Winter break

[RGINN]

I'm never ready for winter so I went down to the Banana Belt and camped north of Buena Vista about 2 miles east of Turtle Rock. Their winters are like our summers. Open ground, 55 in the day and 25 for the low last night. Nice camp site but if whoever built that fire ring would have set it up about 4 feet to the south that big rock would have been a natural heat reflector. Here's a pic of the chainsaw sculpture of Chief Antero that Dwayne did on that Prospector's show down in Poncha Springs, if anybody watches that.

 

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[BosnMate]

Pretty country. A cold front has hit the Pacific North West, we got snow down below 2000 feet, and supposed to get colder. It'll be coming your way, seems like it always does.

 

[tamrock]

You ought to pack up and move down that way RG, I lived in BV and commuted to Frisco with a $400. AMC Gremlin summer, spring winter & fall. I had sand bags in the back and studded snows on the rear. I could keep that cheap heap running on very little out of pocket cash. I'm kind of goofy in that I enjoy the awesome winter weather and driving in it. There's just something surreal about a winter storm I find peaceful. I've been through so many over the years now. Of course if they close the roads you just need to hunker down for a short while, as keeping roads open is a top priority. That's why I avoid I80 in Wyoming in the winter. I have better luck going east or west over 40 and 285 to 50, as I70 is getting to be a real cluster frock in recent years.

 

[RGINN]

Maybe 5 more years and I will try to do just that. However, tourism is increasing and property values are goin up there too, so maybe not. I have been looking into Costilla County, where for $150 down and $141 a month you can be the proud owner of a five acre plot of sagebrush. Land is priced at $1,000 an acre, which is about $800 more than it's worth. But it is fine sagebrush and does an excellent job of covering the ground, and your plot will rival anything your neighbors are producing. Lot of problems in that county as off-gridders are buying land on the internet and moving in, and conflicting with the locals. As a result, this county has one of the most comprehensive land use codes I've seen. They actually have and enforce a 14 day camping limit county wide, and it makes no difference if you own the land you're camping on.

 

[tamrock]

I like Castillo county and the people there. The mine in Questa I called on for maybe 20 years til they closed a couple years ago now. This one fella at the mine told me a county road grader kicked up a Spanish ingot of silver over on a back country road towards the Rio Grande around the Colo-NM border. He said there was an article in the paper about it, but I never found any info on the web on his story. Forest Fenns treasure could very well be in that area for all anyone knows.

 

[packerbacker]

What's with that thick mattress rg, gettin' soft on us??

 

[RGINN]

Haha!, no air mattress, pb. That's how thick my Coleman 'Big Man' sleeping bag is. It's an oversize bag rated to 5 below. I doubt the 5 below without a liner or two, but it's pretty comfortable by itself down in the teens, as long as you have good insulation between the bag and the ground.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I use to winter camp in Colorado 30+ years ago, had a sleeping bag rated 10 below zero, it kept me toasty warm too... Use to camp around Black Canyon Of the Gunnison, Rocky Mt Park, Silverton, Durango and Mesa Verde as well as places between........