JOURNEY's END & NOTES

I was finishing up a walk down the main drag (Elk Avenue)checking out a mining museum, a rock and mineral shop and some clothing, aka souveniers. Crested Butte is a coal mining town, long past it's heyday, now hay pastures and tourists. The Victorian homes build in the late 19th century are painted up in the cliche pastels of violet, maroon, blue, green. One house is sided in license plates. Up the road a few miles is Mt. Crested Butte, the ski center, the fancy shops and where the money people stay. I'll hang in the valley, keeping it real. I buy a shower at the International Hostel, which makes me a tad uneasy after seeing the movie "Hostel". They laughed, but still, isn't it unusual to find a chainsaw atop a bathroom counter.

I took an easy 10 mile drive back to my camp at the Raggeds Wilderness. The thought of another version of "Night of the Grizzlies" at camp was unbearable. I took a side tour at Kebler Pass down a tough road to Ohio Pass, my latte was jumping out of the cup with every rut. I cut a few miles down to get a better look at the cylindrical volcanic Carbon Peak and the Eastern terminus of the Anthracite Range. I spotted my bear buddies a quarter of a mile off in a meadow, with her 2 cubs, they were barely moving. They tumbled and played in the grass. About 10 minutes later Ma was gnawing on a carcus or something. Since bears can smell food 4 miles away they could be back in camp but they seemed pretty content here. Slightly farther down the road I saw the formation called the Castle Peaks, a bunching of eroded volcanic spikes spires and towers. On my way back a caravan of ranch hands had stopped to view the bear. I told them about it's ramblings in the campground 4 miles away. The bears did not make an appearance that night.

After back to back 9 milers I decided to take a day at camp, watching time flow in the form of the sun moving across the sky, giving way to the moon and stars. I crisp 44 degree morning calls for some fire brewed coffee and blueberry pancakes on the Coleman burner. I watch the Ruby range to my right, the Anthracite range to my left, and Lake Irwin below me change in the varying intensity and angles of sunlight. Flower stuffed meadows surround me. I read, I write, do a little 'rithmetic (the 3 R's a perfect complement to a heavy breakfast). I take some short walks to scout out a wildcat hike up to the crest of the rugged Ruby Range for a future visit. Time is nebulous, like Dali's watch draped over a rock, flows like a mountain stream, slowly but always forward. This landscape would be stunning in late Sept with the massive groves of Aspen. Also during mid July when wildflowers peak. Evening light fades like a leaf falling from a tree. Now it is fire and star time, the moon a perfect quarter phase. Calm and quiet, the earth spins on its axis, unheard but not unseen.

GLENWOOD: This is get and go day. Start a coffee fire and shortly roll the slow 40 miles of gravel to the main blacktop artery at the Paonia resevoir. Travel is slow in the mountains. I follow the now subdued Crystal River, the class V rapids now muted with low cfs flows. Into Glenwood and back to camping on the Colorado. Relax and read and write and watch the river and all it conveys. This harmony shattered at regular intervals by 100 car coal trains moving up and down river around a horseshoe bend. The steel wheels doth protest loudly against their steel rail captors, screaming and squeeling in a 110 decimal bursts. At night, I awaken suddenly every time, certain a huge metal shed is collapsing on me. It's cool. But a hot 93 along the low 5k elevations of the river. A batch of thunder and clouds pushes sideways across the canyon throwing down a few cool sprinkles.

STEAMBOAT: Roll the next day the 200 miles north up to Strawberry Springs, a natural hot springs 7 miles up in the moutains out of Steamboat Springs - my launch point for the endurance drive home. Steamboat is less amped, more town but like all places in Colorado, busy with Front Rangers on the weekends. I grab some dyno calzone and salad at Cugzino's. Make the requisite stop at "Off the Beaten Path", a hip bookstore/coffee shop/bakery/micro cafe. I see by the sign on the door this year that the health codes have caught up with them, dogs are no longer welcome in the store. A cold front is moving in bringing clouds and sprinkles. I eat my chow in the Olympic ski jump/rodeo/baseball grounds.

