Lake City - Fall Trip

I was nervous about our annual fall trip this year - the leaves around our place hadn't even begun to turn but usually the western slope is a couple weeks ahead of us so I had high hopes when we left!

There's a new coffee place in Johnson Village, outside of Buena Vista - we've driven past it 3 times in the last couple of months as we always head west when we ATV but had never stopped as it's difficult when we're tripled up!  But our fall trip is just the truck pulling the trailer with the Razor on it, so plenty of space to park and we stopped to check it out!!  The coffee was great!!  So it's on the list of places to stop again!!

My worst fears were confirmed as we got closer and closer and there were barely any trees that are yellow - darn - could this be the year that we would actually miss them?  YES - after hitting peak season for several years in a row, this year did not pan out!!  There were a few trees that were yellow but all in all, I would say only about 30% of them were turned!  So the trip became more of an ATV trip instead of a leaf peeping trip - oh well, that's life!!

Our plan was to stop in Sargents and ATV for a couple of hours since that place has gorgeous aspen trees - but we could tell as we were driving that barely any had turned in that area so we just headed on to Lake City - took a gravel road for many miles that was gorgeous and came in the back way to Lake City.

We got checked into our cabin - cute, rustic and charming, but not a lot of room in the tiny kitchen/living room area!  This was the first time we had actually stayed in the town as usually we're out by the lake!

But the nice thing was we were 1/2 mile from the eating places so we could walk everywhere!  There's a beautiful river running through Lake City so took a few pics as we walked!

This is called their "beach"!  The sign says no lifeguard on duty so swim at your own risk!

We ate at Packer's Bar and Restaurant and it was so busy, we had to sit outside in the courtyard - the food was good though and as long as we wore our jackets, it wasn't too cold!  By the time we left there was a line of people to be seated!  Not many places to eat in this town!

We were also excited to read before we left that ATV's are NOW allowed on the 2 mile stretch of highway that connects the town of Lake City to the lake area - that allows us to do the complete Alpine Loop which consists of Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass!

Nellie Creek Trail is all my all time FAVORITE trail for aspens - this year was disappointing of course because there was hardly any color but it's still a great trail with lots of aspens and this beautiful waterfall!

I take this exact photo every time we go to Lake City - it's hanging on my wall at home with yellow colors on it, unlike this year but it's still fun to take the photo!!

Pretty desolate as we get towards the top of Engineer Pass!

Yes, it was cold and windy as usual!!

Then it was on to Cinnamon Pass - not quite as cold but still very windy!

Yes, that's snow on these mountains - but it sure makes for a pretty picture!!

It was a long day doing both passes so Glenn was ready for a nap before we headed out to walk and eat that night - we ate at Southern Vittles that night - great BBQ!!

Panther Season At Woodland Park High School

I'm not a football fan - never have been - and I don't even watch the Broncos play!  But since Matias plays football, we wanted to support him as we knew he was a great player so a couple Fridays ago we headed in to the first game of the season!

It was pouring rain - I mean POURING!!!  Jaime texted from the common area at the school that there was no hurry as they were postponing the game but we still got there ahead of time and mingled with all the people standing around!  We had fun visiting with the parents of one of Jaime's best friends in high school and catching up with them!!

The game kept getting delayed and delayed but FINALLY they said it would start at 8:00, an hour late!!

We got out to the wet, dripping stands and even held up umbrellas for a while as it was still misting a little bit!!  But the rain DID stop but it was COLD and damp!!  Somehow I grabbed the wrong coat that didn't have a hood so I was darn cold!!  Trust me, gloves and hat will be in the bag for the next game!!

Unfortunately the Panthers lost their first game!  Matias - known as Smash from his prior team - played really well and it was sure fun to watch him!

Their next game was in Co Springs (we were at hunting camp) but they won the game 51 to 0!!  Jaime kept texting the scores to me and it was pretty exciting to hear, even though we weren't there!  Matias even got a touchdown!  His position is running back (which means nothing to me of course - but it will to other people!!!)

So now we are at Homecoming week - and we're all excited for Friday nights' game!!  The kids dress up each day for a theme day and the picture below was for "pick a decade day" and I thought the picture was so cute of the two of them!!

