Month: June 2013 (Page 1 of 2)

Flat Top Wilderness

6/28/2013 / Matt

Just a short little hike. Some rendition of these words might be appropriate to put on my headstone. I’ve uttered them a substantial number of times and for the most part (ok, some might disagree) they have been true. At least I always had good intentions even though there was that scope-creep factor that seemed to sneak in. Anyway, I digress…we set out on a short little hike today. I had talked with one of the Rangers when we first got there and he advised against several routes as they were a bit rigorous for our current “physical condition”. He suggested the hike along Mosquito Lake which initially seemed like an OK idea but after having been plagued by mosquitoes from a nearby bog for several days I thought twice about hiking along “Mosquito Lake”.

I got out the forest map I had purchased and saw that a 4WD road (906) near the dam on the reservoir went up a little ways and dead-ended at a trailhead. The trail continued along East Coal Creek and looked like it would be about our speed with no major changes in elevation. Hiking along a mountain stream is usually enjoyable and so we loaded up our daypacks, hiking poles, the dog, and motored on over.

The 4WD road and the creek started off in the same place but the road immediately diverged from the creek and began a rather steep uphill climb which seemed to go on forever. This impression was reinforced by the very slow pace we were forced to take as the road was really quite rough. We persevered through some tough spots where the trucks high ground clearance was much appreciated and ultimately arrived at the trailhead which did in fact turn out to be reasonably close to the creek again.

It was an absolutely beautiful day to be hiking up in the alpine meadows. The weather was cool, sunny skies, and nice fluffy clouds. The trailhead is at 10,100 FT elevation and once we got started the trail quickly opened up into a splendid valley replete with many beaver ponds and wildflowers. The trail started off as an old road but soon disappeared underfoot and became somewhat difficult to follow. Eventually, we gave up and simply started following animal trails in the general direction we wanted to go. This took us away from the creek and we began to ascend the hill to the east. After some time it became apparent the trail was going to follow a diagonal up the slope towards a high rock outcropping.

Hmm…decision point. We’ve already gone close to 2 miles and should probably head back. But that outcropping really isn’t that much higher and what a view from up there. Since we had our hiking poles we decided to make the extra effort and make the ascent. We ascended the hillside following the animal track and made it to the top (11,500 FT) where we found a greeting committee (Marmot)! The view was as anticipated…spectacular with the Flat Tops in the foreground and the Continental Divide visible in the background although a bit hazy. We had a spot of lunch while taking in the panorama and then an uneventful return. So, altogether around 4.5 miles…that is still more or less “short” isn’t it?

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A Primer Hike

6/26/2013 / RHonda

After a day to get acclimated in our new surroundings, we wanted to get out and “tromp in the woods” as we call hiking. Matt’s back was still hurting but felt better if he moved slowly and cautiously. We are only about an 1/8 of a mile from the road leading to Ute Heart Trail. It didn’t look too strenuous on the map so we headed off to check it out.

It has been cool overnight here (we’ve learned we don’t want to spend the winter in this trailer in the North country for sure!) and it was a lovely, sunny morning though still a bit brisk. The Colorado sun, especially at this altitude, is quite warm. The somewhat rocky trail dropped us into a short descent approaching the rapids of the Bear River. The River is running COLD, fast and full with all the late snow this year but there was a nice sturdy bridge for us so no forging the stream this time! As we crossed, the trail started up a gradual grade and crossed a creek at the first bend. We continued the uphill grade for most of the hike. There is a beautiful level spot as the trail wanders through a large whispering aspen grove. The whole grove is soothing but about 1/2 mile in the fresh young grasses are interspersed with startling colors of the wild flowers – purple lupines, yellow daisies, white blood root, three variations of wild sweet pea, dandelions, lilac and purple columbines, Queen Anne’s lace (very early!) and a number of others that I was not familiar with. It was such a delight! The Lord has given me such a wide variety of flowers to enjoy with no watering and no weeding.

We followed the trail approximately a mile up and stopped for a snack, re-hydration and evaluation. Was it time to turn around? This being the first real hike of the season and Matt not wanting to stress his back we opted for the safe choice – not like the next hike – and started down. The pictures of us are at the turnaround point. It is the first real opening in the grove for those of you (Jamie?) who might want to come and take this hike.

On the way down we stopped for a photo op of some flowers. While I was focusing on a flower Matt said, “There’s a hummer on your right.” Those little buggers move so fast! By the time I would focus, he would move. I may post the one picture I got out of 20 or so, when it is cropped. The hummingbird sighting was “icing on the hike” so to speak. Matt did really well and it was a great primer for our next hike! To be posted soon!!

