Woke up early as usual. I really wish I could sleep in past sunrise the tempurture in the early mornings is far too cold for my liking.
Well after about two hours, just a little before seven am, I finally forced myself out of my tent to make up breakfast and coffee. However I wasn’t quite awake yet and ended up spilling my first cup of coffee, awesome start to any morning. The majority of my morning was spent catching up on my journal writings and enjoying the scenery around me.
After a bit my neighbor, who had a campsite about 50 yards away, walked by and I finally got to talk to him for a bit. Matt and his son brandon had been camping out here for about 10 days so far, and week ago the whole area was covered in snow, there were still even drying up snow melt patches covered by the shade of trees out here. Talk about lucking out.
After talking to Matt and Brandon I learned they were camping out for the summer, spending 10-14 days in each spot before packing up and moving onto the next one. That is one heck of a way to spend your summer break! Not to mention they had an awesome camping set up
I went back over to my site for lunch and hopped on my bike to ride down the forest service road to see just what was down there. There was a rough road warning sign right before you start heading down the road, that sign was a bit of an understatement to say the least. There was no possible way my car could make it down this road, good clearance was a must, something my car lacks.
Ventured about 3 miles down the road before turning around. I did find a secluded camping site that was tucked away off the forest service road that had great scenery and could fit a few tents back there. I could pack up what I needed and biked in, although I wasn’t really prepared for that and I’d have to leave my car abandoned. Not something I was willing to do, as it was my home for all intensive purpose.
By the time I made it back to my site I was quite exhausted and plopped down on the ground.
After recovering for about an hour I ended up spending more time with Matt and Brandon throwing a football with them, however I lasted all of 10 minutes before I was out of breath again. Curse this elevation.
With plenty of daylight left, and no more energy for physical activity I headed into Silverton to restock on supplies, gas and to walk around the town.
The town had one gas station and one grocery store that wasn't much bigger. Apples here were close to $3/lb, and there was only one kind as well. Not surprised given how small the town was. However I was surprised to learn that it had been an active mining town for over a 100 years up until 1990.
After walking around and taking photos I was begging to get hungry and headed back to my site of dinner as I was now stocked up on supplies.
At this point I was really enjoying the 11 mile stretch of 550 and was begging to get familiar with the route. I wouldn't mind driving a mountain pass everyday for my commute. Sure beats I-35 which just goes straight forever and ever.
Ended up eating soup of course, I was getting use to my camping diet by now.
With sunset approaching I grabbed my camera equipment and headed out to lake Molas to capture the mountains at sun set. Although as I go to leave my belts start to squeal on my car. Odd they're still relatively new and have been fine for the past few days. I'll just have to tighten them up before I leave tomorrow.
The thoughts of belts being an issue quickly disappear as they quiet up and I hop back onto the pass to go capture sunset in the mountains.
I waited around until sunset turned to dusk and packed up my equipment. The night driving conditions made me thankful that I swapped out the old sealed beam units for more modern H4 light housing, the difference between them was a night and day difference. I may as well been using a handheld flashlight with the old ones.
Part 2 with more photos coming this Tuesday.