Serious stuff

Just last week my sister called to tell me that she has throat cancer.  No she hasn't smoked nor drank (much) which is usually what may cause it.  But she has it all the same. 
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She's having to be brave for 7 weeks of radiation and chemo in a very delicate place starting the 30th. 
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Any and all positive thoughts and prayers during this time will help a lot.

Home Again

We chugged on through Oregon and Washington heading safely home.  We met with traveling friends and stopped at casinos along the way.  Surely not to gamble but to rate their amenities - ha!  Home to chores and repairs and weeding. 
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Recap: 41 days, 3307 miles, average 81 miles per day in the RV (ugh!) - that average does not include 1100 CuRVy miles.  The RV managed 10.6 mpg.

Travels through Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho

Colorado: We expected the Rocky Mountains to look much like the Grand Tetons (rugged) and with a lot more snow than they had.  In the western area of Colorado we saw no snow and lots of brown desert. 
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Once we climbed over the mountains, we did see small patches of snow in the national park but the rest of the mountains were bare.  Where we found trees in the hills, they were mostly pine and easily half are being decimated by the pine bark beetle and have red needles. It was amazing to be able to travel on paved roads to 11,000 feet and higher. 
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Tickled us to see the many medical marijuana shops.  Some looked official like a doctor's office but even more looked like hippie head shops. 
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Wyoming was green!  I thought the prairies would be dry and brown with sage.  But there was a lot of green. 

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And many, many antelope out in the fields.  Read that the antelope are so speedy that they will browse close to a mountain lion or a bear knowing that they can outrun their foes - so no worry. 

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Snow fences.  Lots of them, too.  Even a few "natural" snow fences - instead of cutting up trees, 3 rows of trees and shrubs are planted in place of a snow fence.  Not new technology as the railroads planted nearly 100,000 trees along their tracks by 1909.  Major problem with the natural snow fences is getting the new trees established with little water.

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Idaho is really on a campaign to stop the use of Meth.  Quite a few murals were up on the sides of buildings and barns with messages like:"Don't Meth with me"  "Don't get roped into Meth - not even once" "It's your life, don't Meth it up".  Did read that teen use of meth has slackened off since the campaign started.  Good.

Forest Service camping - this week

Ok, ok, so I gripped about private campgrounds and how unappealing they are - neighbors too close, less wildlife, among other things.  So this week we spent in Forest Service campgrounds and...well, some of our experiences weren't as nice as we've had other times.

Fremont Lake - Forest Service Campground out of Pinedale, WY: Only 7 miles out of town and on a paved road. That's cool. Should have been leary when the turn off the main drag was about like going into a shopping center parking lot...as we turned the corner - yep, it's a street. Off we go on a nice 2 lane road for 3 miles. Then we turn into the forest service land. Still 2 lanes - we can tell because there is a faded yellow line in the center of the 16' road. 4 more miles. Oh, I forgot to say that the roadsides haven't been cleared for many a year and no, there isn't 16' left. Lots of patches for potholes - many more needed - deep potholes! Ah, finally we are to a beautiful wooded campground: lots of aspen!
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Alas, same people who haven't cut back the entrance road haven't been here either. Nice paved sites - 8' wide. Nice pull thru's - 8' wide paving with broken pavement and drop-offs 4-6" - that's where the wheels go - where the side of the rig goes are aspen branches (soft) mostly - the fir boughs weren't. Lookee here, we finally got all 6 wheels on the pavement.
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Oh, I forgot to mention that they have a warning for their speed bumps 4" high - really steep and short - kinda like going over a 4x4.  When we left, it took 20 minutes to go .8 of a mile to get out of the campground.  Many places the cleared path was only 7 1/2' wide - lots of scrapping down the side with the undergrowth...and more potholes...and those speed bumps!  Pretty place.  Saw a buck go thru our site one morning. 