A couple hour soak in near sulpher free hot springs is the ticket. This year they have built a huge stone fireplace by the pools, must be 15 feet tall. Not many people here. I read and relax at my cabin heating up some sweet treats on the grill, sipping a little cherry wine and chasing it with a sweet Colorado peach. Tomorrow is roll time

HOME: A quick soak and then roll to Steamboat to get the early pickings of a blueberry creame cheese croissant. I'm off on a 15 hour straight drive through with 5 stops for chow or petro. Over the Volcanic towers at Rabbit Ears Pass, 40 miles of the best hay in the world in North Park into Walden and up and over the mountains into Laramie. The Laramie Fly Shop summarizes Wyoming well, here you can get gas, trout flys, liquor, guns, ammo, and cigarettes - pretty all a real man of the west needs, and a can of chew to go eh.
Grab I25 to Orin Junction, the last outpost of civilization until the Black Hills. I see a cloud bank some 50 miles off to the NE. 50 miles later I see a gray sheet coming down from the sky to the ground. Suddenly I am driving through a dark sheet of water, can barely see, slow down to 20 mph, the wipers can't clear the water, it gets near black, minutes later I drive out of the intensity into clear skies. The Hills do have intense summer T-storms. Eventually make my way to I90 and the never ending clack clack of strips of highway, fortunately I sleep through most of it. Just kidding, I am pilot, copilot, and chief entertainer on this trip. Telephone poles change to miles change to haystacks change to county lines turns to Minnesota. Day turns to night. Moths and grasshoppers coat the windshield oblivious to my annoyance at the degree to which they hinder my vision. This isn't NASCAR but you don't waste a pit stop to scrape 2" of guts off your windshield. You combine the gas up, bat room, coffee, bug scraping, and chow into a mega pit stop. Tick, tick, time is running; in and out in 15 minutes, a pretty relaxing stop, but then I did wash my hands too. Finally the I35 road north to Minneapolis, I do plan on making a right turn well before the "bridge", or the bridge that was. Through the old digs of Owatonna into the burbs and hello house and home. I pour myself out of the seat, feel a bit like I spent the night in a washing machine. Now if I could turn that washing machine into a time machine I would travel back in time 2 weeks and redo my vacation!

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS:

COLORADO: Outside of California, Colorado is the most diverse and beautiful state (sand dunes, gunnison canyon, mountains, Colo Plateau desert, etc). I'd move to Colorado but then I'd have to get 2 dogs and become a handyman.

WOOD & FIRE: I carry lots of wood with me, usually red oak from our family cabin up north. No, it is not like carrying coals to Newcastle or taking beer to Wisconsin. This wood burns slow with little smoke, has high BTU, coals out beautifully and leaves little ash. Aspen & Pine native to Colorado, opposite. The wood fire is the center of the hive, the crux of all, I cook with it, keep warm by it, write by it, and provides the spiritual lift under a starry sky. Does it dissuade Bears, I don't know, if you don't have any food out I'd say sure.

LANTERNS: One last rant on this. IF you must shine high powered lights at night, consider casting an amber spectrum light. You really don't need high amps unless you are running a watch repair business out of your campsite or experimenting with nanobot technology.

RMM: One of my favorite punching bags. RMM is the outsource firm the Forest Service uses to collect camping fees and "run" the campgrounds. I'd say they're doing an outstanding job in taking money and not investing 1 dime into the camping facilities. I believe RMM (Rocky Mountain Mismanagement) is bilking us users out of our money. There is no excuse for not having bear proof dumpsters. It would be like storing your sugar outside and being surprised that ants are getting in it. They seem to think an outhouse should last as long as the Washington monument. I've seen some foundations eaten away by termites and mice to the point of toppling. Come on, have the road graded once a year. Could the campsites possibly be any more unlevel. How hard is it to make the driveway level, when the grader grades the road you could do a basic blading of the the worst campsite drives. Some are at such an angle I feel like I'm at Cape Canaveral. How about a refund for unused nights. They didn't seem to mind keeping all the money of the people who bailed out because of the bears, and then shamelessly double collect when a newbie moves into the site (that would be me). What I'm saying is, don't manage things like the government.

