Rocky’s Web

Archive for August, 2008

Where are we??

August  12—–Where are we? Technically we are in CO still, because the border of WY and CO. goes back and forth for awhile.  We did drive through some of WY. and are parked only about a mile down the road from the sign that says leaving WY. We will be heading in that direction tomorrow as Rocky will be headed out for 2 nights on the trail toward Rawlins. We are hoping to find the rodeo grounds there, because he will want to rest the horses after being out 3 days and covering the quite a few miles.

Guess we were told the truth about cell phone service, Paul seems to have it and can make calls in the US, but since it going through another carrier can’t go through to Russia. I tried the wireless on the computer to check email and no luck and was told searching for service on my phone. Maybe later I will try to stand in a different spot and see what happens. There are mountains all around and lots of open range land, so have to watch for cows in the road.  I am just glad that we are driving during the day, so don’t have to try and see them at night.  I will just have to use the phone card at a pay phone if I can’t get cell service.  Paul’s fiancée was denied her Visa from the Russian embassy, so was unable to come over on her planned date.  The revised plan is he will go over there once the ride is over.

While we were in Granite, CO. Paul bought a gold panning kit and tried his luck at it, no big strike, but did find some little slivers. Guess a couple that had been panning up in that area for about a week had come across about $1000 worth. This whole area is rich in minerals, so who knows what you will come across, it is a time consuming process to pan for gold and make sure it is the real thing not just “fools gold”.

We didn’t manage to get any pictures downloaded yesterday, but they will be coming when time permits. Speaking of pictures did get some of the Memorial for the 10^th Mountain Division that was up at Tennessee Pass, the other side of Leadville. It pays tribute to the troops that belonged to that group of soldiers who were trained at Copper Mountain for ski service and wilderness survival that lost their lives during WWII. They also have a highway named after them.  There is a unit of the 10^th Mountain Division that is located at Fort Drum in Watertown, NY.  Also, beside it was a Memorial for the 99^th INF Battalion.  While we were there waiting for Rocky to arrive, quite a few cars stopped to look at them. It is really heartwarming to see the patriotism that has been displayed. It is a heavily traveled road, so can imagine quite a few people stop on a daily basis, because it is a touristy area.

I did get a couple more keep-sakes from this trip, a couple of the glass tops that are on the phone lines, one white and the other green and a railroad spike. Those are the kind of things that are more meaningful than the t-shirt or whatever you can pick up in a store. Rocky found them while riding along the tracks. I did walk down to the railroad trestle that was on his route, and the plate on it said it was built in 1919 by the Virginia Bridge Company. I can see why the horses have such a hard time in that terrain, because of all the rocks and gravelly type soil. I know I slipped a couple of times going down the bank and coming back up. I know you family and friends will say that was more my uncoordinated nature than the ground. That could be partly true, but I had my boots on, because didn’t want to take any chances of meeting Mr. or Ms Snake in my travels.

Well I am running out of battery, so will stop here for now. Will finish it or send it later depending on if we have service or can hook to the generator.

Wyoming!!

I left Columbine on August 12 at  8:00, hoping to make enough mileage to meet the crew on Hwy 70 in Wyoming.  I was to come out on Hwy 129 (which I started out on through the Colorado mountains), but ended up coming out on Hwy 130.  I never left the main dirt road and don’t know how that happened.  Anyway, I was able to contact Paul and rode on up Hwy 70 to where they had parked the trailers for the night.  I traveled over 37 miles that day on Blackie.  He was getting a little tired at the end of the day.  My GPS showed I crossed into Wyoming at about 2:00 that afternoon.  The road I was on weaved in and out of the border, so when I met the crew, they were camped in Colorado and a sign just 50 yards up the road said “Welcome to Wyoming”.  I didn’t see much wildlife through the trip, but did see 2 emus, and a few deer.  A rancher, later, told me that what I rode through was the worse location for black bear.  A friend of theirs that watches the sheep for them, has killed over 70 black bear in the past 10 years and has already killed over 6 this year, alone.  They are a pest to the sheep and his cabin.  The little snake river valley is a beautiful valley, but on either side is nothing but hills and mountains that seem awfully bare.  I met the owner of Ladder Ranch (their blog is www.ladderranch.com .  His name is Patrick O’Toole.  He and his son (who just got married in June) were very informative about the local folklore.  If you saw the movie about Jeremia Johnson (trapper), then this is the place where he and his Indian wife homesteaded and where she was murdered by the local Indian tribe.  It is also the place where Butch Cassidy and Sundance spent a lot of their time.  There were other folkmore stories, but Patrick said to visit his web site and learn more.  He did invite me to stay, but I explained my mission and my crew waiting.  He runs a few thousand sheep and has grazing rights in most of the local mountains, all the way north to Montana.  He has a very large operation!!  He said to also visit the Western Folk life Center web site to learn more. 

