June 28, 29 rambles

June 28 found us on the primitive rocky semi-road called Pipeline Road.  It more or less follows the pipeline that brings water down to Delta from the reservoir just below the edge of Grand Mesa.  Hours of bumping along at 1 or 2 miles an hour in low range four wheel drive, we occasionally made it into second gear for a few seconds. When we made it near the reservoir, the road stopped for regular vehicles, only quads, dirt bikes, horses, and hikers.  It was a pleasant hike up to Doughspoon Lake (reservoir).  We had told Konrad and Starr where we were going, because if something happened up there we would have been waiting a long time for someone to come by and find us.  What we thought would be only 4 or 5 hours wound up being nearly 10. We had told Konrad to notify 911 if we didn't contact him by 9 pm.  He started to get a little nervous when we still hadn't contacted him at 9:10.  Thankfully, we were in cell range to call him a few minutes later to let him know we were on our way out of the wilderness.  He was a little put out with us, don't blame him.

End of the road for the pick up; shank mare the rest of the way.

Delta water supply at elevation of 9,835 ft.

The rocky path on the left is what we used as a road.

Love those aspens

looks like the last of this year's wild iris

Roses!

The 29th found us up and out a few hours after sunrise...unusual for us on a weekend.  There were three new geocaches that had been set a week ago that no one had yet found and we wanted to be the first to find!  So we headed out on a road that took off from US Hwy 50 north west of Delta.  The first few miles were fairly decent gravel country road, then it got primitive and we got slower and slower, then finally stopped all together due to road width, incline, and large loose rock. Then started what wound up being a three hour round trip on foot.  The trip up with an elevation gain of 600 ft. took a couple hours with lots of water breaks that also served as breathers.  We felt so sorry for anyone who came later that we wanted to make it worth the trip and set two additional geo-caches to be found along the trail.  We found all three previously set geo-caches and were indeed the first to find them.

We tootled out of the wilderness with only enough time to run straight up to Cedaredge for the Sunday evening concert at the little chapel located at the Pioneer Village Museum.  We slide into a couple chairs set in the aisle to accommodate a few extras before it was standing room only.  We were a bit hot and sweaty, so it was a good thing we weren't sitting too close to anyone! Performers were a couple local guys that have started playing guitar and singing together and are now playing gigs at area events, festivals, and supplying live entertainment at a eatery or two calling themselves the Solar Brothers.