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Category Archives: Current Activities

Holiday Decorations

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

Carol and I have always been ambivalent about elaborate holiday decorations. We have had natural trees, artificial trees (boo), and now a little painted plywood tree made by a former coworker. Decorations go on the mantel; there are colorful magnetic ornaments on the refrigerator door, a Santa on the stand in the foyer, and a Menorah in the front window.

Holiday Lights

The big one is the 20 foot tall tree in front of the house. A few years ago something inspired me to light the tree. This entailed quite a project. The tree is between the street and the sidewalk, so I had to tunnel under the sidewalk to install a two inch pipe for the electric cord. We didn’t want a cord tripping people on the sidewalk. I dug, I pounded, tried a water jet,and dug some more.

The pipe is in, is capped and doesn’t show most of the year. After Thanksgiving I run a long extension cord from the tree, throughout the pipe, and up to the outlet on the side of the house. We decided to be old fashioned and use large colored bulbs rather than the mini lights popular today. Seven strings of lights for that big tree.

Next comes the hard part, getting those lights up. We have a big lighted star on top. Several seasons of trying methods have come up with the solution of putting the star on a stick and bungeeing it to the trunk. The problem is getting it up there without killing myself. That tree is TALL. I have wobbled on the top step of my eight foot stepladder, tried to place it with the long hooked pole I use for hanging the light strings, and prayed, while Carol is on the ground crying and wailing.

This year I drug out the 20 foot extension ladder after deciding my life was worth breaking a few branches on the tree. It turns out there is a sturdy side branch in just the right place to support the ladder. I firmly believe I have a guardian angel. Without that angel I would be dead many times over.

With the star up, is is just the matter of winding those strings of lights around the tree. Carol holds the string, and I put a kink in my neck placing the wires around the tree. The whole process took three hours this year, and I am still alive. The timer lights the tree from 4:00 PM to about 10:30 PM.

More neighbors on our block have lights, and it is festive out there in the evening.

Happy Holidays! Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All!

Posted in Current Activities, Family History, Holiday Lights, Home Improvement, My Story, Stories, Writing

Over Passes and Through Woods

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

West from Mosquito Pass

I have already written about nearly killing myself on Mosca Pass the week of August 24, 2014. After that little adventure, I continued my trip as planned. My goal all year is to get over Pearl Pass, the one my grandmother drove a wagon over when she was 12 years old in 1887.

Pearl Pass often does not open until late in the season every year, and 2014 is no exception. There are two snowdrifts blocking the road just below the summit. Maybe later in September.

There are lots of other passes, however, and I went over 13 or 14, depending on how you count. Passes go over the divide between two drainages. For example, Pearl Pass marks the divide between the Roaring Fork River that goes to the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, and the Taylor River that drains to the Gunnison River in Gunnison.

The complication is at Ute Pass, which marks the divide between Fountain Creek and the South Platte in South Park. Right near there is Tracy Hill, not called a pass, but is the divide between the South Platte and the Arkansas Rivers. So, did I go over one, two, or three passes when I came from Woodland Park to Cripple Creek?

So, here is the list: Ute Pass, Tracy Hill, Mosca (I just went to the summit), Medano, Poncha, Marshall, Waunita, Cumberland, Cottonwood, Mosquito, Red Hill, Kenosha, and Guanella Passes. Let’s call it 13 or 14 passes.

From Denver, I went via Deckers (probably going over yet another pass) to Cripple Creek and down the Phantom Canyon Road to Highway 50 outside Florence. Then I drove to Wetmore (and another pass) and to the wet Mountain Valley and Mosca Pass, where I camped.

Next morning it was Medano Pass, first crossed by Americans in 1807 when Zebulon Pike, searching for the Red River, groped his way into the Rocky Mountains, over the pass, and wintered in the San Luis Valley, mistaking the Rio Grande for the Red.