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It’s after 8:00 and I’ve started on my northern trek through Wyoming.  I left Savory, Wy at about 7:30 on a dirt road, country road 301 towards Rawlins.  I’m riding Pepe and leading Soldier.  Blackie had the last 2 days, so he needs the rest.  Pepe and Soldier should be out the next couple of days.  It was cool this morning, about 40 degrees.  I started climbing and at about 11:00, the temperature had turned to about 90 degrees.  I sure started drinking a lot of my water.  I was able to find a few water holes along the road for the horses.  I see antelope about every ½ mile.  They are everywhere.  I also jumped about 6 grouse along the road.  By 6:30 I needed to try to find a place for the night.  There were no trees to tie the horses to and very few fences I could tie to.  I finally stumbled onto an old sheep corral and decided to settle in there.  The fence only had one opening, and I put up a gate and log across it so the horses couldn’t get out.  It would be good eating for the horses overnight and I was right beside a nice little creek.  I rode for over 11 hours and did about 29 miles.  Pepe is a little slow or I probably could have made a lot more miles.  I put up the tent and eat my MREs then settled for the night.  My new “mummy” bedroll was quite warm.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Well, today was quite adventurious.  Soldier woke me at about 6:00, nibbling on a bag of feed I had outside the tent.  I shooed him away and decided I needed another hour of sleep, then, at about 6:45, I noticed it was quiet outside, so I looked and “behold”!!  no horses!!  I immediately got up, got a lead rope and started tracking.  Soldier must have busted down the temporary gate I had fixed and they both had taken off.  Luckily, the valley was about 200 yards wide with a creek in the middle and both sides were pretty steep and I doubted they would have tried to climb.  I found their tracks in the road and headed north.  I hadn’t gone 100 yards, when a pickup came up.  I stopped it and it was a Game and Fish rep from the Dept of Wildlife.  He said he would help and drive me on up the road to try to find them.  We went about ¼ mile and off to the left was a new canyon and there they were.  I walked up to them, put on the leads, then rode Soldier back to the camp, leading Pepe.  Boy!! You don’t know how it feels to be out in the middle of no-where and missing your transportation.  If there were any trees around, it would have been very difficult finding them.  Well……another experience!!  I’ll learn to build a better gate or tie my horses at night.  I finally got off about 8:30.  I had put in about 20 miles by 12:30, and had contacted Paul and Kathy to meet me on Hwy 71 for lunch, which they did.  I was riding Soldier (who was a little bit faster that Pepe and has had to pull him most of the morning) so when Paul and Kathy showed up (bringing another set of reins, because Pepe had stepped on them while I was opening a cattle guard fence) I loaded my pack in the pickup and Kathy started riding Pepe.  We rode for another 14 miles to Rawlins.  I had traveled a total of 34 miles and about 11 hours.  The crew had set up the trailers in the local rodeo grounds.  We now have pens for the horses, water and electricity.  Paul came up and said “listen to this”.  He had his weather radio on and I couldn’t believe that it was a local storm warning.  There was to be from 4-6 inches of “snow” in the mountains above 8,000 feet and a cold front with rain and temperatures to drop 40’s and below.  I thought  August was to be the hottest part of the year.  I decided to wait it out (which was to pass in 2-3 days) and not attempt to ride in that kind of weather.  Thank goodness because cold rain just isn’t for me.  I’m beating my body enough each day, just riding 10-12 hours in the saddle and I don’t need any complications. 

