Enjoying San Juan National Forest

May 22-23, 2012

Tuesday -  This morning the river was running cloudy.   We were initially excited, because usually when a river turns cloudy it means it is rising, either from rain or snowmelt.   So while there was definitely no rain, we assumed some leftover snow was melting and raising the river.    However, after checking our reference rocks, it was clear the river didn’t rise.   Hmmm.  We were perplexed about what caused the cloudiness.   There’s a ranch a few miles upstream, so our guesses are that either the rancher put something into the river, or perhaps there was a landslide.   Either way, it makes it horrible fishing conditions so perhaps the fishermen will stay away and we can maintain some privacy.  :-)

Today we groomed the dogs.   Even though they weren’t stinky yet, we gave them each a bath.   I furminated Cassie, and Missy gave Buddy his summer cut.   They are both now quite adorable.

Wednesday -  This morning we climbed up the cliffs that face our campgrounds.   It was an incredible experience, very awe-inspiring!    We started at 8 when it was still cool, so we wouldn’t be overheated in our long sleeves and jeans.   We both also wore work gloves.   It was fun scrambling up the mountainside, planning the best possible route to the top.   I never understood the lure of mountain climbing before, but now I think I get it.   It was a lot of fun moving in a mostly vertical manner.    Missy and I picked different routes up the mountain, ending up on different peaks.  I had the water backpack, and soon Missy was begging me to come over to her side so she could share the water.   I found a game trail connecting the 2 peaks and headed over.  On the way, I scared a hawk out of its tree.  It was only like 20 feet away!   As it so happens, it flew right by Missy, so she got to see it too.    

After refreshing herself, we both made our way back to my peak.   We took some pictures and enjoyed the view.  I made a video so that hopeful people could get a sense of how high up we were.  I tossed a rock over the edge, and it seemed to take forever for it to fall to the ground.   (I should have taken a video of the rock falling).   After spending some time up top, we made our way down on the far side.   It was fun to slide down the steep hillside.    I really just enjoyed this hike so much.   It’s amazing that this activity is available to me right outside my door.

After our hike, we got our laundry gathered and sorted.   It’s been perhaps a month since we last did laundry, and there’s a lot of it.    We went to town after lunch and went to the Laundromat.    We pretty much had the place to ourselves.    We brought the computers, so we used 3G to get some internetting done.    I was on Facebook and saw that Mom was online (Hi mom!), so I tried seeing if she was there for a chat.  She was!   It was great to get the chance to chat with her for a while.

After doing laundry, we stopped at the park pavilion to get some water.   We discovered on our kayaking day that the city has super tasty water, so we took advantage of being in town to get our water jugs filled.   Then we headed back to camp, where we endured 700 mph winds for the rest of the day.    The gusts rocked the fitty like crazy, and we were concerned about a bendy tree being blown onto the rig.   The crazy winds kept up until almost midnight.

We Kayaked!

May 20-21, 2012

Can you spot the climbers and the dog?

Missy on the San Juan River

Tina on the San Juan River

Sunday was the final recovery day for Missy.   She said she’d be ready for kayaking the next day.    We spent a couple of hours being entertained by a group attempting to scale the cliffs right by us.    I guess their goal was to get to a small cave.   The uphill climb there is severely hampered by the loose rocks and steep incline.    2 women persevered, and along with them they had a small boy(!).    We were scandalized.    One small misstep and you would not be able to control your tumble down the hill.   (Oh, and they had an AWESOME dog with them.  This dog was not scared at all, and he nimbly traveled up and down the hill at will).    After 1.5 hours in the merciless sun, they made their goal.   Then they had to try to scoot down the hill.   One woman just went down on her butt.   However the other woman was hampered by the child, whom she was wearing like a backpack on her back.    I was sure there would be a mishap, but she had a neat trick to getting down.  She faced the hill, grabbed a big rock between both hands, and skidded down using the rock to break her momentum.    Very impressive technique!    So they all made it safely down.   I have some pictures of them (with the neato dog), but it’s sort of a Where’s Waldo exercise to find the hikers.

