Brown Adventures: August 7 Off the road again

Sunday, August 7, 2022 More off roading

I looked but did not see my mousie. I think it is gone. I will continue to watch for it.

Seems we had a mouse visit. Saw a turd and saw Rudy chasing something down the heating vent… We put out traps and cleaned up so we could observe. No mouse droppings today, and Rudy seems to have lost interest. We are ready just in case…

My walk took me around the riverwalk loop. Temperatures are around 60 and perfect for walking. I detoured a little on a dirt road… hmmm… someplace we need to explore.

We packed a lunch and took off once again with Jake and Lynn for some back country exploring. We took a road at the south of town heading to the Camp Bird Mine. It is an easy dirt road through the trees, climbing. There were some serious drop-offs and narrow points that had me on edge (no pun intended!) And there were lots of other people. Jeeps, motorcycles and more off road vehicles. It was busy. Yesterday, we saw hardly a soul. Today? Lots of action. This is the gateway to some of the more challenging off road trails and the weekend warriors were going for it. The Imogene trail is well known in the off road world, and our truck – our tow vehicle was not going to see that trail!

After walking around the mine area, we decided to check out some other trails as this was too busy. We found the dirt road that is on the mountain side of the river and followed it all the way to Ridgway. There were homes scattered along the way. I can only imagine what the winters would be like on these back roads. Do they get plowed? Are they maintained at all?

When we got to Ridgway, we stopped at park to eat lunch, then headed up the Owl Creek Pass. It is a little more open here with alpine valleys spreading for miles. With all the green, the edge of the road is high desert scrub. I guess you would say this is where the desert meets the alps! Jagged mountains form a backdrop and there were plenty of eye candy views. We started this trail a little late and it was evident that it could be an all day thing, so we sucked up some of the views, then headed back.