Steamboat Springs

Steamboat Springs, CO. is really a beautiful place, as that is where we are sitting today for our rest day. Actually it is more like catch up day, figured I would get a start on the writing, or go as far as I can before the computer runs out of power. I already did my best to clean the camper on the inside, but between all the things we have with us, the limited amount of space with 2 people and 2 dogs, it certainly won’t  pass the white glove test.  Rocky and Paul went off to do some errands, then it will be back to get some computer work done for WY, post more pictures, and make more cards to hand out. So you can see that there is always something to do.  It is actually hard to remember what day it is without looking at the calendar because they all seem to run together.  Without stopping and picking up a newspaper,   it is hard to know what is going on out there in the world, the weather, or even just the few good things that are happening. Paul  has  tried to get the tv in and no luck. There is no local radio in some of the towns either.  Same with cell service, and have been told it is even harder to find the more north that we are.   

Here in Steamboat Springs, we are camped at the rodeo grounds, which are located in a park in downtown at the base of a mountain. They have a huge slide that you go up on a chair lift and slide down to the bottom , it seems to be a popular attraction, as there are 2 side by side, so you can race your friends. I have no clue what they charge, as it doesn’t interest me. They also have other things that look like they are related to winter sports. A baseball field is also there and a stable. I may wander over there and inquire about the prices. I have checked out some prices on  the flyers I have come across and they start at about $35/hour. Some places offer specials that include dinner and all day rides, but the prices are $100 or more. One thing I have noticed on our route scouting missions is there seem to be some almost new horse farms that are up for sale with 35 plus acres. I have no idea of the prices, but from the looks of the homes, I suspect that you better be a lotto winner or have a six or seven digit income.  I ran out of battery earlier today, so had to wait for the generator to repower before I could get back to this. Earlier this afternoon, a gentleman from the park came around and said he was suppose to ask us to leave, but wasn’t going to since we were leaving tomorrow anyhow. Even though it is a rodeo grounds , it is also a municipal park. It is pretty difficult to find places to camp that allow horses, and have room for Paul’s trailer. That is the main reason we have camped along the road, Wal-mart parking lots, a McDonalds that had parking in the back for oversize trucks, and a couple of highway garages. Nobody bothers us, and the night sounds seem to vary depending on where we are. Trains are the most common one for us, here in Steamboat, and our previous nights.  Looks like a lot of coal is being moved and even saw some  Amtrack  trains.

White water rafting and bicycling seem to be the major activities in the area along the Arkansas and Colorado Rivers. Loved looking at the water and the scenery along there, bet it was beautiful from the river. It seemed like every other car/truck had one or the other along. Paul went over to one of the outfitters in Granite and asked about their prices for a day trip, and they start at about $99 and go up, with special family packages. It did look like a fun thing to do, but will put that on a future wish list. I did notice that a lot of the kayaks that are used are smaller than the ones I am use to seeing back home. Looked like everyone was having a good time, and the guides that were giving safety instructions   before the rides seemed pretty easy to understand from what was overheard.  Know if I was heading down river would appreciate all the help I could get.

Is there anyone out there who has a donkey and into running?  If that is your idea of fun, then plan on entering the marathon in Leadville, CO next year. We happened to come across their Boom Days on August 3, while on a route planning mission. This was one of their events along with the best costumes of the period the town was founded.  Each donkey wore a pack saddle and carried along a small pack with the runner’s water etc. I asked one woman how far she ran and she said 13 miles. Rocky said he has the donkey Doddles at home, that he plans on teaching to pack, but I said who will run it. Running and biking aren’t things that I have an interest in.  The streets were closed and there were vendors’  for about 5 blocks. We also went through the building that the knife and gun show were in, which of course was the main attraction for both Paul and Rocky. Paul was interested in a couple of knives, but the vendor didn’t take credit cards, and the man told Paul to take them and send him a check later. Paul didn’t, but it was surprising that a complete stranger would allow this for a sum of about $300. It goes back to old fashion values about a man’s word being his contract. The Cowboy Way!

