Nope, we haven't fallen off the
mountainside and we are still alive. We
did have some appointments in Durango, had to make a grocery run to Montrose,
and have been dealing with some problems with the sway bar on the Jeep (still
broken). I have added a photo to the previous post of the Tour Vehicle rescue.
We took a trail with Charles &
Jane and Wendy & James today.
Anytime we look out our RV windshield, we see Kendall Mountain:
We decided to travel to the top today. The trailhead starts in town at an elevation
of 9,318 feet. The trail is about 7
miles long and the top elevation is 13,066 feet; the peak is 13,451 feet. It is a popular
mountain for foot races. To the top and
back is a 3748 ft elevation gain.
Supposedly, there were races as far back as 1908 when a local bet a
miner that he couldn't run to the summit and back in one and half hours. He lost by only a few minutes. Not sure we could accomplish that driving the Jeep!
The trail starts through a forest area
before climbing and turning into a ledge road.
It is a pretty rocky ride. You
can peek between trees and see Highway 550.
Here you see traffic holding for
construction on Hwy 550:
There is a side trip to a nice valley
(Deer Park), but it would still be covered in snow. The trail leading up, ends at the "Ice Cave,"
so named because it always has ice in the opening.
A left will take you up to some antennas
and a spectacular view of the entire town of Silverton. However, today, the narrow ledge road was
closed at the first switchback by snow.
We took a right and headed to the Titusville Mine. Previous years have seen us do some productive rock
hammering and wild animal sightings in this area. Today, we were not able to complete the
journey due to snowdrifts. Hard to
believe that tomorrow is July 4th, and our travels are being blocked by snow. Here's
a few pictures to our shortened trip:
Almost made it to the mine:
Headed back home:
Met two nice ladies driving this vehicle. I say nice because they had the right-of-way,
and they backed down!
The road going down:
The road behind us:
And here's a picture just for fun. Locals chop wood a good part of the summer to get ready for
winter. They are a hardy bunch of
people:
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