Me and You and a Dog Named Boo: The Best Laid Plans

We stopped at Ace Hardware (the best ever store that has everything) and the Laundromat in Steamboat on our way west out of town. Because we were later than usual because of re-provisoning, we decided on stopping fairly close before heading up to Browns' Park. I should tell you that the major reason for going there was because there was a great write up in the Birding Trail Book about the wildlife refuge up there AND they have wild horses in the canyons up there (one of my very favorite things to see-which I've only experienced once in the Red Desert in Wyoming-and it was breathtaking!) I wanted to check out the roads north into Wyoming or Utah as they looked a little sketchy on the maps and I didn't want to have to backtrack, so I called the Ranger up there. He told me that it was a good thing that I called because they were having a major forest fire up there, called The Peekaboo Fire and some of the roads were impassable and we would experience smoke wherever we landed. A big disappointment, but maybe we can do on our way back to Colorado after the Eclipse.

Well, life on the road brings many unexpected events and surprises. Where we stopped was a little known, but fairly new state park campground called Elkhead Reservoir, another stop on the Northwestern Birding Trail.

Sunset

Moonrise

Nice view

No privacy, but a meager, new shade shelter and a nice view of the water, we thought this place was just wonderful for a night. As luck would have it, that night was windy with gusts up to 50 miles an hour and our, albeit old and already lousy-looking, awning started ripping in the wind. Jim jumped out of Maxine and tried to reel in the struggling arms supporting the awning, yelling at me to come join in the fun. Me, whimpering and Jim manhandling, did not make the situation any better. We had a very wounded look to us! So, that night was spent trying to figure out what to do. We called Good Sam, AAA and a local guy, along with Camping World in Salt Lake and finally decided on the local guy.

Funny thing is-we had met the local guy at Steamboat, when he came fishing at the site next to us, before Meg and Chris arrived. He exclaimed about the fishing and I remember thinking as I looked at his truck (which had RV Repair clearly marked in big letters), I should write this telephone number down just in case. Haha! He said that he could order the material and it would arrive in two days and then it would take him a day to put it together. So, being that it was already Saturday night (as always-everything happens on a Saturday or a Sunday when no one is working), we decided to spend the next two nights at Elkhead and go in to see him in Milner (back towards Steamboat Springs), measure and order and then camp somewhere close for a couple of days until this little nightmare was over.

In the meantime, we went down a little country road to
the other side of the reservoir to kayak-oh, boy! This
is the country, folks!

This was a learning experience for me. You can't really make
out the island in back of Jim, out there in the distance,
but it was a fun little destination for the day. It was hot as
hell and I got the need to jump into the water. As we were
at an island, I thought that I could just jump back into the
kayak with a little push off from the rocks on the island.
Not so!! I won't embarrass myself with the details, but
I won't be doing that again. Picture slipping and sliding
and hoisting and finally making it in, only to realize that you
are too old for that kind of fun!

Another laundry day and another stab at my painting from
the Flat Tops-still not done!

Don't know if you can read this but I took an afternoon
to explore the area a bit and went through the mountains,
hoping to find a place I had heard of called California Park,
only to discover that they, too, had a forest fire going on
and there was no way through. We should get out of here!
Anyway, ended up in a little town called Hayden, after the
man who did the geological surveys of this area.

The old train station-now a museum.

On the way back, Boo and I took a walk along the river from the Yampa River State Park. We never wanted to camp here as it was right on the highway and didn't look like they had much privacy. But, it made for a lovely walk.

We came into town on Monday, stopped by Kyle's place in Milner, outside of Steamboat Springs, measured and ordered the awning and were told to come back on Wednesday, when the material would come in and he would put it on and we would be on our way. Not!

We left and found a lovely little spot on the Yampa to take
a swim and a bath with Dr. Bonner's.

And, we headed up into the mountains to a place Kyle told us about called Seedhouse. We got the last available spot there. We squeezed Maxine and our car into a space made for half of what we had and made it work. We took off for a little adventure along the most beautiful Elk Creek. It was freezing! We at least got our feet in the water.

Back for sunset and a nice walk up above the creek.

So, back down we go the next day. Guess what? The material has not come in. So, we find a few things to do to amuse us.....

And, then, we head up and up and up to what we hope (against hope-there are only 8 spots) will be a nice camp for the night. Lo and Behold-no space for us. Thank god, I am driving the car, because it seemed that we are too close to town to worry about hooking up the car to Maxine and Jim is driving Maxine-happier than can be imagined (he LOVES being off road, off grid, off sanity!) The road is steep and rutty and washboardy and scary as hell for me-Jim is in his element. We finally find a place to pull off on a shelf that reminds us of the shelf on the way to Gold Hill before it was improved. I need a cocktail! We are alive!

And, we live to tell the story. Next day, we come down early. We do a little more laundry, we shop at Ace again and we meet up with good old Kyle, who has the fabric and installs the awning. We just love good old Kyle. He got some girl pregnant when he was 17-she went off with someone else and got pregnant again and he got custody of his daughter, now 16. He has raised her and they run the business together. He is very proud of her and she is darling.

We head out of town (it's now 4 pm) and decide to just take the first thing that comes around. Turns out that is Yampa River State Park, where Boo and I hiked the other day. There is a huge rainstorm and Jim is caught in the shade structure.