Summitville 2nd visit!

Hello Family & Friends,
I think Summitville is one of my favorite places but it is one of the longer trips to take.  Once we get to the turnoff -- about 10 miles from Ute Bluff, we have 18 miles of forest roads to get to Summitville.  We decided we had a great day earlier this week and headed back -- the trail along the mountain side was a nice walk and we didn't get to spend as long metal detecting and checking the stream out for gold possibilities.

I have to give kudos to Mickey for the picture taking -- I did take my camera but left it in the vehicle after we hiked up to the stream, I didn't want to hike back down for the camera!

Here's the forest road up to where we turned off and took an older trail along the mountain. Once again we had a beautiful blue, cloud filled day.

OK, yes that is me hanging over the stream picking small pieces of gold out of a water pool. Although you cannot really tell, just below my backside is about a 70 foot drop -- doesn't look that scary when you're facing the mountain.

Here's me ready for the trail (actually it looks like I am holding up the mountain???)

Now with my hiking stick, I am ready for the hike!

We headed up to Summitville for lunch with much warmer temperatures that a few days before.

This pic is from the information center and they have added a few picnic tables and a portable potty -- the buildings are a few of the ones remaining (in front) and the background buildings are the new ones on sight for the cleanup and restoration.

All you have to do is turn your head to see beautiful scenery and this is one place we can still see snow on the mountains in September.

On the way back home we took a side road and found a neat stream with a possibility for prospecting.  It was getting a little late in the day but we explored the stream and had a furry visitor come check us out --- I'm not sure how aggressive Marmots are but this one sure did check out Darrel.

We had a wonderful day, but arrived home tired and ready for a rest.  Our stay is getting shorter here in Colorado about 3 weeks or so -- we cannot wait to visit our family and friends in Kansas and hope we bring the cooler weather with us!

Sending our love and blessings,

Susan & Darrel

PS -- have to share an Archie picture -- remember him?  Brad and Mickey's cat -- he has such a personality -- today he was stalking a rabbit!  Talk about patience, I think he would sit still for hours if he had the right incentive! 

-- Yes, Archie is leash broke (most of the time) but he does walk the human, not the other way around 😊

Summitville 2019

Hello Family & Friends,
We had a busy Labor Day weekend and the RV park was a little busier but now has quieted down for the end of season.

We headed toward Summitville (we visited last year, check this link for the previous post if you wan to re-read).  We hiked a different trail with the guys metal detecting and Mickey and me hiking the trails.  We went a little later in the morning and took Brad's truck to make the climb.

We have just a little of snow you can see on the mountain tops as we are at about 11,500 elevation so 3-4,000 feet higher than South Fork.  It was an interesting weather day as the temperature kept dropping as we went higher and we had sprinkles and a little wind -- so chilly day.  I think our lowest temp was 61 degrees and that was at 2:00pm -- Fall is definitely on its way.

Here's the small patches of snowcap -- we had a beautiful blue sky and clouds to start off the day!

A closer shot of the snow patches

We did a little metal detecting up the trail and Mickey and I found a stream along a side mountain trail (kind of hard to explain) so we spent a little time exploring and prospecting.

I tried to get a picture of the stream going straight down the mountain side, but didn't do a very good job of zooming : (

But I love the little Christmas trees that are popping up from new growth!

The tree ridge behind us was straight up with a lot of Beetle Kill trees still waiting to drop.

Temperatures dropped and we headed back to the truck.  We ate lunch with the heater blasting to warm us up -- the ladies had been smart enough to wear jeans and long sleeved shirts, the guys were in shorts!!!

We traveled on up the extra mile or 2 to Summitville and got greeted by Marmots -- I have several pics because they were so entertaining -- I think we counted five from big to small.  First time I had seen so many in one place.  Marmots are rodents and related to ground squirrels and prairie dogs, but bigger.  They do hibernate so they are storing up fat reserves for the winter.

First one was lazing on a rock and just watched us like, "go away, I am relaxing"

A friend came to play!

But decided to find his own rock to sun on.

This little white faced one showed up from the ground -- just popped up from its burrow.

You had to really watch them travel, this one was up and down in the grass watching something in the distance.

We had a great day, really enjoyed the Marmot entertainment and made it back down the mountain before the rain started.

Better run, time for bed -- we are headed out tomorrow and will keep you updated on our adventures.

Sending hugs and Marmot comradery,

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Prospecting the Dry Washes

Hello Family & Friends,
Two posts in 1 day, I am catching up and not feeling so guilty for neglecting my online communication.

We've had a few "hot" days in Colorado (meaning upper mid-80's) and not rain to speak of for at least 5 days -- and not much anticipated for the next week.  We have headed to the dry washes to prospect.  Using a conveyor built type of machine, powered by a "blower" you basically run dirt through the bin along the conveyor built, shaking out the pebbles and keeping the gold.  Anyway that is the concept.  It is maybe more work than prospecting the stream with a sluice, definitely "dustier".

Here's a few pics of the day ---

Usually I am the digger and classifier, but at that moment was feeding the bin.

Brad is much more efficient at loading with Buckets that Mickey digs and classifies.

