Friday, November 30, 2012

CO -- Nathrop, 29 Oct - 30 Nov 2012

Map picture
Map picture

Our first month in Nathrop, Colorado!

We chose this area because it’s fairly close to family, has relatively mild winters, and is close to the snow sports we love!  The upper Arkansas River valley is bordered by 14,000 foot mountains and is very scenic.  The nearby towns of Buena Vista and Salida are full of outdoorsy folks and have plenty of conveniences.  The campground has great owners.  Our perch overlooks Chalk Creek and has an excellent view of 14,269 foot Mount Antero.  We share the campground with one other nice couple and it’s peaceful.  We enjoy walking our four-legged friend along the creek and watching deer graze nearby.  The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular…life is great!

   

        Sunset over the Arkansas River Valley                             Mt Antero and Mt Princeton at sunrise

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Sunset over Mt Antero and Mt Princeton

   

                 Our pet deer                                                               Stop looking at my doe!

Set up…

We took our time to set up.  One day I took a couple of hours to insulate the water hose.  A day or two later we spent another couple of hours to attach the skirt.  We also wedged pieces of insulation in problem spots hoping to minimize cold drafts or worse, things freezing up.  Though we could have done everything in two easy days, we spread it out over four or five.  The weather was so nice, we had to play!

       

The weather…

Though we are at 7,800 feet, this area is known as a “banana belt”.  Compared to similar areas, it’s relatively warm and dry.  Nearly 50 years of weather data tells us to expect:

- Average November high temp:  48.5F    low temp:  19F     snow:  5.2 inches

- Average December high temp:  40.8F     low temp:  11.5F     snow:  4.7 inches

- Average January high temp:  40.6F     low temp:  11.4F     snow:  4.9 inches

- Average February high temp:  42.8F     low temp:  13.5F     snow:  5.6 inches

- Average annual snowfall:  39.6 inches

- Average extreme minimum:  -14.2F     extreme minimum:  -32F in 1963 (YIKES!)

Though an average low temp around 11F is quite cold, at least it gets above freezing most days.  Our biggest challenge would be a prolonged cold snap that lasts three or four days.  We hope to have average temperatures and twice the normal amount of snow…bring it on!

Here is what we experienced our first month, November 2012:

- Snow:  barely any…none that accumulated

- Lowest temperature:  8F on the 12th and 27th

It was mild and dry…booo!  At least we got to fish quite a bit and do a lot of hiking.  The RV skirt kept it an average of 15 degrees warmer under the trailer!  The colder it was, the bigger the difference.  So far we have stayed warm and none of our equipment has frozen.

A brief snow shower

Hikes…

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A quick hike up the Wagon Loop Trail to the Colorado Trail.

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A hike with Dave and Shaune to frozen Kroenke Lake

   

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                    A cool route around Salida                                       Tenderfoot or “S” Mountain…our goal

   

Salida is a funky outdoorsy town

   

              Arkansas River and Mount Shavano                              Mount Princeton and the Chalk Cliffs

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Salida, Colorado

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A short hike to the partially frozen Agnes Vaille Falls

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Two thousand feet of climbing to the radio towers on Mt Princeton…a great workout and incredible view!

   

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A short hike in Browns Canyon Wilderness Area.

   

A family of big horn sheep

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A great, but steep hike on a section of the Colorado Trail.  The view was spectacular!

Chalk Cliffs and Mt Princeton

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A tough hike in Browns Canyon that tested our route finding skills and included boulder hopping along the Arkansas River.

Fishing…

    Nathop30-6 Nov 2012

Fishing the Arkansas River the first week of November

   

Spinney Mountain Reservoir

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   15 inch brown caught in the campground!          A pretty woman with a pretty Arkansas River rainbow trout

Visit with Janice…

Arleen had not seen Janice since they had been stationed together at King Salmon, Alaska, 22 years ago.

   

Arleen and Janice in Breckenridge

Thanksgiving…

We spent four days with family celebrating Thanksgiving.  It was nice seeing everyone.  We watched football and gained five pounds from the wonderful feasts.  It’s been many years since we’ve been close to family for the holidays.  It’s nice!  Unfortunately, I didn’t take too many pictures…

   

Mary and Arleen making Thanksgiving desserts

   

                          Leon and his kitty friends                                            Grandma and Grandson playing a game

   

Watching football on Turkey Day!

A new hobby…

We had thought about geocaching a few times, but conversations with our friend Brian, finally made us take the plunge.  We downloaded an app for our phones and immediately discovered bunches and bunches of caches in our area.  Our first treasure hunt was a three mile hike through “Carnage Canyon”.  We found six geocaches!  It was fun to discover the goodies that people before us had stashed for others to find.  Each cache is different and many are quite creative.  Some are easy to find and some are very difficult.  We even spotted a couple that hadn’t been found in over two years!  It’s quite gratifying to find the caches and adds another fun dimension to our hikes.  After our first few days of geocaching, we have found almost 30 caches.  We are hooked!  Expect to see geocaching in all future blogs!

Nathrop-25 Nov 2012-hike   

“Carnage Canyon” is an extreme 4-wheel drive route…6 caches found!   Trucks get winched up these rocks!

   

Arleen discovering two different geocaches

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Signing the log book and having fun with the goodies

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    Chinaman Gulch Loop 4-wheel drive route…8 caches found!                           A typical geocache

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Signing geocache logs

   

     Sunset over Mt Antero, Mt Princeton, and the Arkansas River Valley                    A brilliant moon rise

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                Geocaching in Buena Vista                                  Moving Flat Stanleys to a new temporary home

One month down and three to go…We need some snow! 

Expect the next update around January 1st. 

Merry Christmas to all!

Parting shots… 

   

             A very focused and very happy boarder collie                                     Our faithful companion

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