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June 11-12, 2012

Monday –

The mornings are getting colder here.   Now we’re dipping into the upper 20s for overnight lows.    I haven’t seen it myself, but Missy reports that overhanging roots on the creek are icicles in the mornings.   Luckily, the furnace is over its Santa Fe issues and is working perfectly.

Today was kind of a lazy day.   We spent time inside and out reading and playing scrabble.   (Chased inside occasionally by the wind.  Not as constant and unrelenting as Pagosa Springs, but the gusts here bring fresh mountain chill).   I took a bike ride and on that ride I saw a yellow bellied Marmot!   It was very exciting.   We’ve seen them lots of times off in the distance scurrying for cover.  But this guy stopped about 15 feet from me and just froze.   We stared at each other for a minute, and then he got shy when I got out the camera.    Very neat!

We got to talk to Mom in the afternoon for a bit.  That was fun!   She was with Jeremiah so we had ourselves a nice little 4 person chat.   Makes us miss home…

Tuesday –

Today we brought the truck in for the rotor/brake job.    We dropped the truck off a little after 9 am.    We walked across the street to the visitors center to use the free wifi.   The library didn’t open until 11, so we had some time to kill.   I got my blog post up and did some facebooking.   I also had some frustrating times trying to use my phone only (with 1x) to do some bill paying.  (I won’t do banking or other sensitive stuff on public connections).  It took me almost 30 minutes to pay two bills.   Annoying, but then again….I got time.  :-)

At 10 we started to run out of laptop batteries, so we took a little walk around town.   We went to the post office, and then just enjoyed window shopping in the touristy stores.   Then we headed over to the library at 11 to set up shop.    I got a call that the car was done around noon.   The sway bars were a hit and miss kind of thing.  The stock parts weren’t any shorter, but since ours were very worn and decrepit, we went ahead and installed the new ones.  The rotors were definitely warped.  So now we need to make sure we don’t overheat them with unnecessary braking going down mountains.  (the tech guy pointed out one thing that confused him: the lug nuts on the back wheels aren’t straight and true.   He said he’s never seen that before and doesn’t know what to do about it.  I can’t handle another issue, so I will ignore it and hope it self-heals).

We got back home at around 3:30.   We decided to pick up the dogs and head up the road for a hike in the hills.   If you studied the pictures from our mountain climb, you can see a path way down in a green hilly setting.   That’s where we drove to and parked for our walk with the dogs.    We could hear Mineral Creek off in the distance.  Missy suspected that there might be some decent rapids over yonder.   So we offroaded down to the spot.  It was amazing!   In a crevasse in the earth, there was a section of rapids that looked just like the MN North Shore!   Such a strange feeling to be looking down, almost like into a diorama, to see the rapids.   If you ignored the mountains in the background, you’d totally think you were on the split rock or cascade.   I really enjoyed just sitting there watching the drops on the run.   I miss kayaking.

Oh- I almost forgot!   We saw a Moose!!!!   As we were on our way to our hiking spot, we were behind another truck.   The driver suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and started gesturing wildly.   I didn’t know what he was doing, so we drove on.  10 feet past, we saw a Moose enjoying a swamp snack.    He was maybe 20-30 yards away.   His dark brown color was very obvious in the green swamp.   We had some neat full on face views when our crazy-barking dogs got his attention.    We did get some pictures, so there is proof of this claim.   The Moose and the hike made this an acceptable day!

Picture Post

I wanted to post the pictures that show the progress up from our Moutain Climb.  I had thought they were all loaded in the other post, but I guess I did it wrong.

Bottom

After the first switchback

Getting Higher

Last view before we turned the corner.  So high up!

Saw this cute Yellow Bellied Marmot while on a bike ride

The next set of pictures are from Missy's waterfalls hike (from when she had the snafoo with the scootie).

