Final Days in Colorado. Sniff

July 9-13, 2012

So we dumped our tanks ($5 at a site approximately 10 miles from LCC).   Then we headed back and made our way around the reservoir.   We had looked here before, you may remember, and didn’t like the looks of it.   However, since that time, lots more rain had moved through.  So the area was nice and green.   Much prettier!    We found a spot at one of the first free boondocking sites after the reservoir.   It’s a huge field area right on the upper Taylor River, maybe 1.5 football fields.   Down at the other end there were 2 class As, and right next to us was another 5^th wheel.   Most people in this area have numerous ATVs with them.   We considered looking for something more secluded, but since the roads get worse and we had a decent signal here, we decided to stay.

We had great views (almost 360) of various mountain ranges.   We got to enjoy that for about half a day.  The people next to us had friends come along and they parked their rig at a 90 degree angle, cutting off are northern view completely.   We were bummed about that, but you really can’t complain when it’s a free spot.   But then, the next day, a family moved 30 yards to the south and cut off that view too.   Worse was that they had tons of kids and tons of ATVs.    They had 2 other rigs join them the next day.   Together they made an unbearable noisy compound.  All the kids took turns continuously running the ATVs in our little area nonstop.   The noise was enough to drive you crazy.  We really should have moved, but we thought we could deal with occasional noise and we didn’t want to lose signal so we couldn’t play WWF.   Bad decision.    Once they started in with the loud music, too, we knew we had to leave.    This area is so popular and busy that all the other spots we’d fit into were taken.   So….we decided to head home.

It’s bittersweet.    We miss home and our family and friends and can’t wait to see everyone again.   But, it’s also been an amazing trip and I’ll miss the mountains and the gorgeous scenery.    Right now the plan is to leave Sat morning, early enough to hopefully not encounter any oncoming traffic on the Cottonwood Pass.    We’ll go approximately halfway and then try to find a RV campground for the night.  (Likely we’ll be in Nebraska.  Or, as Jeremiah calls it, Fucking Nebraska).    Then we’ll finish up on Sunday, probably getting home in the afternoon or evening.   I don’t know how much I’ll blog once we’re home.  If I don’t feel like blogging, I might just skip it altogether.   If that’s the case, then we’ll pick it up again when we go on the road again after Labor Day.

Hope to see everyone soon!!!!!!

PPS

A few things I forgot I was supposed to blog about:

1)       When we arrived, we just got unhitched when it started raining really hard.     It rained quite a bit for maybe an hour.    Later, we found out that the same system stalled over the Ark.  It went from 300 cfs to 2000cfs…some lucky people were actually on the river and got to experience Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.    The river had almost dropped back to normal by the next morning when we saw what happened, so we didn’t get a chance to consider getting on.

2)      Our campsite is down behind a small bluff.   You almost can’t see the rigs when you go by on the main road.   When Missy went for her first bike ride, she wasn’t paying attention on her way home.   (She was engrossed in her audio book).    I was outside in my lounger and I saw her go speeding by.  I thought it was odd she was doing more than her usual 1 hour.   She went all the way to the reservoir, another coupla miles roundtrip, before she realized she’d passed our camp.   She was not amused.   I was highly amused.  :-)

3)      Our last morning we were woken up at 6:30 am by the moo patrol.   There’s a herd of cows free to range all around the area, and this morning they surrounded the rigs in our area.   Have you ever tried to work a cow moo into your dream?    It’s not easy.   I slowly realized something was mooing outside.   We got up to watch them.  Practically each cow had a baby, so there was plenty of cuteness to go around.   One mom lost her baby and just started bellowing.  It almost hurt your ears.   I would never have guessed how loud a cow could moo if so motivated.   

Trials and Tribulations of Using the Self Timer

I'm going to set this up to post next week when we're out of touch.   Since I don't want my eager readers to suffer without a post for too long, I'm going to entertain you with some outtakes.   The following are the results of my bumbling attempts to use the self timer button on the camera when on my hike with Cassie.    Hope you enjoy!

First Spot- by the creek.

Test shot of Cassie, looked good to me!

I meant to take an elbow shot

Ooops!   Took a shot of my water pack.

WTF?????  Didn't know it was even possible to get a fuzzy shot from using the timer...

Well, I'm not looking at the camera, but I'll take it!

 Second Spot- in the woods!

Test shot with Cassie- so far, so good!

How do I keep taking shots of the backpack?

Um- why am I staring at the ground?

A little zoomed out, but it's a vast improvement!

Final Days at Lottis Creek

July 4-8, 2012

Wednesday – Happy 4^th of July!    Today there was no construction going on, so setting shuttle was a bit easier for today’s run on the Taylor.   It was still low, but we had some new challenges with the cloudy weather.   Without the sun to illuminate the rocks, it was harder to negotiate a clean path.   But still lots of fun.    We got back to camp just as the rain/thunderstorms started.   We had a West Wing marathon. 

