July 23rd - Testing Toni's Recovery

Toni decided that she wanted to see how she was doing as a result of her shoulder joint therapy and wanted to take a ride on the trails.  So.....................we headed out with the idea that it would be a short trip to see how it felt.  As it turned out, it felt fine to her and we ended out at the Engineer Pass summit.

Toni felt so good that she wanted to go on Silverton for lunch but I had forgotten my billfold.  We headed back to town to eat lunch and decide what was next.  Here are several pictures we took on the trip.

If you look closely at the next picture, you can see a line of Toyota FJ40s at the summit.  This was their annual rally and 350 of them were running trails out of Ouray.  Pain in the behind when you meet these folks.  They have very little mountain pass consideration for other units.

So down the pass we went.  We were hungry and needed a rest room so I drove as fast as Toni could stand but we still paused to take some more pictures.

(below) This is a nice house way up with the only apparent way to get to it is by a foot bridge.  Go figure!

(below picture) It is hard to get a feel for the distances here.  Way down over the edge of the trail is a stream.

We made it back to Lake City and ate lunch at the Packer Saloon.  Toni decided she wasn't ready to go back to the motor home so we did another test run, this time up Cinnamon Pass.

It was downright chilly up there!!

We made it to the top. 

 

 

We went on back down after this picture.  Drove a total of 88 miles this day and Toni did just fine!  We got back around 5:30, just before it started to rain!

Bad Trail Choices - July 14th

There was one area that we have never ridden so I decided today to check it out.  Not a good decision.  I drove the Maverick over Engineer Pass and at the bottom on the other side, the trail forked to the right and the sign pointed towards Ouray.   I previously had looked at the maps and knew that the trail was actually Mineral Creek but I figured our bullet proof Maverick could do it just fine.  And, after all, I had a spare tire!

Thee following are a few pictures of the early part of the trip.

The next pictures were taken from the beginning part of Mineral Creek trail.  Didn't look bad at all about here!

Really beautiful scenery along here and I was still happy as a bug in a rug about my choice.  This is part of the Mineral Creek Trail.

Then, suddenly, the trail turned to the picture below!!  I didn't take very many pictures from about here until I got out of Poughkeepsie Gulch since I was so busy attempting to not tear my rig up or fall off the side of the mountain.  I am really surprised that I didn't ruin some tires on the 50 jillion sharp rocks I had to drive over!

On the way back to camp, I was able to get a couple of pictures of some mountain goats.

 

I must say that I was blessed to make it through the trip without serious incident.  Mineral Creek and Poughkeepsie Trails are both ones that the rental companies prohibit their equipment from traversing.  And..................I will never go back on them and don't recommend them to anyone!!

Another Trip Over the Passes

Today is Friday, July 8th, and I decided to make another trip over the passes, mainly to get a few photographs.  A friend of ours went with me and this time we drove 53 miles in about three hours.



Another Trip Over the Passes

A Quick Run

July 7, 2016 - I was bored so while Toni watched her soap operas, I decided to ride the Maverick some.  I intended to take some pictures but, when I attempted to take my first picture on the trail, it turned out the battery in my camera was dead.  So...............I decided to take a quick trip over the passes.

I left at 1:15.  I went over Engineer Pass to Animas Forks and then back to Lake City via Cinnamon Pass.  Made the entire 50 miles in 2 1/2 hours.  My speed was quite a bit faster than usual but it wasn't at a dangerous pace.  Only stopped twice to use the rest room.  I actually enjoyed the trip and am very impressed with how the Maverick handles the trails.  Toni and I are looking forward to her being able to ride with me, hopefully around the first week in August.

Made it to Lake City

We started our trip to Lake City on Saturday, June 25th, spent the first night at Amarillo and drove on over to Santa Fe for the night on Sunday night.  On Monday we drove on to Lake City and arrived about 3:00 in the afternoon with plenty of time to set up camp.

Toni's first day of physical therapy was the following Wednesday at the Lake City clinic and it went well.  We have mainly been taking it easy and getting camp set up the way we want.  Here is a picture of our little home away from home:

On Friday, Toni and I took a short walk down the street and went into this very precious garden:

Here are a few pictures of the flowers.

 

 

Sunday morning, July 3rd, we attended a community wide church service on the school grounds.  There were a lot of folks in attendance.