Keep it real. I will be travelling, up to Lake Superior, down the Mississippi for fall leaf peeping and camping trips. Stay tuned.

NOTES, OBSERVATIONS

Coffee house, library, I get booted off my portal so here is another installment. Heading back down to Glenwood for one night then up to Steamboat at a cabin at Strawberry Hot Springs. Natural hot springs are better than the block long springs in Glenwood. Soaked there for a couple hours and came out rubber man.

COWS: Cows were on the trail and a teen gal was afraid to pass. At least they weren't Texas Longhorns. It's a cow not a coyote, moos are mellow. Never heard of a cow that killed someone, unless it was at McDonalds. The wilderness group that hiked through there wouldn't have had to treat the water if cows hadn't polluted the entire valley. Like the Grand Canyon where their regulation is that hikers scoop and bag their poop. Hello, I won't stoop that low, bag pooches poop sure, but not my own. Especially since the entire water supply is pretty much contaminated by ice cream bucket sized loads of poop dropped by the mules. Poop and flies in the grand canyon, great way to treat it.

RADIO: Satellite was invented for the west. I listen to a book on tape and music but like to change it up. I feel great if I can pull in the in your face Dr. Laura (hey, people that stupid need to be treated rudely), the wind bag we know as Rush Linbaugh (everthing is always rosy if your the right wing), and Air America for those late drives on the I-state.

LANTERNS: Are lanterns and 500 watt flashlights really necessary when camping. They limit your field of vision to the perimeter of the light. Humans have marginal night vision because we have great color vision, rods & cones my boy. We have lots of cones to see color and rods see luminense i.e. light. But we can see if you give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust. With even an 1/8th moon and starlight you can function quite well. I saw a huge light out of the corner of my eye camping in Rocky Mtn N.P., I assumed it was the headlight of a car, it was the brightest biggest lantern I had ever seen. I assumed the hubby was behind her hauling a car battery. Caveman knows that red light does not destroy your night vision. I believe the red/orange spectrum emitted by a campfire does not destroy your night vision. I think our eyes evolved that way from caveman with fire. Being able to see at night is important to a caveman. Lights attract bugs and limit your vision. Do NOT use them around kids.

CRESTED BUTTE: I have never seen any town with a speed limit of 15 m.p.h. It reflects the pace of life here as well. People are on perpetual check out here, resort town, skiiers, bikers, dreamers. I have to head to town like the old pioneer cowboys: supplies, booze, and women except I get supplies, slices, and newspapers.

PEOPLE: I like people, I just don't like to hang around them.

CRESTED BUTTE

When the heat tops 95 degrees I jump into the Colorado's cool 60 degree waters to cool down, sit in the shade and watch the river and trains flow through the canyon. I'm now off to Lake Irwin in the RAGGEDS Wilderness in the White River National Forest near Crested Butte. At 10,300' this is one of the highest developed campsites in the United States. Colorado is in their monsoon season which typically starts around mid August until the onset of Autumn in mid Sept. Days are warm with clouds building into hit and miss rain by afternoon with some errant lightning here and there. Nights clear off and are usually in the high 40's.

My first night a mama black bear brings her 2 cubs through the camp and around the back of my camp. That night was full of dumpster clanking and banging and fierce growling and screaming for a long time, several times. So I am told, I slept through it all some how so was the only camper with a rested night. Most of the campers around me bailed. I was so tired from staying up to 3 a.m. watching meteors and getting up at sunrise. I did find a big pile of bear scat in my campsite. The next night, more of the same, unnerving. Bears are getting into houses in town as well. Blame it on late freeze and then drought, drying up their food supply. I am nearest the dumpsters, about 50 feet.

HIKE TO GREEN LAKE: This is a magical landscape. I wildcarded a hike up the Ruby Range up to tree line where Eden greeted me. The landscape is vivid colors, shapes, and textures - the base of great nature photography. A long waterfall cascaded 200 feet off purple cliffs interspersed with flower laden meadows, blue lupine, white daisies, lupine, red paintbrush among many others. Bees and white butterflies with blue and red circles on their wings fluttered about. As a backdrop Purple Mountain rose above snowfields and vast avalanch slopes to an alternating cloudy and blue sky. This is at tree line so crooked spruce and fir struggled against the elements here. Walking up in elevation is like walking back in time. Summer becomes spring as snow melts, flowers bloom, and birds nest. Clouds moved over the mountain giving scant warning of impending weather. Sun alternated with dark cloud patches, rain, sun, hail, rain, sun. It is real wildcard.

