Houston - We Have A Problem

Wouldn't you know it! Just about the time I could taste this road trip, I pulled something in my back. The good news is it is not as bad as most of the times I do this. The bad news is that it's still enough to make me delay my trip for at least a day.

It happened sometime yesterday afternoon. I have no idea of what I did because I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I was riding in the car and I felt my back "seizing" up. By the time I got home I knew I had a problem. Today I'm better but it would be suicide for me to try and lift anything of any weight at all....which includes supplies for the RV or the portable generator I normally bring along.

Guitar has been after me for a while to see a chiropractor and I think tomorrow morning I will do just that. If I feel better by tomorrow afternoon I will leave on Tuesday morning.

Yesterday I also received a package in the mail from my brother #4. The package contained several diaries that my maternal grandfather kept in the early 1960s. I spent most of the rest of the day reading through these diaries.

My grandfather was a farm boy from Vermont and worked all his life in outdoor jobs. During the late 50s and 60s he worked as a water well driller in New Jersey. He didn't "retire" until after my grandmother died in1967. That's a picture of him to the left. It was taken just a year or two after he retired.

Reading through the diaries reminded me of what a physically tough job he had and I am amazed that he did this work into his 70s.

As a young boy, during the summer I would often go with him to work. If I was real good he would let my put my hand on the cable as it was pounding up and down. This was old time well drilling, not the rotary drilling they do today but what is called cable tool drilling. In this type of drilling a heavy metal "bit" is lifted and dropped on the ground. Each time it is dropped the bit turns about 1/4 turn and basically pounds it way into the ground. This is not too different from the principals of pile driving. Pretty low tech.

It was an incredibly hard job. The hole had to be cleaned out every so often and the drill bits could easily get stuck in the hole requiring special tools to try and break it free. Wells were drilled year around so even in winter my grandfather would be working on a wet and sloppy site.

Probably the hardest part of the job was in keeping the bits sharpened. The bit was a large chunk of metal, 4 or 6 or 8 inches in diameter with a point like a soldering iron on the end and they weighed at least 100 pounds. Depending on the conditions, the bits had to be changed several times a day because they got dull. Sharpening the dull bits was part of the job. To sharpen the bit you first had to build a furnace on site with fire bricks and stoke a fire with coke. The end of the dull bit was put in the furnace until it got red hot and then sharpened with manpower and a sledge hammer. The picture above shows someone doing this very physical task. At 73 years of age, my grandfather would do this several times a day on occasion.

His diaries didn't have a lot of personal comments in them although there was enough to bring back plenty of memories. Most of the time the diary had entries that described his daily job and the successes and failures of drilling someone's water well. It was a melancholy trip back in time but it gave me an even greater appreciation for the man my middle name celebrates.

Below is an excerpt from his diary on his 73rd birthday. Note that he went to his job in -2 degree weather. His days labor amounted to 8 feet drilled. His generation gave birth to "The Greatest Generation" but I think they were pretty special too.Thanks for visiting.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

These two little tykes were on their way to the school bus this morning. This picture was taken from one of my bedroom windows. Nasty weather eh?

Hey, I'm supposed to leave for a "road trip" on Monday!

Have no fear, after all, this is Colorado....











The 6 day forecast for the north central part of New Mexico looks like this.















That doesn't look bad to me either. I'm thinking this will be a good trip. I started packing and finished up researching the stops I'll make along the way. I am planning on staying at a commercial RV park on Tuesday night in Aztec, NM so hopefully I'll be able to file a report from there. For the rest of the trip I will be well beyond any WiFi or cell coverage so the stories will have to wait till I return.

On another totally unrelated but still "What's Wrong With This Picture" subject, what is the benefit to our financial system to allow "short" selling?

I rarely make political or social comments on this blog but our current financial melt down has me scratching my head. Now I'm no financial genius but I managed my way through a business career, raised a family on a budget, bought several houses over the years and numerous cars, boats and trailers. I even accumulated some stocks. Though the years I think I've also learned a little about human nature.

