Hanging Out and Riding in the Texas Creek OHV Area

Thursday, September 18

Sunny and mild afternoon....rode BLM route 6025 till chickening out due to steep stony conditions along a single track trail. Once I got back to the trailhead I headed out on BLM route 6040 about 3.5 mile when again; stony steep conditions got too technical for me.

Here's the point where I turned around:

A couple of views while walking around near my campsite:

Friday, September 19

I mostly relaxed throughout the day.

Watched a group of dirt bikes and small atvs ride back and forth at a nice sedate/quiet pace.

Saw one 5th wheel, 1 travel trailer, one large enclosed trailer, multiple ATVs and 1 car head deeper in on route 6040.

Around 4PM I discovered that my selfie stick/tripod was missing.  Searched the RV and campsite with no luck.  Realized that it had probably worked its way out of the saddle bag while riding the trail yesterday.  Dammit.

Did a retrace ride but no luck in fading light so returned to camp to order another one from Amazon.

My fault, I should have used a dummy cord on the darn thing.

Saturday, September 20

Found the tripod!  I had retraced the ride again this morning, and I spotted this on the way back to camp:

More traffic coming in around  noon: 

Throughout the day I saw trucks towing trailered OHVs, dirt bikes in the morning, several small ATVs.  Did see two large OHV SxS being towed in and I dread their usual noise levels.

Later: I was right, the two large SXS rigs were seen ripping up and down the main trail, loud music blasting and generally being annoying ass wipes.  Fortunately, they're not staying anywhere near me.

Pretty warm day here at 6329 ft altitude and 74°F.  This area is part of the "banana belt" of Colorado, warmer than the rest of the state in Winter.  Sunny conditions help of course.

Just one night on Kerr Gulch Road

Located near Howard, CO, Kerr Gulch Road is an access road into a large and forested BLM area.

I'd done a recce previously while staying at the Texas Creek OHV area.  I displaced yesterday to the first camping spot I'd mapped.

I checked out all 3 spots I'd found during the earlier recce and they were all open. But I got lazy and take the first one which proved to be a mistake.

Mistake you ask?  I had forgotten and violated the rule of never using a campsite that is big enough for more than one rig. 

A couple of hunters from Pennsylvania with a big tundra truck and trailer towing a small ATV decided to park in the same site. 

They weren't going to hang out they said,  just using the spot to park the truck while they went off to do hunting stuff on their ATV so I wasn't too mad about it since it helped fill up the space. Still, annoying,  especially since just I have mild down the road there was a good spot to leave a trailer and truck.

I went riding on Yagi in the late afternoon down this access road which leads you quite deep into the BLM area. No real scenic overlooks, just a forest road down heavily forested terrain.

I debated the idea of displacing to one of the other two campsites, but I found the second one occupied by a pickup truck from which I assume a hunter was wandering about.  The remaining one is small, narrow and you have to back into it so it wasn't the best site.

So instead I planned to displace today to some point further east on my way home. 

Had me a surprise visitor last night, right after the hunters left shortly before 8:00 p.m. after dragging their ATV in after dark. 

Right after the hunters left, I spotted a large white something in the darkness near the camper: 

It turned out to be a Great Pyrenees dog:

He seemed friendly but I didn't go outside the RV to interact with it.

That was last night, this morning he shows up as I was packing up the RV and greeted me. Then I spotted a lady pushing a baby carriage with her kid; they turned out to be the owners. 

A brief chat later with her and I had the name of the dog: Moose!  They live in the house a quarter mile down the road closer to the highway.  Apparently, they let Moose loose in the area, especially at night apparently, to do his patrolling.

By noon today, had found a "creekside" site in the Texas Creek OHV area.  I'm counting on the OHV traffic noise to keep hunters from the area.

The area has recently seen heavy rain and I made sure to be away from terrain showing signs of erosion due to runoff.  Still, I'll keep an eye on the weather though the forecast is for sunny and warm through the weekend 

Walking About Independence Pass with Martha

Nice and sunny morning today, the afternoon not so much.

After breakfast, we drove the Honda CRV along CO Hwy 82 up towards Independence Pass.  The drive was without issues except for a couple of ass wipes who seemed in a hurry; even though I myself was driving a few miles above the speed limit.  Oh well, they passed us and f*cked off soon enough.

Nice weather at the pass summit, just slightly chilly and windy.

I personally have never strayed far from the pass sign on previous trips.  Martha got me to walk along with her on several paths around the summit area.

No real display of Fall Colors so only one stop while driving back down the road.