While we were in Salida on August 2, we took in the fair and the rodeo. The fair itself was small, mostly 4-H, with a few open classes in the craft and photography department. There were some interesting photos  a couple of lamps in the woodworking department that I would have been proud to own, one had a western scene on it, the other butterflies. What amazed me, the average sale prices that were announced for all the livestock that were auctioned off   as part of the fair. They were quite high in the thousands for both the beef and hogs, the sheep and goats were around $400. It was great to see that 4-H is still going strong in areas of the country. This program is excellent   and really helps the youth of this country learn responsibility.  The rodeo itself had a couple of events that are not usually seen at the ones in N.Y. breakaway roping for women and couples’ team roping. Even if they had them back in NY, the other contestants can breathe a sigh of relief, because I still have to work on my roping, before I subject my poor horse to me doing it.  Will say that anyone looking to get a good breakfast if visiting that town, go to the Patio Pancake Palace, great food, reasonably priced and very filling. I had the apple pancakes one day, and they even give you cinnamon syrup. The next day I had a strawberry Belgium waffle and had strawberry syrup. 

Phil enjoyed the afternoon that we spent with you in Salida. He is a friend of Rocky and Paul from Pueblo.  Phil is one of those guys who can keep you laughing and putting a positive light on all situations.  Sorry that you didn’t get a chance to use that fishing rod, and ended up playing chauffer. Think it took me 2 days, before I realized I could close the passage door on Rocky’s truck anytime that I want.  In Phil’s truck you have to let the back door close first, otherwise you can’t close the front. Liked hearing all those hunting stories, though I think the only way I would hunt is with a camera.  One thing I have to say is I am glad that those tires on Rocky’s camper weren’t put on with your impact wrench, after my latest disaster, otherwise they would have been harder to get off.  Know one thing, a tool box with essential tools are a must for that truck, Hope to see you again sometime soon, and meet Rose.

Well guess, I will stop here, but promise to write more often. I can’t believe that we will be in WY, this week.  Just have to keep the computer powered up.  Paul cooked an excellent dinner tonight on his grill of steak and baked potatoes.  Jazz and Cotton enjoyed their bones. Well better get the dishes done and check water buckets before bed.   Take care everyone and if you have any questions or comments we’d love to hear them.

Day of Rest

Today (Monday) was our day of rest, but I don’t think we got any rest.  It’s already after 5:00 and we haven’t stopped trying to get things done.  Paul and I went to town this morning to run errands.  We stopped by the Feed and Tack store and I got 3 more bales of hay and a couple more lead ropes.  We then stopped by the local RV store and was able to get a bracket for the awnig on the camper that was broke in the “crash” last week.  That is where we met Scott Singer.  He owns the place and after hearing our story of the ride, gave us a Satellite Personal Tracker (SPOT) that retails for $169.  All I have to do is activate it (which I did).  I will carry it with me for the rest of the ride.  If I need help, I hit one button, and if it is an emergency, I hit another button and 911 will be activated and my location given to the local authorities.  It also has an insurance policy that will cover all rescue and extraction expenses.  I will be able to give the information to anyone I want to be able to track my location and progress of Google Maps.  Thanks, Scott for your donation and assistance.   After that, we needed to repair the spare tire on the camper and the tire shop replaced a valve stem and filled it with air.  Paul, then, need another visit to Walmart, so we did and stopped by the local Market to get some food supplies.  Paul is firing up his new BBQ gril and will be making “steaks” for us tonight.  Kathy took the time to get caught up on her writing as well as clean some of the trailer, water and feed the horses. I got most of my computer work done and now……..maybe……we can relax!!  I’ll be heading out tomorrow for a 28 mile leg into Wyoming.

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

I left our campsite on Hwy 131, yet traveled 21 miles into Steamboat Springs to the Rodeo grounds where Kathy and Paul had set up camp.  I rode Blackie and he was his same ‘ole self…….acting “spooky” at anything that looked unusual.  The danger is if he were to act up while a car was passing.  He backs into the road to get away from anything he thinks might “eat” him!!  I overcome the possibility of getting hit, by letting him eat grass each time a car passes.  Luckily, there arn’t very many cars on the road between 8:00 and 12:00 Sunday morning.  I got into camp after 12:00 and averaged a good speed because I was able to trot, gallop, and run Blackie on the dirt roads.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon reconning the route towards Wyoming.  I’ll be taking Hwy 129 north out of Steamboat all the way to Hwy 70 (east of Savory, Wy).  I should be in Wyoming by at least Wednesday/Thursday and will have completed at least 1/2 of the ride.  When we visited with the forrest rangers, they also said that their section of the CDT was not good for horses.  He even said that at spots, motorcycles/ATVs couldn’t even make it, but it was O.K. for hikers.  Emphasizing once more the information about the CDT for horses.  We plan on taking Monday as a day of rest and “catch up” on many of our everyday items. 

