mtn-high
Campground Host- FUNKYTOWN
After pawning the 16 year old off at a friend's house for the night, the wife and dogs and I took advantage of the LAST night/day of Spring-like weather for awhile took an impromptu jaunt last night/today in the FWC.
We got a late start out of the gate because...um....while we had asked the 16 year old WTF his plans were
for the weekend many times last week,...it wasn't until 4PM that he handed us the phone to talk to his best bud's mom as he simultaneously informed us that he was heading over to his best bud's house to spend the night....
By 4:20 we had grabbed the essentials ...the kid was out the door...and were on the road heading south...not really knowing *where* we were going to camp but shooting for a couple of spots we thought might work...
The first spot we had in mind was a place we could barely remember being at even though we'd been there twice...(no, it wasn't the ganja) was HECLA JUNCTION...south of Buena Vista/Nathrop. The reason we'd been there twice and things were fuzzy was that both times we were ending whitewater raft trips and weren't driving our own vehicle. I remembered where the road was off of 24 but beyond that...it was a blur.
The map showed a camp area...and it was BLM land...so we headed there and left the Fire road farther south that crossed both BLM and NF as a backup. The road was good but seriously winding.....up...then down to the river. I kept looking for pullouts or boonie roads but it was fairly steep on both sides of the road and it was getting dark fast. The wife *thought* she saw a road on the way down but it looked like a wash to me....
Of course...when we got riverside we saw the the campground was a developed area...and while there were very few folks...there *were* folks...and campfires...and a $14 a night fee...and a sterile feel...so we decided to head out and check option #2. As we headed back up the wife insisted that I stop and get out at the place she saw on the way down. When I pulled over anf got out with the flashlight I saw that it was a road...with a washout across it.... and a steep drop off on the other side. It LOOKED bad...but wasn't.... and it must have scared MOST other folks off because when we popped down in there we found a VERY nice spot that was used...but possibly one of the cleanest BLM/camp spots I'd ever seen and one of those "lucky" pull-ins to camp where you think about levelling the camper and then look down and realize that exactly where you stopped is dead on...
T'was a WARM night. I doubt it got below freezing.(?) It was 45 by 9Am when we rolled out of camp
We got a late start out of the gate because...um....while we had asked the 16 year old WTF his plans were
for the weekend many times last week,...it wasn't until 4PM that he handed us the phone to talk to his best bud's mom as he simultaneously informed us that he was heading over to his best bud's house to spend the night....By 4:20 we had grabbed the essentials
...the kid was out the door...and were on the road heading south...not really knowing *where* we were going to camp but shooting for a couple of spots we thought might work...The first spot we had in mind was a place we could barely remember being at even though we'd been there twice...(no, it wasn't the ganja) was HECLA JUNCTION...south of Buena Vista/Nathrop. The reason we'd been there twice and things were fuzzy was that both times we were ending whitewater raft trips and weren't driving our own vehicle. I remembered where the road was off of 24 but beyond that...it was a blur.
The map showed a camp area...and it was BLM land...so we headed there and left the Fire road farther south that crossed both BLM and NF as a backup. The road was good but seriously winding.....up...then down to the river. I kept looking for pullouts or boonie roads but it was fairly steep on both sides of the road and it was getting dark fast. The wife *thought* she saw a road on the way down but it looked like a wash to me....
Of course...when we got riverside we saw the the campground was a developed area...and while there were very few folks...there *were* folks...and campfires...and a $14 a night fee...and a sterile feel...so we decided to head out and check option #2. As we headed back up the wife insisted that I stop and get out at the place she saw on the way down. When I pulled over anf got out with the flashlight I saw that it was a road...with a washout across it.... and a steep drop off on the other side. It LOOKED bad...but wasn't.... and it must have scared MOST other folks off because when we popped down in there we found a VERY nice spot that was used...but possibly one of the cleanest BLM/camp spots I'd ever seen and one of those "lucky" pull-ins to camp where you think about levelling the camper and then look down and realize that exactly where you stopped is dead on...
T'was a WARM night. I doubt it got below freezing.(?) It was 45 by 9Am when we rolled out of camp