Walden Hunting

No elk today - the elk have gone away!!  That was Glenn's daily saying as he would come back from hunting!!

We headed up to Walden with the 5th wheel and the Razor for Glenn's hunting a week ago - it's a really pretty drive up there and always a bonus is stopping in Fairplay to get coffee at Java Moose!!

There are actually only 2 places that our 5th wheel will fit in on the road where Glenn likes to camp - I REALLY didn't enjoy the one spot last year so we went to the other spot this year.  It seemed a lot better to me and we were lucky we got it because about 1/2 hour after we pulled in, another hunter with a large camper went by!!

The ground is really uneven there so it took a while to get the 5th wheel level but we finally succeeded and set up!!  Glenn headed right out to set up his tree stand and since my books were calling me, I started reading!!

We were right next to a solar powered water system that was set up for close by cattle tanks!  Kind of interesting to listen to the spring water filling most of the day and at least we had PLENTY of water for showers!!

We were at camp for 7 days - Glenn would hunt each day and one day we went for a short ride in the Razor as I was getting cabin fever!!!  It was very surprising that none of the leaves have changed up that way yet - it's going to be a late fall!

But the views up there are beautiful!

We went into Walden one day to eat lunch - felt good to get out of my sweat pants and old sweatshirt and put on something decent to go to town!!  Ha Ha!!  The highlight of each day was drinking my coffee outside in the sun!

How many books did I read in that time period?  7  one a day!!  Since Glenn was home around noon to eat lunch and relax, we usually watched a dvd movie - powered by the generator!  So I worked on my swedish weaving during that time as I certainly needed a break from reading!

All in all, an OK time in Walden - it's not one of my favorite trips as there's not much for me to do and I'm alone a lot of the time, but I don't like to have Glenn up there alone!  Even though he didn't see an elk, he's very excited about his next hunting trip with Bob which will be in Oct.!!  Thank you Bob for joining Glenn then so I don't have to!!!

Welcome To The Family

It's been a whirlwind August and September, especially for Jaime and Brad!  When one of Rayna's close friends (whom she has known since Kindergarten and kept in close contact with) needed a place to stay due to issues with step-parents, Jaime and Brad opened their doors to Matias Lopez, also a senior in high school!  After getting him enrolled in school and football, he is now a member of their family!

Matias is 18 and has settled in nicely with the family!  He is a super nice guy and since joining their family, him and Rayna have become a "couple".    So below are a few pictures to introduce you to Matias and I'll blog soon about his football!!

Camping At Pitkin

The NICE thing about being retired is that we don't have to camp on the holiday weekends!  I did have to go into town on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend - I went super early and STILL got caught up in the traffic!  And on Monday, the traffic was backed up through Woodland Park, Divide and as far as we could see into Florissant!!!  Sure glad I wasn't in that mess!!

We left to go camping on Tuesday after Labor Day - and were still surprised to see SO many people camping!  The campground at Pitkin has 23 spaces and after going ALL the way around, we found the biggest and nicest one was empty - hooray!!!  Sure made our tripled up caravan easy to park and we didn't even have to unhook!

There's a beautiful stream that runs along the road and we cross the bridge over it to get to the campground!  It was my "go to spot" when I walked in the mornings!

It was chilly when we headed out to ATV - I sure do love the heater in the new Razor!!!  We ended up doing 3 passes that day - Hancock Pass, Tincup Pass, and Cumberland Pass!  And also decided that we MUST be old as 2 of the passes were tough - lots and lots of rocks and pretty rough going!  So we're adding 2 more passes to our "NO MORE" list!!  Ha Ha!!

The scenery was gorgeous and it was a beautiful day!

I'm always amazed at the number of dead trees we see along the trails from the pine beetle kill!  Someday I'm sure all of these trees will fall to the ground - just hope I'm not in the way when it happens!

Here's Glenn cooking up a delicious meal on the grill - note the weight loss - he's lost over 20# this summer!

I can never take too many pictures of the mountains!

In the evenings we would take the razor into the General Store to check our phones, along with everybody else camping!!  It's the only place for miles around that you can get any service!!

