Tuesday Sept 3, 2024 Lesin to Lyon

We had to be at the train station by 10 am so we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, packed and had to decide which train station to go to. The town is pretty small (population 3800) and there are 3 stops or stations in town. “Station” is kind of an exaggeration as is “train” since the cog railroad only has a couple of cars that crawl up and down the mountain, and “station” is a four foot wide by 15 ft area with kind of flat spots to stand with your luggage. We chose the Vermont “station” and there were two other people standing for the “train”. It was right on time (this is Switzerland). It leaves the upper “station” at 9:58, gets to the Vermont “station” at 10:00 and the Leysin Village station was probably a couple minutes after that. Of course you need to understand there are three stations because the whole town is built on a side hill, excuse me, mountain side and you decide which station to get off depending on which direction is downhill to your destination. We chose the Vermont station and guessed wrong and still had an uphill hike to get to the station.

The ride down the mountain on the cog train (there is a gear under the train that turns on a gear on the tracks, a third rail kind of) is beautiful with vistas overlooking the vineyards in the valley below. Halfway down the mountain we are met with the cog train going up the mountain to Leysin and the driver is waiting by the switch waiting for us to pass him so he can proceed. Likewise our driver stopped, walked down the tracks and threw her switch so we could proceed down the hill. Pretty quaint.

Whatever was broken two days ago was fixed this morning so the cog train made it all the way to the station in Aigle (instead of taking the short bus ride). Our train to Geneva came right on time and even though it was not a high speed train it was very comfortable and got us to Geneva right on time. We enjoyed sitting near three older folks who spoke English and were having a reunion of some kind from when they were in the Peace Corps back in the 70’s. One had been a diplomat of some kind and they rehashed a lot of the U.S. politics and foreign affairs things from the last 40 years they had seen.

Next train was a medium speed train from Geneva to Lyon. No reserved seats so you sit anywhere. We were joined a few stops along by an older couple who had all kinds of bags piled all around us and began making sandwiches and eating them with what few teeth they had. They were a little rough around the edges but very friendly as they gnawed away at their baguettes. They spoke no English but Deb was able to keep a bit of conversation going with him. He was a very funny guy and his wife and I were enjoying seeing Deb and her husband try to carry on a conversation. She actually may have spoken better English. A very colorful couple for sure.

We arrived right on time in Lyon and walked to the hostel (Yasi) which was only a few blocks from the station. The hostel was small and basic and had maybe a dozen rooms. We had a private room so we had our own bathroom. Then off to explore Lyon. 

Lyon is the second largest city in France after Paris so it’s pretty big. They have all kinds of public transportation so Google maps to the rescue. We went to the beautiful Basilica at the high part of town (Funicular) and then next door to the Roman coliseum next door. This city is old. We had dinner outdoors in front of the beautiful St Jean church, so good people watching and good food.

We got lost and almost got scammed by an over-friendly young woman and her friend “helping” us get back to the train station, but  we finally did get back and walked to the hostel.

Monday, Sept 2, 2024 - Leysin

Deb here. Woke up to a beautiful clear sky. I had lots of plans for today, chasing down places from my family’s stay here in 1970! We started our day with breakfast at the hotel, which was quite delicious. Once again, fresh breads and jams, yogurt, a stellar coffee machine (with hot chocolate options), cheeses, meats and fruit.

Since the day was clear we decided to first take the gondola up to the top of La Berneuse, the ski bowl I skied in way back when. It was so stunning at the top, although things have changed in 54 years. There’s now a revolving restaurant on top (built in the 1980’s), along with huge letters that spell Leysin. Otherwise, the look of the ski area is just as I remembered it.

After views, pictures, and a walk around we returned down on the gondola. The next project was to find the house we lived in that year, Chalet Pollux. I had the map from Monsieur DuBois, and we walked in the direction where we thought it might be. In all these years things have changed, and if it hadn’t been for John’s sharp eyes we would have missed it, but he saw the “Pollux” sign on the side of the house. And then we located the “Castor” sign on the side of the neighboring home. Upon a further look, it appears that both of the modest chalets are still intact, although engulfed by two large homes right next to them. Wow, memory lane indeed!

We then headed past Chalet Pollux to Nid d’Aigle, the walk I remembered. It was a lovely walk without a lot of elevation gain out to a lookout at the end. The lookout would have been quite dramatic, but by the time we made it there, midday, the clouds had rolled in. Still a nice walk.

Back into town to swing by La Fromagerie and talk with Monsieur DuBois. He wasn’t in, so we walked on to a coffee shop in the village, Cafe la Farandole. We split a rosti with ham and cheese that was delicious. It was a Swiss sandwich of sorts with something like pressed hash browns for the top and bottom layer.

A bit of souvenir shopping, then back to the hotel for blog writing and down time. The skies looked like rain, but nothing materialized. At 5:30 pm we walked back to La Fromagerie but no Monsieur DuBois, so we sat and had a drink (aperol spritz for me and beer for John). We then walked to Restaurant la Lorraine for dinner, sharing a great pizza and coffee and tea. People here have all been oh so very friendly and welcoming to us, even with my limited French and their limited English.

