Looking Back as We Move Ahead

I’ll admit, I’ve been dragging my heels to make a post after my last one about fire season, lest I jinx us. We held our breath for an awful long time. Since I started writing this, the Camp Fire and other wildfires in California showed us that those fears can be well founded. Neighborhoods are not immune, and I know ours has a big forest, wild-land interface.

Seemed like we couldn’t go to town this Fall without coming home to a fire in the neighborhood (there were at least 3). From what we heard listening to the online radio traffic, seeing their response time, professionalism and talent, those fire crews and our local PFPD are amazing.

When the remnants of hurricane Rosa drifted our way in early October, we finally got a little relief, but the drought map still looked bad. I started to see the sprouts of weeds rejuvenate along the driveway, and the grasses I thought were goners began to emerge, just in time for frost. The Fall seemed somewhat mild and quick for the colors to peak. We stayed extremely busy with chores and projects in the transition between seasons this year.

Celebrating in the Gila

A lot of the work (not done by me) was to get the new engine in the bus, and get a few miles on it before we high-tailed it down to the Gila to celebrate hubby’s 40th. It was the slow-down, camping time we needed and exactly how he wanted to celebrate. We started the trip this time by meeting up with some friends at Snow Lake, where the best gift ever was the final custom fitting for some new bus awning accessories; and ended with working from the road for just one more week at our favorite cabins in Pinos Altos.

I don’t know why I haven’t written about the Gila yet? Maybe because I get bogged down in culling pictures from our trips, and then get distracted from writing the post to support them?

We were first introduced to the northern and easterly most parts of this National Forest during a series of winter-time, VW shenanigans in 2012 & 2013. Since then we’ve been drifting further and further south every year and have fallen in love with Silver City and the surrounding areas.

Since our first trip on our own in 2015, we’ve come back every year to camp, try new hot springs, and explore the forest and attractions like the WNMU museum’s collection of Mimbres pottery and the Gila Cliff Dwellings. There’s a lot of history, character and creativity here.

The bus and its new engine did great. There were a few hiccups but nothing that stopped us for very long or can’t be tuned/corrected. We barely made it home before snow covered the driveway. Now the bus is back in the garage and all of the camping interior and gear is removed and stowed. Hubby’s got her mostly torn down to the bare bones as he replaces some much needed rusted out body parts in preparation for next summer’s adventures.

2019 Alaska bound…

November 24, 2015February 13, 2023

Chaco NM trip

November 14-22, 2014

Now that it’s been a year since we visited, I’m finally getting around to writing about our Chaco vacation that I mentioned in my last post about my Chimney Rock Workshop. I thought about making this post a series like I did for our Utah trip, but I didn’t have nearly as many photos to share.

Google maps shows Chaco Culture National Historical Park about 3 hours from us. Between the speed of the bus and some of the back roads we took, I think it took us more like 4-5 hrs. We’d reserved our campsite online, so all we had to do was check-in, set-up to watch the sunset, and make dinner. The first big cold snap of the season was moving through, and it felt like we practically had the Park to ourselves.

Camping at Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Saturday, we set out with the intention to hike the Pueblo Alto Trail which overlooks much of the Park. What we didn’t count on was that the ‘entrance’ to the trail was a pretty steep, almost bouldering, stairway to the top that our dog, Pakak did not want to climb once she’d gotten a few feet up it. We climbed back down and altered our destination to one of the furthest outliers within the Park, the Peñasco Blanco Trail. We were rewarded with solitude, and able to wander and wonder through the Petroglyph Trail. Turning around at the Supernova Pictograph site, made for an almost 6 mile hike. After a rest, we walked around Pueblo del Arroyo and called it a day. Back at the campsite, we set to baking garlic knots and cinnamon rolls for dinner, and spent some quality time B.S.ing with the friendly, Park Ranger.

Sunday we awoke to 19 degrees and the bus blasted with snow. The winds were something we knew would be a factor, but they sure did blow through our bones during most of the day. Later in the day, once the bus thawed out, we took her for a drive to warm up. Some rodent, maybe a kangaroo rat, had crept into the bus and stowed a bunch of the dog food into the heater pipe. It sounded like one of those childhood push-popper toys that kinda looks like a vacuum. It spit out dog food into the floorboard for miles, and the heater still smells like it. We braved the wind to visit Chetro Ketl and the most important and studied site in the canyon, Pueblo Bonito. I was in awe just by it’s size. The dusting of snow was a real treat, too, as it added a new dimension to the landscape’s shadows and highlights.

Monday, we packed up and headed towards Abiquiu. Needing a break from the cold, we planned to hole up and thaw out at the Abiquiu Inn. This pet-friendly Inn is our favorite stop whenever we find ourselves in this neighborhood. Their restaurant is quite tasty, too. Along the way, we found a road with great views to stretch our legs and romp around in the snow for a little while.

Rested, warm and bathed, we spent the next two nights on the Chama river. I’ve written about this spot before. It seems to stay pretty warm, and we basked like lizards in the sun for a few days.

Thursday we drove towards Taos, camping near Pilar in the Orilla Verde Area of the Rio Grande Gorge, which is a newly designated National Monument. Again, we were welcomed with solitude. After picking a site, we ran into town for dinner. The next day was spent rambling around Taos and finally meeting up with some friends who live there to crash on their couch. Saturday was the haul home with another great adventure (and our coldest camping yet) concluded.

