Colorado Cruiser: Mountain Man

This morning I didn't have to cook breakfast, so I slept in till 7:30. Once again the tent was warm and wonderful to wake up in. I dressed in the blissful comfort of a warm tent (was I supposed to put on clean clothes? I forget).

DaveB was cooking this morning, and like yesterday, we were nearly done eating before the sun finally climbed over the mountain and warmed the camp up.

Once again they prepped the quads for a long day of riding, I waved goodbye and got my guns out for some more target practice. The sun was really getting hot today, so I moved a 10 x 10 EZ-up over to shade me while I loaded.

After yesterdays long drive I had decided not to go anywhere today, so got myself really comfortable with a few snacks, cold water, my hammock, and a good chair. My chair wasn't so great, so I stole DaveB's chair from the camp fire to sit in.

Our shooting range is actually across the creek from camp, so every time I want to change a target, I have to walk 30 yards up the creek to set of rocks to cross over, then come back through the bushes, change the targets, then reverse. It's a bit of a pain, but shooting from this bank of the creek, across the water, and over to the hillside on the far side of the creek means it's very safe to shoot. No one is going to accidentally walk in front of you because they'd have to be walking into the water.

I shot about 50 rounds through the muzzle loader but couldn't really tighten my groupings up much more than yesterday. The trifocals still make it hard to line up the sights well, but it was still very therapeutic to load and fire the rifle.

For lunch I took some of the left over pulled pork from last night's dinner and fried it until it was very cripy. I added some of the left over hashbrowns and made a crispy pork hash.

After lunch, I pulled the hammock into the shade and took short nap.

I looked at my GPS a bit more, looking at yesterday's route and decided to drive up the road a ways to see where the road went. I only got 2 miles before I turned around. I'd scrubbed my tires pretty bad yesterday and didn't want to get a flat tire. So I just meandered my way slowly back to camp.

When I got back, I did a bit more shooting. After a while I heard the rumble of thunder off in the distance. A big storm was brewing south of me which is where all the guys had gone to ride. It looked pretty nasty and fast moving, so I spent a while checking vehicles, tents, and making sure nothing would be ruined.

Around 4:30, SteveH and BlakeB drove up in Steve's jeep. They had rented quads and left the Jeep at the store, so when they turned the quads in, they just got in the Jeep and drove to camp. No one had to drop them off or pick them up.

They had seen the storm coming, so they returned the quads a bit early and avoided any downpour.

By now the thunder and clouds were right on top of us. They liked my little nest by the shooting range, but Steve decided to expand it. He got his 15 x 15 EZ-up and we lashed up against the other so we had a big area safe from the rains. We parked his and my cars on the south side of the awnings to block any heavy winds if they came.

It started to rain, but it never got too heavy or windy. I think the nasty stuff went to the west of us. We sat in comfort for the next hour and shot pistols, rifles, and black powder.

At 6:00 we heard the rumble of quads and saw Andrew, Eric, and Chris pull in. They were all cold and wet from the storm. They'd ridden through some nasty rain and hail. They parked the quads and headed for tents and trucks to get some dry clothes on.

The rain had fallen to a trickle by the time Andrew was warm, so he set about cooking dinner for us. He was making fajitas with tri-tip. We pulled DaveB's BBQ grate out of his truck and tried to get some charcoal lit. The wind was blowing and made it hard to really get much heat on the meat so we kept lowering it and lowering it.

We heard another quad approaching and saw DaveW pull in. He'd missed all of the rain and hail while he searched for semi-precious stones up in the mountains. He took it on himself to get us a big fire going to warm everyone up.

Dinner was nearly ready by the time DaveB and SteveB pulled into camp. DaveB had rolled his quad and lost all the coolant in his overflow bottle. He filled it with water to get back. They had also missed the rain by hanging out until the storms passed.

By the time dinner was done the rain had stopped entirely and the skies were darkening. We all grabbed our fajitas and headed to the campfire to share stories and show pictures.

DaveB built the fire up so big we all had to scoot our chairs back a few feet, but no one could say they were cold any more.

As with the other nights, once the sun went down, you could start a short countdown until people started going to bed. By 9:00 it was just DaveB, DaveW, and me. And we didn't last long.

Eating eggs, bacon, and pancakes for breakfast