Day 14: Taos Box and a Hippie Home

We awoke relatively early with the intentions of running the Taos Box section of the Rio Grande. The Box is 14 miles of class III-IV whitewater in the bottom of a spectacular 650 foot canyon. The shuttle drive unfortunately is 1.5 hours by car so we figured we would have to meet up with some other boaters to be able to run this section. We asked around town and talked with a few outfitters, and it seemed that the options were to MAYBE hire a shuttle at $80-100 or find some other Kayakers to shuttle with. Here’s the Put-In for this section. The Box only gets deeper from here to the take out.

We waited for a while and asked some of the raft companies, but we never were able to get a shuttle set up, so we had to give up. We drove to the middle of the run to the only bridge over the box. Here’s a shot from the bridge. Way down in the bottom there are two rafts that you can barely see for scale.

Near this bridge is the STAR community of a group called of homes called Earthships. The philosophy of these homes is to be completely off of the utility grid and rely solely on Rain, Sun, and Wind for all Energy and Water needs. The STAR community has one Earthship model that is open for a tour. The Earthship construction is made of used tires, packed with dirt, and then covered with Stucco. Each of the homes collects all of the water from rain and snow that falls on the roof in an indoor cistern that holds all rain water. In this area, the average rainfall is approximately 10” a year, so the water is used 4 times before it is discarded. Here’s the cistern in the model home. Lydia liked the stucco and tile work in the model’s bathroom shown here.

Gray water from the showers, sinks, etc is filtered by an internal “Jungle” area and re-used again. This shot shows the kitchen sink and the accompanying plants. Apparently many of the Earthships grow their own vegetables in this garden for further recycling.
Overall, the Earthship concept has a lot of very interesting ideas about energy conservation and living off of the grid, some of which could be incorporated into a more traditional house. According to the STAR community’s mission statement, they also believe that by not having mortgage payments (By building their own houses from recycled materials) and dependence on utilities they can cure all of the evils of the world from child abuse to war. Ummm… Yeah.

We had the oil changed in the Ody by Ms. Quick Lube (Tattoos and all) and hit the road headed east. Back towards the real world…

Day 13: Taos and the Rio Grande

For the first half of the day we made our way northward towards Taos, New Mexico to see some of the mountains in northern NM. Due to the hot temperatures, we headed straight for the Rio Grande outside of Pilar, NM to cool off with some Kayaking. The Pilar section of the Rio Grande is a relaxing Class III section with a few nice rapids to keep you from snoozing. We weren’t prepared to see as many commercial rafters, but they were generally easy to avoid. Fortunately the crowds also meant that catching a shuttle was easy, and we didn’t have to take out the bikes. Here’s the scene at the Put-in.
After the first rapid, we decided we needed to stop at the next decent spot and take some photos. This little rapid had an interesting slot line down the left bank. Lydia took the camera and took some pictures of me running the leftt side. As you can tell from the pictures, the water was refreshingly warm, and we didn’t have to wear all of our cold weather gear like in Colorado.
After another mile or so, we came to what the rafters kept referring to as “The Big One”. This was a larger wave train with a good size hole on the right. I got out and took pictures of Lydia as she snuck in between some rafts for her turn at “The Big One”.
I decided to try out the line over the hole on the right, and Lydia caught a good picture of me boofing over the hole. After getting off of the river, we headed into town for some good Northern New Mexican (Tex-Mex) cuisine. We decided over a late lunch that we should head out to Ojo Caliente to enjoy the natural hot springs. The springs have been developed into a bit of a resort/spa, but fortunately it wasn’t very busy and was very reasonable at only $12 each. The springs turned out to be just the thing to work out the stiffness and soreness from almost two weeks of traveling, hiking, biking, and boating. We made our way out of town to a good campsite recommended to us by an outfitter in town and caught a great night’s sleep.

