It felt great to be able to get back to having the club at the property to celebrate the Summer Solstice this year! Usually hosting the get together on or as close to the solstice as possible. With my Monday falling on Sunday for the work week, we meet up this past Friday night. Our property ( Indian Creek Park Ranch) is the last private land before Mt. Evans Wilderness. The “Upper Meadows” of the property ( heading South towards Rosedale) is where I always host the club for an evening campout. Every one started showing up in the evening after work and after getting settled in, we went for a drive around the property, ending at the wilderness boundary. On the way back to camp we ended up seeing a black bear run across the road- would be a first for me on the property! Was another fun Solstice get together on the property with friends from the 4×4 club:).
Golden Banner
Colorado Columbines at the cabin,
My most favorite view in CO keeps getting better thanks to all the logging.
After missing last years Train Trip due to Covid, I was excited to get back down to the Southern end of the San Luis Valley for some camping and a fantastic ride on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad ( my favorite!). We rode the train on Thursday, departing from Antonito, with a stop in Osier,- an old track maintenance town, for lunch ( highly recommend the meatloaf!) before returning back to the depot in Antonito. They weren’t running the busses this year due to Covid, so our normal trip from Chama, NM to Antonito, CO would have to wait a year. The rest of the long weekend was spent relaxing and chasing the train. One day we chased the Antonito train from Whiplash Curve to Osier and the other we chased the C&TS out of Chama to Osier using Apache Canyon ( with a fording of the Rio de Los Pinos River) to get to Osier. We couldn’t have asked for more perfect summer weather. The company was wonderful and the stars were out in force. I even had a little adventure on my way to camp after leaving work on Wednesday:). Here are some images from the trip. Enjoy!
After leaving work on Wednesday afternoon, I made my way to Antonito, but not without some excitement… For some reason I blew past my turn in San Luis, and didn’t notice it till I was a good half hour south of town (busy enjoying the views I guess). So on a whim, I took a detour though Mesita and the San Luis Hills. As I got close to Antonito, I came across fields full of Wild Iris. Excited, I pulled over to snap a few pics, only to slide off into the ditch ( shoulder was really soft). After a few failed attempts to extract myself, I called friends for help. After some time hanging out with the mosquitos, my friend Brian came down from camp and pulled me out. Funny thing was, I couldn’t us my new winch as there was nothing solid to anchor to. Finally rolled into camp around 8pm.
Fields of Wild Iris outside Antonito, CO.
If you look closely, you can see the swarms of mosquitos. Never seen so many!