Sunday night we were treated to getting a new neighbor.   I don’t know why it is, but it’s strangely entertaining to watch other people when camping.    So a big fitty made its way to the other side of our clearing.    The fitty is actually in the same model line as ours…only it’s a triple axel and maybe a little bigger.   There was a couple, and they had 2 small dogs with them.    It took these people about 4 times as long as us to get unhitched and level.    I couldn’t believe how laborious they made the process.   The wife was no help at all.   The poor husband had to keep getting out of the truck to check his backup job.   After they got parked, they left in their 2^nd vehicle.   And they didn’t return.  Very odd.   I surmised that they were just trying to hold a spot, but thought it was strange to do this on a Sunday night.   It wasn’t until  later that we realized that this weekend is Memorial Weekend, so perhaps that’s why they would hold their spot so early.    I hope that it doesn’t get too loud and busy this weekend…

Monday-  WE FINALLY WENT KAYAKING!!!!

It wasn’t too eventful, as it turns out.    We left camp at 9:30.    We got to town and decided to wait by the public restrooms.   We dropped our kayaks and gear, and Missy checked directions to the takeout one last time from the internet.   Then she took off in the truck to set shuttle.   I had the small computer and my phone to tether, so I was able to do some blogging and facebooking.    Missy left for the takeout at 10, and got back at 11:20.   She said the scooter ride back was only about 30 minutes.   (the extra time was because she made a wrong turn).

We had lunch before we left.   Got suited up and on the river shortly after noon.    It was still running low, but at this point beggars can’t be choosers.     The run is about 13 miles.   It’s mostly class 2 with a few 2+/3- ledges that sneak up on you, but are easily handled.   The scenery was unbelievable!   Snow-capped mountains in view behind us almost the whole way, and pine tree covered hills and cliffs all around.   We’ve kayaked in some gorgeous settings before, but what made this special was that since it wasn’t a hard core run, we had ample opportunity to sit and soak it in.    The run took us about 3 hours, so that should tell you how nice and fast the river was running.   For the last 4 miles or so,  we loosened our backbands and laid back on our back decks.   It was fun!    That position makes all the little waves and bumps more exaggerated.    Plus, it helps alleviate dead legs.

Now that we have one run under our belts, we’ll be considering the creek run right by our camp.   The river is still running low, so we’ll decide whether or not to try right away, or if maybe we’ll wait and see if rain is in the forecast to bump the river up.    

Trying a Picture Upload

Me and Cassie at our campsite

Look Closely at the Map...we can go to the continental divide!  (We had to look up what that was exactly)

Our Backyard Rapids!

Our Backyard Firepit

Treasure Falls

Sick Days

May 18-19,2012
Well, we did not go kayaking. Missy got sick. She's got a cold and for some reason she refused to "paddle through it". Grrrr. I wasn't too sad to miss paddling on Thursday. It was overcast and windy all morning. We didn't even get to 50 degrees until mid-afternoon. Then we had 1 hour of glorious sunshine when I wished we were on the river.
Since she was still sick on Saturday, I went into town by myself. The whitewater festival was today. While there were lots of spectators, apparently there were only 3 competitors. The wave looked fun and easy to get on, so we definitely have to go back and try it. The weather was very nice…sunny with a warm breeze. I got to wear shorts again! I watched the competition for a little bit, and then I worked on my homework. I was tasked with looking up clearer directions to the takeout for the town run. Someone put a pretty good description on AW. This run sounds beautiful, so if it turns out to be lame (which Missy thinks will be the case since it's at low runnable), then at least we'll have some great scenery while we float. I drove a bit of the way to make sure we would be able to find the roads. Seems like it should be a straight shot. The shuttle is 45 minutes 1 way, so it will take Missy a while to set itif we ever do get to running it.
Oh, Missy did feel well enough for a short walk to check out a must-portage rapid near us. It has wood in 4 or 5 key spots. Odd that the book said that experts might enjoy the challenge. We didn't see any safe way through it. It was strange to be looking at an honest to goodness drop again. Makes your kayaking juices flow…Missy talked about going upriver from our campsite and just putting on. I'm more of a wimp. I don't think it's a good idea to run it blind without local beta. Who knows if there are riverwide strainers around blind corners…this river is FAST, with hardly any eddies.
That's about all I have to report for these days. Since I'm light on material, I'll take this opportunity to mention how awesome low humidity climates are! There are 2 clear benefits that we've been enjoying. First, the dogs do not get stinky! We have not needed to bathe them this whole trip! Love that! Second, food does not get stale. It's like a miracle: I've been working on the same bag of pretzels for over a month, and they are still crisp and fresh. And bread lasts for weeks as well. People who live in low humidity probably don't appreciate the value they get out of their groceries. :-)

