Thursday 8-31-23 Hiking, Motorcycle Ride & Walking

 

Fishing on Turquoise Lake

Happy Thursday. 

I have been sleeping well since I have been on the trip. I have been going to bed between 10:30 pm and 11:00 pm and waking up around 7:30. At home I usually go to bed at 2:00 am and get up around 8:00 am. I guess the extra hours of sleep makes me sleep better. I don't even take a nap. 

This morning I crawled out of bed around 7:30. Larry said the oven was heated up so I put the cinnamon rolls in to bake. They came out perfect. Larry had set the temperature at 325 and I baked them for 15 minutes.

Breakfast

After breakfast we went on a short 3 mile hike. We hiked part of the Turquoise Lake/ Nature trail until we got to Fallen Trees trail, which is 1.25 mile loop. Then we got back on the Turquoise Lake/Nature trail. Fallen Trees trail went through the tall pine trees. We did see some fallen trees. We saw a herd of deer (two does, a fawn and two bucks). The bucks had beautiful antlers. When they saw us they ran into the trees. But they didn't go too far when some of them decided to bed down for a bit. They were hard to see because there were a lot of trees and they were too far away. When we were hiking by the lake we saw someone water skiing, people fishing and people kayaking. I don't know what the water temperature is but it has to be very cold, the person skiing was wearing either a wet suit or a dry suit. We learned years ago that if you needed one of those the water was too cold. It was a very nice hike. We didn't actually plan to hike today, this was our fourth day of hiking and we really should take a day off.

Deer in the trees

 

Water skiing

Waving to me from the lake

 

Kayaking

When we got back to the Minnie it was only 10:00. We relaxed about an hour before lunch.

Larry read and I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 6 games (3 Klondike and 3 Tri Peaks). It took me 9 minutes and 34 seconds, which put me in 22nd place in my group.

After lunch we went on a 50 mile bike ride. We started the ride by go to Leadville to take a shower at the laundromat. From the main road it looks like it's out of business but when you go around to the back to park it looks ok. The showers are coined operated but you have to use their dollar tokens. The shower cost $8.00 for 8 minutes, this was plenty of time for the two of us. The water was hot enough we had to adjust it down. The shower / bathroom was very small and it had the smallest sink we ever saw, about half the size of a normal one. They had a couple of hooks to put your stuff right next to the shower. There was bench for you to sit one to take off your clothes. They had a big shelf above the toilet which we used for our clothes. The sink also had a small shelf. The laundromat was very well maintained and clean. 

After taking a shower Larry filled the bike with gas. He was surprised that it only took .5 gallon because we had driven it 40 miles and we usually can ride it 50 miles on a tank (a gallon tank). Afterwards we drove to Ski Cooper, which was 16 miles up the mountain pass. It was a beautiful mountain pass. At places Larry had to slow down to get around the corner. The mountain range was in the San Isabel National Forest. The road, that takes you to Ski Cooper had a sign for the Tennessee Pass of the Continental Divide, the elevation is 10,424 feet and there was a memorial honoring of the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. We turned right and went to Ski Cooper. The road was very rough and when we got to the parking lot it was even rougher. We have been here a few time to snow ski and the road didn't seem as rough. We turned around in the parking lot. As we did this we saw a gentleman striping off the old paint on the building so he could put new paint on it. He was on a ladder and all by himself. The buildings aren't small so he'll be there for awhile. When we got back to the intersection we stopped at the memorial. It was very nice. I walked around and Larry sat at a picnic table waiting for me. Then we turned right and continued down the road another six miles to Camp Hale Memorial Campground. This campground is located in the White River National Forest. We drove through the campground. It was very nice but we didn't see any hiking or water. 

Sign to Ski Cooper

 

View from the sign about Camp Hale

 

Another mountain view

 

Sign for the Continental Divide and 10th Mountain Division Memorial

Afterwards we stopped at a sign, that talked about the history of Camp Hale. There actually was a military camp located there. It trained the 10th Mountain Division, which was the only division specifically for mountain warfare during World War II. 

Then we continued our ride back to the campground. We did make a couple more stops to stretch our legs. We had a super ride through the mountains.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing. After dinner I walked around for an hour to get my steps. During my walk I talked to a few people. While I walked Larry read and started planning our next adventure after here. By the end of the day I had done 18,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group.