Hanging out at Erickson Springs

I have not made any new entries this week. We don't have any kind of technology and I have been having too much fun. So the Blog has taken a back seat. We are going to leave Erickson Springs after two weeks of dry camping on Monday, September 22. While we have been here we have enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

There is a trail up the canyon that is used by the local outfitters and their horses. Many guys are heading up to Elk and bear hunt. This bridge is about 1/4 of a mile from the trail head.

Kim and I decided to take a walk up the trail the other evening. We went up about a mile and a half. I brought my fly rod and tried some fishing. I decided I would try to catch our dinner. I had some good luck:

Fish On!

Nice Rainbow!

And a large Brook Trout to go with it.

I fixed them for dinner and they were very good. I normally catch and release, but after paying $66 for a fishing license, I did not feel bad keeping these two. 

Then on the way back to camp, we saw a bear! We watched him for about 10 minutes. He was just gorging himself on berries on the far hillside. This is the best picture we could get of him:

We are having a great time, but it is time to move on. We are not sure where we will go next, but we are still waiting for those aspen's to turn. 

Hiking the Dark Canyon Trail

 

On Wednesday September 17, I decided to see how far up the Dark Canyon I could walk. This is the same trail Kim and I had walked a couple of days earlier. The Elevation is about 7000 feet to start, so it should not be too bad. The views are better as you go deeper into the canyon:

What does the rock on the right look like to you?

I stopped at a few places to fish, but had no luck.

I ended up walking almost 4 miles up the canyon. Overall I walked 7.25 miles. It was a beautiful hike and I was quite pleased with how I felt. i think I am actually getting into a little better shape.

Schofield Pass – More Backtracking

On Friday, September 12 we decided we wanted to go back over to Crested Butte and then drive on a 4X4 road to Marble to see the famous mill. The road looked ok on the map. Maybe I should have looked closer…
The day started out nicely with a drive back over Kebler Pass. We had planned to take the motorcycle, but I was asked to help a fellow traveler. Bill is 71 years young and does long distance road trekking on his bicycle. He was concerned about the 3800 feet of elevation gain to make it to the top of the pass. We decided to take him and his bike in our truck.
Here is Bill:

We then stopped in Crested Butte and called our grandson Connor to wish him a Happy Birthday. I hope he had a good one. We found a little restaurant that was named after our grandaughter Isabella:

Then is was off to Schofield Pass. The views were very special:




There was some dirty snow at the summit of the pass.

The road was a bit narrow in spots.

Here is Emerald Lake:

Here is the summit. We got out to take a picture. There was someone coming the other way. They warned me the road was not good and we should not go on. After taking a look, I decided to heed that advice and we turned around and came back the way we came.


That was twice in the same day, that “discretion is the better part of valor” came into play. Both Bill and I live to fight another day.

Erickson Springs

 

We moved on to a National Forest Campground on Monday, September 8. That is may parents 58th Anniversary. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.

We were able to use our interagency pass. The rate at this campground is $7 per night. We are not sure how long we will stay. We are at the base of Kebler pass and all of those Aspens. We are now in a waiting mode.

The first day we were here it rained all day and night. The creek went from a slow moving little creek to a fast moving river.

It also got milky, which is no good for fishing.

I started the week by riding my motorcycle over the pass to Crested Butte. It was a beautiful day and the roads were just dry enough to make it fun. The Aspens were not changing yet, but it was still beautiful.

The storm brought some snow to the high elevations.

Here is a picture of my office in the park in Crested Butte. I sat there a while and returned emails and texts.

I also had a nice ride back. It is about 24 miles and mostly dirt.

The beginnings of the color change.

It was a nice start to the week and a fun ride. I hope you are having fun doing what you are doing.

My Sunday ride

 

We started out our Sunday by going to church in Hotchkiss. After that we went to the laundry mat in Crawford. The best thing about the laundry mat is they had a TV with Direct TV. I was able to watch part of a football game. That is the first football game I have watched this year. For those that know me, that is amazing. The truth is I really have not missed it…OK, maybe a little.

When we got back to the trailer, I decided to go for a ride on my motorcycle. I went back to the Curcanti National Recreation Area to take a few pictures with good lighting.

The views were once again gorgeous and the road was even more fun on my motorcycle.

I took a rode up into the national forest. More fun riding and nice views.

