Camp near Mushroom Gulch CO

[RGINN]

Went down in Bassam Park in Chaffee County yesterday, then went back and camped towards Mushroom Gulch. Big rain comin in over the Collegiate Range so I hustled to get the rain fly up, but nothin happened til about 5pm then a pretty good downpour. That'll be snow before long. Lots of prehistoric activity around here but definitely not where I chose to camp. Surveyed a lot of ground and found two flakes of workable material and they were naturally formed. Nobody ever came here B.C. unless they got lost, I guess. Kinda cool to find the fossilized imprint of a seashell above 9,000ft. though.

 

[tamrock]

Was it crowded at all up there?

 

[RGINN]

Not too bad. I only went a couple of miles up 308 and saw 3 RV's set up in different spots, and not much traffic up and down the road. Looked like pretty heavy use back during the summer though. Bassam Park area had the usual local residential traffic, didn't see any tourists besides me. I've noticed when I been down there wearin my baseball type cap, all the locals slow down and give me the stink eye. When I wear my cowboy hat, everybody waves and don't give me a second look when they see me pulled off the side of the road out wanderin around. Lot of ranching in that part of the country, but come to think of it I didn't see a one of them wearin a cowboy hat.

 

[Tejaas]

Lot of ranching in that part of the country, but come to think of it I didn't see a one of them wearin a cowboy hat.

Maybe they didn't want to be accused of being "all hat", haha.

I enjoy your postings here on the forum, RGINN. Always interesting.


~Tejaas~

 

[RGINN]

hahaha! Yeah I got that Tejaas. And for those that don't get it, you could say that these days I'm pretty much 'all hat and no cattle'.

 

[tamrock]

Not too bad. I only went a couple of miles up 308 and saw 3 RV's set up in different spots, and not much traffic up and down the road. Looked like pretty heavy use back during the summer though. Bassam Park area had the usual local residential traffic, didn't see any tourists besides me. I've noticed when I been down there wearin my baseball type cap, all the locals slow down and give me the stink eye. When I wear my cowboy hat, everybody waves and don't give me a second look when they see me pulled off the side of the road out wanderin around. Lot of ranching in that part of the country, but come to think of it I didn't see a one of them wearin a cowboy hat.

It's kind of an unknown to others up there. I think the Spirits up there like keep to it that way. I can only picture in my thoughts all the activity that went on up there over the last few thousands years. I've always though of it as a happy place to be. Lots of game and I'm sure there were a few disputes over that ground between tribes from time to time. BV was still a very active Cowpoke town when I lived up there. They'd all have a cold one down at the Lariat with us miners. Didn't matter what a women looked like in that town back then, because any and all who came along were treated like a queen and if the fella she chose didn't treat her that way she could just drop that SOB like a hot rock and there'd be fifty other starved for love chumps ready to jump in and take his place.