A little physics problem

6/23/2013 / Matt

Education comes in many forms. I’ve been through the halls of academia and earned a Masters degree which has served me very little other than looking good on the resume. Most of the really useful stuff I’ve learned has been through the hands-on, just get in there and figure it out approach. This is one of those things that I was fortunate to have been gifted in and have, as a result, accumulated a lot knowledge of how and why things work the way they do. I suppose it was a natural thing that I was drawn to the Engineering field and in particular Systems Engineering which tends to focus on how a multitude of smaller bits are put together to accomplish the successful operation of a complete “system”. All of this is a prelude to discussing a learning situation I encountered the other night.

Problem: If you have a 50 gallon fresh water tank in your rig, and you fill it up before heading out to the forest, how much water will be left after three days of use? Well, obviously that depends on your daily usage which will be determined by how frugal you are with the water. Because we are veteran campers we know how to conserve water and make it last. Therefore, I was quite pleased when I checked the tank indicators several times and was rewarded with a “still full” status. By the third day however, I was beginning to get a little suspicious of this report. While we are frugal, we still have been using enough water that it should be reflected in the tank status. Perhaps, I thought, the float is stuck. Although, I couldn’t think of any reason why it should be as it had been reporting Empty all of the time before (which it was).

Now consider this is our first “dry camping” event, e.g, not hooked up to city water and electricity like we have been previously in public campgrounds. These events are where you get “learning experiences” which must be faced and conquered otherwise you might as well just live in an apartment and call the landlord every time something stops working. So, around 10pm or so, as we were getting ready to retire for the night, I noticed the water pump started running and did not shut off after a few moments per its normal behavior. This is bad because you can burn out the water pump if it runs too long with no water to pump. A quick look outside in the plumbing compartment confirmed that there was insufficient water in the line for it to operate. So, I shut off the pump too prevent damage.

How could this be? The tank indicator still registers as Full. There is simply no way we could have used up 50 gallons of water in a few days and I’ve not seen any sign of leakage. It’s really a very basic “system”; it has a fill spout with a stopper to prevent water from sloshing out when traveling down the road, a 50 gallon holding tank, a monitoring gauge, a water pump, and water lines to the faucet.

I decided to tackle the problem in the morning but as I was laying in bed a probable solution occurred to me. Do you know what it was? Continue reading

Move to the Routt National Forest

6/23/2013 / Matt

Friday, June 21 (Summer Solstice and Full Moon)
We left Buena Vista around 10am and drove up Hwy 24 to Leadville where we took a break and walked around town a bit. Leadville is the highest incorporated town in the US at roughly 10,000 ft and has a rich mining history. We saw some interesting old houses that have been restored as well as a Jewish temple.

We then followed Hwy 24 on north and picked up I-70 which took us west a bit to Hwy 131 where we headed north again. We drove through some interesting country and even found a bit of road construction here and there. There was one very long ascent that caused the truck to start overheating as we were getting close to the top so we pulled over and let it cool down a bit just to be safe.

Arrived in Yampa and found the Ranger Station. Visited with Amy for a bit about possible campsites that would be suitable for a 31ft trailer and then proceeded on County 7 which turned into Forest Road 900 (a gravel washboard hell) and into the Routt National Forest a little SE of Yampa vicinity of Bear Lake. We drove out as far as Amy recommended scouting out a few spots but ended up turning around and got a nice secluded spot a little below the dam. It is a nice site and although it took a little maneuvering to get the rig in here we are nestled in amongst a grove of aspen trees. It has a fire ring and a picnic table but no other facilities so we are making our first dry camp (boondocking).

I dusted off my old hiking GPS device which has been sitting in the closet for years , changed the batteries, fired it up and it is reporting our coordinates as: 40 deg 03′ 16″ N, 107 deg 02′ 01″ W and elevation: 9457ft

Gets a little cool at night but the days are fabulous and the forecast is for sunny skies and no rain. We figure we will stay here for a week on ‘vacation’ before we get serious about figuring our direction for the next chapter of life.

Time for Healing and Rest

6/20/2013 / Matt

Turns out I messed up my back some while playing monkey-mechanic on the truck. I had purchased some SummoSpring helpers to give the rear suspension of the truck some extra capacity when towing the trailer but had not had the facilities to work on it. One (bad) thing about this constant downsizing is fewer and fewer tools! I was counting on using the Auto Hobby Shop at the Air Force Academy and it worked out that Wednesday morning was free. I was up there when they opened and got one of the Lube bays first so I could change the oil. That went fine and I then moved the truck over to bay #12 which had a lift.

By all respects this is supposed to be a simple thing. One nut to be loosened and removed which allows the rubber “spring” to drop out and then simply install the new one. Ha Ha Ha…right. It would not come off and I ran out of time and had to stop so Rhonda could use the truck that afternoon. So…back up there Saturday morning and several hours of working under the lift in varying degrees of monkey-like contortions and it was finally done. But so was I as it turned out…by noon of the next day I was hurtin fer certain.

We were scheduled to pull out on Monday morning and head for Buena Vista and with Rhonda doing the bulk of the work we managed to make it happen. the “staging” is over and “The Adventure” truly begins now! By mid day we were headed west, up Ute Valley Pass on Hwy 24, towards the Mountains. This also happened to coincide with an afternoon thunderstorm which hampered our travels and got the truck and trailer filthy. But we made it! The truck pulled the rig up the hills without any hesitation and we arrived at the Arkansas River Rim campground in a few hours. It didn’t take too long to set up and we spent the evening relaxing.

Tuesday was a day we had been waiting for. A long time actually. This sounds a bit silly but neither of us has had a bath in nearly 9 months! One of the side-effects of our move to Brighton was a bathroom that only had a shower. I prefer showers, if the truth be known, but on occasion there is nothing like a good hot soak. So this little luxury had been missing for awhile. Now, there is a place just outside of Buena Vista called the Cottonwood Hot Springs. We’ve been there several times before usually after a hiking or snowshoeing adventure and it is just awesome! We went over in the morning and bought a day pass. Spent an hour or so soaking in the different pools (some cooler, some hotter) and then went back that evening for a second round!

The original plan was to pull out on Wednesday morning but we decided my back would benefit from one more day of rest so we held off another day.

Staging Is Over and the Adventure Begins!

6/20/2013 / RHonda

Well, here we are in one of our favorite spots – Buena Vista, CO!! We left the fire behind this AM with 70-75% containment!! Thankfully there has been rain everyday since Friday. Everyone we know has returned to their homes safely. Everywhere you go though, some one has a story of their friends that evacuated. At our lunch stop in the lovely town of Florissant, a rancher came in to The Costillo Street Coffee House to visit someone and spoke about how their friend from Black Forest moved all their horses and cattle here to their ranch. It is just one story of how far reaching the fire, as any disaster, affects people. We forget how connected we all really are. The owner of our RV Park also had a story, his high school classmate was one of those in Black Forest who lost everything. His friend’s house was one of the 500+ homes to burn. The only one burned on their block! The oddities of disaster.

The point of going to Colorado Springs was to celebrate a birthday with our Wendi, see her Mom, Janette- back on Summer break from ministry school at Bethel in Redding, California, see our Grands and wrap up the last details of ‘The Glorious Adventure Plan’ before launching West. We still needed to shed one more time, get our kingpin extended allowing enough clearance between the truck (Clifford)/trailer on corners and add some “spring helpers”. Clifford is a truck, after all and spring helpers soften his ride a bit and minimize the bouncing uneven roads often cause. Because of who we are, bouncing roads are a part of life. We don’t often choose the road most traveled…..

Most of our goals were accomplished and, once here, we immediately found ourselves at the Cottonwood Hot Springs for a long soak and, with a day pass, the opportunity to return for more soaking later in the day!

PTL! The Fire Decreases!!

6/14/2013 / RHonda

We apologize for several posts in a small time frame but thought you would like to know what is happening with the fire.

As I sit to write this update, there is a tapping on the top of our home, rain – round #2! The Lord is good, we (with you) have all been praying for decreased winds and RAIN without lightening. Overnight the winds decreased, the temperature did as well, and the fire gained no ground! Today we had cooler weather, cloud cover, winds from the west to blow the fire back on itself on that boundary, later a wind from the northeast to blow against that boundary and then rain to cover it all. How awesome is THAT??!! The Sheriff had joked this AM in his press conference that everyone who had not gone and washed their car needed to do so AND park outside so it would rain. ;-). Then tonight he thanked everyone for having done that! Who says you can’t have a sense of humor in times of adversity?!

Tonight at 5PM, yesterday’s extended evacuation areas were rescinded and those folks were allowed to go home. That puts some of our friends back in their homes, in their own beds. We are so thrilled for them!! The fire is 30% contained, the smoke has greatly decreased! Breathing clearly is a good thing. The weather is for cooler, moister air over the next 4 days and into next week so barring anything unforeseen, we are beating the wildfire. To God be all the Glory. THANK YOU for your prayers.

We are working on the truck tomorrow and getting some last minute things done in preparation for travel. Sunday, one more mail pick up and one more trip to the storage unit. Then Monday, we saddle up and head this wagon train west to Cottonwood Pass. Long soaks in the hot mineral springs for a couple of days, hikes and some much needed vacationing! We will keep you posted. We promise to get back to posting pictures….thank you again for your part in supporting us and also this community. It has been a long week. This has been a good reminder of what is important. Health, family, relationships, faith, not stuff!