Fall Has Fallen…

With all my travels of the past few weeks, I haven’t had a chance to enjoy fall in the high country so Sunday Guitar and I headed up through Kenosha Pass to the Fairplay and Alma area to do a little leaf peeping. I didn’t have big expectations since we’re at the beginning of October and it was a good thing. There was still some color at lower elevations but once we got to the summit of Kenosha Pass the leaves were totally gone. Not only were the leaves gone at higher elevations but a lot of the peaks were showing a dusting of recent snow.

The top of Kenosha Pass gives you a wonderful view of South Park and the many high peaks that surround this beautiful area. On this day we could see wintery clouds and snow squalls covering the entire area.

Plan B was to head up to the timber line outside Alma, CO and visit with the 1000+ year old bristlecone pines in an area called Windy Ridge. These amazing trees are among the oldest living things on the planet. One tree in California is 4900 years old! The Windy Ridge trees are young in comparison to that but they are still pretty spectacular.

It wasn’t the best day to take a 4WD trail above timberline but this would almost certainly be the last chance we had until next June when the snow finally retreats from this area so up we went. Aside from the cold and wind…on Windy Ridge, go figure…it wasn’t too bad. We had a few snow showers blow by but nothing serious. It was however, cold enough to keep me from doing all the photography I had planned on doing.

After a couple of hours of visiting and exploring we headed back down to the little old mining town of Alma and lunch at the South Park Saloon. The saloon is one of about two places in town to get a bite to eat and despite it’s “rustic” look the burgers were quite good.

We were back home in time to see most of the Denver Bronco football game….yes, winter is just around the corner.

Thanks for visiting.

Old Spanish Trail, Finale

On Thursday morning it was decided that since we weren’t finding much of importance in the root cellar we should stop excavating and backfill the two holes. Archaeologists always fill in the holes they dig and it brought back memories of the Army…dig a hole, fill a hole. The good news was that after I filled in the holes my next project was to take my metal detector and search for signs of the Old Spanish Trail that went through this area. This search was done about 12 miles from the stage stop at the base of Cochetopa Pass.

It was a fantastic two days. The weather was perfect, blue skies, temps in the high 60’s, aspen leaves turning gold, life is good!

Part of the search was in an aspen grove (pictured left). Most of what was uncovered here was more modern stuff, cans and late model rifle cartridges, but we did find some old (1880’s) rifle cartridges and old horse shoes. We also found some aspen graffiti the oldest of which was 1934. One piece of graffiti, dated 1964 stated that Don Fricklin was here on a cattle drive. It was kind of surreal…finding tangible evidence of people that walked down this trail between 1880 and today.

Not far from where the picture above was taken we came upon a small ghost town of four or five tumbled down log cabins. This was a mining community of some type because we could see the prospect holes on the hills surrounding the cabins. As much as we wanted to investigate this place, we had to move on. This was not our task for this trip.

Down the mountain from the mining camp the terrain opened up and you could see where wagons had climbed the next hill. The trail had been used for a long while judging from the items we discovered, old horse shoes, a suspender stay, early spent cartridges, glass fragments and the trigger of an old revolver.

The two days passed too quickly. I think this was my favorite part of the project. It was really easy to look around and picture pioneers travelling through the area in covered wagons, especially when you held in you hand, an item they held in their hand.

The project closed down at about 2pm on Friday and I drove to Alamosa, CO to spend the night in a KOA campground. Laundry was done and I took a long hot shower. This morning I left Alamosa and headed for Trinidad, CO. Along the way I stopped at Ft. Garland. I have visited this state historical site before but it’s always fun to tour through an authentic cavalry post.

I arrived in Trinidad about noon and am camped at the Budget Host Motel and RV Park. Not the nicest campground I’ve ever stayed in but it has electricity, cable TV, a shower and sewer connections. All of my waste tanks are full and the water tank is empty so the first order of business is to dump tanks and fill the fresh water tank.