Thursday – Nothing special 

Friday – We drove to Buena Vista today.   I enjoyed taking the Cottonwood Pass.  The views were fantastic.   We needed to evaluate this route for driving with the fitty on it. I felt better when we passed other rigs as big as ours.   Some of the switchbacks are hairy, but if you crane your neck and look for oncoming traffic, it’s certainly doable.   And the condition of the dirt road is very nice.

We checked out the campground we thought we’d move to next: Cottonwood Lake.   But, the warning that the max length was 35 was true.  So while there were 1 or 2 spots we could probably fit the rig, we’d have no place to park the truck.   Now we still have to figure out where to go next.

On the way back from BV, as we rounded a random tight curve, we heard a sudden and loud squealing noise.   We freaked out!   We managed to creep forward to a small pull-off and we hopped out to look for the source of the noise.   It wasn’t the tires.   But we didn’t know what it was.   Basically for going forward or backwards, there was an insanely loud screech. Sounded like the drive shaft was shearing loose PLUS we had snagged a metal structure and were dragging it on blacktop.   But we didn’t see any sign of anything wrong.    Just as we were getting good and scared about what to do….some nice guys in a pickup stopped to help.  They took one listen to the horrible noise and said “you’ve got a small rock stuck in your brakes”.   We tried to tell them that the noise didn’t happen when we braked, but they were confident.   They said it was safe to drive.    Phew!    So we drove with that horrible noise back to camp.   Did some internet research on what to do.   We tried dislodging it with crazy steering and fast starts and stops, but it didn’t work.   We ended up having to take the tire off.   Once the tire was off, I looked behind and saw the tiny offending stuck rock.   We fixed it!    So happy it wasn’t something more serious.

We got caught in some pretty heavy downpours.   Turns out the windshield on the truck still leaks like a MF.   We’ll have to give up and pay to get that fixed when we get back to MN.

 Saturday-I got a hike in, and Missy got a bike ride in before noon.   Then the rain/boomers moved in per usual.

 Sunday- We got an early start to do a last run on the Taylor before the weather moved in around noon.   The river was about 50 cfs higher, and it was a lot of fun.   Now there were more avenues of current around various rocks and boulders.   We had to use all our cunning and skill to beat the river.   (Probably more of the latter).    We got back to camp and hurried to dry and pack up the kayaks before the rains moved in.   Tomorrow is moving day.   We’re hoping to get a boondocking spot near the reservoir for our last week.   Not sure what we’ll do if it’s not available.

Pictures from Lottis Creek/ Taylor River

At the start

Can you believe this is the trail?

Lottis Creek

Cassie not appreciating having to sit-stay

Heading back to camp...about 100 yards away

Finally at a put-in again!

Taylor River

Missy scouting

Todd's Slot

Kayaking the Taylor River

July 1-3, 2012

Sunday-

After being skunked in June, we finally went kayaking!    We started off the day with a small boondoggle.    I encouraged Missy to test drive the scootie to make sure it was fully operational.    She said she’d drive it around the campground loops.   As I was loading our kayaks into the truck, I espied her across the campground pushing the scootie back home.  Sigh.   So the scooter is broken.   Luckily, the shuttle we were planning was only 4-5 miles.   Missy agreed to use the bike to set shuttle.

It was a gorgeous day, weather-wise.   Sunny blue skies and temps in the upper 70s.    Missy dropped me and the gear off at the putin around 11.     I estimated that with constructions delays added in, it would probably take her an hour.   Shortly after noon, she came biking along.   She said the bike ride itself wasn’t bad.   The worst part was being in the delays.   Oh well.  At least we knew about it going in.    We each ate a snack and then geared up.    I was starting to get a bit nervous.   Luckily, Missy agreed to go first.     We agreed to take it slow at first, and eddy-hop our way down.   (As I was waiting for Missy, one guy did show up and put on.  He was solo, so that made me think the run couldn’t be too hard core if he was going it alone).

At the put-in, a friendly fly fisherman told us that he’d boated the Taylor lots of times.  He warned us about it being shallow and thus we should try not to tip over.  Great advice!  He said it would be a fun run, with only one rapid of consequence.    We knew from our research about the rapid, but nothing gave a good description.   The guy told us that it was a strong current pushing into a boulder.  He said flipping was a real concern.   However, he said we would be able to scout and walk if necessary.   This was good news to us, since we didn’t know before if the rapid was on private land or not.