Day 12: Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

We awoke this morning at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and had breakfast at the lodge on the North Rim. The Lodge itself is a magnificent stone and Log building with a very spectacular view of the canyon. Here’s a view of the sitting area at the back of the lobby and the canyon through the windows.
After breakfast we set out on the long drive out of the North Rim. After about 5 hours with one stop, we arrived at the Petrified Forest. The Petrified Forest is one of the more famous stops of the Route 66 era, and is home to the largest collection of petrified wood in the world. Here I am next to one of the largest specimens, named “Old Faithful”.
Most of the minerals in the petrified wood are Quartz, Agate, and Amethist, so the coloration can be quite spectacular. This one piece is a good example of the colors and the grain structure of the wood.
Also in the Petrified Forest National Park is a Pueblo Settlement with some very well preserved Pueblo Petroglyphs. I personally hope that the giant Man-Eating Sandpiper pictured here is extinct…
We then headed north to the Painted Desert section of the park. The various bright colored sedimentary layer s give the desert its signature painted look. From the main overlook there are some very nice views. It was a bit overcast and late in the day, so the colors are a bit muted.
After leaving the Painted Desert we continued east towards New Mexico. Without good detailed New Mexico Maps, we had some trouble finding a good route into the Cibola National Forest in New Mexico, so we were forced to spend the night in a Rest Area across from a Casino. With some creative towel placement we were able to block out the Neon and get some good sleep.

Day 11: Grand Canyon

After a filling breakfast at the Grand Canyon Lodge Diningroom with Mitch and Jessica, we headed off to do a hike down the North Kaibab trail. This is part of the trail that goes all the way across the canyon from the North to the South Rim. The hike we selected to do was down to Roaring Springs, and it was 5 miles each way and 3000 feet of vertical. Here's a good shot from the first overlook. We are headed down to the farthest part you can see in this picture.

Lydia especially wanted to do this section of trail because there is one tunnel and a lot of other spots where the trail is carved directly into the rock of the canyon walls.

Above is just one of those sections that had to be carved into the steep cliff walls. All along the trail we could hear and see these collared lizards scampering around. Lydia cornered one for a photo.

I tried a number of times to get good shots of how far we'd come from the bottom, but without a wide angle lens this was the best I could do. The overlook in the first picture is way off at the top.

And finally, here's a shot that shows one of the roaring springs in the distance and a giant flowering Yucca in the foreground. This particular Yucca must have been 15 feet high.

We're going to have dinner at the lodge tonight, then pack up and hit the road tomorrow for Flagstaff, AZ, then the Petrified forest and then hopefully cool off with some Kayaking near Taos. Sore legs out...

Day 10: Moab

At the end of Day 9, we drove out into the desert past the Slick Rock mountain biking area and found a place to camp.

We awoke the next morning, ate some bagels with peanut butter and headed for the trailhead. The slick rock loop is about 10 miles long, but the non stop up and downs make it feel much longer. Here's Lydia taking a break taking in the scenery.

At about mile 5, Lydia found a slow leak in her front tire, so we pulled out the spare and put it in. Unfortunately, while pumping the spare tube up we somehow broke the valve stem and all of the air immediately dumped out. We put in the tube with the slow leak and slowly made our way back to the parking lot, pumping the tire up every 1/3 of a mile. It took us forever. Here's a good shot of the way most of the trails look.
After finally finishing our ride, we went into town, grabbed lunch, and headed towards the Grand Canyon. By a gross mis-estimation, we thought this leg of the trip would take about 5 hours, but it turned out to be 400 miles and took almost 7 hours. At least we got to drive through the monument valley. We tried to make good time, so I snapped pictures as we drove by.We also passed this sign. Sometimes the first available road number doesn't end up working out for the long term....We finally met up with our friends Mitch and Jessica at 8:30 pm at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We just happened to have trips planned that crossed in the Grand Canyon, so we hung out with them for the evening and breakfast before parting ways. Tomorrow we might actually see the Grand Canyon (Since all we can see tonight is a big Black Hole)

Day 9: Mesa Verde

Lydia and I decided to take a day off from hard physical activity and do some sightseeing in Mesa Verde N.P. Mesa Verde is home to some of the best preserved and largest cliff dwellings in the world. Most of the largest dwellings can be seen by guided tour only, so we scheduled two tours, one to the Balcony House, dubbed the adventure tour, and one to the Cliff Palace, the largest of the dwellings. While we waited for our tours to begin, we first visited the Spruce House. Here's an overview of the spruce house.

This particular dwelling has a restored Kiva, which is an underground room which a family will use as a living room or a temple, depending on who you ask. Here's Lydia entering the Kiva.

The next dwelling we visited was the Balcony House. To access this dwelling, we had to climb a 30' wooden ladder. Here I am checking out this dwelling.The final dwelling we visited was the most famous, the cliff palace. Here's a very famous view of the Cliff Palace. The round structure the group is standing around is a Kiva, without the
restored roof like the one Lydia is climbing in. After touring the Cliff Palace, we loaded up and headed to Moab for some good mountain biking on the slick rock.

