It's Acceptable

June 3-5, 2012

Time is flying by.  I can’t believe it’s been 3 days since the last blog post.   I can barely even remember what we did 3 days ago.   I’ll try my best to give an accurate accounting.

Sunday-

We left Junction Creek by 9:30.   On the way to Silverton, we stopped at a True Value to get some different mouse poison.    The Walmart in Durango had only sold big blocks of poison, which means we got the privilege of listening to rodents gnawing at the block.  I wanted to see if True Value had the pellets.   The pellet system is quieter, since the mice are meant to bring them back to the nest.    BTW, I’ve decided to name our mice: Squeakers and Chompers.   (I am deluding myself that we have only 2).    By naming them, they become adorable pets instead of disgusting vermin.

The drive to Silverton was mostly uneventful.   We had lots of slow goings as we traversed the mountain passes.    There were a couple of close calls with idiots trying to pass on curves.  And we continue to be concerned about the violent shaking that happens when we brake on a downhill.   Cursory internet research shows bad rotors is probably the cause.   Now we have to decide if we should deal with it here in Colorado, or wait until we get home.

We got to our new home around noon.   We stopped for lunch, and then tried to get it parked.    Frickin parking.    Why does it have to be so hard?   We have this whole parking area to ourselves to use, and still we can’t manage to place the rig where we want it.   We were trying to get a certain angle so we’d have the best view out the windows.   This meant being careful of a pine tree in the rear (leaving room for access to the ramp), and not going into the creek on the other side.   It seriously took us 1.25 hours.   I really did think we’d learn on the job and get the hang of it, but now I’m now so sure.   We might need to take a class or something.  

After the stress of parking, we took it easy the rest of the day.   Our spot is right by a rushing creek, with about 100 yards of creekside wilderness for the dogs to explore.   I think we’ll be very happy here.

Oh, I almost forgot that we got a visit from a park ranger.  He was just checking out the license on the scootie (they have extra licensing requirements for out of state ATVs/off roads.  Doesn’t apply to our scootie, which is road legal).   He was nice enough to chat with us about the area and recommend some hikes.   I asked him about the road sign we saw yesterday to the lake (the sign said 4x4 was required).  He looked at our truck and said “you’ll never make it in that”.   Drat.   He said the switchback turns are so hairpin, we’d never make it with our large wheel base.   But when he told us how incredible the vista is, I think we might have to walk up there.   It’s a crater lake ABOVE the timber line.  He said we wouldn’t believe the views, with vistas extending out of the rim of the basin lake.   I can’t wait to hike up to see.  (The road ascends 2000 feet in 4 miles.   When we were talking with Jeremiah, he said “you know how steep that will be, right?”.    Um, not really.   I just heard 4 miles and thought that was fine.  I didn’t really consider the sharp elevation). 

Monday-

In the morning, we each took a turn riding the bike down the road.   I’m still really enjoying the bike, especially now that we have a new set of scenery to look at while riding.   I can’t describe how incredible the views are here.   Whereas before we had 250 foot cliffs, now we are surrounded by 2000 foot mountains.   And there’s green pastures, and dark green forests, and mid-mountain waterfalls, etc., etc.    I feel like I’ve used up all the superlatives in previous posts, so from now on when the scenery is unbelievably gorgeous, I’m just going to say “it’s acceptable”.   So, this place is acceptable.

After lunch, we had intermittent rain and thunderstorms.   So we spent most of the time in the rig.   I tried to get out to walk Cassie across the creek, but after about 30 minutes the rain chased us back home again.

Tuesday-

This morning we discussed a couple of options for activities.   We couldn’t agree on one, so we decided to go our separate ways.   Missy took the scootie to the end of the road to try the riverside trail.    The park ranger had recommended it.   Plus, we’d read about a class 5 run for this creek.  The putin says to go past the pay campground, which is where that path was.   Missy was hoping to find the path to the put-in and see some of the class 5 drops.   

I wanted to go for a hike up to a waterfall I spotted on my bike ride the day before.   Since it was a gentle slope, I brought the pooches along.   I drove to the spot, about a mile from our campground.  It was about a 20 minute hike to the waterfall.  It was acceptable.   So were the views.   I’ve been frustrated by the fact that my pictures don’t capture the majesty of the mountains.  I might have to switch to doing a video…  I spent about 30 minutes sitting up the side of the hill in the prairie grass letting Cassie hunt chippies.    Then we loaded into the truck and went back to camp.   It was 11:30, and Missy wasn’t back yet.   Dun, dun, dun…

I was chillaxing in my lounger, when Missy appeared at 1.  (She had left at 9, so it was a long trip).   I thought it was strange that she hadn’t driven the scootie to its spot behind the rig.   Turns out that was because the scootie was stuck down a ditch.   Missy had herself a little boondoggle.   She decided to park the scootie down a slope off the road in order to lock it to a tree.  She didn’t anticipate not being able to drive it back up.   But since there was gravel everywhere, the wheel just spun uselessly.  Then she tried pulling it up manually.  Stupid.  So she had to walk the 3.5 miles back to our campsite, where she chastised me for not using twin intuition to come pick her up.   We got out the tow strap and headed back to the scootie.   It was a struggle against the loose rocks, but we got it out.   Missy got on, and we headed back home.   After a couple hundred yards, the scootie died.   Missy got it started, but it just died again after 10 yards.   Crap.  Another thing to repair.   We were going to load the scootie on the ramp, but we’d forgotten the tie down straps.   So…we drove all the way back to camp, got the straps and drove back the get the scootie.    Hopefully Missy has learned her lesson about picking places to park.  :-)  (Oh, she said her 1.5 hour hike was amazing.   Er, rather, it was acceptable).