Enjoying Silverton

June 8-10, 2012

Here are some of the things we’ve been up to lately:

- We brought the car in to order new rotors and brakes.  I also had the guy look at the knobby things.   We now know the correct term is “sway bar”.   The shop that took the lift out should have bought a new shorter sway bar too.   By not replacing it, we only get a  few inches clearance, which means we can’t go on some of the ATV/4x4 trails until we get that taken care of.   These two things will be expensive.  Sigh

- When the repair guy was looking at the tire, he said “you’re 4 wheel drive isn’t working”.   I was dumfounded.   I guess the tubes that connect to the tires are disconnected.    I was sick at the thought of the trouble we could have been in thinking we were in 4 wheel drive but not.   So scary.   He said he’d see about getting the tubes reconnected when we bring the truck in for the brake re-do (next Tuesday).   But if it’s not fixable by just reconnecting, he can’t do the real fix because working on 4 wheel drive is labor intensive and hard.   So we have our fingers crossed on this one.

-A miracle occurred and now the scootie is fixed!     Well, not really a miracle.  When I told Jeremiah about the mishap, he said that the scootie wasn’t meant to be upside down.  When the liquids get where they shouldn’t, the scootie won’t run.   But, after a day of just sitting upright, it should work.   And he was right!    So at least we won’t have to pay for expensive scootie repairs.

-A real miracle occurred!   The kitchen sink just up and fixed itself one morning.   It no longer drip-runs for a minute when you shut off the faucet.   Plus, it gives a nice strong hard stream now.   I guess the small bit that was clogging a tube and causing the problem must have worked its way free.  Yay!

- We went to the Silverton Library to do some internets.  It’s quite adorable.   It’s the size of a 1 room school house from olden days.   The librarian knew every patron by name and personally chatted with each of them.  I thought it was very quaint.  And the internet speeds were fantastic.  (While at the library, I was able to research and figure out that the small brown mammal we’ve been seeing everywhere is the yellow bellied marmot).

- We drove around looking for possible boondocking sites for our next move.   We followed precise directions from one blogger, and either the boondocking is no longer allowed or it was an elaborate hoax.   The road ended (well, it did for RVs, since to continue you had to cross a stream).    Bummer.    We went back to town and took another route up a different mountain.    There we were hopeful because we saw the usual signs about maximum camping limit of 14 days.   And while we did see some small spots that smaller campers could fit in, nothing was suitable for our rig.   Shoot.   This means we’ll have to do some more research on where to go next.   Luckily there’s a great library for that!

- Nothing else much has been going on.    We go for our bike rides each day.   (Taking off the chain and putting it back on seems to have fixed the slipping problem).    We take the dogs for exercise on a cleared hillside nearby.  It has about 100 hidey holes for the gophers that abound.   Cassie LOVES it!   She runs around like a maniac with her nose to the ground, inspecting each hole.  She seriously looks like a drug-sniffing dog working on a huge case.   It’s a lot of fun to watch her.

We Climbed a Mountain!

June 6-7, 2012

Wednesday –

I went for the now usual bike ride in the morning.   Missy was still too sore from her (mis)adventures from the day before.     After lunch, I went to town in search of some internet so I could look up some stuff.  I also needed to reset my phone, which hadn’t been working the past few days.  I had trouble finding a good spot in town where I got a good enough signal to do anything online.   Finally, I just drove all around town looking for any business that advertised wifi.  Not seeing any, I went to the Visitors Center.   Luckily, they said they had free wifi.  It wasn’t the best signal, but it worked.    I did finally get my phone reset, although I did have to call for technical assistance.  (Jeremiah).  I had wasted so much time trying to find the good stuff that it was dinner time when I got back.

Missy felt better after dinner, so she went for a bike ride.   She confirmed what I discovered on my morning ride: the bike is slipping gears on the hard pedals.   I did accidentally hit the shift with my knee the other day when I was getting off.  I know you’re not supposed to shift when not moving…did I break the bike?

After dinner, we went out and had ourselves a campfire.   We got out the travel scrabble and got a good game going.   Finally got chased inside by the cold around 9:15.