Getting it Done

May 16-17, 2012
Wednesday- We went exploring this morning to check out some other campsite options. We did not bring the dogs because Cassie was stiff and shaking again. First we went to the West Fork campground. This would be another pay site like where we are. Developed sites, but no hookups. We pretty much ruled it out a third of the way into the drive. Huge ruts and pot-holes would have made travel with the fitty all but impossible. But we still went to look because Missy wanted to see what the campground looked like. It was described as being beautiful, but I don't think the views were all that great. I joked with Missy that we're getting spoiled with our scenery requirements when we reject something that's in the woods and has mountain views. We'd kill for a spot like this back in MN.
After leaving that campground, we stopped to hike up to Treasure Falls. This is a roadside way point, so it got a lot of traffic while we were there. It was a fun hike up to what was labeled as the "mist zone bridge". Back at the parking lot, we noticed the chipmunk population (est. 100) was very friendly. So I got some snacks and fed some of them. It was strangely appealing to feed the cute little babies, but the giant adult was a tad creepy.
After our hike, we went into town. We stopped at the ranger station to look for maps of the area we're in. Unlike some of the other National Forest campgrounds, this one didn't provide maps of nearby trails. Since we're going to be in the area for a while, we wanted to get some maps for possible hikes. After the ranger station, we went to check out an option for a dump site for later.
We stopped for lunch at a place that advertised Old Fashioned Burgers and Shakes. It was pricey, but pretty good. The restaurant had a flier posted for a Whitewater Festival for ….May 19^th! This Saturday! I think the levels are way below normal for this time of year, so I'm not sure if the events will all go on as planned. After lunch we walked through town and over to the developed whitewater features We saw one playboater trying to make something happen in a feature. It looks like the only options for the rodeo will be spins and maybe a cartwheel or 2. Perhaps I should enter the completion and try out my left spin…it's only been 8 months since I landed it in competition in Wausau.
Thursday – Cassie was stiff and shaking again this morning. Missy was worried that she might have Lyme Disease. We looked up vets in Pagosa Springs and got her an apt for 10:30. The verbose vet said that they didn't see Lyme in that area at all. He thought that she might have gotten a whack to her spine and her morning stiffness was her way of dealing with the pain. So we got a prescription for an opiate which we'll try for a couple of days. If she doesn't get better, then we can call for a prescription of antibiotics to address Lyme.
We got back to camp at 11:30. Today is our moving day. We're going 4 miles down the Forest Road to the free boondocking site we found before. (I drove down last night to make sure all the sites weren't taken). We got packed up and ready for hitching. Previously I had thought that we'd have to pull forward as far as we could, and then unhitch and re-position. But upon further examination, it seemed possible that we could get out without unhitching. While I did have to back-up twice, we got er done! Yay us!
We drove supremely slowly down the bumpy dirt road. I'm still anxious about the compromised tire on the fitty. It's still doing well, as far as not losing any psi, but it's still a ticking time bomb. We made it safely to our chosen spot, and pulled into position. We used our newly purchased plank to help make the leveling ramp, and we got it parked an unhitched in no time. The slider bar arm is doing great these days…perhaps the WD40 is finally worked into all the moving parts. When we went in to relax for a bit, the level seemed off. Uh-oh. Since we're on grass, when we put the slides out we sunk a little bit. We debated doing nothing, but eventually decided to try to fix it since it's not good for the slideouts to be unlevel the way we were. Missy wanted to try hitching up and then just making adjustments with the legs. This seemed to work, until we realized that one leg had all the pressure of the rig on it, and the other had none. When we tried to correct that, the legs would not extend. It made a horrible sound, like it was stripping the gears. Shit. And we couldn't just hitch up again to take the pressure off the legs because we'd need to raise the rig to get hitched. Missy finally thought of getting the jack and using it to take off some of the pressure. We got out the heavy duty jack that Jeremiah got before. But we couldn't figure out how to use it. So we just got out the regular jack from the truck. Missy got it assembled, cranked up the jack to support the leg with all the weight on it, and Voila! The retracting mechanism worked again! Got er done!
After dinner, I asked Missy if she wanted to get the scooter loaded. (We're going to go kayaking tomorrow! Just the town run, which is a 2-3…but still, it's been a LOOOOOOOONG time). We had a lot of troubles with this simple task. First, we could not get the locking pin back into place on the motorcycle ramp. We lubed the lock parts and tried and tried. Finally, after about 20 minutes, I realized that the spacer tube part was poking through too far. We fixed it, and got er done! Missy got the scootie up and onto the ramp, all on her own. First time since the lift was removed, and she said it was so easy now. When trying to ratchet the scootie, one of the ratchets failed. Crap. We think it got rusted from being in the truck bed. Expensive lesson on treating your gear right. Luckily we have a duplicate set of ratchets for tying the scoot down in the garage, so we just used those. Got er done!
After getting the scootie loaded, we just sat back and enjoyed our surroundings. It's unbelievable to me that we can camp here for free! It's on the river, with soaring cliffs and pine trees all around. And right now we have it all to ourselves! (This open clearing is so big that we suspect that 1 or 2 more people might camp here on the weekend). We have no reception at this spot, so don't be offended if we are out of touch for days at a time. We're going to stay here until we run out of water or fill our black tanks. (10-14 days, hopefully). We'll be in town for kayaking tomorrow (the town run launch is right behind the malt shop), so I'll be able to get this posted.

