Moments in Dirt and Ink

Uncompahgre National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 (map link) I had trouble getting up until I decided I didn't really want to go back up to the upper lake and then up the pass. Then the morning just seemed to flow as it should. It got me tucked in under my kitchen roof just before the rain started again. I ate breakfast to a soundtrack of thunder, which settled things nicely against going up at all. It cleared up after that, but based on the weather report I'd gotten the afternoon before, it would be a good idea to finish by noon when the heavy rain would start. Camp site view as the mountain gets some sunshine during a light rain. I tried to dry things out a little before packing up, but it is always a ridiculous attempt. The wetter things are, the wetter they are all around. The sun is weak in the morning. The time to dry things is out in the open under the noon day sun. Morning under the trees really doesn't work. I shook things out and stuffed them away and then...

Uncompahgre National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 (map link) I had a plan for a more elaborate Blue Lakes trip than the typical, and extremely popular, up to the first lake, the second and third lake, the pass, or the peak trips. I was going to start off with a little adventure! Well, exploration. Well, I'd already poked around on the sunny morning of a day that was supposed to rain all the way through and found the old road where segmented, blobby white lines on the map happen to be. I'd been up about half a mile, so that was known to be solid road with a well used path. The rest, though, exploring! The road went up the mountain quite a ways and there were more segments suggesting a connection to the Blue Lakes Trail. I figured I might go up to where there is a reliable creek shown and, after getting to the end of the road, might camp by the creek. I expected it was a mining road once and had visions of ore carts and other oddities strewn about once I got to wherever was t...