Dry Camping at the Redstone USFS Campground

 Tuesday, September 14

Having retrieved the VRRV yesterday afternoon, all serviced and ready for more traveling, I drove out of the Metro Denver Cesspool soon after 8:30AM.  Traffic was shit but moving at least.  Took the usual hour to get through the cesspool and onto the I-70 super slab heading west.

Tried stopping at the Wolcott BLM campground between Edwards and Gypsum but it looked full as I missed the entrance and passed by.  So I got myself turned around and got back on the slab now headed towards Glenwood Springs.

From there, I headed south on CO82, passing through Carbondale and taking CO133 towards Redstone.  Just about a mile north of this town, is located the Redstone Campground run by the US Forest Service, as part of the White River National Forest.

There were several spots open, to include three pull-through spots!  As I was staying only one night, I chose a cheaper site with no power or water for $17/night with the interagency pass discount.

The campground is right by the Crystal River and one can easily walk down to its bank:

Did some light hiking, rode Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 dualsport over to the Redstone National Historic District.  Not much but picturesque houses bordering the single road crossing through the town.  There's also the Redstone Castle Hotel but I elected not to tour it since they want over $200 to do just that.  Apparently, a couple of presidents have stayed there.

Near the southern end of Redstone, were this row of coke ovens which attract the eye as one drives by on CO133.  These ovens were used to burn out impurities in the locally available coal, more info here: LINK

These are the other end of the above coke ovens:

A crumbling example of the coke ovens, it shows how it was constructed:

Wednesday, September 15

I drove over McClure Pass, still on CO133, and eventually made it to the town of Hotchkiss where I'll be glamping for the next 5 days or so.  There's the Colorado BWM West Rally this weekend and I hope to meet with fellow riders during the event.

I also hope to get some supervisory help in replacing the steering head bearings on my 2014 Patrol sidecar rig: Scarlett.

The Delta County Fairgrounds, where these campsites are located; used to be available for camping anytime.  Now, not so much, you must be attending a scheduled event to use the camping facilities.  They apparently had some ugly trouble with homeless people and so have revoked the general access for camping.  Too bad really.

9/11 - It was twenty years ago....

Just a couple of thoughts on this defining moment in the American Psyche:

Twenty years, so much time, blood and treasure gone, in the blink of an eye.  Yep, trite and cliché, and yet.....

It seems to me, that we've not much to show for it as a nation.  

I'll fly the Colors today, in remembrance of the cowardly attack; but also in remembrance of how the country stood united shortly afterwards.  

Though, lately, I've thought it'd be more accurate to call ourselves the Disunited States of America. 

Never Forgive

I've no solutions.  I hope it doesn't take another such event to unite us again.  

Exploring "nearby" USFS Campsites: Winiger and Rainbow Lakes (almost)

 Today was a dual-mission day.  Mission one was to explore a couple of campsites that are close to the cesspool known as Denver Metro.  Mission two was to do a reliability test on the Sammy, involving city driving, serious 4WD driving and changing altitudes from 5800 ft to over 8400 ft.

First, departing home around 8:30 I think,  I drove to the city of Arvada (part of the Denver Metro cesspool) and picked up steering head bearing removal/installation tools from Brook R.  He's a local airhead guru and I'm hoping that since URALs are pretty much a knockoff of old Airheads, the tools used on such might work on Scarlett, my 2014 Patrol once I get around to replacing the steering head bearings.

Tools picked up and since I was in the NW portion of the cesspool, I then took Coal Creek Canyon Rd over to a campground listed on Allstays.com as Winiger Ridge Campground.  Took me about 1.5 hours total, closer to 2 hours I think by the time I rolled into the campground entrance.

The road to the campsites, all tent only by the way, was via FR 359 which was a pretty rough and at times quite technical 4WD "road" leading one to a parking area called "Lakeside Parking".  It wasn't quite lake side of course, one must walk down a bit but not too far before being near the Gross Reservoir.