So I'm wondering, how is betting on a bad thing happening....a good thing? If someone makes money on a bad thing happening and they are serious about making this money, isn't it in their best interest if bad things happen? Do you suppose they might try to do what they can to have a bad thing happen? It appears to me that it's way easier to influence the stock market with bad news than it is to influence it with good news.

I just don't get the "logic" in allowing short selling in the financial industry. It seems like it's giving someone a big hammer, sticking a bulls eye on your forehead and then spitting in their face?

What have I missed here?

Thanks for visiting.

Getting Ready

My RV is back from the mechanic....oil change for the motor and the on board generator and a few other minor items. The most important item was to make a small modification to the scooter rack that I intend to carry on the front of the RV.

I brought the rack home, put it on the back of my Ford Expedition just as a trial to see how it worked. The scooter fit fine and I found that I could load and unload it by myself without a problem. The only remaining scooter issue is to find some type of cover for it that can withstand the wind it will see on the front of the RV. I have a "cheapy" that came with the scooter and will probably try it on the first trip realizing that it will probably get torn up before long. I'm hoping it will last until I find a heavy duty replacement.

So, with all that done, I'm planning to get out of town sometime early next week. The weather here and in New Mexico where I'm headed, looks to be clear with temps in the mid to upper 50's. That's a sight cooler that it was just two weeks ago but it's probably the warmest I'll see for a while.

Oh, one other little addition to the scooter. I bought a handlebar mount for my Garmin 60CSx GPS. With this mount it's easy to snap the unit on and off the handlebar so I can use it either riding or hiking. It's battery operated but several people have told me that the batteries last up to 20 hours. I guess if I get lost now, I have no excuses.

On the home front, I've completed my basement workroom project. Over the past several weeks I've bought a number of used kitchen and bathroom cabinets that I've found on Craigslist and installed them along two walls of my workroom. The most expensive cabinet was $40 and the least was $15 for a set of 3 cabinets. The counter tops I put on, which is just a standard Melamite covered chip board, cost more than the cabinets. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.

The next couple of days I'll be pouring over maps and guide books to nail down the details of this upcoming trip so check back in a couple of days to see how I'm doing.

Thanks for visiting.

New Mexico Will Have To Wait

Well, my mechanic couldn't get my scooter rack finished today or the routine maintenance I had him scheduled to do too. I had figured that my trip would have to be at least five nights on the road to see all the things that were on my list and The Bride and I have something to do next Sunday night so I'm going to have to postpone my trip.

On one hand I'm bummed but on the other, the weather is not great, so by waiting I have a chance of getting some better conditions for my trip, and, being the organized guy that I am, I have some backup activities to keep me busy.

Tomorrow, I'm going with Guitar and Too Tall - Two Timing to help a mutual friend lay PEX tubing for a heated driveway he is building. I gotta tell you, a heated driveway is the ultimate luxury in Colorado so I'm excited to see what this is all about. Maybe I can sell this idea to The Bride?

I also have a little project going on in my basement. Most of the basement was finished off a number of years ago. I preserved one area that's about 10' x 25' as a work room for me. It had drywall on the walls but that's it. I installed some wall cabinets and have a small work bench in that area.

For the past few weeks, I've been searching Craig's List for used base cabinets and have bought a number of them. I'm installing them on two of the four walls of the work area. On Sunday I'll go to pick up the last of the cabinets that will fit along those two walls. The cabinets are nothing special. Some are kitchen cabinets and some are the shorter bathroom cabinets. There are four different styles/finishes but I have been able to arrange them so they don't look bad at all....for a basement work area. Hopefully I'll have them all installed and put a counter top on them all by the end of next week.

On Sunday the 16th The Bride and I are going with Guitar and Pic-E to a Tesoro Foundation event. It consists of dinner at The Fort Restaurant and a lecture about the Leonid Meteor Shower of 1833. The event is called The Night The Stars Fell. This should prove to be a very entertaining night and a good meal to boot.

So, no trip for this week but I've got plenty of stuff to do. I'll even have some time to practice on the Wii Fit machine. I'm hooked on the soccer heading balance game. In the game you stand on a flat board and "head" soccer balls that are kicked to you. The computer senses the change in your balance as you lean back and forth on the board and the image on the screen mimics your movements. It is NOT as easy as the linked video make it look, but it's fun and an amazing piece of computer engineering.