A great 3 nites camping and ATVing - and soon it will be aspen time !!

Taylor Park

After arriving home from the melodrama, it was time to pack up the camper as we were leaving the next morning for Taylor Park, over in the Gunnison area!

We were excited to take Cottonwood Pass which has been closed for 2 years while they re-did the road!!  By going over the pass, you can save about 2 1/2 hours vs going all the way around by Gunnison!  Glenn had checked to make sure it opened (it had) but he didn't research it enough!

As we drove into Buena Vista and got ready to turn on the road to the pass, there was a huge sign that said the pass was closed - WHAT????  We drove a little further and there's another sign that says closed so I whipped out my phone and found a phone number to call - that's when we discovered that the pass is ONLY open to single vehicles, not anything that is towed.  Well Darn!!!!!

So we had to find a place to turn around (always interesting when you're tripled up) and take the LONG WAY AROUND - to the tune of 5 hours!!  WOW!!  But it's always a nice drive and when we arrived at Taylor Park, we pulled off and unloaded the Razor to drive so we could find a private campsite.  We found a great place with awesome views and that's where we set up!  This was our view!

There was no cell phone service at all but we took a drive up the mountain that evening and not only got enough service to check our phones, but some awesome views!!

The next morning we headed out on a trail - an extremely difficult one with lots of trees to squeeze through and sharp turns - after we were done, I told Glenn we would NEVER to do that trail again - too stressful!!

Then we headed to another one that IF you can get up it, the views are amazing as it's up by Aspen - usually there is water coming down part of the trail which we knew in advance but we had NO idea the trail was as bad as it was - I guess over the years the dirt has just washed away and nothing is left but rocks !!  It was SO bumpy and miserable!  We finally got through that and it was onto the water trail but after a while we just gave up - too bumpy and rough for us oldsters!!  So another trail to cross off our list - guess we're getting too old!!

I loved seeing this mountain as the side of it looks like silhouettes of trees!!

Relaxing in the evenings - nice campfires!!

It was pretty darn cold in the morning - but we didn't have to leave early on the razor!  We headed out to a nice, level trail (my kind!!) and look what we found!!!  I was SO excited to see that moose!!

On the way back, the moose was still hanging around and was even closer!!

There's lots of gorgeous country over there!

This is Lily Pond - completely covered in lily pads!!  Pretty cool looking!

The last morning we woke up to THIS - yes, that's frost - it covered the ground and the razor - are we really that close to fall?  Apparently in the Gunnison area we are!!

Visitors From Hungary

Glenn and I were both excited to hear that foreign exchange student Eszter and Jaime's best friend, was coming with her family to the US for a 3 week vacation!!  They would be staying at Jaime's for a few nights but the only chance I had to see them was the morning after they arrived at Jaime's since I was heading to Denver to babysit!!

So we made plans to have them come over for cinnamon rolls and coffee!  It was SO GOOD to see them and their kids (whom don't speak English but do a great job of understanding!!)

Little Miss Gwyn helped with the cinnamon rolls!

Eszter and Jaime out by the garden - Eszter hasn't changed at all!!

We set up a couple of games for all the kids to play - even though there was a language barrier, Kylan communicated with them well!!

We enjoyed our coffee and cinnamon rolls and they took a tour of our property and house - it was just wonderful to spend some time with them!

After saying our good-byes, Gwyn and I packed up the car and headed for Denver!!  It was fun to see Kenzie and Evan again who were in school when we arrived - they sure missed their sister!!

Jessi and Gary headed out shortly afterwards for the first evening of the seminar - on Friday night they just stayed in a hotel where the seminar was being held as it was quite a ways north in Denver.

After the kids got off to school on Friday, I took Gwyn to McDonald's to get her a smoothie (that was on her list of things to do at our house and it never worked out!) and me a frappe!  She ended up playing on the NEW inside playset and found a friend to hang out with so we spent a long time there!

We hung out for the next couple of days - playing games and cards, helping on their rooms to get super organized for the school year and having fun!!  And before I knew it, Sunday came and it was time to race back home to get ready for the melodrama at Cripple Creek with a friend!  A busy life - I KNOW!!!