Tomorrow I will head for Carrizo Canyon where the next PIT project begins. I’ll be out of all contact until next Saturday but check back then because I’ll have some more good stories to tell.

Thanks for visiting.

Back From A Mountain Fix

It’s amazing what two nights and three days in the mountains can do for the soul! It was a great trip and I found even more new places to explore.

Tuesday morning however, I was sure that my soul was damned. When I began final loading of the RV first thing Tuesday morning, I opened the RV door and the electric steps came down and stuck in the down position. When the steps are in the down position it is impossible to drive the RV….unless you want to tear the steps off of the RV body, and I did not. I fiddled, fumed, fought and festered, but nothing would get the steps to operate correctly. I finally had to disconnect the arm from the electric motor that powers the steps and then use two ratchet straps to hold the two steps in the up position. A little thing like electric steps was NOT going to keep me from my date in the mountains.

After I resolved the steps issue, I started to load the scooter on the rack that fits on the front bumper of the RV. Well started is not the correct word because I couldn’t get the scooter to start! The engine would turn over, run very roughly for a few seconds and then stall. I fiddled, fumed, fought and festered with this for about an hour and decided just to load it with sheer muscle power (It only weights about 100 lbs.), take it with me and see if I could get it to start once I got to my campsite. It took about another hour for the remaining preparations and just as I was getting ready to drive off, I decided to try the scooter engine one more time….while it was sitting on the rack. To my surprise it started right up!

I was on the road at about 10 am and got to my campsite a little after noon. The campsite is a “dispersed” camping area which means that there are no designated sites and you camp where ever you want. I found an area about 5 feet from Clear Creek, the stream that feeds the reservoir, and was delighted at my luck.

“Luck” might not be a good word to use in selecting that camping site. I later learned that because this is the hottest part of the summer, even in the mountains, and because I was so close to the water, I would be attacked by millions of mosquitoes, the instant I left the protection of the RV. It made it pretty much impossible to enjoy the view of the stream anywhere except from the inside of the RV.

After hearing all that you’re probably thinking that this was a terrible trip, but it wasn’t. After getting all of the above stuff out of the way, things started to click in a good way. Tuesday afternoon I rode the scooter about 12 miles further up into the mountains on a small dirt road, scouting for possible adventures. I had been up this road in a car 8 or 10 years ago and remembered that there were two small ghost towns way back in the valley. Riding on a scooter gave a completely different perspective to the surroundings. I could feel the cool wind in my face and smell the aspen trees. Everything seemed more beautiful and more fragrant on the scooter!

I rode until the road became a four wheel drive trail and decided that on Wednesday I would come back and hike up that trail. I also spotted numerous boondocking campsites for future reference.

I returned to the RV at about 4:30 pm and decided to try fishing for a while. That didn’t work out too well because about the time I got the belly boat pumped up and into the water, the wind started blowing like crazy. I toughed it out for about a half hour and caught one small trout. The wind didn’t seem like it was going to quit, so I did.

The next morning I was up early and headed out for my hike. Even though I was anxious to start the hike I took my time and stopped numerous places along the way to explore and take pictures. I got to the four wheel drive trail about 10 am and figured I would walk up the trail for about two hours and then turn around and come back. Summertime in the mountains brings afternoon thunder showers and more dangerous, the lightning that accompanies them. Colorado is a top state in the category of people killed by lightning and I certainly didn’t want to add to that reputation. 

With all of the stopping, exploring and taking pictures, two hours only got me 2.5 miles up the trail. That 2.5 miles however was 2.5 miles of soul cleansing, Rocky Mountain beauty. (See picture at the top of the post!). About two miles into the trail, I came upon the ruins of the Banker Mine. According to my research this was a silver mine started in the 1890’s and it shipped ore until around 1927. The tunnel has been closed but you can see the tailings pile in the background of the picture to the right. The mountain in the background is aptly named Granite Mountain.