We put on and headed immediately into some action.   The river was fast flowing and Colorado clear.   It was mostly continuous class 2/3 giggle water with some boulder dodging.  Luckily at this low level there were plenty of eddies.   Missy got flipped early on, but hit her roll immediately.  She had to make a quick decision on which way to move around a mid-river boulder.  Unfortunately the way she picked ended up being shallow on the other side.   She had to scootch off a rock and had no choice but to drop speedfree into a seam.   That’s what flipped her.  That’s what’s nice about not being in the lead…you get to see what doesn’t work.  I picked the other side and made it down nicely.     We worked our way downstream, enjoying the thrill of the unknown.   As it turned out, there was nothing too huge to worry about, but of course we didn’t know it at the time.  I was so proud of Missy and how she handled what was usually Jeremiah’s job!   

The approach to Todd’s Slot was pretty apparent.    It was a series of pinball placed giant boulders for your amusement.   At this low flow, there was only one way through the maze.  However, there was a tricky part.  Midway through, the water constricted into a jet onto the right side of a boulder.   That right side had no flow out of it.   The route to the left was guarded by a big boiling mess.   I saw 2 options:  go with the flow into the eddy on the right and then try to bust through the boils.   This would probably flip you.   The other option was to try to keep up speed and cut across the current and head left.   But this would also cause loss of speed and a flip.   The issue with flipping is that you’d maybe have one shot only (in the boils) before you’d be swept into a rock seam on river left.     We couldn’t tell if this would be too dangerous.   After scouting for a bit, we decided that with just 2 of us, we’d better not risk it.   Too bad we didn’t have a probe!   We went to the far right and rock scraped our way back into the current.   

The rest of the run was just plain fun.  I was trying to think of a river to compare it to.  The best I could come up with is it’s like a mini-Eagle.    Only with lower flow and eddies.   I told Missy that I wanted to take back what I said about being fine with not kayaking and replacing it with hiking or biking.   This run reminds you why kayaking is so much fun!   I hope we don’t go another month between fixes.  (We probably will do the Taylor 2-3 more times while in the area.   It’d be nice to be able to extend the run, but with the scooter broken, we may not want to do a longer bike shuttle).   This is one of the only rivers in CO that’s in the green right now, so I’m not sure why more people weren’t on the river with us.   Maybe the construction kept them away.

Monday- Lazy day

Tuesday- We had planned on hitting up the Taylor again today.   But we had a miscommunication about when we’d leave.    By waiting a little too long, we risked being on the river for the approaching afternoon boomers.    So we made firmer, more sensible plans to go the next morning.   I went for a bike ride up to the Taylor Dam.   Missy told me before it was a nice exercise route.  Nothing too mountainy steep.  It was neat at the top to see all the fly fisherpeople (and one dog).   At the bottom of the dam itself, there were a couple hundred huge fish swimming around.  Too bad the fisherpeople couldn’t get to that spot. 

Today’s thunderstorms had a bit more rain than usual.  And they lasted longer.   We stayed inside and played a game of Scrabble.   Hopefully the rain will raise the river a little for our run tomorrow.

Nothing Exciting

June 28-30, 2012

As the title indicates, nothing too exciting happened these few days.    I realize some of you might be asking yourself, “Then why blog”?    The answer is, we want to have a daily accounting to look back on.   So that’s why I try to at least put something down.    We’ve been enjoying camp life here.  It’s still not busy, and having senior citizens for your only neighbors has its benefits.  No loud music or carousing!    (Although, ask Missy sometime about what she did to the neighbors’ hummingbird feeder).  We do some activity or another in the cool mornings (usually a bike ride for Missy, and a hike for me). Then we enjoy reading in our loungers.   Pretty much right on schedule we’ve had thunderstorms move in for the early afternoon.    After a couple of hours, they move on out again.  

On Friday we drove to Gunnison.   Normally this would be a 1 hour trip, but with the construction it took an extra 20 minutes.   The public library had disappointed internet speeds.   I got faster results using the 3G from my phone.   After leaving the library, we tried and failed to find a place to fill our water jugs.   We were hoping Gunnison would be like BV and Pagosa Springs by having awesome water.   Oh well.    We stopped at Walmart and the grocery store and headed home.   When we approached the traffic, the pilot car was JUST heading out in our direction.  We got to skip the 15 minute wait!    It was funny how that made our day!

*On Saturday we texted with Dad for the first time ever!   (new phone)   He was over at Josh’s for a visit.   Made us miss everyone, especially our adorable nephews.    Can’t wait to get back to MN for a visit.   Oh, and Josh and I started playing Words with Friends for the first time.  Let’s see how disciplined he’ll be able to be when it’s his turn during work hours.  :-) 

Sunday will be our first run on the Taylor River.    I’m very excited and nervous!   Hopefully we won’t have any CFs or Boondoggles…

*Everything in this paragraph was actually tremendously exciting!