Indian Summer in the Gorge

Back to the property after a 6 month absence.  As I stared at the mesas from the hospital in Raton, my longing for an unpeopled wilderness grew intense-away   from the reach of alarms, call lights and phonecalls-The demoralizing demands of the world of man.  Not to be subject to human capriciousness and morbid self-centeredness.  I longed for the property where I am free of these things.  In the gorge the 21st century disappears.  Jesus often went into desert places.  I can appreciate that impulse.  To be away from man's manic pace and yet be still in the presence of God.

Arrived at 1 pm.  The weather was pleasant and warm.  A bit of wind up top, an occasional gust down below-but as the winds was from the South it was warm and not unwelcome.  River running at 50 cfs yet it still looked lively and beautiful.  As the water has become shallower, fluorescent green carpets of hairlike algae cover the pebbled riverbed especially on the West side that sees longer hrs of direct sunlight.

We found green airsac like pods reminescent of the plankton we saw on the Pacific coast earlier this summer.  Is there a freshwater variety that I was hitherto unaware of?  We waded downstream to a pleasant grass covered shore that seems to be quite happy with the rejuvenating effects of the rise and fall of the river.  The mud beneath this grass is deep and has earthworms in it.  Appears very fertile.

Decided this would just be an overnight.  Once again tried to make it as easy as possible for the kids as previous visits have felt like forced labor camps to them.  Do not want to taint their impression of this lovely place.

Alas the stairs did not come to fruition this summer as we had hoped.  Instead we spent a month at the cabin and two weeks on the road.  It is ok.  Perhaps time will soften the kids' impression of this place and they will once again be on board for the stair project next summer.

Tried to keep our gear to a minimum.  Hope to leave as much down in the Gorge as possible so we don't have to sherpa or zipline as much.

Opted out of the generator this time too, as unless we need to operate powertools it only powers a lightbulb at night and an ipod or two.  That saved on hauling and fighting to get extension cords up and down the gorge walls.

We basically each brought in a pack and that was it.  I want it to be plug and play as much as possible so we will be more inclined to return.

Hipcamp wrote me about submitting the site.  I am kind of excited at the prospect.  Still not sure how to make it user friendly with the ladders and ledges though.  Would like to set up hammock brackets along the gorge walls.  That would be alot of fun.

Also have fantasies (along w the stairs) of mounting wind turbines and/or solar panels on the rock face to provide power that cannot be so easily stolen.  Am glad to say that there is no evidence of trespassers on the property above or below-excepting the little turd of a rodent that has still managed to get in despite all of our screen, steelwool and pebbles we have used to fill in gaps.

A New Church in the Wildwood

So strange, St. Anthony turning his back on affluence in the 4th century retreated to the desert.  A $1.99 1979 music box from New Horizons for Margie.  Name that song?  A church in the Wildwood-amazing origin story-and this as I was thinking of jettisoning the purchase of the add'l rg property-not sensible in light of the exposure I have for calling Parkview on it's chronic 3:1 ICU staffing on it's sickest most vulnerabe pts.  I freak and dump my property my acquisition intent.  But now I'm refortified.  A mighty fortress is my God.  I will be the voice of the disenfranchised Christian in this dark generation. 

Pack Rat Poop and Frozen Locks

Had some free ski days at Red River so I took the kids there for a couple days. So cool that the ski area is less than an hour from the Rio Grande property. Cut out a bit early to check things out-make sure nothing had been stolen and that the pack rat had been kept at bay. Airstream up top was intact with no sign of theft or vandalism. We made our way down the gorge-rather treacherous footing with the snow. The river below was frozen over with the exception of the rapid section just opposite us. The ladder gate lock (a worthless lock purchased from the Taos walmart would not open. Had to unscrew and remove it to get down. Down below everything looked undisturbed. Opened the shed and there on the floor were rodent droppings. After all my Ft Knox seal off efforts the rat still got in. No sign of damage other than gnawing into a box of bras colored deck screw. Stupid animal. Will resume my battle in the spring. We walked out on the river and spelled Shackie Chan on the snow covered river surface in giant letters. We shimmied back up the cliff wall and headed out. Looking forward to Spring on the gorge. Planning on doing the bottom 18 miles of the Ute Mountain Run-furthering our knowledge of the area.

The Struggle toward safety

So I conferred with the loving wife. Sold it like a hard sell timeshare salesman. After eye rolling, she gave me permission to pull the trigger. Bought the place from a flakey guy in Texas. Closed in Alamosa and began to implement my grand plan: Scouting for routes. Finding a way down to the river that sets this otherwise worthless patch of desert apart. Hazards abounded. 100 ft drop-offs, snakes, the river at high water. Learned how to tie climbing knots. Bought climbing gears and anchors. Purchased pipe to construct rails and an expensive Bosch SDS-Plus drill to place anchors in the rocks. I was making my mark. Staking my claim. Trying to tame a wild and potentially dangerous piece of land. All I needed was google, gumption and a whole lot of money.

