Junction Creek Campground

May 31-June 2, 2012

Thursday –

-We got up early and packed up the rig for travel.   Before leaving camp for good, we each took a ride on the bike.   Sad to be leaving beautiful Pagosa Springs.

-We pulled up to a gas station that had a free rv dump.   We dumped our tanks, filled up on freshwater, and topped off our propane.  

-Went to the tire place.   It was surprisingly busy for a Thursday morning.   They took care of us right away…but then they pretty much had to.   Our huge rig blocked a huge portion of their parking lot.  Turns out the slit on the tire was only through 1 layer.  We kept the tire.  It can be used in an emergency whereby we get 2 flats and aren’t someplace that stocks RV tires.  (I’m going on record as saying this had better goddamn be hypothetical!!!!!)

-On our way to Durango!  Smooth roads, easy drive.   We get to the new Forest Service campground at 12:30.   We got the last walk-in electric site (that would fit us)!   Phew.  Got parked relatively easily and unpacked enough to have lunch.   We ate outside and enjoyed the true forest quiet that we’d been missing these last few weeks being in the wind tunnel.   That quite lasted all of 2 hours, when 2 families with 8 kids between them showed up.   Let me put it this way: the kids were quite excited to be camping.   Bummer that the sites are so close together.  ($24/night, electric only, 50 amps).

Friday-

The plan for the day was to go to the public library and research our next couple of locations.   At first we couldn’t find any mentions of possible free sites near Durango.   So I started to look over in Utah near Moab (close to several national parks, including Arches).   There are tons of free sites in that area.   Just as I was starting to become overwhelmed with researching those spots, Missy finally hit on a forum that listed good boondocking nearby.   We read up on Mineral Creek, which is near the town of Silverton.   Lots of people described it as having breathtaking scenery.  SOLD!  We decided to drive and check it out on Saturday.

Missy stayed at the library to finish up some downloads.   I went to Walmart to do some shopping.   I first got my hair cut at the in-store salon.  I can’t handle the long(ish) hair anymore when we have to take military showers.    I got it cut short, and now it should be much more hassle free.

After the haircut, I took care of the shopping.  We just needed to stock up on some groceries before our planned 2 week boondocking.   I also got some mouse poison.   In the last couple of days, I’ve been hearing rodents scratching in the furnace area under the fridge.   Hopefully a little arsenic snack will take care of that little issue. 

Saturday-

Got on the road by 8:30 for our drive to check out the campsite we found online.  Karen showed it would be about 1.5 hours to get there.   The drive was gorgeous; we were treated to the new sight of red rock striations in the cliffs.   We were going to do a couple of scenic pull-offs, but there were intermittent storms so we didn’t do it.   The road was great: shouldn’t be an issue with the fitty.

We got to the road turnoff, which is right by the town of Silverton.   We just read about 1 possible free campsite, but it turns out that there were a ton.  Colorado really takes care of their camping-loving citizens.   Some sites were rough off the road.  Others were developed parking pads with vault toilets.   We found the perfect spot.  It’s a large parking area right next to the creek.  Off the back end, there’s a forest trail for hiking with the dogs.    And on the other end, great mountain views.   It looks like the perfect spot to spend the next 2 weeks of our lives.

After scouting the spot, we continued to drive down the forest road.  We saw lots of spots we can hike; Missy claimed she plans to climb up to a mile high waterfall.   When we got hungry, we pulled over to a nice picnic spot.  There was a firepit with some wood in it…so we went ahead and had ourselves a picnic fire.  (The temps are about 20 degrees cooler than in Durango, which makes sense since it’s about 2000 feet higher in elevation).  It was an enjoyable lunch hour, which we ended with a chipmunk hunt in the boulder meadow.   (The last was mostly an activity enjoyed by the dogs).

After leaving the campsite, we drove through Silverton.  No fast food places.  One gas station.   There is the tiniest, quaintest public library, but it didn’t have free wifi.   Oh Well.   The drive back to Durango was a thriller.  We were in a thunder & lightning show, and even went through some rain/snow showers.   But by the time we got back down to Durango, it was all sunny and hot again.  Almost 90 degrees.  Looking forward to the cooler temps at our next spot, even if it means having to use the furnace again at night.

Last Pictures for Awhile....

Tomorrow we're heading for a free boondocking site in the mountains.  Looks like we might get spotty reception, but definitely not enough for picture uploading.   So I'm taking advantage of the Durango Public Library one last time to load a bunch of pictures.    Enjoy!

