We are still trying to train for our climb up a 14,000 foot mountain that is coming up next Sunday (yikes!), so we’ve been seeking out spots to practice. We’ve done the Devil’s Backbone in Loveland about 3 or 4 times, and Britton has taken his mountain bike up there too. It is by far the closest hiking we have around here because it is only 25 miles or so away from home. But I was getting a little tired of going to the same place and suggested we climb stairs or something around town. Britton wasn’t up for that and said that we should instead go up the mountains a little further to hike. We knew the Poudre Canyon was out of the question due to the huge fire that is still raging there, so we decided to go up the Big Thompson Canyon instead.

Mountain Road

Well…we got about half-way to Estes Park when Britton noticed that the heat gauge was at its maximum. We started to smell some funky antifreeze or oil and thought we’d better pull over right away. We stopped at a little overpriced tourist shop and popped the hood. The coolant was smoking hot! It was boiling and bubbling in the overflow container!

Britton popping the hood (and me documenting it of course)

At least we were in a really pretty area and we had a place to use the restroom and grab a bite if we needed. But we didn’t really need anything except some time for it to cool down. So we milled around the shop and looked at all the expensive Indian and Cowboy knick-knacks in the shop, thumbed through books about the Old West and played around with some of the natives (ha!).

With some really realistic wooden Indian dolls

Even after all the dilly-dallying, the car was still hot, so I suggested we try to get at least some semblance of a hike in. But there was no trailhead anywhere near there. But I did see a bridge and a small trail behind the shop. I convinced BK to jump the fence and we were off exploring. It was pretty fun climbing up some really steep terrain. We even had to use our hands to keep from falling a couple of times. We hiked around a bit and then linked up with a larger trail and followed it back to the main road where there was a cabin site. Someone saw us taking pictures and offered to take ours on the bridge over the Big Thompson.

Overlooking the Big Thompson River

By the time we got back to the car, it had cooled down considerably and we were able to take a look in the coolant hole. The radiator cap had gotten so hot that it had broken apart! It was just a mess of gaskets and springs! Britton filled it as much as he could with water and a little coolant that we had in the car and we coasted back into Loveland with our fingers crossed where we found a little parts store and a new radiator cap. We think the stress of driving up a steep mountain in 95+ degree weather really wore on the poor old Honda with 280,000 miles.

We managed to get back into Greeley and visit with Britton’s family for Father’s Day. When we got there though, the car was mad and hissing out all sorts of hot steam. Britton thinks he may have fixed the problem, but we’re still not trusting it too much yet. Thankfully, he is off of work for a week and doesn’t need to drive it too much. All in all it was definitely an adventure and much more interesting than climbing some stairs in an air conditioned building 🙂

Here’s a short video of the drive up the canyon before the overheating.