By 7:30 pm the skies were clearing nicely and it was back to the hotel.

Sunday Sept. 1,2024 - Trains to Leysin, Switzerland

Deb here again. We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, with croissants, yogurt, cereals, fruit and good hot drinks. We made the 20 minute walk back to the train station and of course arrived with plenty of time to spare (that’s the way we like to roll). Our train arrived on time, so at 10:12 we boarded and by 11:29 we were in Geneva. The terrain switched to beautiful rolling hills on the way to Geneva, with lots of green and agriculture.

In Geneva we found our way to our next train, which left at 12:29, bound for Aigle. I was so very excited to be returning to Leysin, the Swiss town that I lived in when I was 13 years old in 1970! It was a beautiful ride, along the north shore of Lake Geneva, stopping in Lausanne and Montreux along with several smaller stops.

We got off the train in Aigle, with only 4 minutes to catch our next train to Leysin. The attendant had assured us it was an easy connection since the Aigle train station is small, and we quickly found the train we thought would take us there. We got on the train and sat down, only to realize that we were the only folks on the train while at the same time John spotted a bus heading to Leysin across the way. We hopped off the train and boarded the crowded bus, where we learned that a couple of days ago there was a track issue and everyone needs to take a bus to the train to Leysin. All very confusing but we made it!

On the small cog railway type train up to Leysin we sat near a nice Swedish young man who was heading to Leysin to start his senior school year at the American High School. He gave us a bunch of info, including telling us what stop we should get off at. The ride up to Leysin is pretty thrilling, going up the mountains at a steep incline.

Once in Leysin we walked to our hotel, which although downhill involved a lot of steps with our suitcases and backpacks. We were dripping sweat when we checked in at the Alpine Classic Hotel!

This village is just as gorgeous as I remembered from 54 years ago. We were hungry, so we walked to La Fromagerie, a restaurant the hotel manager recommended and that Tom and Kim had liked when they visited. We ate outside under a table umbrella until a driving rain started around 5 pm. Everything was absolutely delicious, splitting a cheese and herb fondue and a large country salad, followed by a shared creme brulee at the end. 

The waitress spoke very little English, but I told her I’d lived in the village in 1970, and she had us talk with the restaurant owner, Monsieur DuBois. He was delightful, and it turns out he was born in 1970 and has lived in Leysin his entire life. He pulled out a village map and circled the spot where our chalet was (we were in Chalet Pollux, and the identical home next door was Chalet Castor) and he also told me how to reach Nid d'Aigle (Eagle’s Nest Walk) which I remembered from my time here. He then even circled the spot of the village school I attended. Apparently a new school has been built, but the old school is still used by 4 grades. He was as excited as I was to talk about old times in his broken English and my broken French. 

We also visited the museum up above the restaurant, which was filled with all kinds of old artifacts, along with a photo display through the years. Much has changed in 54 years, but much is still the same.

By the time we left La Fromagerie it was time to walk back (up) to the hotel and crash for the night.

Saturday Aug. 31 - Train to Bourg-en-Bresse, France

Deb here. Saturday morning we packed up, said our goodbyes to the crew and then walked our luggage to the ferry back to Central Station. Teri, Ralph, Nancy and Greg were all flying home on the same 2:30 pm flight to Boston, so their plan was to stash their luggage on the boat for a while and walk to a nearby farmers market. We said our goodbyes to the gang at the ferry dock and made our way across the water
to the train station. We quickly found which platform we’d be leaving from, and decided to sit in a coffee shop until closer to our departure time.

Our train left like clockwork at 11:08 am, bound for Paris, where we had to switch train stations to catch our next train to Bourg-en-Bresse. All was going well until the train had a couple of delays, meaning that instead of 1.5 hours to find our next train in Paris we’d only have less than an hour. Our train from Amsterdam made several stops along the way and was packed, with people standing in the aisles, by the time we reached Paris.

We hustled off our train and quickly found the metro we needed to board to transfer from Gare Paris Nord (where we arrived) to Gare de Lyon (where we needed to go). There was quite a queue to buy metro tickets, but thankfully each self-serve ticket station had a helper next to it, taking charge of what we needed.

We jumped on the metro and made it to Gare de Lyon with 15 minutes to spare. This train was much less crowded and had a great cafe car. It was another double decker train and achieved a speed of close to 200 mph. Very comfortable.

By 6:15 we were in Bourg-en-Bresse, where I’d made a hotel reservation to split up our journey to Leysin. It was super hot when we arrived, and with a 20 minute walk to our hotel (Logis de Brou) we were drenched in sweat by the time we checked in! It was a lovely hotel and we enjoyed the AC in our room. We later walked to dinner and had a wonderful meal at Restaurant L’Authentique, with a croque monsieur and salad for me and a burger and salad for John. 