Salida/Buena Vista/Leadville/Wolcott

It’s been another week and without very much internet/phone service so I’ll try to catch up. 

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Today, we plan on checking out the route I’ll be taking tomorrow.  From Buena Vista, we discovered a back road that not only by-passed BV, but paralleled the river and Hwy 24 for almost 10 miles.  From that point, I was to follow the abandoned railroad track  to a designated camp site along Hwy 24.  We left at about 10:00 and Larry decided to stay just in case a farrier called and could work on his horse.  After exploring the back roads and finding a place on Hwy 24 to camp, we decided to go on into Leadville and plan the trip further North.  To our surprise, Leadville was having their “Boom Town” days celebration and Sunday was the end of it.  We got into town at about 2:00 and decided to take in the vendors and explore the city.  We had supper, and left at about 6:00.  We got back to Salida about 7:00 and Larry said that he had no luck with a farrier.  He also said that he was going to leave the ride.  Of his 3 horses, one has a bad back, one has a bad foot, and the 3^rd needs shoes.  He said he was going to go back and pickup his pickup/horsetrailer, come back and pickup his horses, and possibly meet me, again, in Wyoming.  He was leaving his horses in BV with a friend until he comes back.  He was also going to pickup his other horse that he left in New Mexico.  We wished him good luck and that I was going to go ahead and start, again, on Monday. 

Monday, August 4, 2008

I left Salida at about 7:30 and followed a back road out of Salida, being able to avoid the town and traffic.  I met Kathy and Paul at a station on Hwy 24 for lunch and then continued on.  After taking some back roads, I got into Buena Vista at about 7:00.  They had camped on the south side of town by a Baptist church.  I had covered 24 miles and 12 hours.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

I left Buena Vista at about 7:30 and am riding a trail between the railroad tracks and the river on Blackie.  We’re in a valley between a lot of 14ers and my major obstacle will be the Arkansas river.  You can only cross it on bridges and they are far and few.  The current flow of the river was over 800cfm.  There were a lot of rafters  and kayakers on the river.  By 8:30, I had gone a little over 4 miles and had passed through about 4 tunnels in the road.  It is a beautiful ride (dirt road) just following the river.  It is still chilly (about 62 degrees) with a scattered, overcast sky.  Kathy and Paul met me at about 11:30, where the first bridge crossing the river appeared, so I could cross on the other side and ride the RR tracks.  I then followed/rode the abandoned RR tracks, that paralleled Hwy 24.  I was trying to stay off of the busy Hwy 24.  The tracks  crossed the river, but the tressel was too narrow for us to cross, so I stayed on the East side of the river, still following a road/path.  Not too far down, I ran into a headstone along the side of the road that read “Jane  Kirkam, my wife, died May 7, 1879.  She was 38 years, 2 months and 7 days old”  It’s now 2:30 and is starting to rain.  By 5:30, it was still raining, but Blackie pulled me through.  We went from trails, to no trails, to making our own trails because we couldn’t cross the river to get on the other side.  At times, the mountain was right up against the river, but we managed through.  The rain made it a lot colder.  I checked my thermometer and it read 55 degrees.  Blackie is really dependable.  He goes where you want him to go without question.  Up, down, through, etc.  The only drawback is that at times, he gets spooked at the weirdest things.  I will have traveled 28 miles today and about 10 hrs.    We camped in Hayden Meadow alongside Hwy 24.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