Medano is interesting and worthwhile, with a long drive through private property to Forest service land and the climb to the summit. It is four wheel drive, but not too bad, and not marred by those annoying ATV’s buzzing around because they are not allowed into the National Park.

From the summit, the road descends down the

Medano Creek

Medano Creek canyon, which burned in 2010. It recovering nicely. The road crosses the creek several times and is sandy lower down. I had no problems ignoring the Park service signs telling me to lower the pressure in my tires for better flotation in sand. I have always thought that is for Californians, not us mountain people. I met no other cars.

From the sand dunes I went up the vast San Luis Valley and over

Marshall Pass

Marshall Pass, the narrow gauge Rio Grande Railroad route into the Gunnison country. I like old railroad routes. I then bounced over more bad roads to Taylor Park, intending to go over Taylor Pass. I started up the steep four wheel drive road, decided my sore body had had enough, turned around, went over Cottonwood, and got a motel in Buena Vista. That hot shower sure felt good. I found chicken mole enchiladas in a restaurant there.

The next morning was Leadville and Mosquito Pass. The Lake County people are missing out not promoting the roads around Leadville for off-roading. Taylor Park is overrun with ATV’s. I met no one on the roads above Leadville. Good for me, bad for depressed Leadville.

Mosquito Pass is world famous, and the road is a challenge. My stock Tacoma was fine, but the road is steep and very rocky. They ain’t called the Rocky Mountains for nothing. It is a spectacular trip, with views of some of the tallest mountains in our state. I will do it again.

From Mosquito Pass I went down to Fairplay and home via Guanella Pass, another of my favorites.

Posted in Current Activities, Memoirs, Stories

Incident on Mosca Pass

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

Mosca Pass View

I was camping on Mosca Pass, the first mountain pass over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of well-traveled La Veta Pass. From the Wet Mountain Valley to the summit of the pass is a good road that provided access to an abandoned fire lookout tower just below the summit. The road is closed from the summit down to the visitor center in Great Sand Dunes National Park. The road washed out too many times and was abandoned for vehicle travel years ago.

I went there to see the area and find solitude, a scarce thing anywhere near the Front Range cities. I drove up a short spur road to a good campsite with fine view. There was even some firewood at the fire ring. There was no one within miles. No traffic, just an apparently unoccupied ranch about a mile down the road.

I ate dinner, read until dark and turned in. I like to sleep outside to see the stars and feel the wind. My new sleeping bag kept me comfortable, and I went right to sleep. A few hours later I got up to pee and decided to take a look around. Looking east and south there are two intermittent creeks about 1/4 mile apart running through a big open park, with mountains all round. There was a fine view, even during the dark of the moon with only starlight, so I went that way.

The flat spot where I camped ends and dropped down to the open areas not far from my bed. I walked that way and stepped into a hole right at the edge. I pitched forward into a big bush lower down and in some rocks. Head down, butt in the air, feet thrashing, arms entangled, it took a while to free myself. I had to scramble on hands and knees back up to level ground and in the process lost my glasses.

My forearms were scraped, punctured, and bleeding. I had a scrape on my nose, several bruises, and two big abrasions on my knee. I had walked out there in the middle of the night with only a t-shirt, underpants, and my shoes on.

Finding the campsite was a little hard. My dark green truck was backed in between some trees and I didn’t have my glasses on, making it hard to find in the dark. I went back to bed scared and angry at myself. The pain from the knee scrapes kept me awake for most of the rest of the night.

I laid there thinking of what could have happened. If I had injured myself so I couldn’t drive, there is no knowing when someone would find me. I was well off the road, no cell phone service, almost no traffic, and almost no clothes on. In Colorado there are several stories every year about someone not returning from a solo trip, the body found days or months later.

What was I thinking? I obviously was not thinking at all. People tell me I was lucky. Maybe so, but I believe I was stupid, just like the others who did not return from a solo trip. Carol asked me where my flashlight was. It was in my pack, where it belongs.