So we decided, we've learned our lesson, we will unhook and go check out the campground first. 
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Well, we didn't at our next stop which was Calamity Campground on the Palisades Reservoir in Idaho.  I think the name of the campground should have been a clue.  I knew we crossed a dam - no problem.  I just didn't realize we'd have to run a one-lane chicane to get to the campground.  Nothing I have read said that.  All the road area in orange is one-lane.  Where the arrow is is a square corner at a natural rock wall that you can't see around.  There is a mirror to see if anybody is coming but we were real glad that nobody was because we can't back up while towing the CRV.  Besides campers coming up this road, there is a boat launch so boats on trailers are part of the heavy traffic.
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This is what the road looked like from the CRV as we went back down to reconnoiter our plan of attack.  I was the pilot car and Dean did not bring the RV through until I turned the 90 degree corner because nobody was out there.  I think that a traffic light limiting it to one way traffic would be good.  Or even a warning horn at the 90 degree. 

We made it but I'm ready to go back to a campground right off the freeway (or maybe not).

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So these were my Forest Service campground stories for the week. 

Sometimes all we need is training wheels

Traveling around the western US in early August a driver needs to be aware of all the motorcycles heading to Sturgis, SD for the annual motorcycle rally.  Estimates varied this year that up to 750,000 bikers would be on hand making it home to the highest concentration ever of chrome, leather and tattoos. 
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Many bikers group together traveling to Sturgis so it isn't unusual to have up to 20 pass us at a time.  Our pet peeve is when these groups are traveling on a 2 lane road and all 20 seem to believe they have to stay as a group no matter what the traffic.  We didn't see any accidents but saw a couple times where the oncoming vehicle had to slow down and swerve to the side of the road to avoid the end of the line for the group.  We understand there were 18 fatalities this year involving motorcycles in Sturgis, on their way to Sturgis, or heading home.
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This year we saw more motorcycles pulling trailers, one side car, and several motorcycles with 2 tires in front or a tricycle configuration with 2 tires in back. 
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We wonder if this fellow was ridiculed in Sturgis because of his TRAINING WHEELS!

Museum of the Mountain Man - Pinedale, WY

We have an ongoing interest in the Mountain Men of Wyoming and the Rendezvous' held there during the beaver top hat heyday. 
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The Museum of the Mountain Man, in Pinedale, WY, has fantastic, complete and well thought out displays.  We learned a lot about the life of the Mountain Man, the Rendezvous', and about the beaver hat fad.  Pinedale is a fitting place for this museum as 6 of the 16 rendezvous were held within 20 miles of here. 
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The beaver hat was popular in England from the early 16th century.  By the early 1800's there were no more beaver in England (Europe?) to supply the manufacturers.  Beaver were found in the Rocky Mountains of the Louisiana Territory and Mountain Men came and trapped to the tune of 100,000 beaver a year.  By 1840, beaver hats were no longer in vogue and the Mountain Men no longer trapped.  Instead they returned to civilization or became guides for people moving west.
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Beaver trapping took place in the spring and fall when the pelts were the thickest.  Traps were set in the water.  During the winter, the Mountain Man spent time in camp maybe with other Mountain Men or with an Indian tribe.  In the summer, they needed to get the pelts to St. Louis. 
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It wasn't until 1825 that an enterprising St. Louis merchant set up the first Rendezvous in Wyoming in July to allow Mountain Men to trade in their pelts and resupply their provisions closer to where they trapped.  Of course, as you can imagine, the prices of provisions were much higher than in St. Louis but the trade-off of not having to travel 1200 miles to turn in their pelts was worth it. Of the 15 Rendezvous' held, it was an interesting side note that the supply trains did not arrive until fall for two of the Rendezvous'.  From what we read, the beaver pelts were turned in for credit to spend on provisions when they finally arrived and the Mountain Man got back to the provider... sometimes the following spring.  Imagine that could be a bit stressful if you were out of sugar or flour or tobacco or rum or gun powder. 
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The Rendezvous' were originally one day in length, then they became more popular as time went on and lasted for weeks with thousands of Indians and hundreds of trappers attending.  Contests of skill, revelry, gambling, and high jinks.  A chance to see old friends.