Day 8: Brown's Canyon

We woke up after an excellent night’s sleep above Buena Vista and drove down into town for a great breakfast of Huevos Rancheros at the Evergreen Café in town and headed off to the Brown’s Canyon section of the Arkansas River. We had arranged to meet some friends of our friend Will at the takeout at 11:00am. We got to the takeout at the Stone Bridge at 10:30 am and Lindsey and Greg were there shortly after. We loaded into Lindsey and Greg’s truck and headed for the put-in. The put-in for this section is like Six Flags over the Arkansas. Here’s Lydia getting suited up amongst the crowds.

The level was around 2800 CFS and this was a great big water level without any big scary holes. We scouted the first major rapid, the infamous Zoom Flume.... Here's Lydia in the entrance paddling for the large curler in the meat of the rapid

And then crashing through the curler...

...And behind her was Greg

And last, getting pushed around in her EZ was Lindsey

Overall the run was a nice big water run with a few bigger rapids to pick the pace up. Lydia ran the largest of the rapids, Seidel's Suck Hole and had a great line. After finishing up the run we parted ways with Greg and Lindsey and headed for Durango, CO so we would be close to Mesa Verde for our next stop. Off to Mesa Verde and then Moab for some sweet slickrock action!

Day 7: Vail on the 4th of July

We awoke in the mountains outside of Vail and had a hearty breakfast of instant Oatmeal and Peanut Butter bagels and then headed into town for some Downhill Mountain Biking.
At 10am we were all geared up and purchased our Lift Tickets for the day. I know that the mountain biking purists look down on Ski-lift biking, but there’s something to be said for all downhill… In town was crazy because apparently Vail has the largest July 4ht celebration in all of the mountains. There were people everywhere, and even a parade with marching bands and floats and all. We were very thankful to get on the lift and up and away from the hoopla below. Here’s Lydia enjoying the view about 1/3 of the way down our first lap. You can see the town way off down the slope. We selected our trails carefully to do as much Singletrack as possible and as little dirt road as possible. Here’s Lydia tearing up a good stretch through the trees.

At the bottom of the first lap we took a short cut through one of the neighborhoods of the Rich and Famous. Unfortunately, Lydia was so busy looking at the ridiculous houses ($2million plus and completely uninhabited) that she took a hard fall on the pavement trying to slow down for an on-coming escalade. I think it was P-Diddy. Fortunately, she only lost a little skin and Diddy didn’t shoot us up for making him slow his Roll. Here’s a shot of the two of us taking a break on one of the laps.
On our second run we happened to take a wrong turn down one of the double black diamond “Downhill Gear Only” rides. The way Vail hypes these up, you’d think that people like us on cross country bikes would spontaneously combust from the re-entry velocity. However, we were fine, and I think that was a ploy to convince us we needed to rent downhill gear… We chose to take on another one of the Downhill only trails later which was also a good time.

After finishing our third lap, we decided to go cool down with a run of Gore Creek. Gore creek from the Vail Golf course to West Vail is about 5 miles of class III-IV, and has two good playspots right in the middle of town. I decided that since we had already ridden, I’d use the Vail Bus system for shuttle. After 2 hours, much waiting, and two busses, I had made it back to the put-in. It would have been quicker for me to just walk. Here’s Lydia getting funny looks from rich people in BMW’s and golfers while we suited up.

The second of these is where the TEVA mountain games rodeo is held. While playing there I drew quite a crowd by doing creek boat spins and getting window-shaded. I guess they were easily impressed. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures on the run since we didn’t get out anywhere.

At the end of the day we made our way to Buena Vista, CO for some interesting Mexican food and some free camping on BLM land just out of town. Our campsite had a great view of the fireworks down in Buena Vista.
Tired from 20+miles of biking, 5 miles of Kayaking, and a few miles of walking, we made an early night of it just after the fireworks were done…

Day 6: Alto Alto South Boulder ???

After chowing down on a continental breakfast of scrambled waffles from a improperly lubricated waffle iron, Lydia and I set out to run the Alto Alto (Upper Upper) Section of South Boulder Creek. I had done this run before, and remembered it being a good class 3-4 creek. The flow was slightly lower than the last time at 500 CFS. We went to the put in to stash our boats, and were all unloaded when a “friendly” local informed us that we were trespassing on his property. We quickly re-located to the only guaranteed pubic right of way, which was right under the road bridge, and locked up our gear for the bike shuttle once again. Upon arriving at the take-out, we were greeted by a number of very welcoming signs, like this one, posted every 50 feet along the river.

While looking for a legal take-out, we also came across this combination… No parking on any county road, and a No Trespassing for good measure…

And then there’s this one. Note, that this is in an area that has been VERY obviously used as a parking area.