I spent a good deal of time poking around the four or five remnants of buildings and trying to figure out what each building was used for. It was so picturesque that it was hard to leave and continue the exploration.

The exploration continued only for another half mile when I ran out of time and the four wheel drive road turned into a hiking trail. According to my map there are several more old mines and another ghost town about two miles further up the trail. I decided to leave that for my next trip.

I had lunch sitting on a boulder in the shade of a large fir tree and just let my soul giggle. Normally when you hike round trip over the same route, the return is a bit boring but this scenery was so spectacular that it was great in either direction. I was back at the RV by about 3 pm and decided that I needed a nap.

Napping was accomplished in a professional way and it was time to fish a bit more. This time I decided to forego the belly boat and fish from the bank. I really didn’t care if I caught a fish or not because I was still enjoying the glow of the morning’s adventure. It’s a good think I didn’t care….because I didn’t catch anything.

While eating dinner that night and planning my activities for Thursday I heard on the radio that this was the weekend for the Fairplay “Burro Days”. I’ve always wanted to attend this event and have never gotten the opportunity. Fairplay is a small mountain town and it’s 3 or 4 motels and one small RV park are normally booked months in advance for this event.

I decided however, to give it a chance and drive back to Fairplay Thursday morning. Maybe I could luck on to a place to camp for the weekend. If I did my plan was to call The Bride and get her to drive up and meet me for the weekend. If I couldn’t find a place to camp I was halfway home anyway and would just continue on home.

Luck was not with me on this endeavor. I found one business that would let me park in their parking lot right on the main highway…no power or water and just a gravel parking lot. I called The Bride to see if that was to here liking even though I wasn’t too crazy about the idea. The Bride was of the same mind a me, so I called it a trip and drove back home.

The RV is now at the lot and the repair guys are going to look at the steps this week. I will need some type of fix for this as The Bride and I leave on Friday afternoon for a Circle The Wagons trip with the rest of The Circle to La Vista Campground about 3 hours southwest of the Denver area.

The Wednesday after we get back I take off again, this time to the Pecos Conference, which I posted about earlier. Two days after returning from this trip I start on another Forest Service Passport In Time project which I’ll tell you about in a future post.

Thanks for visiting.

Devil’s Head Again and Aspen Graffiti

Seems like I just did a post about Devil’s Head?…I did, but Guitar wanted to do the hike too and couldn’t make it last Friday, so he and I did it yesterday. The weather was scheduled to be hot on the plains, almost to 90 degrees, but the weather on the trail was at least 20 degrees cooler. A wonderful day for a hike. We started at about 10:30 am and didn’t see another soul until we were almost at the top. After showing him the fire tower at the summit we ate lunch and took our time coming down.

On our way down we passed a group of one young woman and about 15 young men. All were dressed in uniform tee shirts and trail pants. They all looked like they were walking around the block….not even breathing hard. When we got to the bottom of the trail we saw a number of Forest Service vehicles and deduced that they were a team of Forest Service fire fighters going up to tour the fire lookout.

This trail winds through an aspen grove at the beginning and I didn’t really pay much attention to it on my hike on last Friday. This trip we spent some time looking at the aspen graffiti carved into the trunks. I wrote a post about aspen graffiti last year and in that post the earliest date I saw was 1965. Since the lifespan of an aspen tree is only 30-40 years that’s pretty good.

I was amazed to find a dates of 1932 and 1936, both on the same tree, in the grove of aspens at Devil’s Head! If this was not a hoax it means that this tree is at least 77 years old! Just amazing!

Saturday both Guitar and I are volunteering at the Tesoro Foundation’s Indian Market and Powwow. This year I will be an “Artist Ambassador”. That’s a fancy name for a gopher for the artists. I will help them in any way they need….carrying merchandise to the cars of customers, watching their booths while they take a break or that sort of thing. I volunteered at this same function last year and had fun doing it so I’m looking forward to this years event.