Thanks for visiting.

Details

I received the hitch mounted scooter rack yesterday and spent most of the day today assembling it and practicing getting the scooter on and off the rack. I discovered that the scooter wheelbase is just a tad too short to fit the rack perfectly. Both the front and real wheel should fit in the open slots on either end of the carrier but because the scooter is so short, the front wheel does not drop down into the slot. This makes it too unstable for my taste. I think if I re-locate one of the cross braces shown in the picture above, that will solve the problem. Tomorrow I'll take the rack and the RV to my mechanic to fix this issue and to have some minor work done on the RV.

I'm hoping that if I get all of this fixed in a day or so, I'll be able to take a trip to New Mexico to see some things that have been on my list for a long while. The weather is a bit "iffy" but once I get into New Mexico it shouldn't be too bad. There is a possibility that another front may move into the area late in the week. If it does I'll have to postpone the trip until better weather.

The trip will cover almost 1000 miles. About 400 miles of that is just getting from the Denver area down to the New Mexico border and back. With gas prices hovering around $2.00 a gallon however, it won't be as bad as my last trip into New Mexico. The three major destinations on the trip will be Aztec Ruins National Monument, Chaco Canyon National Historic Park, and Bandelier National Monument. In between those stops are a bunch of other interesting things like the Jemez Pueblo, the town of Los Alamos and El Huerfano Mesa and Trading Post.

I'm really looking forward to this adventure but the trip depends on the weather and my mechanic..........

Wish me luck.

Thanks for visiting.

Eat Your Heart Out Marlon Brando

What do you think? He only made it because I was too young at the time and I didn't have a "ride" and they couldn't wait till I grew up......It could be....maybe....dontcha' think?

Can you tell that I found a scooter to buy? After my last post, I continued to search for a reasonably priced used Honda Ruckus. After many calls I finally found someone who realized what the true value of these things are.

I bought a 2007 model with only 980 miles on it. It is in perfect condition and looks like it just came off the dealers floor. Guitar drove me over to pick it up on Friday morning and then followed me all the way home. The last time I rode or drove a motor scooter was about 30 years ago when The Bride and I visited Bermuda. I guess I haven't lost the touch because I made the 20 mile trip home without incident.

It's a fun little thing to drive but you really have to be careful in traffic. Top speed so far is about 40 mph so in most cases around here, even on residential streets, I'm the slowest thing in the traffic.

I've already made a few modifications to it. I enclosed the under seat area with plastic mesh. This way I can store/carry some items without worrying about them falling out. I also added an old army rucksack in front of the handle bars. This will allow me to carry more cargo if I need to.

I ordered a hitch mounted scooter rack on Friday as well. The rack comes with a ramp so that you can literally drive the scooter up onto the rack. My RV has a hitch receiver on both the front and back bumper so I think I will try to mount the rack on the front of the RV. The added weight on the front wheels of the RV will probably improve the handling of the RV.

If everything works out well I'm thinking of taking a trip down to New Mexico around the Chaco Canyon area later on in the week.

Thanks for visiting.

Decisions, Decisions....

One of the major drawbacks of having a Class A RV is that unless you tow a "toad" or hitch mount a scooter or motorcycle, your only means of transportation on trips is that big gas guzzling brick of a vehicle. Once you make camp somewhere that's pretty much it. It's a pain to break camp to go to the grocery store or go sightseeing in the local town.

Towing a small car for basic transportation (toad) requires......an extra car, Duh....and normally makes already meager gas mileage on the RV even "meagerer".

I've been looking in to the possibility of buying a scooter and carrying it on a hitch mount on the front of my RV. Scooters are small, light and get extremely good gas mileage. The downside is that the smaller ones will only transport one person and in foul weather it's not a whole lotta fun. After months of mental acrobatics I've become almost convinced that a scooter is a good idea.

I've narrowed down the type of scooter I'd like, to one specific model, the Honda Ruckus pictured to the left.

