Colorado Cruiser: 2019 Sept Mountain Man

2019 Sept Mountain Man - Day 4

Texas Lake

I decided to run the heater on medium last night. When I woke up at 2:00 the thermometer read 27 outside and 57 inside the tent. That's 30 degrees warmer. When I got into bed I didn't even bother zipping up the sleeping bag and I kept having to open the bag to cool off. It really was way too warm with the heater on medium and that zero degree bag.

I woke up a few more times through the night as it sprinkled on us. I was afraid it was going to pour rain on us in the morning.

I got up for real at 5:00 thinking that I'd work more on my blog. I rolled out of bed (literally) then exercised for a few minutes, dressed, and drove to the bathroom. No rain thank heaven.

When I got back I started the solo stove then cleaned up the last of the mess from last night's dinner. There was still allot of pulled pork because I'd brought 4 full pounds of meat which meant 1/2 pound for each of us, and that's really too much.

I fired up my griddle and tried making crispy pork. That is what we often do with left over kalua pork, fry it on a hot pan until it gets brown and very crispy. It was OK but not as good as crispy kalua. I think all the salt in kalua pork makes it taste allot better.

We gave the last of the pulled pork and crispy pork to Kaia.

Then I went back to my tent to write more on the Blog.

After an hour someone yelled "Hey electronics guy, do you want some breakfast?" DaveB was cooking breakfast this morning and he was starting with peaches and cream. He was peeling the peaches and they were freezing his hands but he kept going and they were delicious.

The sun was up by now and I pulled my zero gravity chair into the sun to write more of the blog. Someone started the main campfire so we could burn up what was left from last night's fire, and burn up the trash from breakfast. I pulled my chair close to the fire and kept typing until I heard people starting to tear down tents.

I didn't want to pack a wet tent so I started putting everything else away. I hitched the trailer to the highlander and loaded the griddle.

Everyone seemed worried that the solo stove would take forever to cool down but I wasn't worried. I knew from all the fires in Yellowstone that you could burn out a fire and cool off the stove in about 20 minutes if you needed to so before everyone had a heart attack, I tipped the stove over onto the fire pit, then tipped it back and rolled it away. It was cool within minutes.

DaveB brought out his drone about this time so I walked him through some of the cool features of the drone, like dronies, cork screws, and spherical panoramas. He flew it all around us because his has 30 minute batteries, whereas mine has 15 minute batteries.

I went back to packing. I really had brought too much junk, especially camera gear. I packed it all back into the backpack, then started loading stuff into the highlander and trailer.

One of my biggest hates is rolling up sleeping bags. I've always had bags that had to be rolled super tight and needed 4 hands to force it into the bag. So it's always a pleasant surprise when I roll up these new bags and they stuff easily into the bag. Then I snap the straps in place and tug the straps tight to compress the bags.

Finally I was down to the tent. It's an 8 man Kodiak spring bar canvas tent. It's not hard to pack up, but by this time, I was the only one with a tent left so everyone crowded around to help me.

We pulled the 2 side poles, then the spring bars and the center torsion bar. I used my electric impact wrench to remove all the stakes.

Did I mention that I don't pound stakes in the ground? I have 16 inch long by 5/8" lag bolts with big fender washers that I drive into the ground with an electric impact wrench. Once it has driven the lag bolt into the ground, the tent isn't going anywhere regardless of the wind. And I don't have to kill myself pounding then in or pulling them out.

Anyway, I removed the lag bolts, then we fold the tent in half, then in half again. We then folded the ground cloth in half, then in half again and rolled the ground cloth and tent up together.

The carrying bag is another ingenious invention. Rather than trying to stuff a 60 pound tent into a bag, you just roll the tent onto a big upside down T shaped piece of cloth. You take the 2 ends of the T up over the ends of the tent and snap 2 straps together. Then you can tighten the straps. Now you take the trunk of the T and wrap it over the top of the bag, covering the 2 previous straps and snap 3 straps together and tighten. So you encase the entire tent in the carrying case without ever having to lift the tent. Its great.

