My Journey

Arjan.....my guess is that the family that buys that property will build a huge multi million dollar home there and then restore that cabin as guest quarters possibly.....it would be an amazing homestead.....

Ace.....yea we are back in the mountains of Utah now where the nights are also cold.....locals in Colorado told me that our timing couldn't have been better. We arrived after the fall foliage was gone and before the ski slopes opened.....and we experienced unseasonably nice weather.....

JD.....one day was perfect for us.....it's a national park so.....

ITTOG.....this visit to Colorado was by far my favorite.....it's hard to believe how beautiful Colorados mountains are & the people I met this time were incredibly nice. I guess the biggest difference I see between Colorado and Montana has to do with population.....Colorado has six million residents while Montana has one million. And Montana is 50 % larger in land mass.....so.....

tgil.....I loved the drive getting there.....it must have something to do with where we started from.....

dogman1911.....thanks for posting. I tried to remember your name but of couse I could not. I only could remember "dog". It was good to speak with you and your wife.....speaking is something I don't do much of anymore..... so thanks for stopping.....



It was in the late 70's when I found myself in a 4 seat Cessna aircraft flying over the Amazon jungle. The plane was owned by catholic missionaries and I had bummed a ride.....I was not there to spread the word of God.....I was a young, wide eyed volunteer there to help the indigenous people of the jungle identify the boundaries of their lands.....a concept that they struggled to comprehend. The plane landed on a small grass airstrip and before it could come to a complete stop a wheel stuck in a soft patch in the grassy runway, the plane lunged to the left and the plane then took a nose dive. I thought at that moment in time that we were in deep ******** but we self rescued that day and lived to tell the story. I've had many adventures over the years and I've traveled quite a bit but one thing I can say for myself after all these years.....I've never needed to be rescued.....and I value that quite a bit.....I've often looked back at what was a life changing event for me early in my life and I tend to think that it's been a major force in my life since.....

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We were up early the following morning as Tanner & I had plans to climb Engineer Peak (12,972').....

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It was cold that morning.....and I do mean really, really cold.....

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The trails had yet begun to thaw so we carefully hiked up the mountain through the snow & ice covered trails.....

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It was looking to be a great day for a climb.....

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As the trail climbed higher up that mountain and we left the shaded forests below, I had hoped that the ice & snow would by now be melting.....

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Unfortunately we had started too early in the day and the melting that one might expect with the rising sun had not yet begun.....

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I had no tools with me.....heck, I didn't even bring a daypack. My plan was for a fast ascent, and then a quick descent as well.....

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At some point on the side of that mountain I began to think that this was more than I had anticipated. I had read that up high there was a ridgeline and cliff that weren't dog friendly so that was also on my mind.....

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Continuing higher up that mountain I began to cross quite a bit of rock with thin layers of ice. I tried to persevere but sometimes that's in nobodys best interest.....

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And so it was that there was no summit of Engineer Peak. It's important to me to not get myself in situations where I need rescue or help, and I couldn't help but think what would happen if I took a fall. This style of thinking goes back many, many years.....I'm not looking for a free (?) chopper ride.....

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So we were happy with a morning of hiking.....

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We found pleasure in the smaller things that are typically unnoticed.....

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We were smug with what was there.....

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And thankful for our little spot in the mountain forest.....

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Now as I looked back on my 5 day stay here at the intersection of the Million Dollar Highway and Old Lime Creek Road, I thought that I'd stayed much too long.....

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But sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks after having been traveling for so long.....and I'm just unable to move on.....

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So each morning I'd awake here and find some excuse to stay.....

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I walked up & down along the sides of the Million Dollar Highway.....and I walked along the creek.....I walked along the railroad bridge and just about anywhere else that I could find.....

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I watched the forest service helicopter as it passed back & forth over my campsite.....apparently a careless hiker had set the forest below Engineer Peak on fire.....

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I stumbled across an informal memorial that paid tribute to a man that had jumped from the cliffs into the creekbed several hundred below.....

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It was a 5 day pause simply to recharge the old batteries that lie within.....

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One day I decided to hike a pretty good distance north on the Old Lime Creek Road.....after speaking with dogman1911 and they telling me about their campsite my curiosity got to me.....

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The road passed by a beautiful mountain lake and of course we stopped here to explore the shoreline to.....you know.....see what we could see.....

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The road continued to climb higher and we continued along.....

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Eventually we reached the ridgeline where we had amazing views.....and we continued along.....

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Now the road descended from the mountains highest point and down below we could hear the sound of a river.....or I thought it may have been a waterfall.....and we continued along.....

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We finally reached the bottom of that mountain ridgeline and now we walked through a dense forest. I could see the river nearby with campsites along its banks and there was not a drop of water in that river.....so odd because just downstream it was flowing rapidly......the wonders of naure.....

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We continued north on the Million Dollar Highway and I was simply in awe of the million dollar views of the San Juan Mountains.....

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.....and then we approached the high point of the highway.....

