September 9, 2012
It has been a while since I’ve written anything. I tried yesterday morning but found my
battery was dead and didn’t want to start the generator, but I get to that
later. On Labor Day we moved from North
Sterling to Chatfield SP about 15 minutes south of Terry and Glenda. We found Terry working on the camper getting
ready for an elk hunting trip the following weekend. We had been talking with them about it and
had yet to decide if we would go along.
Terry had his water tank out dealing with a leak and stopped working and
we had a long visit and a nice dinner.
On Tuesday morning Debbie and I had planned on driving up to
Kenosha Pass to see if following them on the elk hunt was even feasible but we
both felt under the weather and by the time we got to feeling normal it was too
late. We got to T&G’s about noon and
I tried to assist Terry with the tank but after five attempts at plastic
welding we failed. That evening we had
elk roast that G had prepared in the crook pot with a jar of peppers from their
garden that we had to smell cooking all afternoon. It tasted as good as it smelled.
Wednesday we made the drive to Kenosha Pass to look at a
Forest Service campground and the area they refer to as open camping on forest
service land. Coming over the top of the
pass is breath taking. It is officially
listed at 10,001 feet elevation. Coming
up the eastern slope is aspen and pine forest with small of open meadows. On the western slope are miles of open high
meadows and cattle ranches as far as the horizon. A couple of miles west of the summit we took
Lost Creek Rd into Lost Creek campground.
It was 19 miles in past the county road which ran 2 or 3 miles in from
the highway. It took an hour and 10
minutes to get to the campground.
Along the forest service roads there is what is referred to
as open camping. It consists of a
relatively flat spot where people pull off and set up camp. There is quite often a stone fire ring that
someone has assembled in the past but that’s it. All along the main “road” are side roads
where it is legal to take off road vehicles, 4 wheelers or dirt bikes. Hunting camp ended up being down the Rock
Creek side road.
Needless to say we decided to follow them out on Friday.
Wednesday evening Art Heather and the kids came out to
Chatfield for dinner. T&G were still
having issues with the camper so they did not join us. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and had a
nice long visit, they stayed until almost 10:00. Cole did his homework on our kitchen table. He had to count the pockets of everyone
present, I had 5. He then calculated the
pocket total; I think it was 27 when he added his own.
Thursday morning we ran a bunch of errands which included
trying to find a CanCooker, we were unsuccessful. After several phone calls Debbie and Glenda
altered plans for Friday’s evening meal (which was successful) and got
everything arranged. We also learned
that while t was reassembling the camper that the water pump was not
working. We volunteered to run after the
replacement so he could load the camper.
Camping World was also near Gunsmoke which I was hoping to visit.
After picking up the pump we found Gunsmoke. I went in and Debbie went to get gas (go
figure). It is smaller than it appears
on TV and was crowded with people wanting hats and tee shirts. I picked out a hat and one of the gunsmiths
was at the counter signing autographs.
While waiting my turn another showed up so they both signed. Then someone gathered up the pile of hats and
shirts and took them down stairs for others on the show to sign. It was kind of cool and it the highest priced
hat I’ve ever bought…. J
When we got back to
T&G’s we found that Terry was at Camping World. While loading the camper he smashed the end
of his plug and went for a replacement.
I was in the camper trying to figure how the pump mounted when he
returned so I volunteered to rewire the cord while he dealt with the pump. I got the cord rewired and just one more trip
to the hardware store and he was up and running.
Friday morning we moved to Kenosha Pass East
campground. It is a forest service
campground so there is no water, electricity or dump station. But it is beautiful. The aspen are starting to turn a little early
up we understand. T&G got here in
the afternoon so we loaded up the Jeep and followed them into their hunting
camp. Larry, Iris and their son Mark
were already there. We shared diner with them and Art, Cole and Mark’s son Nick
arrived in time for diner. We found our
way out of camp after dark but missed the turn into our campground on the way
home.
Saturday we drove to Fairplay and had breakfast at a small
local place called the Brown Burro (I think).
Then we explored a little and went back to the camper to pick up
Darby. We got to the hunting camp in the
afternoon but found no fresh elk meat cooling.
David and Beth Wolfe, Glenda’s nephew from Louisiana arrived and we got
to visit with then, they are both fun outgoing people who we’ve met only two or
three times. It was fun to catch
up. After dinner at the hunting camp we
returned to the camper. Tomorrow we are
headed to the Arkansan River Headwaters SP unless plans change. T&G may join us.
September 11, 2012
Sunday we visited Jefferson Lake. We visited this area many years ago with our
first pickup camper. Marv and Opal were
with us and the kids were both little.
After lunch at a burger stand in Jefferson we crossed the highway to see
the other street and found a blacktop county road heading south (?) and
followed it for several miles before heading to Kenosha Pass. There we took the two Forest Service roads
for a ways until Debbie had enough so we headed for the hunting camp to visit
some more. We heard several of David’s
tails about life in Louisiana. He knows
several of the alligator hunters on Swamp Men and it is filmed just above his
fishing camp.
We did move to the Arkansas Headwaters area, we are staying
in the Hecla Junction Campground. The
campground is run by Colorado Parks but the land is controlled by the Bureau of
Land Management. It is a beautiful area, mostly pine trees; spruce, cedar and
pinion varieties. A few miles north
there are aspens but not here. We
almost didn’t come here. I thought there
was water, electricity and a dump station here but there is not. The Salida Chamber of Commerce provides water
and dump free but does ask for a donation.
So we dumped and filled there. We
got set up here in the afternoon on the banks of the Arkansas River.
Today was ghost town day.
We visited St. Elmo which is still somewhat inhabited. All of the buildings are privately
owned. There is a junk /tee shirt store,
some sort of hotel and many buildings look to be used as either weekend
retreats or hunting lodges. It was kind
of interesting to see how folks are trying to preserve the area.
From St. Elmo we drove up to Hancock. At the town site there remains only the
foundation of a single building, a salon.
The town had as many as five along with three stores and a train
depot. The elevation was 11,700 feet so
living conditions were harsh. When the
RR abandoned the line in 1910 the town was abandoned. There is evidence of several mines along with
an abandoned cabin and a tumbled down structure outside of town.
We also visited the Iron City Cemetery, I have no clue where
Iron City was. For some reason I find
old cemeteries interesting. Most of the
markers were missing and had been replaced with wooden markers that were
numbered if you wanted to know where someone was buried. There were three wire / metal enclosures
around small plots that looked like baby cribs.
Two still had the original stones the other had a wooden marker that had
long since become illegible. I have
never seen graves like these.
I think we’ll be here at least one more day and I will try
to post this when I can. I need to
download some photos before updating my blog and Debbie is paying bills and
other real stuff in the internet so I will have to wait my turn.
No comments:
Post a Comment