Back Home Early mostly due to Midges!

Wednesday, June 5

Lazy day today after a brief recce of the North Sand Hills Recreation Area.  The recce reminded me how unsuited it is for my camping requirements.  The access road is sandy and the access to campsite locations even sandier.

The trails are very sandy and Yagi, my TW200 showed me how unhappy she is on loose sand.

I rested the rest of the day away, as it turned warmer though still windy in the afternoon.  Still, the wind apparently had kept the swarms of midges under some control.  Luckily, the midges don't bite, just like to swarm in thick clouds.

The sunset was bland but I went out anyways for pics.

Uma at the Walden Reservoir

Here's a pic of the alpenglow on the mountains behind the town of Walden.  Note the swarms of midges hovering behind the VRRV, out of the winds.

Thursday, June 6

I woke late, almost 8 AM, it felt good.  The plan had been to hang about one more day before heading home on Friday.  However, a quick walk outside changed this plan.

The winds had died down you see and the swarms of midges had increased exponentially now that the winds were calm.  Though they didn't bite, it was a bit freaky moving about surrounded by them, occasionally one or more trying to get my attention by either flying near my ears or up my nostrils!

By 10:30 AM I had broken down camp, and left the midges to their own devices.

Four hours later, I was home.  Traffic was fine and only heavy at the expected points as one neared the overcrowded Front Range where Metro Denver is located.

Home for a bit I think, we'll see.

T-Dub'ing to the State Forest State Park

This morning, once things warmed up at bit (56 degrees), I rode my TW200 on CO Hwy 14 about 25 miles to the State Forest State Park's Moose Visitor Center.

Buckhorn Sheep came by to visit

A view of the campsite from CR 15a

State Forest, yep that's the name of the forest, a bit uninspired perhaps?

The visitor center was pretty small but it did have some stuff to look at:

Barbed Wire Moose

The above moose is supposed to be designed the same size of a record moose.  That hump on it's back its 6 feet off the ground, I stood by the statue and the hump was a couple of inches taller than me!

The info pamphlet from the visitor center recommended cruising County Road 41 for moose sightings.  So off I went in search of moose.

Alas, no sightings of these magnificent beasts, but some pics of nearby mountain peaks:

I saw and cruised through a couple of large campgrounds, not bad in terms of dispersion and location.  There were few rigs onsite this time of year.

I rode back towards Walden in windy conditions, not as bad as yesterday but definitely windier than I like.

As I approached the campsite by the Walden Reservoir, some pics:

The bugs were out in force with the warming temperatures!  Luckily for me, though they fly in thick clouds, they don't bite.  Google Lens says they're midges.

In the afternoon, I rode out again to try and circumnavigate the reservoir.

Walden from near the "top" of the reservoir

From across the campsite, can you see Uma?

Furthest point reachable.

As I returned to my campsite's vicinity, I made a short detour to get closer to what looked like a whole flock of pelicans:

Tomorrow, perhaps a recce of the North Sand Hills Park about 25 miles to the north of Walden.  

So far in this area, I've seen Buckhorn Sheep, Geese, Pelicans, Seagulls, assorted small birds, ducks, one Blue Heron, Beaver Lodges but alas, no moose.

Clear skies for tonight's sunset but nothing to make me drag the camera out.

Now Boondocking at near the Town of Walden, CO

 Sunday, June 2 

As mentioned in the previous post, I spent the morning working on the configuration of items on the roof of the VRRV.

After a quick lunch, I rode out on Yagi, My TW200, and took Manhattan road AKA Larimer County 69 down towards the small settlement of Rustic, CO. 

It was about 13-14 miles and it will give me access to Colorado Highway 14 which I plan to take westward towards Walden, CO probably tomorrow.

Monday, June 3

I displaced from the Red Feather Lakes area at 10:30 AM in increasingly windy conditions.  The winds would get so bad that a couple of times it threatened to push the VRRV out of its lane as I drove on CO Hwy 14 towards the town of Walden.

Walden, advertises itself as the "Moose Watching Capital of Colorado", we shall see.  I've been in the town before:  LINK1 LINK2 

On the way to this town, one passes by the Nohku Crags and the Seven Ute Mountains near Cameron Pass.

Nohku Crags on the left and the Seven Ute Mtn on the right

I spent a bit of time at the city park in Walden, taking advantage of the provided RV dump and water resupply.  They ask for donations instead of charging you so covered that.

Afterwards, it was a short drive out of town to the Walden Reservoir and my camping spot by the water for the next few days.

I set up camp under very windy conditions.  Temperatures were in the low 60s but with the wind chill it wasn't great to be outside.  So I spent the afternoon cleaning up under the RV's stove top and the heavily carbonized burners.  I'll not publish the pics, suffice to say it was quite disgusting under the stove top.

The overcast skies and winds made for rather dismal lighting conditions in terms of photography.   Hopefully, I'll get better pics of the reservoir tomorrow.

Figuring out Rooftop options for Solar and Dishy

It's good that I went camping this week, apparently there was a big hail storm Thursday night in the Metro Denver area.  Got an email from the storage yard people where I normally store the RV and there was apparently damage to multiple rigs there! 

About the Sony telephoto lens that I found to have a rattling noise Friday; all is not lost perhaps.  More to follow as I experiment with the field expedient solution I'm testing over the next few days. 

Saturday was spent puttering inside the RV doing chores and small modifications to accommodate the ingress of the Startlink cable and the propane gas line for the catalytic heater.

Heavy rain sometime overnight, woke me briefly.

Sunday, June 2 

After breakfast, I started working on the roof of the VRRV to ensure the waterproof conditions for the connector linking the two solar panels. 

For now, I will use a small Tupperware container to keep the rain off the connector: 

After this task, I moved the starlink dish (aka dishy in the SL community) onto the roof and worked out how to secure it in case of high winds. 

Previous testing had confirmed what I had read online, that the Gen 3 dish works while laying flat.  Ran some tests, here's a representative example of the speeds achieved this morning: 

Not too shabby eh?  More than enough for our internet access speed requirements. 

The starlink app reports that the dish is misaligned but otherwise it works fine.

Rotated to the north.

Here's a view of the rooftop this morning: 

I turn and rotate the solar panels to maximize perpendicular exposure to the sun as it moves about the sky during the day.