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Sunday Aug. 25 thru Saturday Aug 31, 2024 One week Boat Bike Tour

I’ll try to summarize the entire week since each day had the same schedule of breakfast, riding the bikes all day, evening meeting about the next day's ride, dinner and sleep. And man did we sleep well!

Each evening before dinner, each of the three groups (English, German, Dutch) had a meeting to go over the next day's ride. The first day everything was new. The bikes, the traffic rules, etc. We got to meet the entire crew the first night. They do this week after week and they see a new batch of 50-60 people each week. Olga was our boss and if anything needed attention, Olga could help out. Every day we rode about 50km. Nancy added it all up and we rode the bikes 201 miles over the 6 days we rode, about 33.5 miles per day. The Netherlands treats bike riders with immense respect and bikes usually have the right of way. They have bike specific trails all over the country and most citizens really use their bikes. And year round especially with the climate warming. They all said there really was no snow any more and the canals no longer freeze for skating. So you can bike all year. The bike lanes are wide enough for bikes to whiz by each other and some allow cars and scooters if they are wide enough, with the bikes having priority and a low speed limit. And every age group could be seen riding their bikes. A lot of retired age folks ride their bikes everywhere. And ⅔ of the bikes you see are e-bikes with battery assist.

Each night after the three group meetings we all sit at tables with folks that speak the same language. Most everyone was pretty tired each night so after dinner (6-7pm) we went below and collapsed, except for the nights when we ventured in to explore the towns.

Each morning breakfast was at 7:30 and they left bread and sandwich fixings out so you could pack a lunch. Big buffet layout with several breads, cheeses, meat, eggs, sausage, fruit, yogurt, cereal and pots of coffee and tea water. After breakfast you get on the bikes and turn on the Ride with GPS app and it gives you turn by turn instructions and a map so it is very hard to get lost, although we did get misplaced on a few occasions. While we are biking, the boat gets moved to the next evening's stop where we will meet it.

There are several ferry crossings, many very old small towns where we stop for coffee, tea or the occasional herring. Some museums some days, or windmills or old pumping stations. Fortunately, most people here speak very good English. One fellow told us that their English is so good because “Dutch is not a very popular language”.

And everything is very old. Buildings from the 1600’s are not uncommon to find in the small towns we pedal through. Our cell phones work everywhere, and you use your credit card to pay for almost everything. They are very modern compared to the USA in that regard.

We would get to the boat around 3-4 pm, grab a coffee and a small cake treat of some kind and relax on the deck until the evening meeting. Eat dinner and collapse.

The last day we overlap with the incoming group and we put our bags on deck before breakfast so the crew can clean the rooms.

After breakfast we get our bags, say our goodbyes and then leave the boat.

Saturday Aug 24, 2024 To the boat

Our last breakfast at the Element Amsterdam and headed for Central station. We have gotten pretty good at using Google Maps and the transit system. And the buses, trams and metro all run like clockwork. The boat folks (De Nassau) let us leave our luggage on the boat, then back across the free ferry and found the tulip museum. Tulips actually originated in Turkey and somewhere along the way the Dutch decided they were going to grow all the tulips in the world. It is big ag with lots of big equipment planting and harvesting the tulip bulbs. The bulbs are what it’s all about, not so much the tulips, since they chop the flowers off to ensure bigger stronger bulbs.

We walked through the Saturday farmers market and picked up some food for lunch, and then back to the boat where we got checked in. A woman named Olga is our fearless leader. She is 67 and very athletic. She rides every day on the bikes and is a native of Holland. This is her 6th week in a row doing this and we saw her a few times a day checking in to make sure that nobody gets too lost or has any bike issues. She’s a lot of fun and the perfect person to do this job. 

We had three basic groups. Americans, which was us and a couple from Boulder, Colorado, the Canadians, which was a group of 4 siblings and their partners, and then the Germans and Dutch, which was the largest group. We got to know the Canadians over the weeks but not so much the Germans and Dutch, mostly due to the language thing. There were 60-65 people in all and I counted 56-58 bikes going out every day. A few people brought their own bikes but most of us used the Azor bikes which are good solid Netherland bikes. Ralph and Nancy decided not to get the e-bike version and the rest of us did. They are all identical with Shimano brand gears and electronics. We had no problems with the bikes all week. Nancy, who is fairly short, upgraded to a normal sized bike later in the week from the smaller one they fitted her with. 

Friday Aug 23, 2024 Amsterdam museums part two

Friday morning it was breakfast at the hotel and then off on a long tram and bus trip to a working windmill and museum called the Molten Van Stolen Windmill. It was a real pumping windmill with a screw that augered water from a lower level to a higher level. They used these all over Holland to keep their feet dry. They were eventually replaced by steam powered and then electric pumps, but these windmills were the workhorses for a long long time.

Next stop was to find some herring. Ralph and I bought raw herring samdwiches (hot dog rolls with a fish in it and pickles and onions) which is a local delicacy. The less brave got deep fried codfish bites. Ralph and I had cat breath the rest of the day.

