Pitkin, Colorado

We got up early for us on Thursday August 7 and headed to the tire store to put two new tires on the trailer. We probably could have just purchased one, but now I have all 4 tires the same. They are LT tires, which should have a larger capacity and some additional safety cushion.

We headed up 285 and the truck was working hard, but all looked good. We gained almost 3000 feet in the first 20 miles. As we approached Conifer, we saw this:

Those black skies looked scary and they were. We hit one heck of a hail storm. The ground was white as if it snowed.

The temp dropped from 75 degrees to 42

We pulled over and waited a few minutes and like all things in the mountains, 5 minutes later it was sunny. We headed up and over Kenosha Pass at 10,000 feet. It was beautiful up there, so we stopped and had lunch.

We then dropped down to the Arkansas River valley. We talked about dropping a note in a bottle and sending downstream to our grandson Connor in Russellville, Arkansas. We knew that the biggest pass of the day was in front of us. Monarch pass is 11,312 feet. We took our time and made it to the top with no issues.

On the way down I could smell the brakes getting hot, so we pulled over and let them cool off. I used my infrared thermometer and measured one of the front rotors at over 700 degrees! Yikes!  I let them cool off for a while and got them back to about 200 degrees.We made the easy drive from there to Pitkin. We got a site right on Quartz Creek. It was a bit tight and we have no water or electricity, but it is beautiful and quiet. We can run easily each day on the batteries with one, 1 hour generator run to recharge everything. Here is a picture of the site and Kim in her new chair. (Thanks Mom and Dad, we love them)

I do have to walk down to the general store in Pitkin for Cell and WiFi, but it is a fun place to sit and do blog updates. In my next update, I will tell you about what we are doing while we are here.  Check back often.