Common Camp Robber or Grey Jay
The golden valley, Gothic, Colorado
Tecalli (Pumpkin)
McCloed cabin
Martha and Ariel playing cards in Tecalli
On Thursday, last, Robert and I showed up at Carl's
and Martha's in Erie at about 9:30 AM. We had all
the jerry cans we owned and filled them all. Robert
had made boxes to hold the batteries we were to
bring home with us, so some of the water cans went
in the boxes. We also had a cooler and two plastic
tubs, with covers, which contained all the food for
our share of the long weekend.
Carl was just finishing loading his station wagon
when we arrived. Ariel was brimming with excitement.
The trip over was uneventful, but filled with lovely
views of the gold aspen and green evergreens. We
drove over Kenosha Pass and later over Cottonwood
pass, both were very busy with traffic. Hard to
believe, especially on Cottonwood pass that there
would be so very many people out driving around in
the mountains on a Thursday in September!
We arrived in Gothic about dinner time. Robyn
showed up very soon thereafter to show us to
our respective accommodations.
She had arranged for us to stay in two cabins. The
Cowleys were going to stay in McCloed (pictured) and
Robert and I were to stay in Tecalli, also known as
Pumpkin because of it's orange color and green roof.
McCloed had electricity, but no heat other than a
wood stove and/or fireplace. It is a very old log
cabin and quite romantic, if you are into old timey
things. Ariel clearly wasn't. She told Robert that
if he thought it was so great why didn't he stay in
it? Tecalli had heat and electricity, was modern
with complete kitchen and large windows which were
truly picture windows. A view from each was lovely.
Neither cabin had running water because the pipes
had been drained for winter.
We all spent the next half hour or so moving in
and getting acquainted with the two cabins. Carl
then fixed dinner for all of us. He had brought
lasagna which was heated up and served along with
a Caesar salad and cake for dessert. He and
Martha have a new book, Dr. Cake, which has
lovely ways of doctoring up cake mixes to make
them truly your own. They had brought two of
those.
The next morning I was on duty for breakfast and
making breakfast when the Cowleys showed up and
Martha was having a bad time with her asthma. It
turned out that getting the wood stove in McCloed
going took more practice than was anticipated and such
as it was, the cabin was perpetually filled with
wood smoke. Robert and I were happy to share
Tecalli with them, so they moved there stuff over
after breakfast and stashed their stuff in the
unusable bathroom. They tried sleeping on the
futon in the living room that night, but with
the multiple trips to the outhouse that we made
they were wakened every time and decided they'd
share the bedroom Ariel had commandeered. That
worked out much better.
What a fabulous time we had. The weather was perfect,
mostly sunny an occasional thunder shower in the afternoon.
The aspen where in their full glorious gold.
On Friday, after the Cowleys moved over to Tecalli we
had a quiet day of short walks and reading and in
Robert's case catching up on a month's worth of e-mails.
On Saturday Robyn led the group up to the Mexican Cut, after
Carl drove all of us over Scofield pass. I struggled, too
much cruising and not enough exercising had me in pretty
poor shape for mountain hiking. They were all patient and
kept the pace at a snail's pace so I could keep up, huffing
and puffing. We finally made it to the flat area which was
our destination. We were at about 11,000 feet and at the
site of several ponds. These ponds were our destination
because they are filled with Tiger Salamanders.
These guys have three phases. One, where they live in the
water completely, another where they grow feet and move on
to the land. These are the two phases most of us are
familiar with, but these guys have a third phase and that is
the cannibalistic phase where they attack their brethren and
eat them.
I was too tired to continue on to the ponds so missed seeing
the salamanders. Carl and Martha got good pictures of
them though, so I at least have a feel for what they looked
like and how big they were. Ariel helped in the picture
taking by poking at them to get them to move out of the
mud where they could be photographed.
I felt I really needed to rest in order to make the trip
back down the mountain and Robert stayed with me. I did get
a nice picture of a grey jay, which I thought was a Clark's
Nutcracker, but when I saw the actual picture again, realized
it was neither big enough nor white enough now did it have
the correct bill to be a Clark's Nutcracker.
We had a late lunch and a quiet afternoon accompanied by
loud thunder blasts.
On Sunday Robyn led another hike to the beaver ponds. I
opted to take a short walk near the cabin and when Ariel
heard that she announced she'd stay with Grammy. That
wasn't quite what I had in mind, but she and I had a good
time exploring Gothic while the rest explored the beaver
ponds. It turns out the beavers have been very busy
making a series of terraced ponds. I gathered the whole
array was quite impressive.
Robyn had a party to attend Sunday afternoon, so we had
a late dinner such that she could join us after her
party, which she did.
Monday morning Robyn had a meeting in Crested Butte at
8:30 AM so she came over while we were getting breakfast
so we could say our good byes.
After breakfast we all packed up and after everything was
out of the cabin we cleaned up and put everything back
to where it was when we arrived. No one was really ready
to leave, even Ariel protested that she wasn't ready
to go home yet.
We left in convoy for home about 10 AM, stopping for lunch
in Buena Vista. There were several areas of construction
along our route which was on CO91 through Leadville. At
one of these sites Robert turned off the engine of the
truck and when he tried to turn it on again the starter
just wouldn't do anything. I radioed Carl that as soon
as he had a chance for him to back up so that we could
back up. The rest of the cars pulled around and went
on their way. Robert was able to get the truck started
again by backing up and jump-staring the truck with the
reverse gear. We did not stop after that, just kept on
driving until we were almost to Boulder. We stopped
and left the engine running while we said our goodbyes
and collected hugs from the Cowleys. We made it home
safely, with the truck facing down the hill ready for
a rolling start.
Robert has unloaded some of the batteries, the initial
reason for this trip and we have unloaded all the rest
of the stuff and started repacking. We leave in the
morning for Wichita to visit Connie and stay with
Meara while Connie and Greg have a mini vacation and
celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