We next bumped into the flower market where you can buy flowers, but mostly you can buy bulbs. They advertise the ones you can ship to Canada and the US so I guess they keep a careful eye on what gets shipped where.

Next stop was the Nemo Science Center which is a 5 story glass and concrete playgound for aspiring scientists. The place was wall to wall with families and children learning about any kind of science you can think of. They are creating the next generation of young scientists for sure. Well done.

After Nemo, we were on to something called “The Holland Experience”. This is another modern iMax kind of building with a “5D” ride across Holland. Kind of a Disney World experience with you strapped in a seat and thrown around a room with 360 degrees movie screens rolling out in front of you. And they spray water in your lap when you dive into the water below and a light mist as you fly though the clouds. Very cool.

Teri had made us dinner reservations in the rotating restaurant called Moon, which steadily rotates to give you a view of Amsterdam while they serve you dinner.

Last stop was our daredevils, Terri and Ralph, who got on the swings on top of the restaurant and swung back and forth over the edge of the building. Yikes.

Then it was back to the hotel and sleep 

Thursday Aug 22, 2024 Amsterdam museums

We had breakfast at the hotel which was very good. The usual adjustment to buying Euro coffee. Flat White or Americano usually get you close to what we drink back home.

First museum was the Rijksmuseum which is huge and covers Dutch history and art. Each section represents a different century and after leaving we had the sense that they are pretty proud of the 17th century and the others were so so.

Next stop was Museum of the Canals which we think was our favorite. It covered the history of the development of the city including all the dikes and pumping to be able to live below sea level. Anybody can build cities on dry ground so the Dutch decided to build below sea level. Hence all the windmills and water pumps and dikes.

Next museum was Our Lord in the Attic. Amsterdam started Catholic and then the government decided it would allow any religion as long as you kept it to yourself. So everyone held church services in private homes. This guy created a good sized Catholic Church on the upper floor of his house complete with pews and alters and even a pipe organ. It was big. Very tolerant folks when religion was concerned.

Next stop was the Botanical Gardens and dinner in the adjacent restaurant. We were all pretty tired by then so it was back to the hotel and bed.

Tuesday (or is it Wednesday), Aug 20, 2024 Bisbee to Amsterdam NL

 Our flight leaves at 9:30 am so we did not have to get up crazy early. It’s 1.5 hrs to Tucson so we left the house about 6 am. We are using a new cheaper parking lot which turned out to be as easy as the one we usually use. And it had shaded parking spots.

Flight to Dallas was on time and only a couple of hours. Flight to Amsterdam was 9 hours or so, which meant about 3 movies worth. We had one meal in flight and a wakeup snack. We did not get much if any sleep.Amsterdam is 9 hours earlier than Bisbee, so we basically lost a whole day. Left on Tuesday morning and arrived Wednesday morning. We met Ralph, Teri, Nancy and Greg at the baggage claim. Teri had arranged a van to pick us all up and we were taken to our hotel to drop off our bags. Our rooms were ready early so we all checked in. Next task was to get to Central Station so we took a tram which accepted our credit cards. Tap your Visa card to get on and tap to get off. How easy can it get?! Teri found these iAmsterdam passes which were fantastic. For 100 euros (111 dollars) you can ride on any bus or tram or metro and get into most every museum and attraction for 72 hours. We picked them up at Central Station and then started our tour not by getting some sleep but by going full bore until the night came.

We did a walking tour of the Jewish quarter with a woman from eastern Europe who walked really fast and for a couple of hours we learned about the 120,000 Jews killed in WW2.

Next was the Houseboat Museum, which was on a houseboat of course. Amsterdam is all about canals and the canals all have houseboats parked everywhere. It used to be a cool cheap way to afford to live in Amsterdam but now it’s an expensive but still cool way to live in Amsterdam.

Next was to find our way back via the trams and buses to the hotel and then have dinner in Papa Hemingway's restaurant, which is attached to the hotel. We were all zombies by then but it was the smart way to avoid jet lag.

Saturday July 6, 2024 Blue Water Lake Campground (NM) to Bisbee AZ (home)

 

It was up in the air this morning if we wanted to camp another night between here and home or just go for it and get home. Spoiler alert, it was really too hot to camp anywhere so we did a long day and made it home by 7pm.

The bonus today was that the shortest way included the crooked piece of RT 191 that is about 80 miles long and really high and really crooked and devoid of guardrails.

We left the campground and Deb got everything cleared up with the Ranger who was emptying the pay box. Some sites are reservable and some are first come first serve. It turns out if we had not reserved, there were a couple nice sites that were empty when we walked the park last night, so we would have had a good chance at getting a site without the reservation.

We got back on I-40 and headed east a few exits and then took Rt 117 south. We stopped at the El Malpais BLM office and chatted with the ranger there. There was nobody there but us and we agreed that there were probably days when the ranger saw nobody. El Malpais is a huge area filled with cooled lava. Much like Craters of the Moon if you have ever been there. It looked like pretty rough hiking over the lava mounds so we continued on our way, turned on Rt 36 to Quemado where we take Rt 60 west. We saw a couple side roads to Pie Town but one was gravel for 25 miles and the other did not even show up on the map. So we could have gone 50 miles out of our way for pie, but decided to save it for another day.

