More Colorado

This may be our last travel post of 2018; so buckle up readers.

We’ve been hanging out here in Buena Vista, Colorado for more than two months now but we will be leaving soon and expect to be home in San Antonio by early October.

It’s been fun, it’s been (relatively) cool and it’s been much, much dryer than San Antonio, which has experienced one of its rainiest Septembers ever.

As the photos below will document we’ve been doing a lot hiking, a lot of traveling and some volunteering.

Since we arrived here in mid-July Betsy has been to Albuquerque, Santa Fe (twice), Colorado Springs, Denver, Vail and Crested Butte; mostly visiting friends and two of her former bosses. 

We’ve also had some friends visit us here in BV. 

Bill Montgomery and Dian Krause stopped by twice; on their way to - and on their way home from - Aspen, where they attended a wedding. Also, newly-minted Colorado residents Spencer and Karla Siemens made an overnight trip from Colorado Springs to help us check out the fall colors and secure a sixth-place finish in the Eddyline Brewery Trivia Contest.

I joined Betsy on the trips to The Springs and Vail and I’ve bagged a few more 14er summits. Both of us have spent a good bit of time on the extensive trail systems here in BV.

Betsy has been attending the First Presbyterian Church in the nearby town of Salida where she has helped with some of their outreach programs and as a Sunday greeter and I recently spent four days in the backcountry working with a Colorado Fourteeners Initiative trail crew.

One of the major events of the summer here in Buena Vista is the running of the third leg of the Colorado Burro Racing Triple Crown. For more information about this race check out these videos; race start, poop scoop, crossing the Arkansas River and the finish line.

This guy (and his burro) won the 13-mile race through the hills east of BV with an impressive time of just under two hours. They also won the much longer races earlier in the summer in Fairplay and Leadville making them the first-ever Triple Crown winners.

The winners heading toward the finish line in downtown Buena Vista.

Betsy was with a different Orbit at the Albuquerque Isotopes game.

Betsy stopped in Santa Fe back in June en route to California and went back in August to visit her old boss. When she heard that three Trinity friends - Julie Armstrong, Laurel Guy and Denny Post - were in Santa Fe, she went back again. Santa Fe is an easy four-hour drive, due south of BV.

There's no doubt about it; Laurel Guy and Santa Fe are a perfect fit.

Betsy also visited Julie at her house in Colorado Springs and they took a day trip to Cripple Creek to see the - what else- town burros.

 

Speaking of Colorado Springs, Spencer and Karla Siemens decamped this summer from Houston for this house on a golf course with a view of Pikes Peak from the back porch. Why would anyone want to leave Houston for something like this? Naturally, we had to go over and investigate.

 

This photo was taken just before we got kicked out of Spencer and Karla's country club.

 

So they re-paid the favor by visiting us at our "country club" for some fall colors.

 

We are all trying to adjust to retirement.

 

 

During one of Bill and Dian's stopovers we took a trip up to Leadville...

 

...where Betsy was able to get in a little mining after lunch.

We took a road trip over to Vail for its Oktoberfest...

 

...where Betsy not only found this distinctive hot dog hat but also found time to do some chicken dancing.

 

I'm still doing some 14er peak bagging and can be seen here resting on the summit of Mt. Harvard...

...and celebrating here on the summit of Mt. of the Holy Cross.

 

Just as I got back to my truck at the Holy Cross trailhead I heard a voice boom out Daaavvvee Paaaasleeeey! And I turned around to see my cousin and former Liberty Bluejays basketball teammate Chaz Bowles. Just a couple of small town Missouri boys bumping into each other all the way out here in hooty-tooty Colorado. Wow! Small world huh?

 

Chaz, his friend Erin and their dog had been out hiking the summit of Notch Mountain, a 13er that shares the trailhead with Holy Cross.

 

In the middle of September I worked with a crew of mostly volunteers from the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative to do some repairs and upgrades to a section of the trail to the summit of Mt. Harvard. We camped three nights at tree line at about 11,500 feet and worked on a section of the trail here in the Horn Fork Basin. The work site was about one mile from the camp, at about 12,200 feet. Mt. Harvard is in the center of the photo, just catching the morning light.

This is looking the opposite direction in the Horn Fork Basin with Mt. Yale in the center of the photo.

 

All of the volunteers and CFI employees were in their 20s and 30s with the exception of me and 61-year-old Jim Stackhouse from Fort Collins. Naturally Jim and I partnered up and, setting modesty aside, I must say that we rocked it. Literally, rocked it. For proof Jim made this time lapse video. The quality could be better but you'll get the idea. I'm the one wearing the red shirt.

The mission of CFI is very specific. They work only on Colorado 14er routes and their primary goal is to maintain and improve the trails to encourage hikers to stay within a narrow, defined tread and, thus, avoid trampling the delicate alpine tundra. The task for Jim and I and two other crew members was to build a small retaining wall in this section of the trail to prevent further erosion and widening. If you look in the far right-hand corner of the photo you'll see the edge of a large field of rocks and boulders. Our first task was to "quarry" some of those rocks and carry them over to the trail to use to construct the wall. Another group of volunteers was tasked with quarrying fewer, but much larger, rocks to build "steps" in nearby section of the trail.

Note that there is a base layer of rocks that we buried in the ground.

We also find the time to do things in Buena Vista, like attending the BV Demons season opener.

Not only are there are a lot of great trails in the Mosquito Mountains (background) but the town of BV also has a fairly extensive system of hike and bike trails.

We still like to take the "tunnel drive" along the Arkansas River every now and then.

Several days this summer the smoke drifted into the Arkansas Valley all the way from California.

Jared Polis, the Democratic candidate for governor, stopped in BV one day.

Occasionally we hang out at the trailer and grill.

Occasionally we have unexpected visitors.

Our "home" in BV.

Midland Hill at 9,500 feet is our "go-to" hike and offers great views of the town and Mt. Princeton, Mt. Yale and the Sawatch Range to the west across the Arkansas River Valley.

Good bye Colorado, we'll miss you.