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.....and from there it was all downhill as the highway took us to Silverton, Colorado.....

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We walked up and down Main Street several times.....and we walked many of the back streets as well. I wasn't sure what to think of Silverton, Colorado.....not a single person spoke to me.....I'm not even sure if anyone even noticed our existence. An hour later.....we were gone.....

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The plan was to camp a few miles north of town and hike to the Ice Lakes of the San Juan Mountains. We set up camp and shortly thereafter a chance encounter with a forest ranger changed our immediate plans.....apparently a careless hiker had set the forest on fire.....the trails were closed. We explored a few creeks.....

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.....all oddly colored.....

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We stayed the night and heard the barks and howls of the coyotes.....and we both loved those sounds.....

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One night here was all we stayed.....north to Ouray, Colorado.....

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But before we could make it to Ouray, Colorado, there was yet another mountain peak that I wished to climb.....

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Originally my thoughts were to take the Jeep up Black Bear Pass and make a quick ascent of the mountain.....

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But then I saw this group of hikers.....

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.....which made me think "heck, I'd rather be hiking too" and then I left the Jeep at the first pull out that I saw.....

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Now we hiked up the roadway and we had the place to ourselves.....not a soul on the mountain except for the other group of hikers.....

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Apparently this road is well known in the 4x4 world.....at least that's what I've been told.....

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But on this day it was the hikers paradise.....

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Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
All the small mountain towns in the San Juan’s were overstressed badly during the height of the pandemic. Hordes of tourists with no regard to masks, distancing, etc. What you saw in Silverton, and probably will in Ouray, is likely a reaction to that situation. It’s probably going to get bad again unfortunately.
 
Ace.....I wanted to visit Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride while I was in southern Colorado (which I did). Ouray was where I met the friendliest people and it was also the town I liked the best. Covid-19 ruins everything pretty much unless you're out in the wilderness where it does not exist.....


Eventually we parted ways with Black Bear Pass Road as the road descended towards Telluride yet we still had more to climb.....

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There was a faint trail leading up into the scree slopes but not anything really defined.....

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It was not so steep to what appeared to be the summit but that turned out to be a false summit and once there it really began to climb.....

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A fox crossed our paths as we progressed and he was a sly fox as he quickly disappeared into the rocks.....

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We climbed higher and made the summit of Trico Peak (13,321').....

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As we descended we once again crossed paths with the hikers.....

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It was certainly a great day in the San Juan Mountains.....

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tgil

Well-known member
Your impression of Silverton surprises me, some. Seeing your pics, you must've been through there 2-3 weeks behind us.
I found most of the shop owners to be friendly. There is a t-shirt type place called Fetch's and an art gallery/store that both really drew me in with kindness and conversation. Visited each multiple times.
I will admit, a coffee shop that had changed hands between my July trip and my Sept trip did disappoint.
We met great folks at the city park on several occasions. Some were travelers, others locals.
I think many of the places shut down "for the winter" sometime in Oct.
I also enjoyed Ouray, I just stayed too far out to want to walk the road to hang out in town. In hindsight, I suppose I could've used the trail along the river. Maybe I will do that next time I stay there.
I've heard a lot of good things about Ridgway, and will likely give that one a try next trip.
I know what year mean about colors of the water too! Ouray was just plain ugly, for a mountain stream. I assume it's the minerals?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Thoroughly enjoying your Colorado travels! My first time there was 15 years ago and it certainly felt different when I was there a month or so back. Whether that was due to the current politics and pandemic or just the population expansion, I'm not sure. It's such a beautiful place with so much to explore, I can't blame people for wanting to live there.
 
We continued north on the Million Dollar Highway and I was simply in awe of the million dollar views of the San Juan Mountains.....

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.....and then we approached the high point of the highway.....

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.....and from there it was all downhill as the highway took us to Silverton, Colorado.....

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We walked up and down Main Street several times.....and we walked many of the back streets as well. I wasn't sure what to think of Silverton, Colorado.....not a single person spoke to me.....I'm not even sure if anyone even noticed our existence. An hour later.....we were gone.....

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The plan was to camp a few miles north of town and hike to the Ice Lakes of the San Juan Mountains. We set up camp and shortly thereafter a chance encounter with a forest ranger changed our immediate plans.....apparently a careless hiker had set the forest on fire.....the trails were closed. We explored a few creeks.....

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.....all oddly colored.....

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We stayed the night and heard the barks and howls of the coyotes.....and we both loved those sounds.....

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One night here was all we stayed.....north to Ouray, Colorado.....