When I got back, Kim was ready to make a ride I had planned out to Needle rocks. I had made it into a nice loop that brought us back to the SP. If you have ever ridden with me, you know how much I hate to backtrack. That would become important. But first, Here is Needle rocks.

We rode from there on forest roads that showed on my GPS and map. The road was getting smaller and rougher. There were a number of hunters around. It was opening weekend for Bear and Bow Elk hunting. We rode for about 20 miles. We came to an intersection of about 4 trails/roads. I followed the less used path which is what my GPS was telling me. It dead ended into a gate and a no trespassing sign. I tried the other routes and was getting frustrated.  I knew we were running out of daylight and I did not want to be lost up there in the woods. The bad news was that my GPS showed we were about 4 miles to camp. I was left with no option except to backtrack the 30+ miles of rough roads. We had to hurry or it was going to be dark. Kim hung on and we made it back just in time to get some harvest moon shots.

Nothing like a little adventure to get your heart racing. It turned out to be a good day.

Hiking in the Gunnison Gorge

 

After the long drive on Thursday, we did mostly nothing on Friday. It felt good. On Saturday, Kim had an outing to the Gunnison Gorge planned. The Gunnison Gorge is along the Gunnison river below Black Canyon NP. It is very isolated and has a desert look and feel. This is BLM land and is open to many different types of recreation including ATV’s and dirt bikes. The river is only accessible via 4 trails. We decided to take the shortest one, but also the most difficult.  

Here is the team:

To get to the trailhead we had to drive 2.5 miles on a 4X4 road. It was rough, but the truck did fine. The trails and roads were not well marked. We got on the wrong trail and went for about a mile. Then we decided it was the wrong way, and went back and went the other way. We stopped when it looked like we could not get to the river. Looking at maps later, we were pretty close the the final decent to the river. Kim said later, she was glad we did not find the way down. She was not looking forward to climbing back up. We were both very tired when we got back to the truck, but it was memorable and I am glad we did it. Here are a few more shots.

Looking for a way down…not this way!

Kim thought this looked like a thumb.

We then decided we were ready to go back to the truck and go to a different part of the river. It was a longer 4X4 road, but we found our way to a beautiful section of the river. Time to fish!

I found this little section where there were about 30 fish feeding. They looked at my fly and stuck at it time and time again, but I caught nothing. It was still fun. The cool water sure felt good.

On the way out we stopped at the trail head for the Sidewinder trail. I love this because it is single track only. Check out the gate. I would love to ride this on my dirt bike.

 

We drove the 4X4 road back to town and then back to our site at Crawford SP. We have been there for 9 days. One more day and time to move. We did have a cool nearly full moon in the daylight. I could not really catch it, but this is the best I could do.

We had one final adventure before we moved on. That one turned out to be a bit scary. Check out the next entry for what happened.

West Elk Loop

 

On Thursday, September 4, we decided to tackle the West Elk Scenic Loop. The loop is one of the most scenic in Colorado. The loop goes from Crawford State Park west to Panoia and then turns up Kebler Pass Road. We stopped to check out a campground at the beginning of the Kebler pass road. It is called Ericson Springs Campground. It was very nice and they honor our interagency pass. So camping is $7 per night. We will return! More on that later.

We then headed up into the mountains. It rained off and on, but not bad. We went through the largest stand of aspen in the world. The Aspens are why we are here, so we will be back here also. Here are a few view shots.

   

We stopped at Lost lake. It is a very nice campground, but the road getting to it is ROUGH!

We then headed over Ohio Pass. That road takes us down to Gunnison rather than going to Crested Butte. The drive was going to be very long, so we took that short cut. The wild flowers are starting to die off, but they are still beautiful in spots.

 

We then went down to Gunnison for some shopping. I need more flies! and then back along the Gunnison river to Blue Mesa Reservoir. At that point we took highway 93 back to Crawford. WE knew the road would be curvy, but OMG, it was crazy. We were driving along the rim of the beginning of the Black Canyon and the views were amazing. The driving was tense, with many drop-offs of over 1000 feet.

I liked the drive so much, I wanted to do it again. And I did a few days later on my motorcycle. We spent the better part of 8 hours that day in the truck. That is a long time for us. We were ready to get home.

It was an outstanding day. We are ready to move to our next spot, but Kim has a few adventures left before we move on. You won’t believe what we did next.