Rt 60 took us into Springerville which we have been to before and stopped for nd early lunch at Booga Red’s Restaurant. Very slow service but the food was good. 

From Springerville we took good old Rt 191 all the way to I-10. It is one twisty windy road but lots of great vistas and lots of dirt side roads with trail heads and camping spots. This might be a good place to come back to to camp and hike.

From here home is robotic since we have been this route many times and just wanted to get home before dark. It was 108 degrees in Stafford when we stopped to get a few groceries.

We got home just before 7pm and did the old “dump everything in the driveway” routine. Unpacked everything and quick supper, showers, then bed

Friday July 5, 2024 Ridgway State Park (CO) to Bluewater State Park (NM)

 

Deb here. Great sleeping once again. After coffee and tea we decided to take off and head into Ridgway for breakfast. Ridgway is a charming little mountain town with great views in every direction. We found Kate’s Place right in town and had a tasty breakfast there. After breakfast we started the drive on Rt 550 (aka the Million Dollar Highway). We’d been on this road before and I remembered it being pretty terrifying in spots and yep, my recollections were correct! The stretch between Ridgway and Ouray was relatively flat and easy, and we stopped briefly in Ouray to look around. I love Ouray, even busy as it was on this holiday weekend. What a setting, and endless outdoor possibilities.

Following Ouray the road became twisty and steep with sheer dropoffs on our right and no guardrails. This time around I was driving and I think poor Milo was the more nervous one since there wasn’t much between us and the drop off! On up we climbed, first reaching Red Mountain  Pass (11,018 ft) before dropping down into Silverton. It had been quite awhile since we’d been to Silverton, and we thought that it seemed more developed than our last visit. It was busy, so we continued on up and over Molas Pass (10,970 ft). We scored one of the last parking spots at Molas Pass and took in the gorgeous views. The CDT and Colorado Trail both pass through there, and some parents had set up a full breakfast for their son and his friend who were hiking the Colorado Trail. Very sweet.

After finally leaving Rt. 550 in Durango, we then headed west on Rt. 160 and then south on Rt. 140, which turned into Rt. 170 at the New Mexico border and followed that to Farmington. We then took Rt. 371 all the way down to Rt. 40 in Thoreau, and then turned off the interstate shortly after to take the one-way road to Bluewater Lake State Park. All good roads and not busy once we left Durango.

I’d made us a reservation at Bluewater Lake SP but it was all a bit confusing since no one was there to check us in. We found our campsite, set our chairs up in the shade, and enjoyed some snacks before taking a walk around the campground. It was in the 80’s, but the temperature cooled off nicely as the night wore on.

Ridgway SP in Colorado spoiled us and we quickly learned that Bluewater Lake SP could use some TLC. Pit toilets, with a main bathroom near the gate that had showers and running water, but everything just seemed a bit run down. On the other hand, a campsite is $10/night as opposed to CO’s $40/night fee. Maybe you get what you pay for?

Lots of families out enjoying camping and using the reservoir. Pesto grilled cheese and soup for dinner, reading and bed. 

Thursday July 4, 2024 Gunnison, CO to Ridgway State Park, CO

 

Deb here. We enjoyed a hot breakfast at the hotel and had a fun chat with 2 Australian men who are in the US for the International Boomerang competition. Who knew?! Apparently they’re 2 of the 6 Australian team members and they’re competing in L.A. in a couple of days. We’ll have to look up the results in a few days and find out how they fared.

Last night we were conflicted about whether to go east or west, over mountain passes either way. After thinking it through we’d settled on the western route, going north to Crested Butte, then following the West Elk Scenic Byway up and over Kebler Pass and down into Paonia. 26 miles of dirt road, but the road was in pretty good shape.

Not a cloud in the sky today so a perfect day for a drive through the mountains. It turned out to be a gorgeous drive, through aspen groves, wildflower covered hillsides and snow capped mountains. Just the scenery one thinks of when thinking about Colorado. We saw people camping everywhere there was a dirt pull-off or a side road, so I guess no camping restrictions. There was one campground, Lost Lake, that’s a Forest Service Campground, and I followed the 2 mle dirt road to see what that campground was all about. It turned out to be a spectacular spot, right on a lake with 19 sites, all full. We had an informative visit with the caretaker, who gave us some tips on timing to get a spot if we wanted to stay there in the future. Lots of hiking trails nearby and a real gem of a campground.

We’d managed to score the last campsite at Ridgway State Park, so down the mountain we went. Paonia was one of the first towns we came to, and we drove through the cute town. Turns out that cherries are in season, so we stopped by a roadside stand and picked up some delicious cherries. On down through not so interesting and dry terrain, skirting Delta and ultimately stopping in Montrose for a good old McDonald’s coffee and diet coke. We ate our late lunch in the parking lot and headed the short distance to the campground.

