This year the Trikes have been neglected. Our longest ride has been 4 miles although we have had several of these. We had heard of the Hiawatha Rail to Trail when it was just stating in 1998. It had been in the bottom of my bucket list but it was so much out of the way. Judy’s plan to tour through the Rocky Mountain states is the perfect opportunity. We stayed in a nice campground in St. Regis, and this morning drove the Sprinter to the East Portal of the St Paul Pass, 1.66 mile long, “Taft Tunnel” under the Idaho-Montana border.
Continue reading 20180822 Ride The Hiawatha:
Tag Archives: mountains
2014: Out Like a Lion:
I have been known to briefly summarize the previous year. Emphasis on briefly. 2014 certainly went out like a lion here in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. High temperature for the day was 41 degrees and windy with the overnight low at 37.7. I am not really complaining, mind you; but we spent a fair amount of time and money hauling our butts down here to be warm. I was prepping the coach for travel this morning with wool socks, long pants, long sleeve shirt, sweat shirt and wooly vest. In the interest of brevity I will finish with the news that today is sunny and bright and the winds are calm. The snow looks just fine over on the mountains around Lake Havasu. Continue reading 2014: Out Like a Lion:
We Never Drive in Snow:
Well almost never!
We spent the day relocating from Sisters Oregon on the East side of the Cascade Mountains to Detroit Lake near Salem on the west flank of the Cascade Mountains. We are meeting our daughter, Renee and Neil and their daughters Georgia and Mathilda. We drove over US 20 to Sweet Home. It crosses Santiam Pass at 4751 feet. It was raining hard as we approached the pass. Then suddenly it was snow. Continue reading We Never Drive in Snow:
Living High:
As in living at high altitude. Friday night we were in Leadville Colorado, 10,200 feet above sea level. That is close to two miles high. We walked the town from second street to ninth street and just a short flight of steps leaves you puffin and blowing. It is an interesting town because many of the buildings in the historic downtown were built in the 1870’s and 1880’s. The city was a boom town with 15,185 inhabitants in the 1880 census. So many of those 19th century buildings are preserved and functioning as businesses to this day. Leadville’s mines produced 136 million of dollars in silver over a ten year period. After silver it relied on tin, lead and other minerals.
Red Rock
We have to brag about our National Parks. They are spectacular! In southern Utah there are some real gems. We have just finished exploring Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. I know you have seen photos of Landscape Arch, (Our version is below) You hike up the real thing; you must contemplate how unlikely it is for such a structure to develop, and yet there it is; spanning over three hundred feet and barely six foot thick at the apex. We hiked four miles round trip to see it. Along the way we were watched over by huge monoliths towering several hundred feet above us on both sides. It is easy to feel small and insignificant.