Thursday, July 25, 2013

Day 19: Stony Pass, Lake City, Engineer Pass, Sheep, and Wildlife...

Today was the last full day we could go off adventuring, and we decided to reprise (roughly) our favorite day of the trip.  This was just last Sunday, when we went over Stony Pass to the Rio Grande reservoir, then up to Lake City, and back “home” via Cinnamon Pass.  We did the same trip today, except that we returned “home” via Engineer Pass from Lake City.

We left before sunrise, and drove up to Stony Pass in low light, both of us still sleepy (not enough caffeine).  We looked for Rocky Mountain goats in the high meadows, but never saw one.  Just after we crested Stony Pass, we came across a large herd of sheep (the same herd we've seen twice before).  The shepherd's tent was there, with two border collies just outside it.  Apparently we arrived before the shepherd got up :)  The whole scene – grassy hills covered with sheep, with the tent and dogs – looked like something you'd see on a postcard.

Just a mile or so later, Debbie spotted some elk, much closer than the previous sighting.  We got a great look at a few adults.  It started to rain, never very hard but always at least spitting.  Then we started spotting deer, including fawns, and we continued to do so for the next few hours.  We lost count of how many we saw.  None of them looked unhealthy, though a few were a bit skinny.  In the same meadow where Debbie spotted elk on Sunday she spotted them again, this time a bit closer and lower in the meadow.  We had a good long viewing of them again.  At one point just after this, we spotted two does off to our right, one with a fawn.  Then on our left we flushed a fawn and a snowshoe hare.  Woo hoo!

When the road got down to the Rio Grande and we started seeing beaver ponds, Debbie spotted a roadside cross we'd missed before.  It had a little brass tag that read:

     B. R. Swindle
     8-13-2010
     "The Governor"

We searched on the web in vain for some reference as to who this cross might be for.  We don't know if it memorializes a person or an animal.

A couple of ATVs approached and passed us, and one of the guys driving stopped, pointed at our truck, laughed, and made an appreciative comment about our “Slightly Loony” sign.  This sort of thing has happened a lot on our drives, several times every day.  We've gotten lots of smiles and laughs over the past couple of weeks, making us quite happy we'd taken the trouble to make it...

After we'd completed all the challenging parts of the road, and we were down alongside the Rio Grande reservoir, a pickup approached us and stopped, window down, to chat.  The cab had a whole family: husband, wife, and a kid or two.  The husband was driving, and all had big smiles and looked excited.  He called over to us to let us know that the road ahead would be challenging, and asked about the road we'd just traversed.  This left Debbie and I nearly speechless.  We know this road well; we've been on it quite a few times over the years, including just three days earlier.  We knew darned well that the part the pickup had just traversed was practically paved it was so easy, and that the part we'd just traversed was an order of magnitude more difficult.  As gently as I could, I let the driver know there were lots of challenges ahead of him.  Either he was joshing us, or he's an incredibly inexperienced offroader who was in for a big, big surprise in a few miles.  The long wheelbase of his pickup was going to make the skinny, twisty, stony road ahead of him quite challenging even for someone who knew what they were doing.  We're still wondering how they made out...

By the time we hit the paved road a few miles later, the hour was late enough that we didn't see nearly as much wildlife the rest of the day (though we did spot a few deer, including one buck in downtown Lake City).  We zoomed over Slugmullion Pass to Lake City, where we reprised our previous meals of BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and sweet-and-sour cole slaw.  The next stop was Mean Jean's for some coffee, and then we were off up Engineer Pass.

Once over the pass, we ran across the begging marmot again, and again he came right up to the FJ.  This time we tried him out on some trail mix, and the little beggar loved it.  He was brave enough to allow me to approach within three feet or so for some photos (see below).  He had some pink on his snout we hadn't noticed before, probably because we weren't quite so close.  He seemed to especially like the dried fruit in the trail mix, and Debbie had a great time dribbling out treats for him. 

A little further down the road, between Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass, we came across a large flock of sheep.  The sounds from them were delightful: tinkling from the few belled ewes, the high pitched baaaing of the lambs, and the lower-pitched, variable baaing of the adults.  It was postcard-beautiful to see the sheep spread out all over the flowered meadows.

Just after we spotted the shepherd's trailer and horse (with a purple halter!), we got to Denver Lake – a perfect dog swimming spot, with grassy banks and some nice deep water for Race to swim in.  We had a great time there, playing with the dogs.  We tuckered them right out, and left with wet, panting, tired dogs in the FJ...

We have no idea WTF this is (seen near Rio Grande reservoir)...

The begging marmot of Engineer Pass turns out to like trail mix...

Dried pineapple may have been his favorite...

But he was ok with the dried mango, too :)  Note the pink on his snout – that's not a photo artifact, it was really there...

A herd of sheep on the saddle between Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass.  There were several hundred animals spread across a square mile or so of ground.  Bells were tinkling, and the sheep were baaaaing.  We found the shepherd's trailer and horse staked out below all the sheep.

A couple of lambs, wondering about the orange FJ monster approaching them...

At Denver Lake, Miki tries to steal the ball from Race.  He never succeeded...

Joyful, bounding dogs running to get the ball – the most important thing in the world...

If you could plot the three-dimensional intersection of their gaze, you'd find it was the geometric center of the ball that Debbie was getting ready to toss.  Total focus, total concentration – nothing else exists for these dogs...

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