Missy halfway up the mountain

Faraway shot of Missy on top of the cliff

Close-up shot of Missy on the cliff

Me using my E-Reader on the cliff top

Slit in our fitty tire.  Sniff

Enjoying the city park in Pagosa Springs

Random Creek in Colorado

Improptu fire & picnic near Silverton, CO

That's a neat waterfall in the distance

Adorable

We are moving to this campsite tomorrow

Another shot of our next campsite

Making Decisions

May29-30, 2012

On Tuesday, we went into town to take care of a bunch of things.   We got a propane tank filled.   Then we went to a tire place to see if they could replace the fitty tire.   They said they’d have to order the tire, so we could come back on Thursday or Friday to have it installed.   We thought this would be perfect timing, because we estimated we’d need to come to town right around then to dump our tanks and take on freshwater.  

After the tire place, we headed up north to check out the next set of possible campsites.   A few miles up the road, we encountered a parking lot that had a giant bulletin board which was labeled “Fire Info”.  Uh-oh.   All the roads to the campgrounds were closed.  We knew the fire was in the area, but from the maps it seemed to be quite a bit away from the sites we were considering.   Perhaps they were just being cautious.   Better to keep campers out unnecessarily then to have to roust them later due to encroaching fire.  We were both bummed that our plans were thwarted.   I felt a little more vulnerable, thinking about how high the fire danger is around here.   Missy claims she’s not scared at all.

We walked the dogs for a bit on a random trail, and then went back to town.  Now we were going to have to make decisions about what to do after getting the new tire.   We finally decided that maybe we’d just go right back to the site we’ve been at for the last 2 weeks.

We went to the city park to get some more water.    We set up under some great shade trees and watched all the people and the river.  Did a little bit of internets.   Tried and failed to connect with Jeremiah.  Apparently he has a boondoggle story from creeking, but we’ll have to wait to get the whole story.

I convinced Missy to check out a used sporting goods store with me.  I wanted to see what they might have for bikes.   Missy was reluctant, she thought any bikes there would be too expensive.   But I prevailed.   And I’m glad I did…we found a bike!   It’s a yellow mountain bike, and it’s probably a little too short for us but it’s a good deal for just trying it out to see if we’ll like biking.   Brakes and tires and shifting all work.   Only $120.     Now we have a non-rain-dependent activity!

On Wednesday, we spent a lot of time mulling options for where to travel next.   We realized when we got back to camp that due to a jerk parking his rig close to us, we could no longer pull through into the spot again.   Backing in might be possible, but we decided to look for other options.   We looked at a couple of other sites further down the forest road.   Missy was in love with one that would have been all but impossible to park in.   I told her we can try it again next year, after we’ve had more practice.    Next, we considered going east to the Sand Dunes National Park.   However, it’s almost a 3 hour trip, and it’s east whereas the other areas of CO we’re interested in are West or North.    So we nixed that.

Missy took the scootie up the road until she got reception, and she checked out campground options in Durango.   We decided to head there tomorrow, after getting the new tire.   Most of the sites in the campground are reserved.  But there are a few first come/first served.   Hopefully by getting there on a Thursday, we’ll get one of those sites.   If not, then we’ll be screwed.

Oh- we both took the bike out for a spin.  It’s interesting how much more you can see when you’re not confined in a car.   I thought the bike handled great…even when I chickened out on a downhill sandy part and applied the brakes, it didn’t skid or slide!  So far, we’re both optimistic that we’ll enjoy bike riding.

That’s all for Pagosa Springs.   I’m going to miss this awesome campsite.  Wish us luck in finding even more awesome sites in the future.

Memorial Day Weekend

May 27-28, 2012

Sunday was cold and windy.   We woke up and it was 36 degrees inside the rig.   The furnace died again from (presumably) a low battery.   But, we weren’t all that cold overnight.   It was tough to hang out outside with the cold and the wind.   We didn’t want to start a fire because it seemed dangerous in these conditions.  

Our little area of the world was busy this weekend.   Lots and lots of people camping and partying and ATVing.   It wasn’t a big deal, though, because we hunkered inside for the most part anyway.   I was disturbed by the loud music and party that went until after 2 am.   However, all the extra kids and vehicles packed up and cleared out by 9:30, so we got our private clearing again.

Monday was GLORIOUS!    Halleluiah!  What a difference not having wind makes on one’s psyche.  We decided to do another hike up the cliffs.   (BTW, I took the GPS with me on the last hike up and we determined from the elevations that it’s about 220 ft up).  Missy went first so I could try to take pictures of her from down below.  Then I hiked up and joined her.   It’s really fun rock climbing and it’s neat to spend time up high and enjoy the view.   Missy went back down after 20 minutes.   I stayed up and relaxed and zoned out and read a little.    I didn’t want to come back down ever.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the warm, sunny, non-windy day.   I got to spy a little bit of nature.   On one of the first days here, I made a comment to Missy about how I was constantly scanning the cliff ridgeline in the hopes that some wildlife would appear.  Like a bear or mountain lion.   Yesterday at dusk I finally spotted some movement.  2 deer approached the very edge of the cliff!   It was only deer, but it was very exciting!    I’m not sure why there were there, since it’s barren rocks at that point.  My best guess was that they were trying to figure out a way down to the river?   It was pretty cool to see them up there on the edge (in a spot we’d been).