Without a legal place to park, Lydia and I decided to cut our losses and just go mountain biking. We went back into Nederland and stopped at the information center to look for some info on places to go. We were directed to the West Magnolia mountain biking area. I’m not sure why it is named West Magnolia, except that it is 1500 miles west of the nearest Magnolia. None the less, we had a nice 1.5 hour ride among aspen trees with some nice vistas. Here’s one of the prettier areas.

Overall the trails were on the dusty and rocky side of things, but there were definitely some nice fun sections. We made our way to Denver and were greeted by a call from the AAMCO that the Ody was ready to go about 10 minutes before we got there. We switched everything out from the Journey and returned it to Enterprise and were on the road headed west on I-70 at about 5pm out of Denver. Unfortunately, everyone in Denver had the same idea since it was the Day before the 4th of July weekend. Here’s a picture of an Elk Crossing sign Lydia Took while stuck in traffic.

At the end of the day we treated ourselves to good Italian food in Vail and headed into the mountains for some free camping, glad to be back in our own Van….
Timmy Out…

Day 5: Rocky Mountain National Park

At the end of Day 4, we had set up camp at the Glacier Basin Campground at Rocky Mountain NP. We caught the evening program, which was "Confessions of a Bad Bear". It was pretty entertaining, and educational at the same time. Did you know that bears have a sense of smell 7x that of a bloodhound? Me either... I somehow think that must be propaganda to get everyone to be paranoid about leaving out food, but maybe that's true. If so, be very careful if you're ever smuggling drugs and the police have a Drug-sniffing bear.... We arose the next morning to do a 8-10 mile hike to a number of alpine lakes leaving from the Bear Lake trailhead. Here I am at the second of the Lakes, Dream Lake.

Due to an unusually high snowpack, there was still a fair amount of snow, even on the well traveled trails. After this lake, we visited Emerald lake and then on to Lake Hiayaha. On our way to Hiayaha, we came upon this Snowshoe Hare on the trail.

We tried to get him to show us his huge white snowshoe feet, but as soon as he started moving he was gone. Once we got to Hiayaha, we were able to use the timer on the camera and finally get a picture of both of us.

After Lake Hiayaha, we made our way to Mills Lake. This was the largest of the lakes we saw, and it sits in the shadow of Long's Peak, giving a fantastic backdrop. Here's Lydia at Mills Lake.

While at Mills Lake, we were visited by a female Mallard that was VERY insistent on having her picture taken. Note that I did not crop this picture at all, and I'm only shooting with an 18-55mm Zoom. The duck was 2" from the lens.

After getting off of the trail, we made the drive up to the Alpine Visitors Center. The road to the Alpine visitors center is well above the treeline in the Tundra at over 12,000 ft of elevation. Along the way there were hundreds of Elk grazing on the Tundra.

We then returned to town to get cell phone reception to check on the status of the Ody. The shop said that she would not be ready today, but should be ready early tomorrow afternoon. We decided to head up towards the Alto-Alto section of the South Boulder creek, and are currently "Camped Out" at the Best Western in Nederville, CO. That's all for now!

Day 4: Lower Rustic section of the Cache La Poudre

We arrived at the Dutch George campground on the Rustic section of the Poudre well after dark, so we didn't get much of a look at where we were camping. Here's the scene we woke up to. Not Bad eh? Aside from having to set up a tent, the Journey is working fine as a stand-in for the Odyssey.

There were a few other boaters around, but we decided once again to to the bike shuttle for the day. The shuttle was about twice as long as yesterday's, and took about 45 minutes. The one thing about biking your shuttles is that you ride all of the uphill with little downhill to reward you. That's OK though, because the kayaking is more fun anyways! (And Kayaks don't go uphill too well) The Lower Rustic section of the Poudre is a 9 mile run that consists of mostly continuous class III with a few IVs put in for good measure. Here's a typical scene on the Lower Rustic that we took while scouting one of the bigger sections.

Here I am punching a fairly large curler in one of the bigger drops. Much of the run was like this. Did I mention that the water was really cold???After collecting our bikes at the takeout we headed upstream to see Poudre Falls. This is a massive multi drop class V+ that gets run occasionally at much lower water. Here's a shot of the falls. If I ever am in the area at about 1/8th of the flow I think I'd like to give it a shot.
We loaded up the Journey to head into Rocky Mountain National Park for Day 5. Here's a shot of the Journey ready to roll with some pretty nice scenery behind her.

Next stop RMNP!