With the heaviest thing finally packed, I put it in the trailer, the stacked the rest of my stuff around it and I was ready to go.

We all talked for a bit more, but Thad, Chris, and Jayson had 8 hours to drive back to the Salt Lake City area and were anxious to get going, so they pulled out first.

Geoff also said goodbye and headed out. I don't even think I saw Ben leave, he just stealthed away.

Finally it was just the 2 Daves and me. Often they try to do another long ride on the last day, but I wasn't up for that, and neither was DaveW.

DaveB had told me about a couple lakes he'd gone to see on the first day that I had missed, so I asked him how far away they were and maybe we could go there. He said it was only 2 miles and DaveW agreed that was a short enough ride, so we grabbed a few things and headed up the trail again.

Not very far up the trail we crossed some big rocks, that's why we're camped where we are, because we couldn't get very much farther up the road.

We reached the spot where you turn off to the lakes. I figured we would walk across the bridge, but DaveB was already across the water in his quad. When we looked at going down the same trail, it was obvious it was too narrow for the Can Am.

DaveW got out and looked at where he could get off the road, then got back in to drive us down. DaveB started trying to wave us off, but DaveW just kept going. Right as we got to the bottom we hit a MASSIVE drop off into a big puddle. We got shaken pretty hard but made it through OK. Looking back we could see how the drop off was hidden from view from the top. There was a much better trail just 10 feet over.

We continued on across the creek and up the far shore, then followed the trail through the trees.

The trail was clearly meant for quads, not for the Can Am, but DaveW managed to get us through all the tight spots until we reached the lake.

It was a beautiful lake with a fantastic view across the lake toward the mountains. There was even a mirror image view of the mountains in the lake.

DaveW pulled out his fishing gear and tried catching fish for a half hour but had no luck. I just took pictures and anjoyed the peace and quiet.

I did try to fly the drone, but I'd left the data cable, brought the wrong phone, and sticker with the wifi password had rubbed off. I guess I wasn't meant to fly the drone today.

Once DaveW finally gave up on fish we got back in the vehicles and headed off. DaveB continued up another trail and both DaveW and I wondered where he was going. We both keep quoting Cool Hand Luke, "What we have here, is a failure to communicate!". We're never sure where DaveB is going.

We followed him up the trail. There were allot of tight spots, but we could see where previous vehicles had worked their way around them and managed to get through. A couple spots actually scraped both sides of the Can Am as we got through.

It wasn't long till we arrived at a second lake. It was another good size lake but not as pretty as the first one so we only stayed a few minutes.

Again, DaveB just hopped on his quad and took off on another trail. We said our quote and followed him out the trail. More tight spots, but pretty soon we came out of the woods back out at the water crossing where we began. It turns out the whole trail was a big loop.

We crossed back over the creek and down the road back to camp. Once we reached camp I climbed in the highlander and started for home. I took even longer to get out that any of my previous drives down this road. I took my time, expecting the Daves to catch and pass me at any moment, but they never did.

Climbing back up Cottonwood Pass was as nice as the way in. Such a great road.

As I neared the top, I noticed a paved offshoot right below the top. It seemed to lead to a scenic overlook, so I took it. At the end was a great view back towards Taylor Reservoir and the mountains around it. I took a few photos then back on the road.

When I reached Buena Vista I decided to get a hamburger. It was 2:00 and even though I wasn't hungry I was sure I'd be starving before I got home. When I got in line at K's burger place, I saw DaveB just ahead of me. He'd decided to stop as well, but DaveW had headed straight on home.

We got our burgers but neither of us wanted to sit and eat it here, so we said goodbye and headed down the road.

It was 5:00 by the time I reached home. The Saturday evening traffic down from Woodland Park to Colorado Springs is always terrible.

I unloaded and re-parked he trailer, emptied the highlander then took it for a wash and vacuum. Nan did my laundry (have I mentioned how wonderful she is?)

It was good to be home.

2:00 am and it was toasty a warm 57 with the heater on medium