...Camping in Idyllic settings is dangerous. This is a semi-brief trip report of my and my buddy Ron's trip to Colorado this past weekend. Posted here, because, though I was on my F800, Ron is a newly-minted Jeep nut. The trip was planned as a dual-purpose trip: we would go to just South of Rye on Thursday, see friends there, then bust out on Sunday and spend a couple days touring before blasting back on Tuesday. The plan was for me to meet Ron in KC early on Thursday, crossload my sleeping bag (just because it's bulky) into the Jeep and head out. As timing would have it, my front TKC reached the point of cuppage that meant it was time for a new one, so KC meant a trip to Engle Motors, who hooked me up with fresh rubber for the trip. Then it was down to Emporia, and across the vastness of KS. The wheat harvest was in full swing: Luckily you can still (just) fit by a combine going the other direction on the hwy. We made it to our campsite too late to get any good pics. Here's a daytime shot: Like I said, the original plan was to hang out there, and roll out on Sunday. However, as soon as we woke up on Friday, the mountains started taunting us with their proximity. We hung through Friday, then Saturday saw us packing up first thing. Our tentative plan was to go south through Medano to the dunes, camping whenever it got late. We'e then work our way back around, Hit Hayden, then work our way North toward CO Springs, our eventual destination. As it turns out, We then decided to go hit Hermit Pass first. We headed North toward Rye, past the tiny burb of Apache something: More later, going to take the boy to see The Last Airbender...
So after grabbing a few more supplies, We headed north. And stumbled across this: Which I had heard of, but never seen. I think he would fit right in downstairs in CS&M: That wasn't planned, and we did spend a bit of time poking around there, so it was already midafternoon by the time we hit Silver City/Westcliffe. An awesome burrito (which I failed to photograph), and we were headed up Hermit Road: Piece of cake... ish. It got steeper and rockier fast. Not terrible, but about as much as I wanted with the 800 fully loaded. It was certainly enough to confirm my opinion that I need a suspension upgrade; it was very choppy over the rocks. Before long we had our first bit of foreshadowing:
More up, up, up and more beautiful scenery Stopping occasionally because my forearms were tired (yeah, I'm a flatlander) Finally got to the trailhead for Hermit Lake. It is about a half mile walk, which is relatively flat for where it is: but well worth it (Note to self: add an inflatable boat or at least a fishing rod to the packing list)
Back up the hiking trail Past these guys, who weren't impressed by us at all: Uh oh: It was too narrow for the Olds... and it was already starting to get dark. So, we started back down the mountain to find a decent campsite. It was also starting to sprinkle. We drove a bit down the mountain, til we came to this campsite: Beautiful spot. There is are two wooden beams that works as a bridge across the upper and lower falls: This was not the dangerous part. I gathered a little bit of deadfall to start the fire with, but we needed a little bit of bigger stuff. We found a couple of pieces of leftover firewood, and I noticed that someone had chucked a couple of pieces into the stream, and they were lodged against one of the bridge beams. So, just walk on out there and pick them up: I was originally standing on just the beam. I thought I would be "safer" and get a wider support by stepping out onto the rocks....bad plan. Rocks were a bit slick:
That's what she... Never mind. It almost certainly would have gotten stitches, had I not been on top of a rain-slicked mountain in the dark. As it is, I'm just glad the big one mostly covered by hair (for now )
The next morning (which is actually from when the wound picture was taken; we were both too freaked to get one that night), we loaded up and headed back down to Westcliffe for gas and to head across the mountains to the dunes. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the wet rocks that I neglected to shut off my ABS for:eek1 Closer to the bottom: and a shot of Ron's Jeep: They were having a car show downtown: We gassed up, and noticed there were several BLM firetrucks gassing and heading south as well. The nice lady at the gas station told us we were out of luck, as they had just closed Medano pass due to a large fire in the area. So, one pass down due to ice, one due to fire. The next part of our trip revolved around the Springs area, so we plotted a course North on back roads that took us into the back side of, as the locals put it, "a big damn hole in the ground:" which is all touristy, certainly, but neiter of us had ever been, and it is impressive. I did neither this: or this: Funniest sign of the whole trip: and across the big hole: And North, to the next leg of our tour...
The next destination was Cripple Creek, via phantom Canyon. It is a very well-groomed old railbed. https://dongalus.smugmug.com/Travel/Colorado-July-2010/DSC00956/927857887_F3Q7C-Ti.jpg The biggest challenge was avoiding the oncoming vehicles that were driving like they were practicing for the Pike's Peak climb. Although it is well-groomed, it is certainly very narrow and twisty: Tunnels are cool A quick stop in Adelaide, to check out the old hot tub This is a really neat old bridge. It is a single I beam, with the roadbed on top like a tee: Welcome to Victor: Then a short jaunt up the highway to Cripple Creek: Which apparently now consists of wall-to-wall casinos:huh They were having some kind of celebration of Jurgen becoming a MOD... Since it was now midafternoon, we decided to take Gold Camp road through the Pike NF to CO Springs, and grab a hotel room so we could get cleaned up.
