle to bring transmission fluid or if they found a park ranger to send them our way. As we sat in the truck waiting and talking through options we came up with a plan. A park ranger had not come by so we weren’t sure if our message had reached anyone. We decided that Wade would stay with the truck and Sara would hitch a ride to town before the auto parts store closed and buy transmission fluid and funnel then get a ride back. Sara got a bag together in case she had to do some real hiking, said farewell to Wade, and stuck her thumb out to meet Tim and Reilly of Des Moines Iowa. They were visiting the Rocky Mountains after a business trip in Colorado Springs. They were so awesome and dropped Sara off at the Napa Auto parts store so no hiking necessary.
Sara got a text from Jenelle saying she was a couple hours out but Connie and David are closer and want to help. Sara couldn’t believe it for in 5 short minutes they were ready to help again and drive Sara back up the mountain. David even caught the attendant had given Sara the wrong transmission fluid so after a quick exchange it was back to the top of the mountain.
We added the transmission fluid and checked for leaks. There were no leaks so Sara directed traffic again while Wade backed up and turned the truck around and we made it to the bottom of the mountain. We pulled over at a private campground outside of park and paid $72 a night for a camp spot (ouch) while we investigate what happened to the transmission and hopefully get it fixed. As we were setting up a small herd of elk ran behind our camp spot and we finally met up with Jenelle.
Connie said on the drive back to Wade “You don’t have to thank us, you’d do this to”. Sara said, “You know what we totally would”.
On Tuesday, we found a shop to rebuild the transmission, so we are going further down the mountains to Fort Collins, CO. We’ll drop off the camper at a different campground, pick up a rental car, and leave the truck at the shop. Looks like we’re sticking around until next Thursday.
To the wonderful people that were so kind to take time out of their vacation to help us Thank you!
Cheers,
Sara and Wade