Nice campground, complete with free showers. Colorado State Park camping fees are stiff ($40 plus a $10 day fee) so good to know they have decent amenities. 

We found our campsite and decided to go on a hike. The volunteer who checked us in had given us a trail map and recommended the Enchanted Mesa trail, which ended up being a winner. John tested his knee again with a 350+ foot elevation gain on a switchbacking trail up to a mesa and then along the upper bank of the Ridgway Reservoir. The temperature was in the low 80’s but a nice breeze kept the hike bearable and the views were awesome.

Back to our campsite by 5:30 for happy hour outside of our van in the shade, followed by dinner and showers, along with route planning for tomorrow.

Wednesday Jul 3, 2024 Creede CO to Gunnison CO

Another quiet night in Marshall Park Campground. We made coffee and tea and drove over the mountain to Lake City and had breakfast at the Breakfast Hangout and Euphoria since the line at the Lake City Bakery was out the door and across the driveway. Turned out Breakfast Hangout was wonderful and it was staffed by 4 or 5 J-1 students here for the summer from Bulgaria and Dominican Republic and Slovakia. We had a nice chat with a few of them and the coffee was bottomless and the pancakes and frittata were delicious.

We then walked to the bakery and there was no line, and the couple from Oklahoma  that we had met the day before were there, so we stopped and got a mid-morning snack (cruller) and chatted with the OK folks again. They gave us even more tips for getting through the mountains.

We continued on the Silver Thread Scenic Byway which was not very populated and not much traffic. Beautiful sunny day with big white clouds and in the 70’s. Deb had lined up a Wingate Hotel in Gunnison (with points) so we could do laundry and get showers.

We discovered that the Pioneer Museum in Gunnison is a pretty big museum and so we stopped. Wow was it huge! And very nicely put together. We spent close to two hours there and it’s so big, they let you have a return pass for the next day which we got. I think I made it through the entire thing but only by taking quick looks through each building. Wow.

Gunnison is not what we were expecting. It’s a pretty normal working town, not a big resort town at all. Big enough for a small Walmart but we did not see any other box stores.

We then decided we would drive the 30 or so miles up to Crested Butte and back just to go to the visitor center there and ask about the roads over the mountains. Crested Butte is a big, resort town with lots of fancy stores and a big Arts Center. Kind of richy-rich stuff. The visitor center volunteer said either road to the east or the west over the mountains was fine for our two wheeled drive van. So we have options tomorrow.

Then back to Gunnison where we found a car wash our high top van would fit in, and hosed most of the 100 pounds of mud that was caked on the sides of our van from yesterday's travels. Then to the motel and did some laundry.

Later we walked downtown and had a good taco salad dinner at El Paraiso Mexican Restaurant. After a stroll around town back to the hotel for reading and bed.

Tuesday Jul 2, 2024 Noodling around Creede CO

 

Marshall Park Campground was full last night. We talked to a man who went to Middlebury College in VT and he said he pulled in at 4pm and got a site first come first serve. Deb says 8 of the sites are reservable and 7 are first come. So it’s busy but not crazy busy. Today reinforced the thought that this area is not that popular, or has not been discovered yet so there is plenty of room in cafes, stores, hiking trails and dirt roads. It rained pretty hard last night so everything will be soggy today.

Breakfast in the van, cereal, and then the 11 muddy dirt road miles to Love Lake. About half of those miles were very wide, albeit muddy, nicely graded road since there is a large development out here where it appears that a lot of people live. Every house seems to be a log cabin or looks like a log cabin with big windows facing the mountain views. The road gets narrower and narrower and then it’s single lane with wide spots that you negotiate with the few people you meet coming the other way. Love Lake is a reservoir at 10,500 ft. in elevation, and there was a young man and his grandfather fishing. They told us that it was trout they were fishing for and that all the lakes around here are stocked. There were two rigs set up for camping and a couple of more trucks came in with fisherman.

Today it never rained and was mostly clear all day. We hiked around the little lake enough to stretch our legs but there is no trail per se.

Back down the muddy 11 miles and the poor van is encrusted with thick mud that hardened up over the day.

We went to the historical museum in Creede and they were open today. Yesterday they were closed due to a doctor’s appointment. The place is run by an older man who must have been okay medically speaking since he was there today! The museum is your typical collection of old late 1800’s stuff and a lot of old black and white pictures of the late 1800’s. This town boomed for 4 or 5 years and then went bust. But tourism bailed them out.

Following the museum we stopped at Coffee on the Fly for some iced coffee drinks (Deb said “best iced chai ever”) and people watching. We then strolled down to the actually pretty nice grocery store and bought a loaf of bread since we just ran out.

Next stop was the trailhead at Shallow Creek a few miles out of town. The hiking brochure we’d picked up had one of the mileages wrong so we got a little side tracked trying to find it. We were on roads that were very single lane but fortunately there is little traffic so we only had a couple pull off negotiations. The fields of wildflowers along the way were beautiful. We finally did find the trailhead and we hiked about 3 miles round trip on my new knee, which is about all I want to push it for now. There were beef cattle we had to negotiate at one point but other than that it was a mild up and down trail.

