The weather is getting colder up here but there is nobody about which is awesome. A few little dustings of snow up high but none in the valleys.
It is time to get out and explore some ideas I have for skiing this coming winter…. I’m going to keep adding pics to this post until we start skiing in a few weeks time.
First up is a mission I have been thinking about for months. There is an old mining town called Gilman which was closed because of toxic waste and it sounded like a fun place to go explore.
It is closed, locked off and the Feds have taken it over but I thought I had it figured out how to sneak in…. we got busted twice. I played dumb, thickened up the Australian accent and everyone was nice but we didn’t get to really explore the place.
Next time….
The base for the day’s activities was Red Cliff. It is where I had my 30th birthday (click here to see that post) and it is still a weird place, I think it was weird before my birthday shenanigans.
Part of the plans was to find a waterfall which I think should freeze up in winter and could be a fun little ice climbing spot. The map showed the railway line which I thought would be quick travel but it turned out to be a pain in the butt.
The boys trying to figure out how we can ride this quicker and cover more miles….. It was gorgeous country though and we had it all to ourselves.
I’ve driven past Mayflower Gulch maybe 50 times, maybe more, and never been up here. I made a loop of it so it turned into 4 hours with a lot of bush wacking
The old town has a couple of ruins and some people were having lunch up there, as is always the way, the person who cares least about bloody dogs, and the dogs follow me everywhere. I had bacon for lunch.
Earlier in the week Jason gave me a tour of the Flute Trails in Breck, crazy I’ve never been on any of these trail before. Jason got in some dry land snowmobile training….
The Commando Run is something I’ve wanted to explore for a few years. It is between where we snowmobile on Vail Pass, and the Vail ski area. You can see each from one other. This mission was all about an idea I have to ski off the back of Vail which is definitely on the list for next season.
We saw a bunch of deer up there.
Some 4WD’ing less than a mile from my place, again, somewhere I’ve never been before. It got a little tight but Black Betty was well behaved.