These things are "utilitarian" to say the least. They kind of remind me of the old Cushman scooters of my youth. Curb weight is 194 lbs. so it's light enough to hitch mount on the RV. It has relatively big tires that would work on many of the old mining roads I like to explore and it gets close to 100 mpg. Because the engine is only 49 cc it doesn't require license plates in Colorado but is street legal.

I have been searching Craigslist and other sources for used models and have found an interesting dilemma....Ruckus scooters became quite popular in the last few years and in the last year especially, they have been sold for somewhat above their MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). Right now the market has eased somewhat and a new model costs less than most people are asking for a one or two year old model.

I have communicated with a few people that listed a used model for sale and so far not one of them was willing to sell theirs for even close to what the Kelly Blue Book retail value is. The market is "upside down" as they say......So, if I decide that this is indeed the course I should take and I can't find someone willing to sell a used model for it's true current worth, it will be cheaper for me to buy a brand new unit with zero miles and a warranty? Crazy but these are crazy times.

I'm always open to suggestions and advice so if you have some, leave a comment.

Thanks for visiting.

The Bride is now The Graduate!!

Today at about 1pm local time The Bride passed a final exam for the last college course she is required to take for her degree. I can't tell you how proud I am of her!

If you've been following this blog you realize that The Bride and I are not young pups. I just retired from a business career and The Bride is a few years behind me. Knowing that, you might be thinking, Huh?

The Bride didn't go to college right out of high school. As a matter of fact she didn't start taking college courses until a little over 15 years ago. When we were living in Savannah, GA in the late 1980's and early 1990's she decided that she wanted to get a college degree. That's easy enough to say, but at the time she had two small children and a husband (me) who had a job that required me to be out of town at least 30% of the time. She was determined however.

She attend Armstrong State College in Savannah for about two quarters full time. All the rest of her "matriculation" has been through night courses in the different places we lived during my business career. When we moved to the Denver area she was lucky enough to get a job with an employer that encouraged her....and helped her financially, to get a degree.

For the past few years she had been relentless in pursuing this goal. I can't seem to remember a time in the last few years when she wasn't either in class at night or working on homework, research or papers during the weekend.

With all that crammed into the everyday work and home life she managed to do all of this with a grade point average that is stratospheric compared to what I managed to eke out 40 years ago!

To make this accomplishment even more impressive, her degree will come from Regis University. This is not your typical "get your degree in your spare time" deal. This is a real, well respected, tough, Jesuit college. On top of that her degree is not a BS (and I don't mean Bachelor of Science, I mean "Bull S&%$" like Political Science) degree, she has a degree in Accounting.

Before anyone gets upset about my Political Science remark, I have authority to say that because that's what my degree of 40 years ago is.

This day belongs to The Bride. I could never have done what she accomplished. I am in awe of her determination and desire. Three cheers for The Bride.

The Graduate part of the title of this post is a reference to the 1967 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft. A really terrific movie even today.....and if The Bride is The Graduate in gender reversal, she can have that affair......with me.....now that she has the time.

Thanks for visiting.

Dodging Winter

The weather in Colorado this time of year is always an adventure! Looks like we dodged the bullet this time. The map at the top of the post is the national radar picture. See that classic curlicue over Kansas? That's a pretty strong storm that's causing a blizzard in western Kansas today.

Tuesday night the temps dropped like the stock market and the winds howled most of the night. When I looked around yesterday, a lot of the trees had been stripped of their gorgeous fall plumage but it looks like the mountains directly to our west deflected the system enough to protect us from the really nasty stuff.

The radar map to the above left is this morning's radar showing the snow starting about 100 miles to the east of here. I can see the dark storm clouds at the back edge of the storm from my home office window.

Now let me show you why Colorado weather is an adventure. Look at the extended forecast below. By this weekend it will be spring/fall like again. Short sleeve weather. I'm loving it!!!



Stay tuned for a BIG, BIG announcement on Saturday!!!!

Thanks for visiting.

Adventure Is Where You Find It

As I said in the last post, I was abandoned this weekend. The rest of The Circle except for me and Too Tall-Two Timing was out of town having all sorts of adventures. On Friday I felt like the unwanted orphan but I was determined to find at least a little adventure to fill a beautiful fall weekend.

