Settling in to the mountain life

This is going to be alone one so settle into your comfy chair with a bowl of popcorn and enjoy read!!

Moose on the loose!!!  It is so nice to be back in an area where we see big wildlife.  These guys hang around the camp all the time.  It has been a couple of days since I have see them but so glad I did get the opportunity to and get a good picture.  Hope I do not run into one up close and personal.  I am sure it would scare the shit out of me big time.

I am seeing the snow disappear daily.  Pretty soon it will be all green and leafy.  The leaves have yet to appear and that's ok with me.  We can spot creatures a little better without them.

The Million Dollar Highway is for sure a trip you all need to take.  It is by far the curviest road we have yet to drive on.  Many areas have no guard rails, and the drop offs are sure to kill you if you miss the curve.  Slow going to be sure!!  Spectacular views (if you are not driving).  There are a lot of places to pull off and take pictures.  I just took driving pictures because we were on a mission to get food and get back before the snow.  We took this road to Montrose which is over and hour from camp to get groceries.  It was either Montrose or Durango for big town shopping and both are about the same distance.  We stocked up big time and spent $579.00.  I kind of thought I wouldn't fit it all in our tiny home, but I managed to stash it all!!

A walk about down by the Animas River was beautiful.  Mostly because there was rusty stuff and you know how I love rusty stuff!!

A little R&R daily in the sunshine is good for the soul.  Daily we sit outside in the sun.  It has not been over 70 yet but in the sun, it feels like 100.  Living in an environment where we are constantly moving our chairs from freezy shade to boiling hot.  A good problem to have!!

The Iron Horse bike race came to town when Dick was out of town playing in a disc tournament 1:45 hours away.  He took 1st in his division.  I walked down to see the racers coming in.  It was amazing.  So many different bikes, riders and extremely tight clothes!!!  The main highway up the mountain from Durango shuts down for hours for this every year.  I do believe these bike riding people are all crazy!!!  It's up a mountain people!!!!

Just a cool looking mountain vehicle!

Well, it has been years since I rode a bike and here at the camp, they have a bunch of electric rentals.  This is the only way I am riding around here.  Uphill everywhere.   We road up an old mill then to the funky old cemetery.  I love how the old gravestones tell you just how they died.  They should still do this.  It was quite the adventure.

Yes this is a phone booth/gravestone!!!

It was kind of a crappy day but the view of Silverton from the graveyard were awesome.

Walking back from the laundry and thought I better take a picture of our lovely campsite. So peaceful but that will soon end as the weather gets better and the mountain trails open up. Will be a busy camp this summer.
 

We took a drive up the hill and got out to walk about a bit. Found lots of moose poop but saw no wild life today 🫎 

This was a cool looking thing!  Later I found out it was part of an old gold mill. I believe it was maybe the bunk house for the miners.  Don't know if that is true but I will believe it for now.

No room for more beer stickers!  Guess we will begin a collection at the Arizona home!

We took a walk about down by the river and came back weighing 50 pounds more.  We spent an hour just smashing rocks and checking out what was inside. Colorado rocks did not disappoint.  Lots of sparkles, crystals and quarts of all colors. Maybe I will take a picture up close and personal for the next blog.  stay tuned!!

There is aways some downtime for cards in our house.  It was a chilly rainy day on an off and we are glad for our little pop up tent.  It has 3 sided to keep the weather out for the most part.  It also doubles for a crafty crap tent where I can keep all my stuff for when I need to be creative.

Not a picture I took since its WAY up the dam mountain!!  AARG!  My ass and legs are killing me from all this up stuff but well worth the pain!!

Dick saw the launch of a bunch of crazy people heading down the Animas River.  We have followed this river many ways and it looks like death in a kayak to me.  

Trying string painting!!  I saw a video on this and thought I would give it a try.  My first try was not so good, so I painted over it and had round 2. Three stages to this one and it is not to bad.  If I leave them out on the bench by the river with a free sign and they do not disappear, I will paint over and try again.

Fun little heli flying around moving trees for a bunch of days.  Our government spending $5000 an hour!  

Painting some hide abouts for kids to find at the campground.  Sorry the picture is upside down.  I could change it but then you wouldn't get a creek in your neck from trying to look at it!!

