Sunday, June 11, 2017 - Cunningham Gulch & Minnie

First full day in Silverton so we met up with Larry & Cathy and attempted two trails.  Getting ready for the first outing is always a fiasco.  Trying to remember what all to take:  extra water & coats, radios, cameras (do they have enough memory on the cards & are the batteries charged?), lunch, snacks, etc. etc. 

Nearly all of today's pictures were taken thru the windshield.  I haven't adjusted to the higher elevation yet & my oxygen sats are up and down so I didn't exert a lot of energy today.  You can click on any picture to see an enlarged version.  

We finally got out of town & headed for Cunningham Gulch which reaches an elevation over 12,000 feet.  We have never seen this much snow in this particular Gulch before.  

We stopped off at one of the snowslides & let Jingles experience snow for the first time:

 She liked cooling her belly:

 Maybe next year she will be able to be off leash.

 She really liked sliding down:

A river crossing running fast from all the snow-melt:

Larry & Cathy went ahead to check out the trail to Highland Mary & it was blocked by snow, so we stopped where we were & enjoyed lunch (that's me crashed out on the blanket) :

Plants starting to bud:

Cathy & Jingles walked down the trail ahead of us & were waiting at the water crossing:  

Creeks are really moving; lots of water:

Leaving Cunningham, offers one of the best views of the Old 100 Mine Boarding House.  It's really up there.  Around 1904, Carpenters constructed the Seven Level boardinghouse, featuring a complete kitchen with cabinets, woodstove, cutting blocks, counters and dining room tables. On the first floor, a dining room, lit by electricity, was served by a cook, a baker and busy waiters. On the second floor, carpenters built 24 bunks, with a separate bedroom for the shift boss.  Here are a couple of really interesting articles (copy & paste link in your browser): 

http://www.sanjuancountyhistoricalsociety.org/old-hundred-boarding-house.html

https://durangoherald.com/articles/105851

Next trail is Minnie Gulch which reaches an elevation of 11,800 feet (however, today, we did not make it to the top).  Headed into Minnie Gulch, you come across some old mining buildings.  

 Stone foundations of the Caledonia Mill (built in the early 1900s):

 The Calednia Mill boardinghouse:

 Across the street is the mill superintendent's house (sorry about the windshield glare):

We headed up toward the Kittimac Mine, but were stopped by downed trees from a snowslide earlier in the season:  

Not a bad first day out on the trails.  The weather was beautiful and we ended the night at Handlebars having Sunday's special Green Chili Soup.