Saturday at about noon I got a call from Too Tall. He said he was washing the Jeep and had the top and doors off and, by golly, he had the urge to drive that thing with the top and doors off, and did I want to go with him? Did I.......you're darn right I did.

Not too much later we were on our way up into the foothills around the South Platte River. Temps in the mid seventies, gorgeous sunshine. THIS was my idea of being abandoned!

We didn't have to go too far to find a dirt road that paralleled the river, that we had never been on before. There were plenty of people fishing and there was one party shown in the picture to the right that looked like one of them at least had bagged the limit!

That's a wedding party with the ceremony in full tilt. When we stopped to take a picture they were almost to the "I Do-s". They certainly picked a wonderful day and a pretty neat spot to start a new marriage. It kinda' gave our ride some "adventure" too.

Not far down the road we came to an abandoned old hotel. I remembered seeing something about this place on the internet or the paper but couldn't remember what it was. This morning I "googled" it and found the story. Quite an interesting place and just the thing to add a little more adventure to the ride.

Too Tall and I spent about 3 hours on this ride and it was just the "salve" to sooth that abandoned feeling. This wasn't the end of the adventure for the weekend however.

This morning I decided to try a little more geocaching. If you will remember from previous posts that I have tried to locate a few in the past couple of weeks but was stymied by one thing or another. This morning was another beautiful fall day with temps forecast to be in the mid 70s again so it was the perfect opportunity to give it another try.

This geocache was close to a popular hiking and biking trail and I arrived at the parking lot at about 9:30 am. I guess the geocache Gods were with me because this one was pretty easy to find. That's it in the picture to the right. A small camouflaged box hidden in the crook of a tree in a very brushy area. I didn't even bother to open this one and sign the log because as I was looking at it I heard some movement not far away. When I came away from the tree and looked across the small stream that ran nearby I saw the coyote shown in the picture at the top of the post. He was probably only 100 feet from me. It was obvious that he knew I was there and didn't seem frightened at all.

That was enough to get me, quickly, out of the brush and back on the trail. To my amazement this wasn't a lone coyote, there were several more in the brush foraging for food. I watched the for about 10 minutes and just as I was about to leave I saw a rabbit scurry across the trail into the woods behind me. Now it all made sense and I hope that my presence gave the rabbit a new lease on life!

With that little adventure to add to the weekend I decided to head home and prepare for the return of The Bride and the rest of the ladies of The Circle. While they tell me about their adventures this weekend I'll have that smug thought that "adventure is where you find it"!

Thanks for visiting.

The Tables Are Turned

Most of the time I'm the one going on trips and adventures since I'm the only retired one in The Circle. I was supposed to have left for Moab yesterday but because of the impending birth of Too Tall-Two Timing's grandchild, that trip got cancelled.

Now I'm sitting here thinking...huh??? What happened? Why am I sitting at home when all the rest of The Circle except Too Tall-Two Timing is gone on trips. Who turned the tables?

The ladies of The Circle had planned to spend the weekend in a cabin just west of Colorado Springs while Too Tall-Two Timing and I were in Moab. Since the cabin is not that far from the Denver area, K. decided to go with the rest of the ladies. If a grandchild appears she is close enough to home to get back pretty quickly. Guitar is off on a long planned trip with his brother in New Mexico.....I'm sitting home with nowhere to go!

I feel like the high school kid without a date on Prom night. I've been had, snookered.....I'm mad and I'm not going to take it any more!!

I guess I'll have to catch up on reading this weekend.

Thanks for visiting.

Missing Moab and The Spanish Market

Too Tall- Two Timing and K. are still waiting to become grandparents. The scheduled date is tomorrow but that is not certain as all of us with children know all too well. Too Tall has opted to stay in town where he can monitor the situation a lot better and not go to Moab as was planned. Since we were going to share the ride and the hotel room, I am canceling out of the trip as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a healthy, sorta on-time grandchild for the both of them.

I forgot to report that on the Saturday before Guitar and I left on our Passport In Time project, I went to the Spanish Market and Mountain Man Rendezvous with The Bride, Guitar and Pic-E. It was a spectacular day weather-wise and the event was a lot of fun.