We've worked a couple of days back to back and my hands felt like lead last night.... The days have been pushing toward hot for Colorado but we anticipate a cool down in the next week.

We are headed to Alamosa for a grocery and Walmart run on Wed. 8/28 and who knows what we will find to do the rest of the week.  The RV park is slower with overnighters and short stays.  Several will depart early in Sept. and we will probably leave a closer to end of month.

Better run, I have chores call me -- we have better phone service and texts, but Internet can be spotty.  I am writing this post in the early afternoon and have pretty good service which tells me the tourist population of South Fork is starting to head back home.

We hope everyone is doing well, and will see you soon in Kansas.

Love, 

Susan and Darrel

Keeping Busy

Hello Family & Friends,
I am been remiss in posting as time is slipping away.  We entertained friends in the last couple of weeks -- Brad's brother, Tom (Darrel's friend, too) came out for a visit and the weather wasn't as cooperative as we would have liked -- a little rain and a few cooler days!  But we did manage to get a couple of panning and prospecting days in -- here's a couple of photos!

Here's Tom, Susan, Darrel and Brad (Mickey always takes the photos) of us metal detecting along the Seitz Creek stream

Tom is panning through a load of material from the bank.

Here's his find from the stream.

While Tom was here we had friends from Kansas, Bud and Kelly, come to South Fork after bringing their daughter to Alamosa to attend college.  We had a nice visit and caught up on their happenings.

It was a fun week with visits and just hanging out --- in the next post we try our hand at drywashing since we've had a few days of sun and no rain.

Miss you all, sending love and blessings to you and yours!

Love,
Susan and Darrel

Colorado Photo Sharing

Hello Family & Friends,
As promised, less chat and more pics.  I am so happy that my camera survived its water dunking.  I am a little hesitant to get it out when I am around water.  I hope that feeling will go away soon!

One of my favorites, blue skies, a little snow cap, and pine trees!

So many wildflowers this year, I found these purples ones and really love the color!

You just step out into the meadows full of blossoms -- white and purple (Go KSU)

Not sure what Darrel is doing but it probably is prospecting in a stream -- I turn my back and there he goes!

We still have lots of flowing water in the creeks, but sometimes not enough to sluice.

Eyes to the sky, we hear thunder and off the mountain you come.  The rain totals for the last couple of weeks have been pretty heavy compared to last year when I think we only had rain 3 or 4 times.

Rolling thunder boomers!

I liked this photo, trees frame the dwindling snow cap -- this is up Park Creek and we are pretty high in elevation from this shot.

Hope you have enjoyed the additional photo page -- Thanks for reading/viewing and we will you all good health and good blessings.

Love, 

Susan & Darrel

Beaver Creek Exploration

Hello Family & Friends,
I noticed it has been over a week since I posted, I compiled some pictures over the last few days and haven't taken time to put them online --- so now is the time. 

NOTE:  We still have Internet issues and today is one of the 1st days I've been able to get online in the afternoon so we'll see if we continue to have luck with Internet access.

I will do this post in two parts since I have lots of stored photos and I try not to have the post be too long.

We have been mushroom hunting again -- Boletes and Chanterelles (something new to add to the mushroom diet!)  If you want to read about Colorado edible mushrooms here's a link to a website with information.  Colorado Wild Edible Mushrooms

This is actually a Bolette and are the easiest to find this year --

You can see that we have a sack of them already found!

Chanterelles seem to grow in clusters and are found at higher elevations.

Chanterelles are just coming up

You have to really look to find them hidden in foliage and near downed trees.

Beaver Lake is full and many fisherman head that way to fish.

With all the snow and rain, you find new growing pine trees -- it is so good to see green!

Snow cap is diminishing each day, it is difficult to find much up there unless you are higher up.

We have been prospecting and having fun in the streams -- the tourist season seems to be winding up so the traffic is mostly on Thursday - Monday early, and the weekdays are less hectic.

Check out the next post for additional photos and less chat 😊 -- we miss you and are enjoying our cooler temps than the Midwest is surviving.  We do have lots of rain but this upcoming week seems to be drying out some.

Sending love and blessings your way,

Susan & Darrel

Camera survived, Yipeee!!

Dear Family & Friends,
Just a quick post because I never know when the Internet will disappear -- the camera is working at least!

After two days of "drying out in Rice", and hoping that it was going to work, we are back in action.  And, yes, I have stopped carrying it by the creek so that it won't drop in again. I figure I was lucky and that the 3rd time would NOT be a charm. I believe the camera is down to 7 lives left (if you can use the cat analogy) -- so I will definitely be taking better care of the remaining 7 😇

Here's a few photos that I took to try it out -- Darrel in his metal detecting gear and of the beautiful scenery we were enjoying that day!

This is one of my favorites that day, I love the tall pine to the right and the mountains to the back!  We are so green this year, and we continue to get the rains late in the afternoon and overnight.

The Internet dropped just as I was finishing so I have to rewrite my closing -- we hope you all are doing well, as we always are sending hugs, kisses and blessings to you!

Love,

Susan & Darrel