I descend and get camp around for night of the bears, part 3. The clouds dissapate as my fire roars with flashlights at the ready. The forest service could wise up and put bear proof dumpsters in here instead of these artifacts from the '60's. In fact it wouldn't hurt them to invest a buck or two in here and maybe grade the 2.8' "road" every couple years or so. The camp host wired the dumpsters shut which frustrated the bear that showed up about midnight. Off it went among tents, campers, people screaming, raided a screen tent with cooler, scared the hell out of a couple of Mel Gibson post apocolyptic dirt bike riders who converted a school bus into their living and gear quarters. The bear went up the ramp they used to load their dirt bikes and had his nose pressed against the window. Many more people left the next day, but here I am, 50 feet from the dumpster.

OH-BE-JOYFUL hike: A high pressure ridge moved over Colorado bringing all day blue skies. I took an 8 mile round tripper up the Joyful canyon which is cut by the Slate River. It was a mellow hike, waterfalls, meadows, flowers, pines, marmots, pikas, and cows (later). This led to the bowl or cirque of a lake where mountains surrounded me on all sides. Sunny warm day. The Nat Forest allows cows in this "wilderness". I have a beef with that. Hanging in Crested Butte, just gearing down.

LANDSCAPES FROM EDEN & BEARS

Left Rocky Mtn N.P. after another clear night and 10 meteors. Drove Trail Ridge Road above the forests into alpine tundra. Elk grazed in the high meadows above treeline. Trees will not grow when the average high temperature of the warmest month is below 49 degrees, in this part of Colorado treeline is about 11,500'. This is not to be confused with the "beeline" which is the temperature at which honey bees become active, which is 60 degrees. I hike the tundra to a point where I can see down the entire length of forest canyon, perhaps 15 miles. It is a deep forested gash in the earth with a range of mountains on either side, the western side defined by the continental divide and Longs Peak looming at the end of the chasm. Pika's and Marmots whistle at me. Pika's look like round fat mouses with rabbit ears, gathering grasses to bring to their burrow for winter sustenance. The Never Summer mountain range is socked in clouds with the slender beginnings of the Colorado river flowing beneath them.

The air at this elevation of 12,000+ feet is crisp. I hike atop a soft snowfield to the base of 800' tall lava cliffs. Landslides reache a third of the way up the cliffs with cool blue Iceberg Lake at the terminus of the landslide rubble, surrounded by snowfields and pink granite cliffs. Beyond this green tundra stretches for miles to the Mummy Range. It has the look of Ireland, green and lush.

I continue to roll down the other side of the divide to the hot dry desert plains between the mountains. Through Grand Lake, Kremmling, and the town that is a store and the store is the town - Toponos. Time may have stopped here where you can get everything from ammo, ice creame, and videos. I roll I70 into Glenwood Springs where it is a toasty 95 degrees. I camp right on the cool Colorado River and watch the traffic; rafters, kayakers, kids on tubes, kids in life jackets, trout fisherman on a big tube, a boat, geese, and oddly - a man on a surf board with a kayak paddle. I chill here for 2 days biking the 30 mile trail along the Colorado through the narrow twist of Glenwood Canyon. Above the raft put in and Xcel hydro plant is a wicked set of rapids known locally as "Death Rapids". The river narrows with steep drops, 3 foot standing waves, powerful chutes and big holes. A raft guide told me they were class VI rapids. Four Denverites apparantly tried to raft it and all 4 were killed. The nights cooled down nicely to mid 50's. Lighting flashed at night with the fire.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN METEORS