I’ve also been preparing for next weeks trip to Moab. Yesterday I made a meat loaf and froze it to take along. Today I made a big batch of 5 bean salad for the same purpose. If things go right, tomorrow I’ll make a batch of macaroni salad as well. There will be seven of us in our group, The Circle = 6 and Ladder Lady makes seven, so I’m pretty sure all of it will get eaten.

I’ll leave you with one last picture. On our way to the trailhead we spotted a group of Pasqueflowers in bloom.

Thanks for visiting.

Aspen Graffiti

As if I don't have enough "hobbies" right now.....Several months ago the monthly Colorado Historical Society magazine had an article about aspen graffiti carved by sheep herders in Colorado in the early part of the 1900's. Seems these guys had a LOT of time on their hands and carving pictures in aspen trees helped pass the time. Some of the carvings were pretty pornographic and some sentimental.

That article sparked an interest in the subject and on my last couple of trips to Cottonwood Lake I started looking for aspen graffiti and taking photos of some of them. The first thing I learned is that there is way more carving initials and names than carving of any type of picture. So finding a picture is a coup. The next coolest thing is finding the oldest date. After about two months of observing my oldest date is 1965....That's forty years ago and coincidentally it's the average life span of an aspen tree so if I find any older than that I'll really have hit the jackpot.

The most unusual discovery on this last trip was Joe and Gloria Torres. If nothing, Joe is/was persistent. I found his declarations of love for Gloria on numerous trees with dates from 1969 to 1993!













Amazing, but there is a big gap in the 1970's. Did I miss those? Nothing since 1993. Where is Joe? What about Gloria? I guess I'll have to go back and explore some more.

Here's a few more including a communal tree which has served several generations of carvers.

Thanks for visiting.

Unwound - Totally

In my last post I indicated that I was headed to the mountains for a few days to unwind after my trip back to Georgia to see my Dad. I did and I'm back...

I left mid-day on Monday after getting the RV stocked and ready. My goal for the day was to take a leisurely drive to a boondocking site just north of Buena Vista, CO, that I had discovered on my last trip to the area. This site is directly on the Arkansas River and I wanted to do a little gold panning for a day. The picture at the top of the post is the site I stayed at on Monday night.

The ride there was great. There was very little traffic and what traffic there was, seemed to be headed out of the mountains not into them. A great start for the trip. The camp site was a Forest Service activity area with no facilities except picnic tables and fire rings. That was ok by me as I have everything I need in the RV and the price of "free" is hard to beat. I pulled up to a spot not more than 75 feet from the river. That's the good news. The bad news is that when I looked at the river I had one of those "duh!" moments....

It's late June. This is the rafting season on the river. Why? Because the water flow is huge this time of year. Remember all the snow I was complaining about this past winter? Well it is now ending up in the rivers. One look and I knew that there was going to be no gold panning for me this trip!

For those of you with a scientific bent the actual flow of the Arkansas River at this point, as of a few days ago, was about 3100 cubic feet per second. That's a heckuvalot of water! That is so much water that it's plain dangerous and while I was eating dinner Monday night, looking out the window at the Arkansas, listening to the radio, I heard a news report that 4 people had drowned in the past week while rafting in the river! Nope, I'm thinking gold panning is definitely out for this trip.

That didn't stop me from enjoying the afternoon by just communing with nature. I walked along the river, read, and generally chilled. I also developed Plan B.

Plan B was to move to one of my all time favorite campgrounds the following day. Cottonwood Lake is just about 8 miles west of Buena Vista and I was now about 6 miles north of Buena Vista. An easy hop the next morning would give me pretty much the entire day to enjoy the delights of this 9000' altitude mountain lake and the surrounding mountains.

I got to the campground at about 10 am. Being as how it was the middle of the week there weren't very many people there. I had lots of good spaces to choose from and I chose one a little more in the open but with a view of the lake. A bike ride, a little fishing and a nice hike up the mountain made that tight old innerspring in my body, unwind flat as a board.

