August 11, 2022 Getting the Lead Out

August 11, 2022  Getting the lead out

I like this place.  I get to walk around a lot.  I get to chew on grass and everything.  There is a critter up the tree that I think I want.

My morning walk is on the back road behind the RV park.  It runs for miles in both directions eventually allowing you to cross Hwy 50 if you want, but that is a bit far for my walk.    The mountains are on one side with grasses along the road.  There is a railroad track running between the road and the river, but it is obviously not active as the weeds have invaded.  I am essentially all alone as this is the road less traveled.  You can smell the sage and the wet of the river.  The sun is beginning to crest above the mountains and the air is clean and refreshing.  The nights are cool, as are the early mornings.

    

    

We decided to caravan up to Leadville, but first a breakfast at our favorite diner.  Oh my yummy…  It is a small operation so the service is slow but well worth it. 

  After our gorging, we headed up hwy. 285 to Leadville.  We all wanted to see the mining museum and since it was not much more than an hour away, it seemed like a good way to spend the day.

We pass through old town Salida, then through the vast grasslands adorned with mountains.  It is a beautiful ride all the way into Leadville.  Leadville is known for its mining, first gold, then silver.  There are lots of stories about the Tabors, their affairs, their rise from rags to riches and crash into poverty.    In short, Horace married Augusta, had a son.  Horace worked his way about till he ultimately owned the Matchless mine, which made serious dollars.  He then dumped Augusta, leaving her just a house and another building (she was savvy and ended up being very successful), and he married ‘Baby Doe’, 25 years his junior.  The mine might have made $10,000 a day ($2 million in today’s money) but they spent double that.  When the US adopted the gold standard, silver crashed and so did the Tabor fortune.  Horace died leaving Baby Doe and their two daughters penniless.  

Anyhow, we enjoyed the museum then walked around the town.  We are at 10,000 feet, so walking uphill is a bit challenging.  We stopped at the million dollar saloon, but it was too busy, so we went next door to the Cuban café.  Now, that was good food!  We did drive over to the Matchless mine to take a look but really didn’t tour too much.

On our way home, we turned up highway 82 towards Aspen.  Clouds were threatening but we wanted to go up Independence Pass (12,300 feet).  We are in totally alpine country, with lakes, meadows, streams and mountains… and roads going up the mountains.  Curvy roads, like really curvy roads.  As you look at the mountains, you can see the debris from avalanches in the winter – downed trees and rocks.  The temperature is in the low 50’s as we get to the top for some breathtaking views.  Breathtaking in more ways than one as we have to walk to the viewpoint, huffing and puffing!  As we take our last picture, the skies open up and we run back to the trucks.  This is moose country but not one of those beasts made an appearance for us.  What’s with that?

By now, it is nearly 4 pm, too late to head all the way to Aspen, so we headed back down where the rain subsided.  As we neared Howard, Jake did see some bighorn sheep, not moose, but fun nonetheless.

Back home, our dinner consisted of appetizers… oh we have been overeating big time!  This was good.  With 6 of us, visiting takes us till dark.  How did it all go so fast?  Sitting outside of Hannah, we have a pine tree.  Guido, the rat bastard squirrel likes to chew on pine cones and throw down shavings at us.  Watch it Guido…  Rudy is on to you…