2009 Hummer H3T Alpha vs 2009 Nissan GTR - Over The Hill

The next morning, I stop at the San Miguel Country Store-which rents Wranglers to tourists-to get a little advice about my route. The guy behind the counter suggests that I take Engineer Pass out of Ouray, rather than the seemingly more direct Black Bear Pass. "If you go on Black Bear, bring a spare pair of shorts," he says. "And a body bag. People die up there." You know, I think Engineer Pass will work just fine. Jason and I fill our respective gas tanks and meet at the trailhead at the top of town. I edge the Hummer's tires onto the dirt, Jason backs up the GT-R to the edge of the pavement, and after a quick countdown we're away, the H3T's V-8 bellow commingling with the rapidly fading scream of the Nissan's high-strung V-6. For the first couple miles, I'm confident bordering on overconfident. Jason has a lot of ground to cover, and I'm going as fast as 40 mph, bombing along what's essentially a rough dirt road. I'm gonna Baja 1000 this sucker and beat him by a mile. So when photographer Brian Konoske, riding shotgun, asks to jump out to take a photo, I say, "No problem." Soon, though, the trail narrows, and it becomes clear that there's a contingency I hadn't expected. Although I assumed Jason would have to deal with plenty of rolling roadblocks en route to Lake City, it hadn't occurred to me that I'd encounter traffic on the trail. Besides the ubiquitous Jeeps and ATVs, my path becomes clogged with bikers, hikers, walkers, sightseers, joggers, meanderers, and general human speed bumps. And you can't just blow past them in a cloud of dust, because this is Colorado and people have guns. So, for example, when we encounter two women walking up the trail ahead of us, I have to wait patiently for them to acknowledge my presence and step off to the side. As I pass, one of them leans toward my open window and calls out, "Hey!" I slow to a crawl and prepare for a fusillade of abuse, since I came up behind them at about the speed of the landslide that I was probably causing in my wake. But she edges a bit closer, peers into the interior, and says, "We like your truck." Well, that wasn't what I expected. But perhaps a Hummer in its element draws a different critical eye than one crowding into a parking space at Ikea.