The picture to the right above was shot from the mountain behind the campground. If you look real close you can see my RV in the trees a little right of the center of the picture. While hiking, I came across evidence of how hard the past winter must have been up here. Elk normally eat the bark of aspen trees during the winter when they can't get other food. Judging from the large number of aspens that had elk marks, there probably wasn't much other food available this past winter.

I also stumbled on to a very melancholy thing. About a mile from the campground I spotted a rock back in the forest that looked like it had a sign on it. On coming closer I saw that it was a plaque and getting closer still, I discovered that it was a grave. From the inscription I'm guessing that it was a free soul who wanted his last resting place to be the Colorado Rockies.

As far as I know all the land in this area, except for a very few privately owned cabins, is Forest Service land. Burials are not permitted on Forest Service land so I'll bet there is some story behind this person's last ceremony?














My original plans were to go to Tarryall Reservoir on Wednesday morning. I thought long and hard about leaving Cottonwood as I was having a great time. There was no cell phone service available at all however and I had told The Bride that I would move to Tarryall on Wednesday and call her on the way there. I didn't want her to be concerned if I didn't check in so yesterday morning I left Cottonwood and drove to Tarryall.

I had been to Tarryall about a month ago and had a great time. There were very few people around at that time and I thought I had discovered another little gem. It seems like the rest of the world has discovered my "little gem" since then. All of the campgrounds were pretty much packed with campers and between them were the people there just to fish for the day. I found a spot to camp and fished for an hour or so. While I was fishing and watching the hordes of people....and listening to the dirt bikes and ATVs I thought to myself that I just wasn't going to enjoy this place this time. The great thing about being retired is that I don't feel obligated to cram in enjoyment to any particular time......so I packed up and drove home. No hard feelings. I just didn't want to stay. I arrived home about 5 pm about as unwound as you can unwind and am already thinking about the next trip.

Tomorrow night is a Circle dinner held at K's place. I'm sure we will talk about a Circle the Wagons trip for the group so come back for a report.

Thanks for visiting.

"In-Laws Out-West" The Story

"Big Don" and "S." arrived at the Denver airport from North Carolina on Saturday 8th of September. They have been visiting us in Colorado once or twice a year for about ten years now. It's quite a change from their everyday life in North Carolina and we try to make the visit special for them.

First of all let me set the record straight right now....I get along with my in-laws very well indeed. Part of the reason may be that they are only 12 years older than I am. They could be older brother and sister rather than in-laws. Whatever the reason we have been graced with a very easy going relationship and I enjoy their visits as much as The Bride. This visit, however, was unlike any other. There is the possibility that this visit may be their last to Colorado.

Big Don is now 72 years old. In his youth he was a major league baseball pitcher with over 16 years in the league. He even sports a World Series ring. That was forty years ago however, and age has taken a nasty turn for him. Big Don is slipping away into the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. The good news is that he is well enough at this point to make the trip and hopefully enjoy some of it.

S. and Big Don have been married for over 50 years and the burden now falls to S. to care for her mate. It's a big job and no doubt is a terrific strain mentally so we hoped this trip could be a "relief" for her as well. With that in mind we planned for two nights in a little cabin in the mountains between Twin Lakes and Aspen.

Wednesday morning we headed up to the mountains by way of I-70 and over Fremont Pass to Leadville. Leadville is a great historic mining town that is struggling to survive long after mining ceased to pump money into the town. Several years ago we stayed here with Big Don and S. in a bed and breakfast and they have fond memories of that trip. First stop was a fudge shop. Big Don has always had a sweet tooth for fudge and nowadays it's a real big pleasure for him. We were to make sure that he had plenty of fudge on this trip.

Lunch was at the local brewpub, billed as "the highest brewpub in the U.S.". Because Leadville is at 10,430 feet altitude there was a definite chill in the air. Chili, burgers and a brew were just the thing for an afternoon like this. A little more shopping and we were headed south for the tiny town of Twin Lakes.