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The colors that you are seeing in the creeks and rivers are from all the tailing mounds that you see everywhere around Silverton and Ouray. When I lived in Vail back in the 80s the Eagle River was that
color and the tailing ponds around Minturn were on the Superfund list.
 

longhorn1

Observer
Million Dollar Highway is one of our favorites. After Crested Butte and Lake City back country camping we stayed at Ridgway State Park. Drove down to Silverton and stopped at Ouray Brewery to pick up some beer. Plan on spending more time in Silverton and Ouray next trip. Headed to Telluride after that to Last Dollar Road and the aspens were in full gold. We were home when the Ice Fire started. I'm a member of the San Juan Mountain Trail Group and one of the administrators worked on the fire team. They had to rescue 20+ hikers by hellicopter. Kept the fire North of the road, saving South Mineral Campground, Ice Lake trailhead starts at the campground. They got two snow storms that helped put out the fire. Someone rolled their jeep off Black Bear. He placed it in first gear, set the emergency brake, and got out to direct someone, and the jeep rolled off with his girl friend and two black labs. The girl and dogs were thrown out. The girl has spinal injuries, both dogs were fine, one went missing for a couple days. Turns out a person driving the road with a Go Pro, just missed being collected, maybe by 20 feet. It is on YouTube and was all over the National News. Guess the driver of the jeep that caught it had to change his tidy whities. Black Bear is one of the most technical off-road trails in Colorado. https://www.thedrive.com/news/37023...e-after-falling-off-colorados-black-bear-pass
 
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Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
That’s misuse of the term “technical” when describing Black Bear. It is treacherous as the Sheriff stated. The trail is difficult because of the very tight switchbacks and narrow shelf road. It’s unforgiving for careless drivers. There is a section called the “stair steps” that is moderately difficult but quite short. I have driven it five times with no issues. I’ve led groups with limited experience on it four of those trips with no trouble. The most deadly trail in Colorado is the Schofield Pass road. It’s claimed 13 lives but it’s not very technical. Just very narrow with almost no where to pass.

You’re absolutely right about that GoPro guy. He was damn lucky! If you watch it closely you can see the entire roll cage depart the Jeep.


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longhorn1

Observer
That’s misuse of the term “technical” when describing Black Bear. It is treacherous as the Sheriff stated. The trail is difficult because of the very tight switchbacks and narrow shelf road. It’s unforgiving for careless drivers. There is a section called the “stair steps” that is moderately difficult but quite short. I have driven it five times with no issues. I’ve led groups with limited experience on it four of those trips with no trouble. The most deadly trail in Colorado is the Schofield Pass road. It’s claimed 13 lives but it’s not very technical. Just very narrow with almost no where to pass.

You’re absolutely right about that GoPro guy. He was damn lucky! If you watch it closely you can see the entire roll cage depart the Jeep.


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We camped up at Paradise Divide and passed the cut-off at Schofield Pass for Devil's Punchbowl. I read about the Chevy Suburban that rolled off with all of those people. I just watched a video of a guy on a dirt bike that went off the trail, went airborne, and landed in the Devil's Punchbowl. His GoPro showed it it all and his struggles under water. He was able to get out.
 
tgil....we were there on the morning of November 2nd which was a Monday. It could have been that everything was closed down since it was a Monday, or maybe it was because it was in between busy seasons, or maybe because of Covid-19.....who knows. I wasn't trying to disparage Silverton, Colorado in any way.....which is why I said "I wasn't sure what to think of Silverton, Colorado". One little thing I've been trying to do lately is to visit some of the small shops in the small touristy towns and buy crap that I really don't need.....just hoping in some small way it helps out the small business owners....couldn't do it in Silverton, Colorado.....

blanketslayer.....it's such a weird time to be traveling (or just living really). The mountains of Colorado are magnificent as we are both lucky enough to have just seen. The people....who knows.....everybody is so stressed out and sick of what's going on. I feel so fortunate to be able to live my life of solitude right now.....

ghostdancer.....they sure make for some interesting creeks. I wonder how the wildlife deals with that. I'm assuming that it can't be consumed.....

JD.....WOW ! That's a lot of interesting information. I saw a thread on here about that Jeep crashing but didn't realize that it was there.....

Ace.....that road looked like it could be a great hiking trail instead of a four wheel drive road. Close it off to vehicles and problem solved ! I'm sure that statement will go over well here.....



I continue to post.....I continue to travel.....once nearly 2 months behind.....now 2 weeks behind.....it's a lot of good work.....but it seems like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom.....


We once again continued north on the highway and we once again descended from a big mountain.....

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If you plan to visit Ouray, Colorado let me suggest to you to come from the south. That drive down the mountain and into town is absolutely sensational.....

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We arrived in Ouray, Colorado late on a Tuesday afternoon and parked the rig on Main Street and began to have a look around. Everything was open here so we hit a few of the touristy shops, walked up and down a few streets, and we then decided that we liked this little town.....

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Now I'm always poking around places or researching on the internet trying to find interesting thinks to do. Here I found that there was a trail just outside of town that led to the summit of Twin Peaks (10,798').....and that sounded like something that we'd like to do.....

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We spent the night just outside the town limits.....then we returned the following day with yet one more Colorado mountain summit on our minds (and then hoped to finish the day with a soak in a hot spring which Ouray is well known for). To make the hike a bit more challenging, I parked the rig in town and hiked from there.....added a few miles and quite a bit of elevation gain.....

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