October 21, 2014November 8, 2020

Ultimate Summer Camp(s)

Autumn is coming at least a week later this year, and I don’t mind at all. I’d meant to write and post this at least three weeks ago when we would have celebrated the equinox with a color drive, but we still haven’t really taken that drive. We did head to Colorado Springs the first weekend of October to pick up our rebuilt transmission. The aspen were changing, mostly on the east side of the Divide. A week later, the Gamble oak in our yard started to change.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We’re just beginning to celebrate the harvest, put the garden to bed and enjoy the colors and cooler temps, and I haven’t posted up anything about our camping trips since June when I wrote about a trip we took in April?!

Here’s the not-so-short but sweet re-cap, highlighting some of our adventures:

Middle Fork May 2-4

As soon as the roads open up, this area has been our first, local camping spot of the season for the last several years. Close to home, it’s less than a half hour away; and if we choose to, we can take all dirt roads to get there.

Mosca I June 13-15

My husband discovered this little gem last fall when he took an unprecedented solo trip. Eager to share it with me, it was another one we jumped on as soon as the roads and our time would allow us. It was also my first time to drive the bus.

Cumbres June 27-29

This was another all new spot for us. It was a little more ‘crowded’ than most places we go in the woods, but we found a spot away from others to let the dogs play. Seems like every time we head over Cumbres pass, we run into the train.

Ellwood July 11

We play on the Divide all the time, but hadn’t been up and over Ellwood pass in a few years. This seemed like a good day for it, and the columbine and wildflowers did not disappoint. It was a good thing we started early as the monsoons continued to build and lightning was in the area as we hit the top. This was one for the Toyota, not he VW.

Mosca II July 18-20

We enjoyed Mosca so much earlier in the season, that we were really eager to return and see what the wildflowers were doing there.

San Juan Vacay July 26-30

This was a bitter-sweet trip in many ways (or what we called a ‘yay/boo’ story as kids). As we packed up, our 14 yo. Golden had a seizure that he couldn’t recover from, and we had to help him say goodbye. Deciding we needed to get away, we still took the trip with two of our girls; but the monsoons hammered us most of the time.

We visited both familiar and new places. One of our favorite spots had succumb to beetles. Even though the place looked sad and the trees rained needles on us, there were tons of strawberries and we gathered enough for half-a-pint of jam. Our 8 yo. ‘puppy’ also had our first-ever dog-meets-porcupine experience, which luckily we intercepted and was pretty minor. I lost a bottle of wine to a flash flood on a creek where I’d left it to chill, but recovered it about twelve feet downstream, the next day, when the water receded.

In the end, we bee-lined it towards Taos, but found our friend Mark at home and leaned heavily on his hospitality. Feeling restored the next day, we lingered too long and flash floods drove us back from the bridge crossing and the shortest way home. We took an extra long detour, and then white-knuckled it through marble-sized hail from Antonito and back over Cumbres pass.

After the bus got stuck in reverse on Cumbres coming home, and another one of our dogs went down with an injury; we’ve stayed closer to home, decided it was a good time to pull the transmission, and been preparing for the next adventure.

April 10, 2014October 17, 2020

First Camp of the Season: Chama River

As I mentioned when I launched my new theme, I’d like to get better about using this as a real blog about me and not just talking about my business anymore. I’d also like to get better about posting regularly. So while there’s a lot of technical and business stuff I need to expand on (and am working on), here’s one of those posts that is a little more personal and fun…

The weather is warming up around here and that means more campouts! My husband and I met through Scouting, and the outdoors have always been a focus of our relationship. While we haven’t backpacked in a very long time, we still spend most of our Summer weekends either in a tent or in a Volkswagen.

This was the first trip with our new awning for the bus.

And we don’t even limit it to Summer…the last two years we’ve met up with other VW enthusiasts and camped in the snow/cold in February & March. This year we were able to take our first campout at the end of March. Our destination was the Chama River, Forest Road 151.

There’s a monastery at the end of the road that we have yet to visit. Even this trip, we skipped it as we had 3 of our 5 dogs with us and it was getting late as we looked for a camping spot. We didn’t stop at our usual camp ground because there was already somebody parked there, and we were looking for solitude…which we found on this little stretch of the river.

It was wonderful to get away for two nights. This is also what we’re calling our ‘shakedown’ trip. We’re getting ready for a week-long jaunt into the canyon country of south/central/eastern Utah this month to celebrate our 15 year anniversary at the end of the year—it’s a year-long celebration with a couple of extended trips and music festivals planned throughout the season.

My first attempt at biscuits in the dutch oven was a tasty success!

We’ve decided that the secret to a long life is recharging your batteries in the outdoors—at least that’s what our 14 year-old Golden, Denver, thinks. Every time we think he’s on his last legs, we take him for a trip and are amazed at how he bounces back.

Our first afternoon, we happened to spot a coyote running down the main road so we made sure all the dogs slept with us, which was a little cramped and very dirty from Pakak’s muddy paws; but when you’ve lived with as many dogs for as long as we have, mud’s nothin’ new.

There was one night after dinner, when we all strolled the river bank. Denver even went for a little bit of a beach run! I think the ‘shakedown’ was a success, and we’re ready for our next adventure. Hope to have some photos and stories to share from our canyon trip soon…