(no, not a real Mountain Man - they died before cameras

besides, we learned, they probably did not have beards

as that was not popular during that time)

CCC Ponds - Pinedale, WY

Three lakes called the CCC ponds (Duck, Fish, and Beaver ponds) have a nice walking path around them.  They were started by the CCC in the 1930's but weren't finished until local residents took it on in the mid-80's. 

Lots of blooming wildflowers,

ospreys in a nest, and some antelope but no moose. 

The Beaver pond is where we were most likely to glimpse a moose. If no moose, then beaver or listen to the different bird sounds. Well.... not today. All we heard was "beep-beep-beep" and the clang of rocks being dropped from the excavator bucket.

 Ah, well, maybe next time :0)

Laramie, Wyoming - the old stomping grounds

My grandparents lived in Laramie

and as a child I remember visiting them by train, plane, and automobile. 

It's been a long time since they passed on

but I wanted to go see the old homestead

and the rock park, Vedauwoo,

and maybe even find their cabin in the mountains. 

Do you see the Grinch?

We did all that and had a great time. 

Even got to travel the Snowy Range Scenic Byway. 

Pretty, pretty.

Rocky Mountain Sunshine?

Enjoyed exploring the area around Rocky Mountain National Park. 

We went up the Old Fall River Road. 9 miles of dirt. A skinny road. Used to be two-way.  Egad!

Great views!

We traveled the Trail Ridge Road. It's pretty magnificent to be able drive on paved roads to such a high elevation.  That GPS is reading 11,794 feet!

We checked out all the campsites and watched a herd of elk.  Saw many dead pines in red that had been killed by the bark beetle epidemic.  Smaller pines are growing but never in our lifetime will we see and enjoy the beautiful pine forest.  Even the pine smell that I enjoy so much on hikes is missing.

As we went through the park, all of the campgrounds were full - in mid-week! - but most of the campgrounds have almost half of the sites closed because the dangerous beetle-eaten dead pines fall without warning. 

One campground is almost denuded because all the trees have been removed and we noticed, because we were there in the rain, that there isn't enough plant life to absorb the rain and the runoff is causing problems. 

But mostly we got rained on.  Thunder and lightning and hail.  Welcome to the monsoon season of Colorado. 

  

We also drove a couple days around and through canyons in the area.  Beautiful country.  Lots of tipped rock formations.  The road to the national park was built right up the Big Thompson River.  We weren't quite sure how they managed to fit a road into the space that was left!

Love our national parks.

Just West of Denver: Tiny Town & Red Rocks Park

With hardly any trouble at all, we can avoid big cities.  We skirted around Denver and were the guests of the Elks in Westminster.  They had a nice RV park.  We had two things we wanted to see in the area and Westminster was in close proximity.  Works for us!

Off we went for a trip through Tiny Town.  This 1/6th - sized community has been around since 1915 when a father built the first buildings for his daughter. 

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It was quite popular in the 1920's when Denverites would travel out of town, up into the hills, over dirt roads to tour Tiny Town. 

Over the years, the town closed after fire, floods, and a bankruptcy.  In 1988 volunteers adopted Tiny Town as a charitable project refurbishing the whole town.  There were lots of new buildings - including one dedicated the day before we got there. 

We really enjoy watching model trains in action and here the Tiny Town Railway had authentic steam engines and "gasoline" diesel engines transporting folk around the park.  Fun. 

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Not too far from Tiny Town is a Denver park: Red Rocks Park.

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Known for its red sandstone outcroppings (kind of like Garden of the Gods only red not orange) and it's Red Rocks Amphitheatre which has been in use for over 100 years. 

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I've been here before but wanted Dean to see it.  We did get to drive through the park. 

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But we were just at the wrong time to see the amphitheater as there was a concert that evening and access was closed off