In one area there were people dressed in the frontier garb of the 1830's and 1840's selling wares that were sold at the time to the frontiersmen and Indians. Things like spices, clothing, trinkets, knives and other implements and so on.

In another area Mountain Man re-enactors had set up camp tents and were giving demonstrations on almost lost arts such as fire starting, blacksmithing and even hatchet throwing.

A third area was for the artists displays. Most of the art was religious folk art known as "santos". I'm not much of an aficionado of this type of art but it is very colorful.

Finally, there was a burro race. In this type of event each contestant (human) has a team-mate (burro). The human does not ride the burro but rather runs alongside the burro. In a lot of cases it the human trying to get the burro to run by coaxing, pleading, swearing or whatever.

The race this day was a very small race by comparison. Pack burro racing is a pretty big sport in Colorado with the largest race being the "Get Your Ass Across The Pass" race held annually between the towns of Leadville and Fairplay.

It was a fun time and we even had a chance to buy some roasted hatch chilies which The Bride has already turned into pork green chili.

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Birthday to The Bride!

Happy Birthday to The Bride, my honey. Today she is.....................naw, I gotta live with her for hopefully MANY more years so I'm not gonna tell you how old she is. I will say that her age is still a double digit although we are the teensyest bit over half way to triple digits.

The picture above is probably the earliest picture I have of her that was taken since I have known her. Ah yes, those were the days.....but you know what? These days are pretty special too.

Tonight we will have dinner at a local Outback to celebrate.

Happy Birthday to The Bride....my bride.

Thanks for visiting.

Where Have All The Aspen Leaves Gone?

The post title is a take off on the 1962 Kingston Trio hit "Where Have All The Flowers Gone". Actually the song was written by Pete Seeger and recorded by just about every folk singer of the 1960's but in my mind I will always associate it with the Kingston Trio.

But I digress...I was at Tarryall Reservoir about three weeks ago and the aspen leaves in the high country were just starting to show the slightest bit of color. Last week Guitar and I were in far southeast Colorado, far away from any aspen so yesterday I decided to take a ride up to Kenosha Pass (10,000' altitude) to see if there was any color left in the high country.

Looks like I missed it by about a week and a half. The trees at 10,000' and above were pretty bare. At lower altitudes it was a mix of bare trees, full color trees and even some that haven't started to turn yet. This year is just not a classic Colorado autumn.

In spite of that, I came prepared to enjoy a brisk fall day in the mountains. The Colorado Trail crosses Highway 285 at Kenosha Pass so I thought I'd walk that a ways and maybe do a little geocaching. It was a perfect day for a hike. Temps in the 60's, bright sunshine and the classic cobalt blue Colorado sky.

I arrived at the pass at about 10:30 and started back home at about 2:30. My idea about finding a couple of geocaches didn't pan out too well. I was able to get to the general vicinity of the caches without any problem with the aide of my GPS but all the aspen leaves on the ground made it next to impossible to find the cache itself. So...I had to make do with just enjoying a gorgeous fall day....Pretty good consolation prize, huh?

While hiking, I did manage to find a couple more aspen graffiti trees to add to my collection.

Next on my adventure list is a trip to Moab for some 4 wheeling a week from this Thursday. This is the annual Fall on the Rocks that I have missed the last couple of years and I'm looking forward to it. There is one potential hitch. Too Tall-Two Timing and K. are expecting the arrival of a grand baby any day now. I was planning on riding with and sharing a room with Too Tall-Two Timing, so if he needs to stay in the Denver area I will probably cancel the trip.

If everything goes on schedule. Too Tall and I will go to Moab and the ladies of The Circle, The Bride, Pic-E, and K are going to do a ladies weekend at a cabin in the Cascade, CO area.
Thanks for visiting.

Passport In Time - What Can I Say?

I'm back from a week in the boonies and a Passport In Time adventure. If I had only one sentence to describe it I would say it was one of the most exciting and unique experiences in my life. It really was that special.

Guitar and I left the Denver area on Sunday morning and headed for the far southeast corner of Colorado. Picture Canyon to be precise. Once we left La Junta, CO the population became more and more sparse. By the time we reached our destination there was a ranch house maybe every five square miles. It was 35 miles back to the nearest town. We were scheduled to meet all the other participants at the Picture Canyon picnic area late in the afternoon.

