Monday, August 16
Opal Lake, Wolf Creek, closer doin’s

A drizzly early morning shows every sign of working up to a pretty steady rain. With little experience of Colorado mountain weather, I don’t know if this might pass on through to reveal a bright sunny day or if what we see is what we get. While Chris is away and the rain is falling, I will get some cleaning done. That is when I am most grateful for the trailer’s small size.

Chris took rain gear and headed up for Wolf Creek Pass to do some hiking on the Continental Divide Trail. Last year, we hiked a bit up there and up to Treasure Falls in that locale. We were remarking on the bird difference between Treasure Falls and where we went yesterday. Up Wolf Creek way, we encountered an abundance of great birds; however, yesterday when we trooped into Opal Lake, there was not much at all. We did get a life bird (Eric will correct me if I can’t call this a life bird, but I think it qualifies): a gray-headed black-eyed junco. We have the non-gray-headed variety at home but this one is distinctly different and very pretty.

At Wolf Creek Pass, Chris got another life bird - a three-toed woodpecker.

The encounter was fairly amusing. The sighting was an adult feeding babies who were hopping across the ground after it and the bunch of them acted as if I were nowhere in their universe, and even when I walked right up to them, they darn near jumped on my feet.

We loved the hike into Opal Lake although it being Sunday afternoon, there were a few other people on the trail. It was a bit more open than the foray into the wilderness area. I’m surprised at how different various sites are from the each other given their close proximity.

The lake and its feeders streams, as might be surmised from its name, have a slight milky cast. It’s a pretty little lake, but perhaps not the good fishing that the guides give it credit for. One couple from the Midland/Odessa area of Texas was fishing but had no luck at all. We hiked part way out with them and had a nice talk along the way.

We spotted these striking hallucinogenic mushrooms on the way up the mountain. I know for sure they are hallucinogenic in two ways. First, because I saw the bear cub eat them and hallucinate in the film, “Bear”. The second proof I have that they cause hallucinations is that I ate one and immediately afterward, Chris began to talk about relationships and emotions.















About halfway up to the lake, we saw a small green-goop pond, near-stagnant and teeming with algae. It was nothing like the clear mountain waters usually found in Colorado, much more reminiscent of something that might be encountered in the deep South, an altogether different world but one with its own intriguing charms.

The biggest treat of the hike was finding ripe wild raspberries. It seems that no one else notices them, so we scoured the slopes as we sought out patches of the delectables. The plants are short scruffy little things with only a few berries on each one, so it was worth our while to continue the search over a large area.

These bushes topped with white berries caught my eye. Possibly the only thing I remember from girl scouts was the admonition: "Leaves three quickly flee, berries white take flight" referring to poison ivy and poison oak. Never once have I recognized either itch-causer but wonder if this was poison oak. Someone else always points out to me if I am in the vicinity of poison ivy and I am fairly sure I've never seen poison oak, at least not until now.

Chris was fascinated with traipsing up and over glacial moraines that spoke of a past ice age when huge glaciers pushed large amounts of soil into terraced hillsides. I enjoyed thoughts of a more recent past when hardy mountain men trekked these areas trapping beaver and likely looking out at the distant peaks now in my view. We saw signs of beaver, including a meadow that appeared to have been cleared of trees by them, but saw no active dams and recent activity, only derelict remains of their work in the streams.






Meanwhile . . .

Upon our return to the trailer, we enjoyed leftover pork chops converted into green chile tacos along with corn on the cob and watched a nearby gopher work steadily at creating a new home and gradually pull a huge weed into his den. I dislike developing a personal relationship with these little fellers because at home, we trap them to halt their destruction, but I couldn’t resist admiring this one’s industry while snapping a photo of him.

A jaunt into town for produce afforded us the opportunity to make some phone calls, connections we can’t have from the RV park. Sara was excited to tell me about happening onto the Discovery channel’s “Dual Survivors” program that features our very own Yavapai College’s Cody Lundin, whom we have all watched for years as he traverses campus and town barefoot. Then, the very next morning, I see that he has made the front page of our newspaper as the season finale of his new series approaches.

Thunder-boomer, domes, Rowdy . . .

Yesterday afternoon, we visited the springs, soaked and relaxed and then got out for a shower, as usual. Great timing - as soon as we exited, it came up a thunder-boomer of immense proportions, the kind where you can't hear yourself think as it pounds on the truck roof. It left drifts of hail on the roadside; we might as well not have had an awning because everything underneath it was soaked. The rain continued for quite a long time. This morning, though, (Tuesday), has dawned as clear and pretty as can be.

A short growing season and storms like yesterday's discourage home gardens here; however, geodesic dome greenhouses evidently take up the slack. We have seen them at numerous places in the area. Or could it be that a persuasive geodesic-dome greenhouse salesman was through here?

Rowdy finds comfort with his stuffed bunny while we are away and when thunder roars. We can't believe how fortunate we are to have such a sweet and patient companion.