Visitors from the East

We had visitors in town from back east. We had not seen Joy and Tom in 12 years, meaning that there was much catching up. They couldn't have picked a better weekend as the weather cooperated and the Aspens were at near peak for color.

We got in a couple of nice hikes, one being back onto the BLM land where we have never been before. We followed the old wagon trail around East Antelope ( Thanks for the access Kevin). The question was why did the old homesteaders come this way into the valley? Seems like a hard way, unless they were coming in from somewhere north, e.g. Guffey, South Park, vs. Canon.

The views to the east were new to us and I tried to capture a few of the scenes with the phone camera so they are not of the greatest quality.

On Sunday the task was walking the back uphill portion of our parcel. Marlys and I have done this every so often, but this time there were a few of objectives; scouting for a Christmas Tree, re-marking the boundary posts the surveyor put in a few years back and trying to find the dead Ponderosa we spotted last Spring that is needed for the next Molesworth project. We accomplished two of the goals.

The number of trees on the parcel would lead you to think that there would be at least one available for Christmas harvesting, but it seemed that if it was good, it couldn't be cut down due to the Marlys Overrule Rule, and the others looked like Charlie Brown Christmas trees. A few were marked and one will be cut.

During the excursion the Mountain Schnauzers were being trolled for any critter catchers (cats, coyotes, etc.) that may have been in the vicinity. Luckily, enough noise was being made by the rest of us that they were probably in the next valley.

One of the lucky girls, and I do mean lucky, decided to wander underneath a truck on the road. As I watched the truck accelerate from a stop she decided to leave the cool of the shadow under the truck and walk right in front of a rear tire. It didn't get her, but the tire left a dust tread print on her haunch. It is hard to see in this image, but it is there. She of course had no idea what had just happened.

The goal not accomplished; we never found the dead tree, from the last trip up the hill, for the Molesworth Club Chair project. The search will continue next time.