In the morning, I looked at my sore knee, cut arms, bloodstained t-shirt, and went to look for my glasses. No luck; after all I didn’t have my glasses on. How was I going to see them? There was nothing to do but have breakfast and get on with my trip.

I had no trouble seeing on the back roads, reading, and looking at the scenery, but reading road signs was pretty tough. I haven’t gone so long without glasses since I was in the fourth grade. Two days later I was home and could see again. I spent a day getting a spare pair of glasses fixed and having a grass seed washed out of my ear.

It has taken me a while to sit down and write this. I have more to say about my trip, so stay tuned.

Posted in Back Country Accident, Current Activities, Fear, My Story, Pain

Freezing on Deadman’s Hill

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

Deadman’s Hill Lookout Tower

I did a ramble to Deadman’s Hill and some other places. I did survive, but it was not easy.

Deadman’s Hill is west of Redfeather Lakes on a road that ends on the Laramie River road. This is one of the more remote mountain areas east of the Continental Divide in Colorado. Redfeather is a resort community northwest of Fort Collins and north of Rustic, in Poudre Canyon. There are lakes, a store and post office, a restaurant, and many cabins. There is a year-round population of about 250 people. It is a bit funky, and nothing like the ski resorts with their upscale condos.

I went to Colorado State in Ft. Collins, lived there for several years, and never got to the area. I have had Deadman’s Hill on my list, and tried to go over the road last spring. Alas, the road is closed from December to June. I was too early, but not too early to see a bear feeding in a meadow just before the closed gate.

I went back last week, the road was open and well graded. It climbs through a Lodgepole Pine forest to a spur leading up to a fire lookout tower that has a view of most everything from Rocky Mountain National Park to Wyoming and from the plains to the Rawah Wilderness in the Medicine Bow mountains.

From the lookout tower I went down the hill a ways to a long meadow looking right at the Rawahs. A little creek ran through the meadow and a pair of bull moose would drift out of the timber, feed for a while, and move back into the trees.

Meadow With the Rawah Mountains

I got the tent up just in time for the first rainstorm, and had another storm a couple of hours later. A pleasant and lovely late afternoon, with the solitude I always seek in the back country.

If it is not raining steadily, I set up my cot outside, with the sleeping bag inside a canvas bedroll along with a wool blanket. I slept for a short while, got up to pee, got cold and stayed that way for the rest of the night. I reached outside the bedroll and felt a layer of ice. It seemed like my feet were as cold as those snowfields on the flanks of the Rawahs, and the rest of me had just come out of the water draining the snowfields.

I tried a few things that helped my body a little, but my feet got colder every time I left the sleeping bag. Oh, and the sleeping bag zipper jammed. No sleep, much misery. At about 4:30 AM I climbed into my pickup and ran the heater to warm up. Everything in the cab of that truck is lumpy or pokes you if you are trying to sleep.

At 5:30 I threw everything into the bed of the truck and went down the hill to the Laramie River road. From there I went north to Woods Landing Wyoming, hoping to find coffee and food. Closed. On to Mountain Home, Wyoming, nothing there. I went west to the road from North Park Colorado into Wyoming and south to Walden.

I found coffee, heat, food, and a semblance of civilization. There were four old guys, retired ranchers from the look of them, sunning themselves on the patio in the 45 degree morning. I saw some bicycles parked nearby and asked them if the bikes were theirs. One shook his head, taking me literally at first. None of them had been on a bicycle in at least 60 years. You don’t ride bicycles if your headgear is a cowboy hat and your shirts have snaps, not buttons.

The bicycles belonged to some city folk having breakfast and fixing a flat tire. They were in their 60’s. Hardy people there, in Jackson County.

From Walden I went back north along the North Platte River into Wyoming. The Platte and Laramie River valleys are what I think of as mountain ranch country. Irrigated hayfields and pastures flanked by sagebrush hills rising into the timber. Everyone waves at you.

