Camping In Style

It was the first time for just Glenn and I to take the new 5th wheel out!  We were excited to get away for a couple of days to ATV and test out the 5th wheel - and of course it passed with flying colors!

The best part was we BOTH could be in the little kitchen vs the camper when one person had to be sitting at the table while the other one cooked!  Everything worked great - we had plenty of water (I even took a shower) and we spent a LOT of time in the 5th wheel as naturally we had rain!!

I didn't mind the rain - I always have a good book with me so I spent a lot of time sitting under the outside awning reading or on the couch all curled up!  Glenn practiced shooting his bow in anticipation of hunting season which is coming right up!

The time we did get to ATV was wonderful!  I always love the aspen trees!

Lots of high scenic places and Bob will probably recognize these views - yes, we went by your hunting camp and it looks the same!

There are a couple of steep places where Glenn actually asked me to get off and walk and I was more than happy to comply!

It's always interesting to see the old mining camps!

When we first arrived, we stopped at Dottie's (the only commercial place in the town of Sargent) and saw signs posted about the closing of Hwy 50 - I had seen a large lit up sign as we were driving over that said the Hwy would be closed for the bike race but I guess it just didn't sink in.  Yes, they were closing the highway from Gunnison to Salida (which included Monarch Pass) from 9:30am to 6:00pm!  Our plans were to leave early afternoon that Wed. so that wasn't going to happen!  We decided we would just wait till late afternoon and then head out.

Wednesday we woke up to rain but by 11:00 it had cleared up and was sunny so took the ATV down to Dottie's (which was closed of course since the highway was closed) and proceeded to wait for the USA Pro Cycling bikes to go by!  Met a couple of guys that were both doing the Continental Divide Trail - one on a motorcycle who had started up in Canada and was doing the trail all the way to the Mexican border - the other was on a bicycle and was just doing the state of Colorado!  Of course when you're biking and bicycling, you carry the least amount of provisions possible and depend on places along the route to stop and eat or to get snacks.  They BOTH were planning on eating at Sargents and were quite disappointed it was closed.

I had our picnic lunch with us so shared it with both of them and sent the remainder of what was left with the bicycle guy, since he had to travel so far to the next place.

The bikes finally came by (along with the police, EMT's, bicycle crews, photographers and all the people it takes to handle these events) and they went by so fast, I hardly had time to snap pictures!!  Boy were they rolling - but I'm sure that Monarch Pass slowed them down a bunch!!

It was fun to see them whiz by and then it was back to the ATVing and camping!

We did get to leave about 5:00pm that day - Monarch Pass was a zoo on top as that was the finish point for the bicyclists - but we were not done seeing them yet as Woodland Park is the start of the 5th round of the riders and that is to happen on Friday!