Camped off FR 3481A. Day 13 CDT

Bob’s Back.

Bob is almost back to his old chipper self.
He had a rough go for a while but by this morning he was ready to go.

Cheryl’s son Ken arrives.

The original reason for us to stop in Buena Vista was to connect with Cheryl’s son, Ken.
Ken arrived a little after 9:00. He is leading us on a side trip over Tincup Pass and through the “Ghost Town” of Tincup.

Here are Dennis, Ken and I checking out the map.

I don’t know why I’m looking at the map, I don’t have a clue where we are going and don’t really care as long as we are going.

Off We Go then.

We followed Ken south out of Buena Vista on Highway 285 for a while. Then we turned right onto the road to Mount Princeton and St. Elmo “Ghost Town”.

It wasn’t long before we were driving through more Aspin Alleys.

St Elmo.

After a while we got to St Elmo.

St Elmo is a “ghost town” from the 1870’s. It is apparently a popular tourist destination as well.

The town has some nice buildings from that time.

For our purposes, St Elmo is the turnoff for Tincup Pass, 12,482 Ft.

Tincup Pass Trail.

As soon as we started up the trail I knew we were going to need four wheel drive before this day was over.

As we climbed through the forest the trail became more interesting.

This trail is very popular and there is quite a bit of traffic. I was amazed by some of the vehicles that were on the trail.

I know that a lot of people were amazed to see our two old vans on the trail.

The road was pretty bumpy as we climbed but it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t enjoy the scenery.

I hit something in this puddle that spun the steering wheel out of my hands and bounced us off to the right side. I was even going very slow. I think it might have been that big rock in the middle

Tincup Pass.

Eventually we made it to the top of Tincup Pass and crossed the Divide for the 18th time (I think).

We looked at the view for a while…

Then started down the other side.

Going Down?

Getting to the top of Tincup Pass was fairly easy. Going down the other side was a little rougher.

It started out pretty good.

and got a little tougher.

There were fields of wild flowers to compensate for all the bouncing.

Taylor Reservoir.

We came down a rocky hill to a pretty little lake called Taylor Reservoir.

The trail goes through the water on the edge of the lake for about fifty feet.

Tincup.

We continued for a few more miles through the woods…

eventually coming to the “ghost town” of Tincup.

As in all these towns there are some very interesting buildings.

Cumberland Pass.

Our next objective was Cumberland Pass, 12,015 feet.
The road over Cumberland Pass was a lot smoother than Tincup Pass. 

Not far along the road we passed some beaver dams.

A few more miles down the road we came upon this old cabin in the pond.

As we climbed it began to rain.

After a while the rain let up and we got some fantastic views.

We Made it to the top of Cumberland Pass.

Note.
Bob has recovered from his altitude problem.
I think we all will feel a lot better when we get down to Lower elevations.

We took a looked at the view;  took a couple of pictures…

and off we went down the other side.

On the way down the hill we passed this old log building at this mine.

It was raining as we drove through the little town of Pitman.

At the far end of town we stopped to take a picture of this house.

Back on the Pavement.

A short distance after Pitman we got back on the pavement.

We were heading for Highway 50 where we would part from Ken.
He was heading home to Colorado Springs, bout a 3 hour drive.
It was really nice of him to come this far to guide us on this great side trip.

Looking for a Camp.

We turned off Highway fifty onto FR 114 and followed it south for several miles.
Eventually we found a small road going to the left.
I drove up it to see if there were any places flat enough for a camp.

On a rise above the valley with a nice view we found a more or less flat area where we camped.

A Good Storm.

It was pretty windy when we stopped and we could see that we might get hit by a thunder storm that we could see in the distance.

I fixed our supper; pork tenderloin, green and red peppers, onion and canned potatoes, in gravy.

After supper we went to Cheryl and Dennis’ to visit. We sat around in the wind and spitting rain for a while discussing tomorrows plan
and just BS’ing.

After a while Patti said that she was cold and was going into the van. I agreed with her and we said good evening. We no sooner got to the van when it started to rain big fat drops and plenty of them. By the time we got squared away and in side the van we were wet.

We turned out to be right in the path of a rocky mountain thunder storm and it was great! It started around 8:00 and the first half was over by 9:30.
There were dark clouds blotting out the stetting sun, thunder rolling up the valley and lightning flashing between the clouds and striking the ridges around the valley. Of course we were so engrossed in the storm that we didn’t get any pictures.

Except for this one of the rain through a side window in the van.

The storm rolled through and was pretty much blown out by 10:30 PM.

Buena Vista, CO. Day, 12 CDT

A Bad Start.

In the morning Bob was very sick. He was vomiting and was he very disoriented. We figured that he was suffering from Oxygen Deprivation due to the elevation.
Eventually we convinced him to ride with me and let Dennis drive his van. Patti rode with Cheryl in her jeep.
We had to get him down off the mountain as fast as possible.
That isn’t easy as the lowest elevation in this area is still over 7000 feet.

Buena Vista.

Eventually we made it to Buena Vista.
Cheryl, Dennis and Patti booked a room at motel. We got Bob into the back of his van and I drove him to a small park across the road where he could recover.
Patti and I went to the Buena Vista Pharmacy and purchased a small bottle of Oxygen. We took it back to Bob and left it with him.
He seemed to be a little more coherent.

Lunch

Cheryl, Dennis, Patti and I went to lunch.
After lunch Patti and I stopped by to see how Bob was doing. He was some what improved so we left him and went to the motel.

Bob is Better.

Around 4:00 Bob came to our room. He is about 90% better.
He said he would meet us tomorrow morning to continue the trip.

Boreas Pass. Day 11, CDT

On The Road.

We left our camp on Lynx Pass around 9:00 and continued our travels south.
Of course we drove through some beautiful country.

We drove past this old Stag Coach station.

More Wild Flowers.

We passed a lot of wild flowers, mostly Fireweed.

Girls on Horseback.

We stopped on the road to let these two girls get by.

We climbed up and down mountains with great views.

This is our first view of the Colorado River.

Rafters.

We stopped for a break at a raft put-in on the Colorado.

More rafters on the river.

A Strange Machine.

As we were driving down this dirt road we came upon this odd looking piece of farm equipment. We followed it for a while until the driver found a place to pull off.

Rain and No Wipers.

We got a few rain squalls along the way. To get the wipers to work I have to hold the switch in. It kind of works like an impulse wiper. When I get the impulse I push the button.

The Rocky Mountains are very scenic.

Breckenridge, CO.

Eventually we arrived in Breckenridge; a big ski resort town.

Her are some of the gondolas they use.

This is a pretty busy place and we got turned around for a little while.  Eventually we got out of there and back on the trail.

We started climbing Boreas Pass, 11,482 feet.

We found a camp spot off the road at 11,120 Feet.

After parking the van and fixing dinner we went over to Dennis and Cheryl’s to enjoy a camp fire.

Breathing at this altitude is a challenge. We had a hard time sleeping as every once in a while we found our selves waking up gasping for breath.