The Sammy did fine, and I did go into Low Range 4WD for the technical sections.  Let's just say that the Ural sidecar rig would have had a rough time on some spots and leave it at that.  Yagi, my TW200, would have been a blast to ride on that "road".

The view "lakeside" from nearby campsite 23

which was a steep walk from the parking lot.

Here's other views of the reservoir from different campsites that I checked out, looking for cell signal in case I lose my mind and decided to take up tent camping again!

If you look on the left of the top edge of the water,

 you can see the Gross Dam

The above are part of Thorodin Mountain, but the big rock

formation on the left?  Unnamed according to peakfinder app.

The above and below pics are views from campsite #4

I will be returning to Winiger Campground, if not to tent camp, to spend the day in what was almost absolute solitude!  I saw one other car and the USFS Ranger's Jeep go by while taking pictures, that's it!

Returning back to CO 119, the Peak to Peak Highway, I turned north to the nearby town of Nederland.  I wanted to check out the Rainbow Lake Campground that is accessed via the Caribou Road and later, FR 505.

The view near the junction of Caribou Road and FR505

The smoke/haze continues to make this area look like Los Angeles

on a bad smog day.

Sadly, it was getting close to 4PM by this point and FR505 turned into a pretty rough 4WD road.  I decided to leave the campground exploration for another day and turned around, making it back to Nederland with no issues.

At the main traffic circle in Nederland, one can see the only surviving Bucyrus Model 50-B Steam Shovel.  It's the only surviving one of 24 that were sent down to Panama to help build the Panama Canal!

From Nederland it was two hours to return home.  Traffic was quite heavy on E470, the cesspool's beltway of sorts.  At least the eastbound side moved, only coming to a complete stop two times, the westbound side was a bumper to bumper mess!

The poor Sammy struggled to maintain 60 MPH at times but did pretty good while staying mostly in the slow lane.  Made it home with no issues just before 6PM.  A good day of driving, exploration and testing to be sure!  Oh, the Sammy did GREAT!

A ride to Strasburg to catch "Big Boy"

 Sunday, September 6

After lunch at Bob W's home, four of us got on our respective motorcycles/scooter to ride over to the vicinity of Strasburg and Byers, CO to see the Union Pacific's 4014 Steam Locomotive pass by on its way to Wyoming.

Yep, it was Brigitta's turn for exercise

(1987 R80 BMW)

More info here on Big Boy: LINK, it's apparently one of very few remaining locomotives of it's era and size....1.2 million pounds in weight, impressive.

After seeing the traffic debacle near Deer Trail, CO....we doubled back along CO36 and stopped at a local grain elevator run by Cargill Inc.  There we awaited the arrival of the train.  Not too long afterwards, it was there, chugging along slowly.

Note: no sound, was using Thing Two's camera as my Sony HX80 is in the shop for repairs.  The Nikon D5300 I was using had the microphone turned off and I didn't realize this beforehand.

Note the two sets of wheels on the locomotive, due to its length, the wheels "articulate" for the sharper curves.

Once the train had passed, and the bumper to bumper congestion on CO36 eased off a bit (lots of people headed towards Strasburg where the train was scheduled to briefly stop); we too saddled up and rode towards Strasburg.

Jim M. and Dale B. look for the squashed pennies and

coins they'd pre-positioned on the track prior to the

train's arrival.

In the traffic debacle that was Strasburg, we found a place for the motorcycles, then we all split to find a good spot to shoot pics of the train as it pulled out.

Starting to leave Strasburg, CO

I was, quite surprised, by the amount of people that showed up to look at the train.  

The train gone westward, we waited a bit for the traffic to leave the normally sleepy town of Strasburg.

We rode home via CO36 to Watkins, and then took the road south to Quincy Rd and from there we each went our separate ways near our home neighborhood.

Interesting sight, this large locomotive, talk about "Big Iron".....