On to our Razor trail riding adventure.  Glenn and Cathy have arrived for one of their yearly visits to us and this trip for us and them will certainly be remembered.  They arrive on Friday, and we rented bikes and went for a ride.  Yes, it was uphill as everything is here in the Silverton valley.  We took rode up and took a tour of the Mayflower Gold mill and learned all about how gold, silver and other stuff was milled and separated to get ready for sale.  Super amazing.  I just love this shit.  It really makes you think how all things are processed/made.  It just doesn't magically appear at the store and there is so much that goes into the process of ANYTHNG!!  Any chance you get.....go on a tour of anything. Besides that, there were beautiful view!!

Rusty buckets that were part of the mining system that transported rock/workers across a tram system that ran a hell of a long way to the mines on the top of mountains.  Numerous lines of these things existed back in the day.  of course, this is more rusty cool stuff and you will see more!

Just a tree with a view!

On the ride down the mountain at which we were going at warp speed we encountered another moose on the loose. Just like in the national parks people stop on a dime for this stuff and a family was running across the street totally unaware that we were going to kill them with our bikes.  Anyhow, we slammed on the brakes and no one died, but I almost did.

Free music in the community park on Friday night was our end to our first day.  We will miss all other 1st Friday concerts since it is one of our days to work.  If we are not too tired after our shift, we may stop in for the last set. It was cool to see practically the whole entire town out for fun.

Oh boy!!  Here we go!!  We have access to a Razor and just have to pay for gas.  This is an awesome perk for this gig.  The entire area around here is trail country.  Hiking, biking, off road crazy people come here from all over and they come back year after year and will never run out of something new to explore!!  Folling will be lots of pictures of the beauty of these mountains and some description of the fun we had on day two with these wild and crazy friends.

Water flows from so many different avenues and every road it takes is amazingly beautiful.

This is our ride and it is super comfortable.  We've been in a couple different off-road vehicles and you absolutely do not get bounce around or whiplashed in this.  Dick was a good driver and even though the trails were very near the edge at times he kept us safe.

Old mining ghost town that you can go in and out of the buildings.  The hysterical society has signage at the buildings as to what they were.  Pretty awesome stop.   

Not sure why the picture below looked wintery, but the norm is below it.  The town kind of made me feel like I was in a little house on the prairie mine town.

This is Cathy singing The Hills are alive with the Sound of Music

Fancy homes has the toilet indoors!!  Luck rich people!!

Time to leave the ghosts and let you see more beauty!

Just a short drive up from the town was another mill for the mines.  There were hundreds of ruins along our ride from houses to mills to mines.  So awesome to see how vast this mining community was and fun to imagine it working in its day.  What a hard life it was to be sure.  No wonder people died so young.  

Cathy found a tree!!  I guess she didn't see the one holer in the house!!

Just a deer looking at us!

The pass is open....the pass is open!!  The trails are super little and if there is oncoming traffic, the guy going uphill has the right of way, and the down traffic has to find a place to back up to or pull into some rocks.  We had some traffic on our trip but nothing like what it will be in the months to come.   

Dick not singing The Hills are alive with the Sound of Music!!

Elevation 12,7... something

We are almost dying of oxygen deprivation. Ok, not really!!

Cathy breathing in some fresh vape!!

SO many waterfalls!!!

On our way home we stopped at the 100 year mine and took a tour into the mine to see the workings of the mine and how crazy people were back in the day with dynamite!  Mining was no easy business, and I have a greater appreciation for the folks that came before us who put their lives in danger so we could live a better life. We have so much more to explore in the mining industry, but we have all summer to get a better clue.

All Aboard!!! We took the tour train to Durango from Silverton.  We took an auto transport back to Silverton after it was over.  It was a 3-1/2 hour ride by train and we spent 2 hours walking about Durango before catching the ride back.  It was an amazing.  Views the whole way.  I hardly sat a moment on the train.  It ran all the way to Durango along the Animas River. Lots of cliffs, water and pretty!!

My finger in the picture!!

On to the next adventure!!  We drove the Million Dollar Highway to Ouray and spent the night at a hotel with lots of hot spring tubs.  We had a ton of R&R after we walked up a very long way to a waterfall.  Yea we could have drove to the trail head, but Dick said it was only a short way.  Remind me to never listen to him.  The waterfall was beautiful, and the soak was even better afterwards.

Hope you enjoyed the month of June.