WHOSH! A reddish orange colored meteor streaked across the entire length of the sky, parallel to the mountains spreading out across the northern horizon. This was the first of 65 meteors I would see over the next 2 nights in the mostly dark skies at 8,100 feet. Because it was twilight, the meteor had a flat arc and hung low in the sky. Another large white meteor streaked through the stars shortly after. As night progressed meteors flashed through the sky, originating in the NE quadrant. Most were small white streaks with short lives. Most likely the size of a grain of sand. The larger ones I saw earlier were the size of marbles perhaps.
As the hour passed midnight meteor activity increased as the earth moved parallel into the meteor stream, the leftover debris of comet Swift-Tutle which has a 150 year orbit around the sun and last passed Earth's vicinity in 1992. Meteors are erratic travellers and can flash in diametrical angles to each other and can come in spurts. A long bright white one flashed right through the Milky Way and Cepheus. Two more flashed just below this one in succession. The galazy spins around the north star. By the middle of the night the Big Dipper is laying on it's side just above the horizon. I put the telescope on Jupiter and see 4 of it's moons, 3 lined up in the same plane and close to the mother planet. Some of the moons travel very fast around the red giant.
This was the peak night of the shower but the next night proved to be more productive with 40 meteor sightings. About 2:00 a.m. a burst of 15 meteors broke through our ionisphere. I had a good fire of red oak glowing to chase the 48 degree mountain crispness. Fire brewed coffee, Emerson Lake & Palmer on the headphones and time lapsed photos on the Canon Rebel Xti kept the night interesting. A pack of coyotes and an owl made their prescense known.
Sunrises and sets are muted and brief. I am camping atop a morraine encircled in mountains so good sunset lights are limited. The granite of Longs Peak and the surrounding Battle Mtn. picked up a pinkish red glow for about 5 minutes just before 6:00 a.m. local time. This is late summer in the mountains so afternoon monsoonal T-storms are always a possibility especially now with the jet pushing an abundance of subtropical moisture into Colorado. A short hike up Steep Mtn in the morning gave way to a towering thunderhead that dropped heavy cold rain in early afternoon. The clouds persisted into the night limiting sky viewing.
This morning I hiked a few miles up to Emerald Lake. A blueish green lake sitting in the bowl or cirque right under Hallet Pk. and Flattop Mountain on the continental divide. Morning clouds burned off and gave way to blue skies. Snowfields and wildflowers are scant even at this elevation (10,150') at this time of year. The lake is encased in massive landslides of granite of all sizes and a big drop waterfall at the end of the lake of a 150 feet or so. It's rushing water fills the crisp cool air.
Heading back to camp for my last night in Rocky Mountain, hoping for clear skies. Then I push down to Glenwood Springs for rafting, biking, hot springs. I'm expecting it to be hot there but of little concern since I'll be camped right on the Colorado river. My 975 mile 23 hour journey from Minneapolis to Rocky Mtn was smooth sailing. Ran into an odd weather situation just east of Mitchell just past midnight. The temp went from 77 degrees to 93 degrees in a few minutes with swirling tropical storm force winds. I believe I was in the vortex of a strong low pressure system riding a warm front pushing up from the south. Lightning as thick as tree trunks flashed just to my south. I was able to outrun what was sure to be a nasty storm and landed in Chamberlin for a crash and burn session at the rest stop. **QUICK NOTES: Cherry wine at the winery in Loveland. Colorado Peaches harvested - the best. Heavy pine scent fills the air. Sage and pine smell permeate the air after the rain. Donut Haus is in session. Elk are up in the high meadows. END mef


I landed in Rocky Mountain National Park the evening of

AUG 2007 - COLORADO Hiking Launch

Read for posts on my half month hiking/camping trip to Rocky Mtn NP, Glenwood Springs, the Raggeds Wilderness by Crested Butte, and the wrap up at Steamboat. I will report on the Perseid meteor shower, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, and some wildcat hikes into the Raggeds Wilderness including the Oh-Be-Joyful valley hike and an attempt to summit Mt. Owens in the Ruby Range. Weather, astronomical sights, landscapes, wildflowers, interaction with fellow travelers and locals and observations on the idiosynchrosies of our fellow man. Posts will necessarily require my intermittant intersections with civilization and the available electronic portal.
mike f - still using the hickory hiking stick