East Fork Campground, San Juan Forest

May 14-15, 2012

Monday -  We took a little drive this morning to check out the free boondocking sites.    There are several blogged about as being only a couple of miles up the Forest Service road from our campground.    The dirt road is fairly decent, so it seems doable with the fitty.    The scenery is unbelievable.   Each round of the road gives way to more pretty views.   The road runs next to the San Juan river.   We are about 100 yards up from the river, and then opposite us there is a mountain cliff that stretches majestically upwards for another 300 yards.    Breathtaking!

We passed a lot of neat campsites that would work for tenters.   Coloradans really are lucky they have these great free sites.   After about 4 miles, we came to a huge clearing.   There was a U shaped driveway from the road, back to the river, and then out to the road again.   Someone already had their Class A parked on one side.   The driveway was horrid in places, too rough for the fitty.   But luckily the plains were in decent shape.   We scouted a location and felt confident we could park the fitty and be set for boondocking.   

Since we were all loaded in the car anyway, we went for a little drive further down.   We crossed 2 or 3 spots where a creek ran free over the road.   No culverts.   At a particularly deep one, we parked the car and continued on foot.   It was a fun little hike with the dogs.    The road is closer to the river here, and we evaluated it for possible kayaking.   It looks FAST, and seems like it would be fun.    We will definitely check it out online.

Back at camp, we discover that the takeout for this section is at our campground.  Seems odd, since it’s an extremely steep hike up the precarious trail.    This section is listed as a 3-4, with warnings for watching for newly fallen wood.    As we were sitting there discussing trying the easier town section first, we actually saw some boaters go by.  One kayaker and one Cat.   So that’s good news!   If a Cat can make it, there’s got to be a clear route for kayaks.   Yay!

We were originally planning on leaving the campground and going to the free site tomorrow…but since it’s half price and we have the place to ourselves, we decided to stay 2 more nights.

Tuesday -  Cassie was acting strange this morning.   She was fine upon waking and she was as enthusiastic for her nummies as ever…but after eating she acted very stiff and was shaking and seemed in pain.    It was scary and sad.   I gave her one of Buddy’s pain meds and hoped she didn’t have something serious.   She was stiff and sore all morning, finally acting like her usual self after lunch.   We sometimes forget that she’s getting old too, so I think we’ll need to moderate her activity too

Had a fire this morning.   The daytime temps get into the upper 60s/low 70s, but the overnights are back into the 30s.    Luckily, the furnace is working.   Who knows what was going on with that in Santa Fe.   The campfire is great for keeping you warm while waiting for the sun to hit our campsite.

Not much went on today.    Got a few birthday well wishes, did some reading, did some relaxing.   Tomorrow we’re heading into town to look at options for dumping.   We will likely move to the free boondocking spot on Thursday, so we want to know our options for dumping our tanks once they fill up.

Travel to Pagosa Springs, CO

May 13, 2012

Woke up early, just in time to watch some morning thunderstorms come in.   Rained for about an hour.   It ruined my plans for one last hike on a new trail.    Oh well.   We cleaned up the rig and got it ready for hitching.    I unpacked the new air compressor and read the instructions.   I checked all the tires on the truck and half on the fitty (one side is tough to do when the slides are out).   I decided to wait to inflate until after we were hitched up.     We took advantage of the free (electric) hot water for last showers.   Then we held our breath, and went for the hook-up.    Yay!  Success!    I checked all the tires and added some air to all.    When we were filling up the back fitty tire (one that was previously blocked from view by the slide), Missy said “what’s that?”.   