A Fall Trip to The Gorge

Listening to the sound of the lower rapid-more amplified this morning than it was last night.  Was it the rain that came through-late monsoon moisture from the pacific.

Strange, but the river was not loud enough last night.  I ran my river sound machine on my kindle.  The worse kind of sound machine is a packrat scurrying over galvanized tin roofing and Ikea bags.  I had enough of that soundtrack fromprevious  night this summer.  We are getting closer to keeping that brazen rat out of the boat shed.

Wow.  So still.  A lovely dawn.  The kids still sacked out beside me.  All I hear are the rapids, the early birds and my own breath.  Am trying to make myself stop working myself and the kids to death when we are here.  So much has been accomplished in a year's time

Ladder access, a zipline, a boat shed, two jobsite lockboxes and some missteps.  Scrapped the rock structure on top.  Too hard.  Scrapped the Airstream on top (Too easy for thieving tweakers to steal from us).  Changed our route down at least three times.  Have climbing anchors strung with aircraft wire to show our previous routes.  Decided we wanted to be as close to the river as possible-balancing relative safety with the thrill of being in the belly of the Gorge along the Rio Grande's shimmering flanks.  So maybe today I will focus on enjoying the place I've been killing myself to get to.  Old habits die hard but die they must.

The Beginnings of the Property

I had always fantasized about having a waterfront property be it the ocean, a lake or a river. I have something of an obsession with water. When I bought the small acreage in Ft. Lyon, Colorado, the selling point was it's proximity to public river access. Nearby public access was the best that I could hope for as private riverfront property was way out of my price range. Nonetheless, in the countless hours I poured over realtor.com and local realty websites, I came across a property that seemed too good to be true. It was located in a "subdivision" known as the Rio Grande Ranchos. 99% of the lots on the Rio Grande Ranchos looked like something out of West Texas. Rocky, flat, 5 acre tracts of virtually worthless desert land. To cover over this fact, sellers often included pictures of the Rio Grande river as if to intimate that the lot was on the river. Anyone who spent any time looking at the seemingly endless number of RGR lots on the market became inured to these false allurements of river frontage and looked for the featureless straw colored rectangle that betrayed the true property in question. One day as I was looking through the RGR lots, a rather dull activity, I came across a "river" picture that caught my eye. In the fine print it stated "river frontage". After scrutinizing the out of focus photo, I became convinced that this lot actually was located on the river. The price had recently been reduced from $10,000 to $6500, still several thousand more than the other lots. I called the realtor based out of Ft. Garland. She confirmed the property was still for sale but seemed rather reluctant to make the hour drive to get there. Instead, she gave us directions and invited us to go out and take a look ourselves. Always up for a roadtrip I loaded up the kids and headed out. It was February and on the chilly side when we stepped out of the car and into the middle of the San Luis Valley. The lot looked as featureless and dull as the hundreds of other lots in the RGR. I told the kids, "Check this out", and we proceeded to walk across the long 5 acre lot to the very back. The grass gave way to larger volcanic rocks, sage and cactus. Suddenly a vista appeared of a river snaking through a volcanic gorge far below. The kids were duly impressed. The next question was "Was there a way to get down into the gorge on the property?" We started exploring and were sobered by the steepness and height of the cliff walls beneath our feet. Although the view was pretty, I saw no point in pursuing the property if we had no way of reaching the water. After a few abortive attempts to descend on various ledges we found that by some rather haphazard climbing at the termination of a ledge upstream we could make our way down to the bottom. Upon reaching the bottom we found ourselves in a willow thicket that gave way to a section of grass. Upstream from us, a horse looked on intently. I guessed that it was one of the areas wild horses that had somehow found its way down into the gorge and had been unable to find its way out. The kids began climbing the tumbled down boulders along the partially frozen river. I warned them not to venture out onto the ice, not knowing how the deep the river might be. I wanted to be sure that we could create an access within the bounds of the lot before we committed but my heart nonetheless thrilled at the prospect of owning this beautiful place. On the way home we stopped in the delightful little village of San Luis and bought some homemade tortillas sold at the gas station. The kids unanimously gave the riverfront property a thumbs up. Now I had to convince the wife.

Ellie's First Trip into the Gorge

My 8 year old Eleanor accompanied us to the property this week. She negotiated the rocks and ladders well. Went into the river after a long hot day building the boat shed. Took her to the BLM side so she could experience what a strong current feels like even in relatively shallow water. One nice thing about the gorge in this section that even on the sunniest days there is a shady section either on at least one side of the river: East side in the morning; west side in the afternoon. Boat shed is coming along. It is much more solid after applying the tin. Hope to work on the roof next time around. Have 4 hrs worth of lumber and tin to bring down next time. Not looking forward to that.