I left about 8:00.  It took me an hour to go 2 miles because there weren’t roads where the maps said they were.  I finally found what was suppose to be a county road, but it had locked gates on the road.  I found ways around them, and finally got to Hwy 11 that took me to Hwy 360 and on to Turquoise Lake.  I intercepted the trail for the CDT/CT route and started following it.  According to the trail books it was suppose to be 13.9 miles from the trailhead at the lake to Tennessee pass north of Leadville on Hwy 24.  The crew was to  me on the pass.  I’m now riding Soldier and thank goodness.  None of the other two horses couldn’t have made this route.  I do not recommend this section of the trail for any horses.  It was rough with long uphill rides on nothing but rocks and boulders.  Then, going down, it was the same and very steep.  A lot of creeks and bridges.  Again, I want to emphasize that section 9 of the CDT/CT should not be used with horses.  It was one of the toughest trails I’ve been through.  With all the problems with the trails, I’ve decided to try my road routes and see how they work.  I got to the pass at about8:30 and it was just getting dark.  No one was there and I couldn’t ride the road after dark, so I just decided to wait and see if they would show back up.  30 minutes later, Paul drove in.  He said he must have left just before I got there.  He did have some “hot” soup for me.  Since I couldn’t ride, he went back and brought up the horsetrailer.  We stayed there over night.  I had ridden over 31 miles and 13 hours.  Soldier was sure “beat”, but luckily, not knowing the trail, he was the only one that could have pulled me through.  He will now get a good rest and plenty of food.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Thursday, we explored the rest of the trip and visited with the Forrest Rangers at their office on Hwy 24 and Interstate 70.  One of the lady rangers gave us an alternate route to take, so we decided to explore it.  We drove to Dotsoro (on I-70) and took the road north to the Sweetwater road to the Sweetwater resort.  She said they had horse corrals, café, etc and the trail out of there to Trapper Lake would be the route to follow.  Well……neither the roads or the resort was what she had indicated them to be, so we went back to camp at Dotsoro for the night and go ahead with my planned route in the morning.

Friday, August 8, 2008

I left Wolcott on Hwy 131 at about 9:00.  We stopped and got water in Paul’s trailer and fill the buckets with water in my pickup.  We had run out of water for the horses last night.  It was 14 miles to “State Bridge” (crosses the Colorado River) and I got there at about 12:45.  After walking Pepe across the bridge, I met Kathy on the other side.  She said there was a problem with the trailer.  It seemed that when she turned on the road by the bridge with the camper, there was no place to turn around, so she pulled into the first drive she came to.  She couldn’t back it right to turn it around, so she asked on of the men in the camp (where she pulled into), to back it and turn it around for her.  He couldn’t quite do it, so when he pulled forward, it was so narrow that he punctured both left tires on the trailer, broke the hinge on the awning, scratched the camper side, and bent the steps to the door.  The first thing I had to do was to get the tires off so we could take them into town and get new ones.  It took me about 2 hrs to do that (mainly because of the jack I had to work with).  We got the tires off, picked up Paul (who had gone ahead to the camp site we had picked for the night) and headed for Eagle (which was the closest town that was to have a tire sales store).  It had 2 stores, but neither had the right tires.  We were referred to another store in Gypsum and headed that direction.  Not far and we ran into a COSCO store and I knew if they had tires they would be cheaper, so we tried it.  Sure enough, they had the right tires and would mount, balance, and dispose of the old ones for $89 a piece, but I had to become a member.  Well…..I guess I’m now a member of COSCO.  We got the two tires and head back to put them on.  It was now after 5:00 and I had to put on the tires and get that camper out of their packing place before dark, because I had left Pepe tied up to a tree by the camper when we left and I had 3 more miles to go to the camp before it got dark.  As I started putting the tires back on, Kathy said she would start walking with Pepe up the road, which would put me that much closer.  I finished putting the tires back on (with Paul’s help), got the camper out, but with another minor accident (it was a narrow drive).  I hit a rock with one of the jacks under the camper and knocked it out of alignment (what a day!!).  We caught up with Kathy about 2 miles down the road.  I switched and rode Pepe on into camp.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

I got started at about 8:00 and was riding along Hwy 131 towards Steamboat Springs .  I went 10 miles and met with the crew for lunch.  At the same time we could see a large storm coming over the mountains towards us.  We just had enough time to load Pepe in the trailer before it hit.  I was going to trade Pepe for Blackie because the last ½ mile, Pepe was favoring his right rear foot.  He didn’t want to put any weight on it.  The rain hit and it was so bad (electrical storm) that I decided not to continue for the day.  We then camped at Yampa and drove on into Steamboat Springs to check on the rest of my route.  We talked to the grounds keeper at the rodeo grounds in Steamboat Springs and he said we could camp there Sunday and Monday.  It is a very nice rodeo grounds.  I should be in Steamboat Springs by tomorrow evening.