We were hoping that we would be able to see some autumn colors on this trip but we also realized that we were a little early in the season. Much to our pleasant surprise we found that the leaves were showing some color in the Twin Lakes area.

We were at the cabin by 3:30, unpacked and sitting on the deck viewing the splendor of the mountains, the autumn colors and some local wildlife. The chipmunks and the Stellar Jays entertained us while eating the bird seed we brought along. A bonus for staying at this place at this time of the year is to listen to the eerie almost mournful sound of the elk bugling potential mates. I'm sure they don't think it's eerie or mournful but take a listen and decide for yourself.

In the ten years that Big Don and S. have been visiting us, we have never taken them to Aspen. Our cabin was perfectly situated to take a day trip over Independence Pass and let them see the sights. Independence Pass is one of the more spectacular, paved passes in Colorado. It's only open from June or July to early October. It's narrow, (two places are only 1 1/2 lanes wide so if you meet someone going the opposite direction...someone has to back up) twisty, steep with scary drop-offs and no guard rails. It's also fairly heavily traveled because it's the shortest route between Leadville/Buena Vista and Aspen.

I'm pretty sure they enjoyed the ride...while they had their eyes open, but I think I'm going to have to buy some more door handles for my car. It looks like they were squeezed to a fraction of their original thickness by a hydraulic press!

We saw all that was expected of Aspen. Beautiful people, fancy cars, expensive...everything. We had a quiet lunch on a restaurant patio and headed back to the cabin in the early afternoon.

Back at the cabin we sat, talked over snacks and libations and just tried to enjoy the place and the togetherness that might be forever changed. Dinner from the grill is always good in a place like this and so it was this night too.


Friday morning it was time to head back to the Denver Area, but not before we stopped in Fairplay for a special treat for Big Don.

About 7-8 years ago I took Big Don into the Colorado Mountain Hat Company. Readers will remember that I have a hat from there as does The Bride, Guitar and Too Tall-Two Timing. Well, Big Don has bought several hats from Smitty and Cherie and developed a friendship with them over those years. Our plan on this day was to stop and visit for a while.

Smitty and Cherie were gracious enough to block out some time for our visit and not only did we have lunch together but Smitty made Big Don a present of a new custom fedora. One of the side effects of the medication that Big Don takes is that he is constantly cold. This fedora was just the ticket to help him keep at least his head warm!

The visiting time passed too quickly and before you knew, it was time to head the last bit home. Today (Saturday) The Bride has taken her parents to Georgetown for a little more sightseeing and shopping. I opted to stay at home to do some chores and to give them some time alone.

Tomorrow Big Don and S. leave for the trip back to North Carolina. We hope there will be another trip in the future.....only time will tell.

Thanks for visiting.

Just Around the Corner

Maybe it's just me but the last two mornings I have detected a "feeling" in the weather that reminds me that autumn is almost here. It has been pleasantly chilly in the mornings for a few weeks now but the "chilly" of the last two mornings has had something a little different to it.

In about three weeks the aspen will be at peak color in the mountains. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. I don't know what it is, the weather is certainly great and in my humble opinion there is nothing more beautiful in the known world that a golden stand of aspen shimmering on a mountain side. To me there is a pleasant melancholy that also accompanies autumn. It's a feeling of ending but not necessarily a bad feeling. It's kinda' like the feeling you have after a really good meal.....you're sorry that it's over but oh, so glad that it was to begin with. There's that warm glow deep down in your gut.

Autumn in Colorado is pretty short. Even though you know winter is close at hand, to me it feels like a beginning too. Time to start the cycle all over, and for me the cycle starts with winter.

It's not time just yet to start the cycle again...I'm gonna enjoy autumn first. I think this year I'll take an entire day to sit in an aspen grove somewhere and be....melancholy....in a good way.

Thanks for visiting.