Mud-on-the-tires Full-time RV Adventure: CO -- Nathrop, 29 Oct

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

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…

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

A hike with Dave and Shaune to frozen Kroenke Lake

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

Salida, Colorado

A short hike to the partially frozen Agnes Vaille Falls

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

A short hike in Browns Canyon Wilderness Area.

A family of big horn sheep

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

Chalk Cliffs and Mt Princeton

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

Fishing…

Fishing the Arkansas River the first week of November

Spinney Mountain Reservoir

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!