The group we were to work with included 10 volunteers, a cook and the Forest Service archaeologist. The accommodations were what we brought with us. Guitar and I slept in his truck camper, a husband and wife team brought their Scamp trailer and everyone else either slept in their trucks or in tents. There were covered picnic tables and a vault toilet but nothing else including water. The water we drank (and we drank a LOT during the week) and washed with all had to be brought in by each member of the team.

The volunteers were an amazing blend of folk. The picture at the top of the post shows the entire group just before we left on Friday afternoon. In the group we had a 77 year old lady who had more energy and stamina than any three city teenagers put together. There was a retired school teacher and a retired couple from Canyon City, CO, a book store owner, two young students that really knew their stuff and a businessman from the Parker, CO area. Guitar and I were the only members of the group that had not participated in one of these types of events before. After hearing the Forest Service archaeologist say that she had over 40 applications for this event, Guitar and I felt very lucky to have been chosen to participate.

Our task for the week was to survey Forest Service lands for any signs of historic and prehistoric activity. This included finding stone implements or evidence that stone implements were made at a site, looking for rock art left by ancient peoples or graffiti left by later people.

Monday morning was dedicated to training us what to look for and a little sight seeing to show us examples of some of the rock art in Picture Canyon. Amazingly, while we were doing this one of the volunteers discovered an arrowhead point and a stone knife! The point is pictured on the right above.

After a half day of training we headed off to the first area we were to survey. The mechanics of the survey are simple. You get a whole bunch of people in a line and you walk forward looking at the ground for something on the surface. We did not dig in the dirt. Everything we found was laying on the surface....and we found a lot. Sometimes we resorted to crawling around on hands and knees because some of the "finishing flakes" we were looking for, and found, were about a quarter the size of your pinkie fingernail.

Identification of artifacts required some skill and experience but after a little while it got a bit easier. Since everyone else on the team besides Guitar and I had some experience, it was easy for us to get help or a second opinion.

Some of the artifacts we found were; points, cutting tools, flakes left over from knapping an implement, ground stones, spoke shaves for smoothing arrow shafts and cores. Cores are the big pieces of rock that were the start of an implement. Once these people found the chert or quartzite rock they would pound off a piece to make into an implement of some sort. We also found a lot of expended cores which are what's left over after all the usable pieces were whacked off. The picture above to the right is a quartzite core that clearly shows a piece whacked off on the upper right of the stone.

During the week we went to five different areas that had never been surveyed by an archaeologist before. One area was a "quarry" area where stone was harvested and broken down into smaller pieces. Sometimes it was worked further at the site and sometimes it might have been taken elsewhere to work further. On this site there were hundreds if not thousands of artifacts strewn over a pretty large area.

One site was definitely a campsite where tools were manufactured. We knew this because most of the artifacts were tiny "finishing flakes". These are the last few pieces of stone that are chipped off of the finished product.

One site produced a number of grind stones. These are the flat rocks, usually sandstone, that were used as a surface on which to grind grain or meat. One example is shown at the left above.

The terrain ranged from flat and rolling to steep and rocky. The temps were in the upper 80's and it was hot, strenuous and dirty work. I probably drank a gallon and a half of water a day while we were out. We were back at the campsite by about 5-5:30 p.m. each day, ate dinner at about 6 p.m. Guitar and I were sound asleep not later than 9 p.m. every night.

On Friday morning we went to a site near a rock face called "Inscription Rock". This rock had graffiti scratched in it over a one hundred and fifty year time period. The earliest inscription I found was 1846. There was also a very interesting inscription left by a Colonel in the Oklahoma 1st Cavalry.

The project concluded at noon on Friday and Guitar and I drove to Trinidad State Park to spend the night and get our second shower for the week. Wow did that ever feel good.

As I said at the top of the post, this was an exciting and unique experience. I hope it's not a once in a lifetime experience because I fully intend to volunteer for more of these next year. Here's some more pictures to give you a flavor of the event.....click on any of the images to enlarge them.




Thanks for visiting.