2016 4x4 Trip - Day 4 - Goodbye Silverton Hello Colorado Springs

Everyone woke up for the day and went about making the nectar of the gods -coffee oh sweet coffee- and breakfast (Thrive - Oatmeal and Cream of Wheat, some with Thrive Strawberries and Pears + a family size $5 container of Cinnamon Rolls I picked up at Safeway before we left home.  The key is Safeway, their frosting is a thicker cream cheese type rather than the runny icing type at Fry's.)
I will admit that I actually woke earlier than the others and went on a small trek to a higher vantage point to get some lovely photos of camp before we left.  As you can see in the picture below The adventure duo left their hood open just in case another critter thought it might be a warm place to hunker down.

We broke camp and prepared for a long day on the road.  We also opted to make a quick stop in Ouray before heading straight for Colorado Springs. As with everyday we've been on the road so far we were once again delayed by road construction.  The road worker actually walked down the entire line of cars to let them know it would be at least 20 minutes so they should turn off their engines and could get out and stretch their legs, take pictures and converse with fellow travelers if they wished.  It was about lunch time so both the adventure duo and ourselves got out and made some lunch.  I managed to take some pictures of an old mining building that was just down the hill from us, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Luckily the line started moving again just as we finished eating our wraps.  Finally on our way to Ouray - I wanted to stop in at The Swiss Shop to see what selection of hand blown glass Christmas ornaments they had in.  Unfortunately their selection was not as good as it has been on previous visits, but I did pick one up for my Christmas tree.  While there The Man found he really liked a couple of hand cast pewter shot glasses so we picked up two of those too.  We stopped at another store that had Sierra written all over it and the kids and I managed to pickup a couple more souvenirs - both kids wanted the etched glass blocks that when lit looks holographic and I picked up a pretty rock.

We went back to the FJ and waited for the adventure duo to finish looking around.  They stopped at an ice cream shop to get a couple of milkshakes - they had tried yesterday in Silverton but were told by the employee that they didn't make milkshakes there, even though she was standing in front of a milkshake machine, lol!  Needless to say they got their shakes in Ouray for buy one get one half off to boot.  While we waited we noted that Billy Goats Gruff which was across the street from us had been cleaned up and was still for sale as it had been vacant since our very first trip to the area 4 years ago?  We joked with our friends when they arrived that when everyone retires we should come back and buy it as a retirement project!  But at $795,000 it would certainly need to be a retirement project!

Once finished we continued on the long road ahead.  We ended up in Woodland Park, which is situated just outside of Colorado Springs it was evening time and the weather was dark and grey with lightening everywhere.  There was a Jimmy Johns next door to the gas station we stopped at to fill up and we decided to have that for dinner since we weren't sure if the rain would let up enough to cook dinner.  We opted to camp in this area because we had passed a large laundry and knew we needed to make a run the next day to wash clothes before we ran out.  After consulting the abysmal trail guide book again we were headed down a national forest road to find a campsite.  Unlike the book which said we could get where we were going on this road, it ended at a private residence and a logging company.  There were signs posted stating "no camping" due to this section of forest being experimental.  It was starting to sprinkle so we opted to head back the way we came and stay at an actual campsite.  So with the rain pelting down in icy drops we setup as quickly as we could.  Thankfully the rain let up a bit as we were finishing.  Painted Rocks Campground was quiet and the bathrooms were clean and well stocked, they also had water available so the $20 per night although higher than we've paid before when having to stay in a campground didn't hurt quite as much as you would think since toilet paper was actually available in abundance and the bathrooms didn't reek.  Our lot was #9...I tried to take some pictures of the campsite with my iphone since it was drizzly and I didn't want to get out my Nikon and risk getting it wet, unfortunately when I pulled them up on the computer they were all blurry, pooh!

I pointed out the adventure duos red light (doesn't attract bugs) and walked over to ask Mike what he charges - he said it depends on how much beer he has, we were laughing as Amanda walked back from the restroom and shared our comments, we all had a good laugh before saying goodnight and heading to our bunks before the rain started coming down again.  I woke up a couple of times due to high winds, thunder and pelting rain but all in all it was a relaxing night.

For our cohorts thoughts and pictures of the day press the link below

The Adventure Wife - Ugh it was one of those days!

2016 4x4 Trip Day 3

While I was opening up the trailer to see about getting the breakfast stuff out I noticed that one of our chairs was tipped over in the dirt, but didn't see any animals around so figured we had a visitor in the night or the wind picked up at some point.
Before long Amanda came over and said that we were visited by a porcupine because there were quills every where under the jeep.  We came to find out that the porcupine took up residence in the Jeeps engine bay then after having water poured on him and being poked with a stick he moved down into the skid plates so Mike turned on the jeep and took it for a short drive.  The drive did its job and made him make a break for it, unfortunately he must have been hit by the drive shaft or something because he sustained a head injury.  
After ridding the porcupine from the jeep we started our day.  As a way to pass some time I counted beaver dens this year.  One year I counted waterfalls, then another one I counted Subaru's.  On this day trip I managed to count 7 beaver dams and dens but no beaver sightings.  

