Sunday, March 04, 2018

Boondocking in the Penrose BLM Common Use Area

Yesterday I displaced to the BLM area just north of the Colorado town of Penrose.

You ride on CR127 which is a rough dirt/rock road which is doable by motorhomes;  so long as you take it slow and easy in order to get to the camping spot.

I had some doubts at the cattle guard marking the boundary of the BLM land, as there were many trailers and ATVs, UTVs, quads and side by side being unloaded or getting ready to hit the trails.  The idea of boondocking, at least in my mind, is to get away from people.

I must have arrived at just the right time I guess; but I left the behind soon enough and within minutes found the camping spot I liked and there were just three other rigs there in a big area.

It was hot, by 11AM it was in the high 70s I think and I relaxed a bit while taking in some sun before lunch.

After lunch, which I skipped, I went riding with Fiona, going further north on CR127.

Every time I turned off to check out a side trail, it soon turned nasty pretty quickly with big rocks, and lots of loose gravel and dirt to make life very interesting.  Too interesting for a lone Ural rig!

I got the final clue when traversing a steep portion of one trail, I knocked loose the port side muffler.  Dammit.  I pulled over to a conveniently located flat spot and soon had the muffler bracket pounded back into the correct angle so it would connect with the header pipe.

Got Fiona turned around, and barreled up the same hill I'd just carefully negotiated down.  Only one moment when the sidecar bounced up enough that the left foot peg and my foot touch gravel for a second.....yikes.

So I stayed on CR127 until breaks off at a T-junction, took the right turn and immediately I was slowly traversing a steep and rocky hairpin turn down into a sandy valley.

Nope, turned around, got back up the higher elevation and made my way back to the campsite, I knew at that point I'd pushed my luck far enough.

No pics for Saturday.

Not much of a sunset and the terrain around the area is basically flat and covered with sagebrush and short dust covered bushes/trees.  The mountains around here were far out and not very high up so not much to picture there.

Sunday Morning.

Woke to the beginnings of a pretty good sunrise for us here near Penrose.






Here's some shots of the campsite itself and of the views.



 I believe this is the nearby town of Florence.

Use the above guide from PeakFinder app to
see the names of the peaks above.

Mount Adams behind the hills

6 comments:

RichardM said...

70s seems nice and warm for March. Or at least is sound just about perfect after our short cold spell (some areas around here hit -33°F last Wednesday). And we got even more snow...

redlegsrides said...

RichardM, it was quite nice, like Arizona actually but without as many cacti spines tto deal with.....

Coop a.k.a. Coopdway said...

Thanks for the added push to give boondocking a try. I haven't really been self-contained enough to do it easily, though I'm sure I can make it work. There might not be quite as many choices around here as there are available to you and yet, I know it can be done.

Maybe this summer??

redlegsrides said...

Definitely more BLM land out here on the western third of the country, Coop, you can get as fancy as you wish....the RV we have makes it more like glamping.

Trobairitz said...

I think you definitely found a nice place to camp. Beautiful views, pretty sunrise too.

Your ride seems a little scary but it sounds as though you know your limits and when to press or and retreat when riding alone.

redlegsrides said...

I think I’m cautious enough, Trobairitz, and prepared enough most of the time....in a group, the risks taken can be higher.