Snowy Range

I then went east over the Medicine Bow Mountains, capped by the Snowy Range. This is one of my favorite drives. The mountains are snowy white, jagged, and have lovely lakes at their base. The white rock is 4 billion year old quartzite, older than anything in Colorado. Just off the highway on the way to a campground are some stromatolites, or petrified algae, some of the oldest evidence of life on earth.

I had lunch in Laramie and decided to return to Redfeather and get a cabin for some sleep. There were no cabins available, so I went to Poudre Canyon, where a cabin was too expensive. By that time I was so tired I just went home. A tired, cold trip in some fine country.

Posted in Current Activities, Geology, My Story

Geology on The Highway of Legends

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

Spanish Peaks and a Dike

I went on a tour of Southern Colorado’s Highway of Legends with a group from Colorado’s Cherokee Trail chapter of the Oregon California Trail Association. Berl Meyer, our chapter president, summers in Cotopaxi, on the Arkansas River. He rambles around Colorado looking at the geology and the mountains. He is from Kentucky, so has a need to get away from relentless green.

Berl organized the trip, having us meet in La Veta. For me the trip had two segments. Colorado geology is one of my interests, and the Highway of Legends country has some world famous geology.

The Spanish Peaks south of La Veta, are relatively recent (geologically) igneous intrusions that rise to over 12,000 feet in elevation. Located fairly far east for the Rockies, they served as important landmarks for early explorers and travelers. When the intrusions barged in, they bulged and fractured the existing rock layers, and a series of vertical dikes radiate from the mountains.

Cucharas Pass is between the Spanish Peaks and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. At 9,995 feet, it is another lovely Colorado mountain pass. There are lots of dikes, and on the south side of the pass is Stonewall, at first look another dike, but this feature is a vertical wall of Dakota sandstone, pushed on edge by the Spanish Peaks uplift.

We had a startling encounter at Stonewall. We had stopped for a break and to look the stone wall over when we had a visit from a Greek god. Most people don’t know, but the gods are still with us. They travel the world keeping track of events and people. This particular Greek god is one of the lesser ones, namely Hermes’ great uncle. The photo shows him as he was leaving.

The road then enters the coal country west of Trinidad. There is lots of history in that area, and a world famous geological feature. On the road to Trinidad Lake just outside Trinidad is an exposure of the K-P (formerly K-T) boundary that marks the end of the Mesozoic era and the beginning of the Cenozoic, or modern era. It is called the K-P because it is the boundary between the Cretaceous period and the Paleogene period. Below the boundary, dinosaurs. Above the boundary, no dinosaurs.

The boundary is a narrow band of whitish clay that fell when an asteroid struck off Yucatan and threw a tremendous cloud of material into the atmosphere, blocking the sun and cooling the entire planet. 75% of life on earth perished, including the dinosaurs. In a road cut on the way to the lake you can put your hand on the boundary.

There are exposures in many places around the world, including North Table Mountain in Golden, but this one is the most accessible. I have wanted to go there for a long time.

We went to the San Luis Valley, over La Veta Pass from La Veta. The valley is our own rift valley, formed as the movement of the Pacific tectonic plate drags some of the North American plate north. The motion pulls things apart, and a big block subsided, forming the rift valley. The Arkansas River north of Poncha Pass and the Rio Grande River mark the rift. (Real geologists, including Berl, don’t get the vapors at this explanation.)

Great Sand Dunes

On the east side of the San Luis Valley is The Great Sand Dunes National Park, another world famous geological feature. The sand for the dunes comes from the San Juan Mountains to the west. Normally, the sand would just keep going, blown over the Sangres to the plains farther east. In this case, a creek picks up the sand blown off the dunes and carries it back to the other side, replenishing them every spring. The result is a mammoth dune field, good for viewing, climbing, and tumbling down. The creek is good for play as long as it lasts into the summer.

Good geology, good scenery, and a good time. The geology is not a legend, however. It is the real thing, and students from geology departments all over the country visit and study in Colorado.