Thursday –

We climbed a mountain today!   We got started a little later than we wanted: leaving the house around 10:30.   It was thought that an earlier start would be better so we’d be hiking in the cool morning temps…but that’s what happens when you take forever to get packed up.   As we were parking our truck on a pull-off from the main road, we saw several jeeps and ATVs heading up the trail we would be taking.  (Loving that this hike is only a coupla miles from our campsite!!!)  We stopped for a beginning of the hike picture, and then started up.

At first, the going was great!   We kept a slow pace due to the extreme slope, and enjoyed all the awesome scenery.  For the first third of the hike, we were on one side of the mountain.   It was really neat to be able to track our upwards progress against the height of the opposing mountain.   That mountain had beautiful red stripes going up, so at the bottom had to crane our necks to see up.   At each switchback on that side, we’d be higher and higher up the red lines.   I thought it was such a fun way to keep track of progress.   You can’t do that on a horizontal hike in MN.  :-)

Missy was having a tough time breathing.   It wasn’t a fitness thing, or an altitude thing.   She said it was more like she developed adult-onset-asthma.   I felt bad for her, since I was feeling great.   I think we’ve completely assimilated to the high altitude.

As we made the hike and came to each successive switchback, we cursed the ranger.  The road was fine!  The hairpin turns all had pullouts, so even if the truck couldn’t make them (which we suspect the truck would have been fine), there was room to maneuver.   Grrrr.    For the first hour or two, we were gracious enough to forgive the ranger because it was such a nice hike and great exercise.   At the start of hour 3, we were back to cursing him.   And, we’d changed our minds about accepting help.   Back at the very start, I’d asked Missy what she’d do if someone drove up behind us and offered us a ride.  She said she would turn it down and enjoy the exercise.   By hour 3, I told Missy I wouldn’t turn down a ride from a couple of cute guys.    Missy replied that she wouldn’t turn down a ride from some Uggos.  

Towards the end of the hike, there are some serious switchbacks to get you up that last bit of mountain.   The scenery was amazing, as you probably saw from my picture post.   The actual lake, the grand prize at the end of the hike, was lame.   Just some mountain snow melting into a small pond in a mountain basin.   The best scenery was just at the edge of the timberline.   Next time (hah!  Like we’re doing that again).    Missy looked at Karen to see what our elevation was: 12,000 feet!    (Alright, I’ll be honest.  It was 11,950.   But since we COULD have walked up the hill at the basin side to gain the extra 50, we’re counting it!)   Oh- what’s your opinion on this:  When we came to the snow, I asked Missy if we should enter détente on throwing snowballs.   Missy said you can’t have détente without first having engaged in hostilities.   I disagreed, and we discussed it for the last bit of the hike.    What do you think?   I don’t think I’ll remember to google that the next time I have internet.

We spent about 15 minutes at Clear Lake before the increasing wind made it quite chilly, even with full sun.  When we started going down the mountain, I was shocked at how much it hurt.  My lower back hurt, my hips hurt, and my toes really hurt.  It helped a little bit that we still had great views, but for the most part the descent was a burden to be endured.   And there was no hope of a ride from an angel, since we knew no one was at the top to come behind us.   Sigh.   I think we were both shocked that it took so long getting down.  (4 miles one way, 2000 feet in elevation).   It was 3.5 hours up, and took 2.5 hours to get down.   I really had been thinking it would take about an hour and a half.   By the last ¼ of the hike, I was barely getting a millimeter clearance from each foot on each step.   It was quite an experience.   In the end, even with all the hurt, I’m glad we tackled the mountain.  If I had a bucket list, and if this was on the bucket list, I could cross it off!

Pictures from our Epic Climb

Just wanted to get some pictures up while in town using the internet.   Stay tuned for a blog post write up of our hike...

At the start...4 miles isn't far, or so we thought.

We used this opposing mountain to track our progress

Going Up!

Almost like we're looking DOWN on mountain tops

At Clear Lake...the lake itself was a  disappointment.

Going Down

This shot shows 3 of the switchbacks

Neat Waterfall

We ran out of water, so I filled up at this culvert.  Pure Mountain Runoff.  Num!

Can you even appreciate the grandeur????

Missy in situ

Going Down.  

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).

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.