We decided to do Corkscrew Gulch and Hurricane Pass this year, since we hadn't managed to on previous trips to the area.  The SweetPea got car sick after a while of bouncing around so I got out of the car with her and we walked behind the FJ for a bit.  It was fine except for the fact that we were at 10,000ft and going up hill.  I radioed ahead to Pete and asked him to stop and wait for us at the next flat area he hit.  The boys were out of the FJ and stretching their legs while they waited for us.  I was very ready to get back in but Bubba said he wanted to walk for a bit....so I walked with him - not very far mind you but I did walk with him.  We all piled back in and bounced around some more, finally catching up to our adventure friends who'd stopped at a closed forest restroom area to wait for us, stretch their legs and let the pups run around for a bit.  There was a deer sighting (no pics), a chipmunk and marmot sighting on this trek.
There was a piece of land for sale, Pete had hiked over to see what the sign was.


We continued on going up, up, up towards thick snowdrifts and reached a small ice water pond where we stopped and took family photos while everyone played in the snow.  Going off of a trail book that turned out to be wrong....we had assumed we were at Hurricane Pass and we tried to continue on but were stopped by snow drifts closing the trail.

We turned around and headed back the way we came, when we got about half way back down the Adventure couple talked with a fellow 4x4 when they found out we hadn't actually made it to the Pass.  We opted to skip the Pass and continue back toward town as everyone was getting hungry for lunch.  Good news out of the mishap was Amanda found a much better book of trails from the 4x4-er and managed to purchase one at a shop in town for future use.

Once we got back to Silverton we tried High Noon Hamburgers for lunch.  The service was friendly however the burgers were not the best, they tasted like overcooked, over priced frozen patties. Silvertons version of fast food I guess.  We'd eaten at Natalia's 1912 and the Pickle Barrel before with much better results for roughly the same price tag $$.
We took a walk around town to try and find some souvenirs for everyone before heading back to camp.  I managed to find a cute little sculptural type art piece of a mining scene that I liked due to the mule being an ass, lol.  Bubba found a hat he couldn't live without and The Man picked up a bottle opener for our patio.  The SweetPea didn't see anything that spoke to her so she abstained from getting anything in Silverton.

Once back at camp we set about relaxing for a bit with some Triominoes and sitting in the shade. We made Pasta e Fagiole for dinner - again with Thrive products - We let everything soak for 10 minutes and then boiled it for 15-20.  We cooked the pasta seperately and added it after it was finished, again we used canned diced tomatoes.  It was very good and warming - we decided that more sausage, pasta and beans should go into the recipe for next time.  Unfortunately it seems I didn't take a picture of this meal!

Check out my video with a lot more photos of this day below!  It's a little long at 10:30 minutes but I promise it's fun to watch!

You can see this day from another point of view at my adventure friends blog, just click the link to check it out!
The Adventure Wife - Corkscrew Gulch and Hurricane Pass 

2016 4x4 Trip Day 2 - Silverton

Day 2 started with a lazy morning of watching the shadows move across the land before a quick breakfast and a return to pavement by 9:00am.

Morning at Camp

The Adventure Duo in the lead

Colorado here we come!

We stopped off for fuel and a quick picnic lunch - where we were approached by a European woman who drove up asking if we might have a wine bottle opener in our kitchen.  We actually didn't - she needed it to open a bottle to give some to her dog, it apparently helps her pup from having panic attacks otherwise it freaks out in the car.  Well what works for women should work for fur friends too I suppose.  Then we hit up the Honeyville Co. for some whipped honey and wine in Durango.  We continued on towards our staple stop of Silverton.  I know we said we were hitting up the Colorado Springs area and we are after a short stopover in our favorite area.

Back down to Lower Mineral Springs to grab a camp spot by the river to enjoy for today and tomorrow.  As we got further down the trail we came across roaring waterfalls and even a snowdrift that stopped others from continuing on, giving us hope that neighbors would be sparse.  The FJ was a trooper and after a couple of tries we made it through.  The adventure couple were just happy that they got to use their winch for the first time.

1 waterfall of many

3rd time is not the charm

The jeep can not pass - will the FJ

The FJ is KING

Please keep in mind that portions of the video are sped up for comfortable watching purposes, we were not going that fast!

Look at the size of this grasshopper

We ended up getting the spot next to an old mining building and runoff, right next to the river with amazing views of the mountains and even a beaver dam and den.

Camp was setup by late afternoon allowing us plenty of time to relax and enjoy the area before making dinner.  The kiddos and the fur babies continually enjoyed playing in the river even though the water was frigid.  The men got out the horseshoes and played a few games. While Amanda and I tied a guide line to a bottle of wine and anchored it into the water to chill.  

That's not the shadow figure of an old miner in the picture - that's my man

The Adventure Couple - How Sweet

Mineral Springs Mining Campsite

We made Potato Soup for dinner this evening and it turned out well, we need to soak the diced potatoes for a little bit longer on the the next run but otherwise it came out tasting fine.  We added sour cream,shredded cheese and diced green onions - yum!

Everyone but Ivan took a shower, it felt good to wash off the red dirt of Utah.  TheMan had ordered a couple sets of quick dry microfiber towels for our canoe trip later this year so we decided to try them out - they dried really well and dried out quickly.  You just have to get used to the way they feel against your skin - not bad, just different.

 We made a campfire and sat around enjoying the descending
 darkness before bundling up in our respective tents for the night.  It was nice and quiet with the back drop of white noise provided by the river.

The Adventure Wife