Sunday, October 16, 2022

Skyline Drive and then The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As the Fremont county search and rescue people were getting organized for the training of the day near my campsite, I headed out towards CaƱon City.  No sense hanging around camp with that many people wandering around.



Almost stepped on this guy...

Cue the Good, Bad and Ugly Song: LINK

I returned to camp around noon, found the SAR people winding things down.  After lunch I was able to enjoy perhaps an hour or two of blissful silence, sunny weather and almost no people.

That was the Good.

Next came the Bad, unseen by me since I was at nearby Skyline Drive,  several trucks had brought in eight large SBSs, all tarted up with big LED light sticks, flags and bonus: very loud music speakers.

The first I knew of them was of a large motorized noise coming to the camping area from the back end of the boondocking area.

A big convoy, loud engines roaring, moving slow good within a large cloud of dust, and the deep bass sounds emanating for all of us to "enjoy".

They all gathered around a travel trailer at the far end of the RV camping area where a canopy had been set up next to a barbecue.  The music continued of course as they ate and mingled.  Sometimes the more restless among them, would get in their SBS and do circles within the parking area, stirring up the dust.  

After a couple hours they left, again in the noisy convoy and headed back into the more remote areas. I thought they were going back to their camping area.

I was wrong, they would return later in the dark and pack up all their SBSs onto the trailers, but not before treating all of us in the camping area to a vivid display of bright flashing LED lights and of course a lot music.

Eventually they left, finally.

Here's the Ugly:

Doing the afternoon, I saw this particular SBS rip-roaring his way up and down the main trail at high speed.  He was making his best effort to over-rev his engine, and bring the front end of his vehicle up, I guess compensating for something.

The kind of misbehavior that basically destroys these trails and leaves them just rocky outcroppings for the rest of us to enjoy.  

Up and down the trail the mouth breather drove for perhaps an hour, disappearing for minutes at a time into the hinterlands.  Then the mouth breather finally went up to his trailer loaded up and headed on out.

There you have it the good, the bad and the ugly.  

The main access road has gotten very bad into this area so it probably will be a very long time before I ever return to camp here; not to mention all the side "benefits" of assholes in SBS's adding to the ambience.

A quote comes to mind:

I used to be a people person, until people ruined it for me.

Note to self: if ever deciding to change your mind about returning to this place, remember the plethora of sketchy looking car campers.

Sunday, Oct 16: Back home for a while.

8 comments:

CCjon said...

That is such a beautiful peaceful area, a shame it is getting destroyed by over-revers. Why people want to bring the ghetto to nature is beyond my understanding.

Enjoy your time with the family, take Martha out to a nice place to dine. She misses you.

redlegsrides said...

CCjon, if you're talking about the car campers, I believe some of them Ive seen, in fact the majority, are homeless people or people in dire economic straits... The problem is in my paranoid mind, such people can also be a threat. Not particularly to one's physical safety, more to one's property when away from camp. We have experienced this feeling in this particular area before.

If You're talking about the over-revers, I've come to believe they are people that just were not brought up right, to be considerate of others, and they're just simply extremely self-centered and uncaring. Call me a pessimist, but I firmly believe: given the chance, most people disappoint.

SonjaM said...

Quoting Charles M. Schulz: I love mankind ... it's people I can't stand! (Linus from Charlie Brown). Have a good journey home.

redlegsrides said...

I believe Schulz got it from Mark Twain but regardless quite true.

RichardM said...

That does sound ugly. It does make one wonder about the future… I get the feeling that it may be better in some other parts of the world.

Oz said...

My wife would say those guys were absolutely compensating! I don't understand why some folks feel compelled to share their music and lights with everyone else. Glad you had some time of relaxation.

redlegsrides said...

RichardM, this is why we cannot have nice things. I am not sure what the future holds, but it looks like Penrose won't be more than a wrecked place.

redlegsrides said...

Oz, from a different perspective, they're a shining example of how a people of a different ethnicity have embraced the American way and become similar to our native-born stereotype of mouth-breathers with OHVs!