Posted in Colorado History, Current Activities, Geology, Memoirs, My Story

New Garage

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Bill One comment

New Garage

Our new garage is finished. The old one car garage was designed for a 1936 Ford. We never parked a car there. The new one is 22’ by 20’ and will just barely hold both cars. There is also room for stuff. It is YELLOW.

Solar panels will be on the garage roof, so it was built with rafters instead of trusses to give a better angle for the panels. There is storage space in the rafter area for things we don’t use very often. The fencing is up, and I spread five cubic yards of dirt in the low spot where our patio is going.

Workshop

The next step is landscaping. We hear that landscapers are hard to get, so we will see. We hope to have the entire project finished this year.

Posted in Current Activities, Home Improvement, My Story

What’s Happening

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Bill 3 comments

Going Up

It’s Friday the thirteenth. The moon is full. The sun is giving off huge solar flares. Mercury is retrograde.

Maybe this explains our week. Our refrigerator icemaker quit for the second time. The oven went black and the door is locked from a cleaning cycle for the second time. Parts for the oven are on order. A driver forced Carol into the curb in the alley by the bank and a trim strip got torn off the side of her car.

I went to work at Four Mile this morning and the group that was scheduled to come with 110 kids went to History Colorado instead due to some mix-up. One of the horses is lame.

I went to buy electrical conduit for our garage project, bought the wrong stuff, went back, and they didn’t have everything in stock so I had to go to another place. I thought the electrician was going to install the conduit, but he is busy and then I forgot about it until the day before the City Inspector was due to come. The conduit is in and inspected. No more deep trench across the back yard.

The old garage door opener we saved won’t work, so we have to have a new one. The muffler fell off the lawn mower. It is LOUD. In the process of setting the forms for the concrete, the sprinkling system piping got cut in two places. I had to go to two places for parts for that.

On the positive side, the garage walls are up and the rafters are being built. We will have lots of storage space above our cars-no space robbing trusses. Ed, the contractor on the garage is a joy to work with. His business is Colorado Craftsmen.

Carol’s neck and shoulder hurt. My wrist hurts. I am not sleeping as well as usual. The last installment of Cosmos has come and gone (if you haven’t seen it, do so).

I am waiting on a letter from the VA about my disability since I won the appeal. The DAV told me they usually take around 60 days. It has now been 70 days. Well, actually, I applied in March 2009, so it has been more than 70 days.

Enough complaining. All things considered, life is good. We are going to have a secure garage for our cars, we will have a nice patio, and lovely brick walks. The garden is doing well,

Posted in Current Activities

Home Improvement 2014

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

Old Garage

We are adding a two car garage and solar electricity to our 1937 vintage house. We thought it would be a fairly straightforward project, but it is not working out that way. We had a brick one car garage, an ugly carport, and a parking pad, all on the alley.

Step one, I mangled the sprinkling system in an attempt to move it out of the way of the larger garage. It cost $140.00 to get that fixed after a three week wait, then the concrete form setters drove their stakes through one of the lines. Ed, our contractor and a great guy, replied to my email with “oops, sorry”. Of course, I found the leak while watering the lawn and garden just before two big thunderstorms.

The main problem is delay. We waited two weeks on the demolition contractor. We saved 800 bricks from the garage for walks and a patio. The demo contractor recycles bricks, so saving those bricks cost us $300.

We waited another week for tree removal, than another week to get the tree stumps ground. After another wait, the concrete contractor showed up to start setting forms. They had to chop out two stumps. The first forms they set were too close to the alley. They had to take them out anyway to bring in road base (50% gravel, 50% dirt). That entire process took two more weeks. Yesterday, they poured the concrete. The evening rain was perfect, cooling the concrete as it cured.