Sigh.   And…..GODDAMMIT!

There’s an inch long razor slit in the tire.    We inspected the tire carefully.   It clearly was holding air, since the psi was the same from the last check.   And there was no air leaking from the slit.   So it appeared to be superficial.    We decided to travel with it as is, because both of us are so sick and tired of tire problems that we’d rather die from a faulty tire accident then deal with it right then.

You know….the rest of the day was so eventful that I’m going to have to switch to bullets.

-          -We headed north from Taos to Colorado.    The roads were fantastic!   Many miles were newly paved.  The drive could not have been more scenic.   We passed gorgeous red rock cliffs, and more desert mountains, and headed into forest territory.

-         - We picked a COE campground from a list of possible places to dump en route.   This campground was approximately ½ way via miles, but only about 1/3 of the way time-wise.   It was a near campground, hidden down a hill from the highway and overlooking a reservoir.    As we were pumping out, a campground employee drove up and said the dump was for campground guests only.  Oops!  They are no longer open to the public.   He charges us $10 for the cheapest campsite and went on his way.    Missy decided we may as well fill the freshwater tanks here (no water or electric where we’re going).     

-          -We meandered at our slow mountain fitty pace into Colorado.   Got to the first turnoff for the campground we picked at around 4:20.   100 feet off the road, there’s a sign posted that says that this campground is now a group site only.   Drat.   Now we have no choice but to travel the 2 miles up to the campground anyway and turn around.    As we approached the campground, we could see it was gated.   Double drat.    It was tight, but the entry way area was big enough for a u-turn.   (If you went through the mud).    We stopped to walk the dogs, and then got back in the car to look for the next option

-          Uh-oh.   Missy’s carefully saved Firefox tabs got closed when she had to re-boot the computer.   Now we’re flying blind….no deets on the possible campsites.

-         - We head into the city of Pagosa Springs.   A Christmas Miracle!     We got 3G randomly on the side of the road.   We pulled over when it was safe, and Missy was able to reload the pages.   Right after they loaded, the phone lost internet signal.    Phew!

-          -We decided to go to the East Fork Campground since it was getting late, 5:30.   It’s $18/night, and there are boondocking sites listed nearby…but we can’t scout them with it being so late.    This campground is neat….lots of GIANT pine trees, and plenty of privacy between sites.   I found one that was a pull thru that could work.   But Missy wanted to try a back-in site that was riverside (San Juan River) and on the edge of the campground so there are no neighbors.    We decided to go for it.

-          -Picture almost 2 hours of trying to back the fitty in.    Soooooooooo frustrating.  We actually did get it backed into the spot, but not at the edge we wanted.   When we tried to get it level, the blocks kept sinking into the soft earth.   We accidentally spun holes in the dirt with the tires, and once we had those divots, there was no getting the rig up onto the tri-level ramp needed for a side-to-side level rig.   We said fuck it, let’s deal.   We unhitched, put the slides out, and went in to eat.   (It’s now 7 o’clock).    It becomes painfully obvious that we cannot simply deal with such a dramatic tilt.    We try to buck up, and agree to re-hitch and try again.

-          -Another 30 minutes of trying and trying, and finally we get it to a spot where we can try a new ramp.   Missy did a great job of building the ramp, using all our blocks and the scootie ramp.    We gunned it, and got the rig up on blocks.   Completely level!   Yay us!    We had a small issue getting the slider bar arm out…had to reverse the legs and back the car up a titch before it would come free.   But we got it done.

-          -As we were parking, a ranger came by.   She said that they don’t have the water on yet, so the fees are half-price!  Score!

-          -We took the dogs on a short walk in the fading daylight.   It’s stunning here!    We’re high above the river (which might be a run?!!!   It looks fun…we’ll have to check on AW) in the tall trees.   Cassie is in heaven!   Lots of chippies, and no dangblasted cactus.

-          -We’ll decide tomorrow how many nights we’ll stay here.   Probably will take a drive to look at the boondocking sites.

-          We do get 1x phone here…so I might try uploading these 2 posts I’ve got ready to go.   Will have to wait for another 3G xmas miracle before getting pictures to load.