Forest Fire

May 24-26, 2012

I have been neglecting my blogging duties for a few days.    This wasn’t a wise choice for a woman of my advanced years, because now I’m stuck trying to remember what we did a few days ago.    Here’s my best attempt at recounting:

*I put on my brightest yellow shirt and climbed to the top of the cliffs.   The idea was that Missy would stay below and take my picture from the ground.   I thought the yellow would be very visible, but when I got back down, Missy chastised me.  She claims the yellow was lost in the green of the trees, and she claims I didn’t get to the absolute edge for a neat photo.  Whatever.  It’s scary up there on the edge in the wind.   I told her she’s welcome to go up and show me how it’s done.   She has not done that yet.

*On Friday I drove up to the top of the road to get a signal to check if the Durango Library was open on Saturday.  (It was).   While there, I learned that there have been epic rains back in MN.   A miracle Memorial Weekend creeking opportunity.   I was really bummed that we were missing out on hanging out with and paddling with our peeps back in MN.   I am honestly jealous of the whitewater.   Here, the San Juan has dropped back into the “low” category.  So we haven’t been able to even try out the run in our backyard.   I tried getting ahold of Jeremiah to see how the paddling was going, but we weren’t able to connect.

*The winds have been active every day.   Most days they are constant at 20 mph, and on Saturday we had continuing gusts of 50-60mph.  It made it kinda miserable outside.  I think I would go crazy if I lived somewhere where there was constant wind.    On one of our walks with the dogs, we saw a huge pine tree blow over.   It went quickly and with little pre-cracking warning.   It was a neat thing to witness.

*We drove to Durango on Saturday.  We wanted to try the wifi at the newly completed library.   It was 55 miles away, and about a 1.5 hour drive.   Missy got pulled over for speeding in Pagosa Springs.   She actually sped past the cop, who I guess than had no choice but to stop her.   Luckily she was let off with a warning.   She commented that it was our usual Memorial Weekend ticket (Jeremiah historically gets those for non-seatbelt-use, but since he’s not with us, Missy filled in).  :-)

*The sky and air were very heavy with debris on Saturday.  My first thought was that it must be a fire.  When we got into phone range, we did discover that there’s a wildfire in our Forest.   It apparently started 10 days ago and was 70 acres, but then with the strong winds and no rain, it was now over 400 acres.   We spent some anxious moments working out where on the  map it was in relation to our camp.   Luckily, it’s not that close.    The shift in wind this morning was the first time smoke from the fire headed our way.   It was very eerie and interesting how far ranging the smoke coverage went.  We were in it all the way to Durango…felt like we were in LA smog.

*Awesome internet and awesome library in Durango.  It overlooked the Animas river, and we sat in comfy chairs in front of picture windows enjoying the view.    While getting our downloads, we looked into placed to go next.   Unfortunately the fire is in the area of where we were thinking of going next.  So we’re looking at several options, from Durango, to Sand Dunes National Park, to the Arches in Utah.   The good thing about this lifestyle is that we’re so free to choose where to go.  So stay tuned.

*After the library, we got some errands done.  We went to an RV place to pick up a anode rod for the water heater.  For a couple of weeks now, the kitchen sink hasn’t been working properly.   I did some google research and I’m confident that we’ll need to replace the anode rod and flush the water heater to get it fixed.   But, since we don’t have water hookup here, I’m not going to waste water draining the heater.   So now we’ll have the part ready.   I’ll do the fix once we run out of freshwater.   After the RV place, we went to Walmart and then headed back.

*We were shocked when we got to camp to see that we’d been invaded while we were gone.   A big group of people snuck into the few other sites in the loop.   Lots of dogs (including an adorable puppy).   If Missy hikes the cliff, we’ll try to get a picture of our newly crowded neighborhood.    There’s been a ton of ATVs going up and down the road.   We sorta thought this would happen on the holiday weekend.   It’s noisy, but hopefully we’ll only have to deal with it a couple of days.

*Cassie update: she’s doing better.   She’s no longer waking up stiff and sore.   I think she must have banged her back and got hurt.   Then, after a full night curled up sleeping, she just woke up stiff and sore.  Getting old in addition to being hurt.    I’m soooooooooo glad that she’s doing better. 

More Pictures from our daring ascent!

Video from Cliff hike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoTvo3r0rKw