Then back to the campground to chill and rest the knee and re-up on ibuprofen. Tonight Deb got us the last two seats at Creede Repertory Theater’s rendition of Young Frankenstein. We reserved a spot in the Creede Hotel for dinner at six and what looked like everyone who was going to the play next door was getting dinner there. So the kitchen was slammed and we ordered a simple salad and bowl of soup and still waited 45 minutes to get those, but enjoyed sitting outside and listening to a musician as we waited. We got to the theater at 7pm and we had two separate seats in the very nice Creede Repertory Theater (rows A-O, 1-14). Very professionally done show and we enjoyed it very much. They started this theater in 1967 which seems hard to believe for this tiny isolated town.

Then back to the campground and lights out in our tiny filthy van.

Monday Jul 1, 2024 South Fork to Marshal Park Campground (Creede CO)

Another quiet night at the Silver Thread Basecamp RV park. Silver Thread refers to the name of the scenic road that stretches from South Fork, CO all the way to Gunnison, CO. There was a lot of mining activity along this corridor in the later 1800’s.

We topped off our water and used the dump station before leaving and stopped at the office to ask about breakfast somewhere. She said Tiny Timbers Coffee Bistro and Cafe was the “only” good place for breakfast in South Fork, which isn’t bragging so much as it is true.

She was right. It had food somewhere between diner and foo-foo so something for everyone. There were the usual assortment of “old farts” solving all of the world’s problems, again. A group from Sierra Vista, AZ saw our Bisbee license plate so we chatted for a while. A very social place with good coffee and hot tea and good simple breakfast.

After breakfast  we went up to Big Meadows Reservoir and hiked the Big Meadows Loop Trail, which was Milo’s test on the 6 week anniversary of his new knee. After 2.6 miles of fairly flat but soggy, root and boulder infested trail, Milo survived and celelbrated back at the van with some ibuprofin and hot coffee. It was drizzly all morning but we had lightweight rain jackets so were fairly dry. Deb wore her camera out snapping pictures of wildflowers.

Deb taking over for the rest! We decided to drive to Lake City for the afternoon, traveling further on the Silver Thread Byway (Rt 149) than we’d been previiously, up and over Spring Creek and Slumgullion Passes. Our first stop was at the parking area for North Creek Falls, where we made lunch and enjoyed the clearing skies at a picnic table. We had a long chat with a couple from Oklahoma, who are staying in a cabin in Lake City but have a Travato van at home. 

Following our lunch break we drove up and over the passes, first Spring Creek Pass (10,000+ feet) and then Slumgullion Pass (11,000+ feet). Both the Continental Divide Trail and the Colorado Trail go through Spring Creek Pass. Magnificent vistas and country.

Down and into Lake City, another historic and charming town complete with wooden sidewalks. Our new Oklahoma friends pulled up behind us and offered us a spot in their driveway on the night of July 3rd if we needed it. So sweet, since after we leave our current campground on the 3rd we don’t have any reservations.

We then drove to Wupperman Campground, a county-run campground up above Lake San Cristobal, to check it out and see if we might have any luck getting into that campground on the 3rd. We had a fun chat with the campground host Dan Bell (his wife’s name is Tinker, seriously) who said if we decided to camp there he’d find room for us.

Back down to Rt 149, up and over the passes and on to Marshall Park Campground by 5:30 pm, our home for the next 2 nights. This is a lovely Forest Service campground right on the Rio Grande river, with 16 sites total and decent pit toilets. At $17/night the price is pretty hard to beat.

Milo made a rice and chicken sausage dinner with salad and we enjoyed talking with a few of the campground guests and listening to the river.

Sunday Jun 30, Creede Mining tour

It was misty this morning after a light rain last night. This RV park is very dark at night and very quiet. Mostly Texas folks here. The couple next to us are from Texas and they have been coming here for a month in the summer for many many years. They live in their RV (5th wheel job) year round, don’t own a house and love it that way. They go back to Texas for winters and travel around, but always come here for the month of July.

Very few bugs, maybe it’s too early, but that is welcome.

We went to MJ’s Cafe in Creede for breakfast. Good little busy diner. The town of Creede is one of those silver mining towns that grew to 10,000 people in three years and then collapsed in the mid-1890’s when the price of silver dropped out. Same as Tombstone. The population is only a few hundred people and relies on tourism in the summer. They built an underground mine museum which kind of blows my mind. In 1992 three guys started drilling and blasting a hole in the side of the mountain for the fire department and decided it was going so well they kept blasting until they had enough room for the museum and a community room. The museum is very well run and the exhibits are sequential and numbered. You’re given an audio headset that talks you through the whole place and back to the gift shop. It looked like a single woman ran the whole place. That must be a good money-maker for the town.