All the delays are part of any construction project these days. The recession of 2008 put a lot of construction people out of business. Now the economy is back, but the companies are not. Those in business are overbooked and having trouble getting skilled workers. None of the subcontractors’ workers have English as their first language. They are all good guys, hard-working and fun to be around. I provided some cervezas as they finished the day. One cause of the labor shortage is the oil boom in North Dakota. Natives up there used to say that the climate kept the riff-raff out. Lots of riff-raff up there now. Lots of money as well. People go where the work and good money are.

Ed is going to do the fencing, which is a good thing as I called three fence contractors and only one returned the call. We called three solar contractors, got responses from all three, but one never submitted a bid.

New Garage Concrete

The garage should go up starting next week. Many decisions to make. Doors, lighting, roofing color, whether to replace the roofing on the sunroom where more solar panels are going, what kind of gate latches, finding a hardscape contractor (I was going to do it myself, but decided I am too old) paint colors, on and on.

In addition, we added painting the north gable on the house to the project. I got up there to scrape the old paint. The trim on the bottom of the siding and the bottom board of the siding are rotten. Another task and some more expense.

The next door neighbors are learning about home improvement as well. They decided to replace the roof themselves. Mom, dad, and kid brother came from Omaha last week to help. five people, fairly skilled, worked Friday through Monday and didn’t finish. Mom and kid brother had to go back to Omaha, wife went to work. Dad and husband worked Tuesday, Dad on Wednesday. Thursday morning Dad worked two hours and left for Omaha to deal with the water in the attic and basement from the big storm there. The roof is about 95% finished. They will finish this weekend and have a nice roof with new skylights.

A lot of this story is about things that are fairly normal for any project, but the delays are somewhat unusual. We did the kitchen last year with little delay as it went along. When it is finished, this year’s project will make our little nest more livable and more fun. I don’t call the process itself much fun.

Posted in Current Activities, Home Improvement, My Story, Stories

Four Mile Historic Park

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

The House at Four Mile

When I give a house tour, I always say, “This is a museum. What’s the rule?” “Don’t touch!” is their response. All through the house I have to remind them, “Don’t touch.”

I work part time at Four Mile Historic Park. I help with elementary school field trips and birthday parties. Four Mile was a stagecoach stop on the Cherokee Trail from the 1859 Pike’s Peak Gold Rush until the railroad came to Denver in 1870. It is four miles from the Intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway, where the Colorado State Capitol building stands.

The Cherokee Trail came down Cherry Creek to Denver, then went north to close to the Wyoming border, then west to Fort Bridger and on to California. The stage line came west from Leavenworth, Kansas on the Smoky Hill Trail across Kansas to where Limon now is. It then came across present Elbert County and down Smoky Hill Road to the Cherokee Trail and Denver.

The Four Mile station operated from 1859 to 1870 when the railroad came down to Denver from Cheyenne. It then was a farm and informal neighborhood center until around 1940. Today it is owned by the City of Denver and operates as a nonprofit.

The original house dates to 1859 and is the oldest standing structure in Denver. It is the museum I referred to in the first paragraph. We have horses and wagon rides, a stagecoach and several other wagons. There are goats, chickens, a tipi, a trapper’s cabin, wells, barns, gardens, and lots of places to picnic.

Our goal with school trips is to give students a taste of life in the nineteenth century. They are often shocked to find out that people managed to survive without iPads. Another goal is for them to have fun doing some of the things children did in the 1860s. They cook over an open fire, make butter, feed chickens, wash clothes in the washtub, pan for gold (fool’s gold), and play some pioneer games.

I tell stories about my pioneer family, tell them that the horses favorite food is third graders, that trolls live along the creek, and that the children emptied the chamber pots, brought in firewood, carried water, gathered buffalo chips for fuel on the trail, and fed the animals. Yes, they get some tall tales as well. Second graders are too little, fourth graders are too tough, but third graders are just right for horse food. I tell the girls the secret: “Girls are smarter than boys.”

Four mile is a fun place to work and the kids make it so. Of the hundreds of kids I have worked, only two seemed like they were headed for big trouble. I have as much fun as they do.

Posted in Current Activities, Memoirs, Stories