Welcome to Rich Hudgins N5ALE Web Page

September
2015 September 01
   We went on another trail ride today on what is called the timberline trail.  I winds around the mountains following old donkey pack trails that the miners used to bring supplies and gold into and out of their camps.  Its a very narrow trail no vehicles more than 50 inches in width can us it as it passes between large boulders and trees.  Below is one of the abandoned houses that were in the small town on the mountain.



The trail passes over the top of at least two of the mountains in the area and then goes down to Mirror lake.



Mirror Lake from the top of the trail.



My sister Fran and the Razor ATV on the top of the trail just before Mirror lake.



2015 September 02
   We had an emergency develop last night and this morning. One of trucks had the keys locked in  it late in the evening at the end of the road [24 miles of very bumpy dirt road] This is what it looked like this morning as we  went up to try and unlock it with a string.  We were successful in unlocking the truck, after about thirty minutes of trying.


Yes there is a road [dirt trail ] there.  We did get it unlocked with the string [paracord from walmart] look it up on you tube it works pretty well.  We  did some riding and everyone else started preparations for leaving in the morning.  I will stay until Sunday morning and then cross Cottonwood pass into BuenaVista and proceed to Buckley AFB near Denver.

2015 September 03
  Today every one left except me [Fran, Caroline, Barbra, Carol, Curtis] So what do do I KNOW ROAD TRIP as if I haven't put enough miles on my truck yet.  I went to Crested Butte and then down to Gunnison for lunch.  While in Crested Butte I drove through old town and happened on the Marshal's office.



I really liked the high speed cruiser parked out front, you know the blue one in  the green bike rack.  But I did see the Marshal in action before I left Crested Butte.



Quite a display of aluminum foil, and I thought the aluminum foil hats that stop the aliens mind control rays were over the top.

I could not pass up a chance to take a picture of the Safeway in Gunnison.  It seems to be the same one that Margaret and I bought up all the pacifiers they had for Sarah when she was in  her ballistic pacifier phase.



It looks the same as I remember, or maybe the remember it as it looks now.
Tomorrow Lake City south and west of where I am now.  Visit a friend Gene K5GF who lives there in the summer.

2015 September 04
  I got started at about 08:00 and stopped in Gunnison at the walmart and the ace hardware store for a copy of my truck key and some perishable items for the trailer.  This photo is from the morning before  another  wonderful day in the trailer park....
 

You may know but if you dont, Lake Citys claim to fame is the Albert Packer Trial for Canablism in the 1870's.  The irony is that the five men that died were only  a few miles from the town of Lake City admittedly it was pretty small then but still it was a safe place.



And this is the lake that the City is named for.   It is the second largest natural lake in Colorado and was formed when a mountain side slide down into the river bed and damned it up between six hundred and nine hundred years ago.



On the drive home to Taylors RV park it started to get dark and the sun set was very pretty. 




  Sunday the sixth I move to Denver to visit with Rikki and Matt.  If its dry and not raining I will take Cottonwood pass which is a dirt road up to the pass at 12,000 feet and a paved road down to Buena vista .  If its rainy or I don't feel like it I will go down to Gunnison and take highway 50 over Monarch pass to Buena Vista.  The Cottonwood pass route would save about seventy five miles and a couple of hours but we will see.

2015 September 05
   A nice quiet day until hail and wind and lightning droped down from the sky and blew my chair over and rattled my trailer.  There was a race going on over near Crested Butte that I was listening to on the radio [GMRS Repeater how odd] and they took some lightning.  No injuries but a lot of excitement.  Any way here it the video of the HAIL STORM.

2015 September 06 Sunday
  I left Taylor lake about 07:00 and since it was socked in with fog I decided to not to go over cottonwood pass in the fog.  I went down to Gunnison and followed highway 50 over Monarch pass to the valley.



The  road down to Gunnison through the valley.



The fog / clouds on the way up to Monarch pass



The view from Monarch pass down into the valley below.



Damn I must have put to much octane booster in the fuel tank of that GMC.....  Yes there is a story to this picture.  On the way to Buckley AFB about sixty miles to the west of it the truck just slows down and as I am down shifting to try to get up this steep hill it dies dead and wont restart for any thing.  It tries but no go so I waited for the police and instead the fire department was the first to find me.  I was lucky again and was in the slow truck lane so while I slowed traffic I didn't stop it.  The wrecker driver that the fire department called took me and the trailer just up the hill to a shop where I called Rikki and Matt to come and get me and the trailer..  And there it sets.  Being the labor day weekend the shop will  not be open until Tuesday so I left them a note and the key in the after hours drop box and I will call them Tuesday morning to make sure they can take care of it.  But who knows I might some day become a diesel dually dipstick myself that thing doesn't even know there is a trailer behind it..... All the problems I have had have occurred on the weekends so I think from now on I will drive only on the week days and never on a holiday.


2015 September 11 Friday
  I got the truck back yesterday and it runs really well now that the fuel pump puts out the correct pressure.   So far non of the missing or hesitations that I had noticed when under load, but I will have to see how it  works when the trailer is hooked up and pulling.  Changed the oil and filter today and filled it up with gas now I have to be the first one into Outdoor Rec tomorrow morning at 08:00 to see if I can extend my stay another week.  Its first come first  served so I will bring my chair and a book to read and get there at 07:00 and wait.


2015 September 18 Friday

  I have been remis about my web log here and I plead guilty to having fun and partying almost nonstop [except for the daily naps of course].   I will include some very pretty shots of the sunrise and sunset here at the Buckley Family camp.  I move Monday morning to the Family camp at the Air Force Academy for a couple of days before making that long jump home. Below is a sunrise here.



And a sunset.



I should have more pictures of the Air Force Academy when I get there.

2015 September 21 USAF AIR FORCE ACADEMY

A short hop from Buckley about two hours at my speed. 



and of course the home of the Fighting Falcons



Notice the brown grass they sure need some rain here. 

2015 September 22
I took a drive today up to the visitors center and the chapel.  The chapel has always been the heart of the Air Force Academy for me and it hasnt changed in the thirty years [damn thats a long time] since I was here last



After I got back I got some pictures of the local small wild life here in the family camp. 



I had seen this fellow scooting across the ground the day before but could not get close enough to get a good picture, but this time I  treed him so I could walkup and talk to him.  He wasnt sure just what to make of me as you can see from the puzzled look on his face.   Nice ears and that black coat is really cool.

2015 September 23
  I leave for home today and it will be a thousand miles across the empty plains of Texas.  Its not really empty but once you get down on it after spending the last two and a half months in the mountains it does seem flat.  I passed thur the Raton Pass into New Mexico and went east past some pretty nice places.



This is north of Raton pass closing in.



This is on the down side of the pass in New Mexico



I stoped at the Capulin Volcano park but could not drive up to the top as they had a slide that closed road the night before.  So I went down to the World famous Folsom Museum.

 
Its really a pretty cool Museum and Folsom is a nice small village if you get a chance to visit it please do.
It is after all the place that gave us the Folsom people culture and the Folsom Point assemblage.
  I made it to Childress that night and stayed in a Walmart parking lot with about forty Simi Rigs. Sleeping to the rumble of the diesel engines was restful.  
2015 September 24
The last leg of my journy not much to say about the rest of the trip except it took a full twelve hours to make it home.  It will take me a month to clean out my truck and trailer after this trip but I have the time so its no big deal.



THE END for now..........