Next we climbed up a well maintained dirt road called the Bachelor Loop to get a tour of the Last Chance mine. It was abandoned in the mid-1980’s and a man named Jack Morris  bought it for a song in 1998 with the understanding that it would be used as a museum. Our tour guide was Bobby, and he did a great job on our 45 minute tour. The tour was just long enough to get the gist of silver mining, a different deal than copper mining. Bobby claimed that there was as much silver left in the place as they took out, but they were committed to the museum thing. The silver just sits there patiently.

We climbed a little further on the Bachelor Loop than the Last Chance Mine and then the road ended because of a rock slide.

Deb here for the rest! The woman working at the museum had  told us about Freemon’s Ranch and General Store, saying we had to stop there if heading to the falls, so we did. Delicious burgers and waffle fries, which we enjoyed sitting at a picnic table on their porch. By this time the sun had come out and it was a beautiful day. Freemon’s is only a stone’s throw from North Clear Creek Falls (supposedly the second most photographed falls in the U.S.?), so we traveled there and made the short walk to the falls. Really spectacular and different, with the water coming out of the meadows and dropping deep into a chasm. Hard to explain but stunning. 

Since we visited North Clear Creek Falls our next destination was South Clear Creek Falls. Access to these falls involved a bit of a hike in, and I'm happy to report that Milo’s new knee is doing great! Smaller falls and a more traditional setting, but also beautiful. And I have to note that the wildflowers here are amazing. I probably took pictures of 15-20 different varieties, and I have yet to see a columbine (the Colorado state flower). Maybe tomorrow…

After the two falls, two different mining museum venues and lots of spectacular scenery we made our way back to our campground near South Fork. We stopped briefly at Marshall Park Campground, our USFS campground for the next 2 nights to get a preview.

Finally arriving back at the campground at 5:30 pm we realized we’d eaten such a late lunch that neither of us were hungry for much dinner. We each had yogurt and fruit, read our books, talked with the neighbors and called it a night.

Saturday June 29, 2024 Albuquerque NM to South Fork CO

 

We were up around 7am and Steve had the coffee ready. We did more catching up with Steve and their dog Juice and their cat Chaco. Sharon is visiting back east so we didn’t see her this trip.

We picked up coffee and breakfast sandwiches at McDonald’s and then headed north on I-25. Cutoff at Rt 550 where we topped off the gas (cheap gas).Rt 550 is a beautiful 4 lane road that went as far as we went today. We turned east after Cuba, NM on Rt 537 which turned out to be a desolate but well paved two laner through the Jacarilla Apache Indian Reservation. It was devoid of traffic or towns so it was a nice peaceful road. Although I definitely wouldn't want to break down there!

We intersected Rt 64 and went through Dulce then continued toward Chama where we picked up Rt 84 to Pagosa Springs. We’d been told to check out Pagosa Springs so we went through the town. It was crawling with tourists and super busy. We stopped at Two Chicks and a Hippie for an all-day breakfast (Milo) and a chicken salad wrap (Deb). Then north up and over Wolf Creek Pass which is 10,850 ft. We pulled into the South Fork, CO visitor center where we loaded up on brochures. They have a very active tourism business around here with kayaking, hiking, skiing in the winter, raft trips down the Rio Grande river and guides for fishing and hunting, etc. There is a mining museum and tour we will go check out tomorrow. 

There is lots of water here so everything is green with waterfalls everywhere. We saw the transition from desert to mountains as soon as we crossed into Colorado.

Deb reserved a spot at the Silver Thread Base Camp, a nice RV place with lots of shade and right on the Rio Grande.

Friday Jun 28, 2024 - Bisbee to Albuquerque NM

 Milo had done a clean sweep of the van after the last trip with his brother Dave so it was a chance to put everything back in. We still forgot a few things (spare batteries?)

Deb had her exercise class and ladies’ coffee at Kafka after and Milo had a men’s coffee with Brian, Nick, Tom and Dave at the Warren Peace Cafe. So we didn’t leave until 11:00. It’s about 6-7 hours to Albuquerque where we planned to stay in Steve and Sharon’s driveway tonight. Good weather with just a few welcome sprinkles to cool us down. It was in the 90’s but cloudy. Road trip day so we just hit the AC and did not need to pay attention to the heat. On top of hot, we are entering the monsoon season and the humidity is higher so less comfy.

We forgot about the time change when we crossed the New Mexico state line, so we texted Steve to tell him we wouldn’t arrive before about 7pm. He was going to take us to a place open until 10 so all was good.

Gas was a lot cheaper in New Mexico. We saw $3.99 in Douglas, AZ and $2.99 -$3.19 in New Mexico. I-10 to Deming to cut the corner to get to Hatch which dumps us on the  I-25. Milo drove a little but Deb is doing most of the driving because of Milo’s new knee.

We arrived at Steve’s around 7pm and went to a great pizza and wine place called Farina's not far from the University on Central Ave. Really good pizza and good hazy IPA. By the time we got back to Steve’s we were beat, so off to bed in the van. It was 80 when we went to bed so we ran the fans until the middle of the night when the temperature dropped into the lower 70’s. Still have some organizing to do in the van.