We stopped at a trail head down in the valley you can see in the above pic.  Martha was hoping for Moose sign.

No moose, alas, but here's a view of the valley:

On the way back to camp and before the small village of Twin Lakes, we stopped at the USFS campground: Twin Peaks.

We drove/walked about seeking Fall Color.  

As you can see, we're still in the early stages.  I think about another week or so before peak levels.

We got back to camp with no issues and the beginnings of threatening rain clouds.

Uma as seen from trailhead 

As rain clouds approached, I started buttoning things up.  I had almost secured the awning fully when I heard the onboard generator quit.

Leaving the awning not fully rolled up, I hurried to the generator as Martha was needing it to cook lunch.

The storm of course hit soon after and the awning had about 2 ft worth slapping about.  After we got wet just holding down the support bars to prevent damage, Martha got me some rope and I secured the awning supports temporarily.  Close call but no damage except for wet clothes.

The rain / hail storm did not last very long though the winds did rock the RV for a bit. After we finished eating lunch, the weather cleared up and the afternoon was a combination of hazy / cloudy/sunny weather what temperatures in the high 50s. 

I believe we are both leaving this area tomorrow, Martha to go home and me to go further south into warmer and lower altitude camping down in the Poncha Springs area.

Boondocking at Twin Lakes Reservoir

Martha and I displaced from the spot on County 305 where I'd been for 12 days.

After dumping tanks and taking on water in Buena Vista it was a short drive to Colorado Highway 82 to Twin Lakes, Colorado. 

I decided to check out some dispersed camping area then after a bit we thought we found the right spot: 

After lunch, we went for a short one to check out the shoreline of the reservoir. 

There is Fall Color beginning to show in the immediate area.

After a short walk on the Interlaken Trail, we decided to detour off it to check out the sandy shores.

Mount Elbert, Colorado's

Highest Fourteener.

As we neared camp, we spotted a better campsite and bonus, the campers already there were leaving!

After a brief discussion, we walked back to our campsite and did a hasty displacement.

I guess walking does have it's uses eh?  There's a lot of sites in the area, good cell signal for Internet access and not too crowded.

Here's the new site:

Not too bad a site eh?  You can see the trailhead parking lot from the site and fishermen apparently use the area for fishing.

We're at 9209 ft, so a little higher than the previous campsite.

We hope to drive to Independence Pass tomorrow.

Tonight's sunset was pretty good.

Martha joins me for camping

Thursday, September 11

9/11: Never Forget, Never Forgive

Another tree has gotten a headstart on Fall Colors near my campsite:

As you can see, the Aspen near the camp remains green.

Martha joined me in the afternoon and she made dinner for Chris Z. and I as we chatted.  

Friday, September 12

Chris Z. Left in the morning to go try for Cinnamon Pass near Lake City, CO with his camping rig.

It rained off and on most of the day so Martha and I just relaxed inside the VRRV.

Saturday, September 13

Morning coffee:

We drove into Buena Vista after a late breakfast.  The skies were overcast and gloomy:

Some Fall Color at around 12000 ft

The farmers market was a bit small and we were done with it in less than five minutes.

I did see this nice looking Pinzgauer rig on main Street.

A brief walk up and down Main Street confirmed the touristy hipster image of this tourist trap.  The overcast cool conditions didn't stop the crowds blocking passage on sidewalks as they waited in line to get into the various venues.

We left for camp and spent the rest of the rainy day in the RV.  The sun did come out after 4PM so that was nice.

Note: hunting season started today for Bow and Black Powder.  We saw some hunters wearing brand new orange visibility hats and vests motoring past the campsite.

A Visit by Blazeourwat's Chris Z.

Monday, September 8

General relaxation in the campsite, enjoying somewhat cool but sunny conditions in the morning. It was clouding over and getting a little windy when Chris Z. of Blazeourway showed up in his truck camper rig. 

We chatted late into the evening catching each other up on things that's it's been a while since I've last seen him. 

Chris is enroute home after picking up some equipment for his overlander rig in Michigan. 

Tuesday, September 9

More general relaxation by both Chris and I at the campsite. The local chipmunk infestation have become quite brazen.  

Chris put out some leftover rice from a meal he brought. 

The weather got cool and windy in the afternoon so we just hung out in the RV until dinnertime.

Wednesday, September 10

Sunny morning, relaxing again about the campsite with a brief interlude to try out a popup gazebo purchased by Chris Z :

The only spot of Fall Color within sight of camp so far:

We've woken to temps in the low 40s, the last 3 days.