Displacing to Escape the Barrio

Yesterday, June 14

Happy birthday to my branch of service, the US Army.

Not quite a happy day for me though, I woke to a travel trailer and a pickup truck pulling a long cargo trailer with OHVs in the site next to me!

No problem, I told myself, it's public lands.  The trouble began when more large pickup trucks with trailered OHVs, two travel trailer rigs and several cars joined the first people.  By noon it was perhaps three generations worth of people including kids and 3 dogs.  I guess it was perhaps at least 20-25 individuals.

All, mind you, in a space suitable for perhaps two campers at most.

It became quite a Barrio.  

Then to give it the final Barrio touch, one of the pickups was blasting music, suitably loud to overcome their generator and what must have been perhaps 10 OHVs.

For whatever reason, the OHVs were sometimes left idling, I guess for background noise, between outings.

Best part was a couple of young punks on OHVs, spinning donuts in the space between the barrio and my site.  Thanks for the dust clouds, amigos.

So, Saturday dragged along where I kept hoping they were day users (nope).  I was treated to their music late into the night too, I guess their kids didn't need to get to sleep at normal hours when camping.

Sunday, I woke to quiet.  This lasted until they woke around 730 AM or so, then the music started up.

Fortunately, I spotted the Class C belonging to a separate set of campers further down the trail, leaving!  

Yes!  I knew the spot they'd been at, and it had been my mistake not to shift to it before the weekend.

I drove the CRV to the spot and claimed it.  Returning to the VRRV, I did a hasty displacement from the "still rocking the times" barrio.  It's not even a quarter mile but the no more music!

There's only one way to get to the new site and the CRV stands guard to keep the OHV swine from racing up to my new campsite.

Nice big site, only drawback is no shade for the VRRV but that's fine.

I'm guessing the barrio will be gone by Noon, but the new site is better and I don't have to move somewhere else for at least a week!

Oh, and no way for another barrio event from occuring with this site!

Anti- social, that's me.

I went later to check, they were gone between 2 and 3 pm.  They left trash all over the site.  Nice, huh?

Some interesting clouds in the afternoon:

Here's today's post-sunset views:

Boondocking near Divide, CO

I displaced this morning to a Pike-San Isabel National Forest dispersed camping area near Divide.

The route Google maps had me take involved High Park Road.  Boy, they sure named that road correctly!  Steep climbs had poor Uma, the VRRV as she towed the Honda CR-V uphill.

Note to self: while on an uphill climb, do not stop to let traffic pass, you'll not be able to accelerate enough to regain previos climb speeds!

Had Martha been with me, we would have disconnected the CR-V and she would have driven it separately.  Oh well.  I'll try and avoid this route in the future!

Anyways, finally made it and found a nice spot with good vistas of nearby mountain peaks 

I'll be here about a week or so.  Martha is joining me after the weekend.  Friends of ours: Jenny and Scott are going to be camping in the Mueller State Park which is about 12 miles away.  The plan is to visit with them.

More to follow ....

Sunset:

T'Dubing along the Arkansas River Headwaters

Yesterday, June 9

First, last evening's sunset while parked along US50 and the turnoff for Westcliffe.

I drove the Honda CR-V to check out what would end up being 5 candidate vacant land properties.  Spent the morning criss-crossing the area south of my campsite to no avail.

All the properties were either too hilly or had sketchy looking neighborhoods.

Oh well.  I hung out at camp the rest of the day, relaxing with audiobooks.  Got some threatening weather in the late afternoon but it turned out to be much of nothing.

Today, June 10

Spent the first half of the morning riding my TW200 up and down US50 within 10 miles east/west of Texas Creek.

Some views of the rock formations and headwaters of the Arkansas River:

I then rode past the village of Cotopaxi, to the vicinity of Howard, CO to check out National Forest Access Roads I had seen during other trips.

First was Kerr Gulch Road, found 3 likely sites for future boondocking; though only one had usable cell signal.

I was at the same, pursuing these views of "nearby" mountain peaks:

I also checked out County Road 6 which seems to deadends at a USFS campground with tiny campsites.

Motoring back towards camp, I gassed up in Cotopaxi after this shot of the rock formations near the village.

Entering back into the OHV area I'm camping at, spotted these foundation remnants which were curious:

I returned just in time for lunch.  It was quite warm by now and sunny.

Things would cool a bit with growing cloud cover as the afternoon wore on.  Spent the afternoon blogging after processing pics.

I did go for a few miles of riding within the OHV area on the TW200.  Lots of steep single track and the wider trails were deep sand in spots, not very enjoyable.

Boondocking at the Texas Creek OHV Area

Back again at my favorite traveling activity: Boondocking!

After some VA appointments last week, I was free once again to go Boondocking while Martha starts home to continue socializing.

One major event occured, we got a second vehicle again. Martha hadn't felt joy on purchasing a 2024 Honda CR-V last year; and so, had returned it.

We still needed a second car as a spare and also to drive when the 2014 CR-V is boondocking with Umarang the VRRV.

So, Kuma, the 2017 Honda Ridgeline was purchased.

Kuma means Bear in Japanese....

So, I'm out at the Texas Creek OHV area for the next couple of days, embracing dispersed camping once again. I towed the old 2014 CR-V with me, along with Yagi, my Yamaha TW200.

I plan on doing some exploring of land that's for sale in nearby Cotopaxi, pics of the Arkansas river along US50 and whatnot while camping here.

Though sunny in the morning, the skies turned overcast as I setup camp.

I  managed to snag a nice one-rig spot, electing to forego the big dispersed camping lot that's a little further from my site and closer to US50.

No cellular signal here, but I just fire up Starlink when I want Internet access....it's all good.

The sun came out later: