Evidence of autumn is on Grand Mesa. 
The aspen are turning color, the leaves of the wild strawberry and other plants I can't identify are showing red color on the ground. 

We have been seeing a lot of different mushrooms/fungi in the forested parts of the mesa the last few weeks.  It seems like each time I see some really unique mushrooms, I have left the phone/camera in the truck.  Last week we saw a really interesting one that had a dark red shiny cap which was almost square when you looked down on it.  I am really kicking myself for not pushing Karl to attend the National Forest Service lecture on mushrooms last month...we were on the mesa at the time and could have easily gone.  I had no idea that we would be seeing so many different kinds and would be wishing we knew their names!  Rarely do we see a repeat, the variety is incredible.

Big brown and small white

Little Britches 09/14/14

Sunday morning found us with ATV loaded up and heading for Grand Mesa.  On the way, we made a side trip over to the Surface Creek Saddle Club Arena.  We had read in the paper that the Little Britches (youth rodeo association) were doing a competition this weekend and were wrapping it up with the last events starting at 9:00 AM.  The Little Britches Rodeo weekend with parade, dances, barbeques, etc. is in July but, we didn't make it over to watch any competition events.  It was too hot to sit out on bleachers in the sun at that time of the year anyway!

We loved watching the kids.  No event had more than 6 entries, so it was real down home and personal.  We might have been the only non-parents attending.  The parking is on terraced hill above arena, so we just parked and watched. There were a few lawn chairs out next to some pickups with horse trailers, but mostly spectators were moms and dads who were walking around encouraging kids and guiding horses.

Last month we set a LetterBox hybrid cache at the arena entry gate under some landscape boulders.  The rubber stamp for finders' log books says "WaHoo" and the purpose of the cache is to learn about Little Britches Rodeo.  Since Cedaredge has the distinction of having the longest continuous Little Britches rodeo in the nation (since 1950's), this was a fun research and write up.  Karl didn't know anything about Little Britches before we started pulling information together for the cache.  He was eager to see the kids compete, so didn't complain about getting out of bed early enough to be at the arena when competition started.

One thing we found interesting at this public event was after the mounted color guard did a turn around the arena, someone said a prayer over the PA.  Interesting.

Leon Peak

7:30 AM on a Sunday usually means at least a couple more hours in bed, sleeping and/or reading.  Not this week!  Karl loaded the ATV and lowered the pressure in the truck tires, packed our emergency supplies on Saturday night.  I made our lunch and threw it into the frig, packed my gear in my day pack and laid out my cloths and all my layers (hoodie, vest, windbreaker) before hitting the hay.  If you don't remember, Karl is NOT a morning person, and I get more like him all the time.
After a quick stop at Grand Mesa visitor center to check forecast of the day, we headed out to the Leon Peak trail head.

Nice and easy trail head which ran out within 20 minutes

By 11:00 we were parked and heading up the foot trail.  A little huffing and puffing with the elevation steadily increasing but that was nothing until we hit the end of the discernible trail.

at the end of the forested trail this little fat guy posed for us

No more marked trail. Jagged lava rock means time to put on the gloves.

a valiant little pine starting out of the rock

 I think I finally have it figured out what I need to take on these trips... note in photo that I have my sun glasses, gloves, mosquito fan (also have on Avon SSS insect repellent), rain gear, wind breaker, and hoodie.  Inside my pack are a variety of items including water, tissue, wet wipes, lip balm, sun screen and more.

Karl catching a snack

When we stopped for our first breather after getting into the rocks, I was starting an altitude headache, probably from exertion at nearly 11,000 ft. I saw some scraggly plants coming through the rocks and suddenly realized what I was looking at...wild raspberries!  There were only a couple of plants, but we each got a couple tiny berries a piece.

about 1/2 way there

The summit climb was the steepest but wasn't too far, 500 feet or so.  Back in 1912 they built a fire lookout at the summit. Since it was the highest point on Grand Mesa, they thought it a great place.  Don't know how they ever managed to get the materials in..there is no way pack animals could make it over those boulders, the builders must have humped it up on their own backs. However, after realizing that no amount of lightening rods were going to keep it from the repeated lightening strikes it received, the lookout was abandoned in 1915.

Made It!

Upon arrival at the summit (11,236 ft. elevation) we could see a rain shower headed for us, so didn't stay long.  In searching for the geocache reportedly at the summit, we ran across geodetic survey marker (set in 1937), which Karl also documents and registers online with benchmarks.com whenever we find them.

The wind was really whipping up by that time and we could hear distant thunder...it was time to get off the mountain!  Karl put on his beanie, and I struggled with the wind to get on my windbreaker over my hoodie.  With two hoods and my hat on my head, I was okay, but not eager to stay around.  Karl wanted to photograph the cache documenting the find.  I left him to it and and headed down after signing the log book. 

200 ft away from the summit, the wind had lessened and the shower had passed.  I think we needed to be in just a little better shape to do what we did at our age.  We were having trouble lifting our feet and each of us took a small spill on the return trip (Karl decided I had a good idea and started wearing his gloves after his).

Downhill trip

By the time we got back to the pickup we were ready for our 4:00 pm lunch/supper.  We relaxed and ate, then tried to get up and walk around...oops.  Things had stiffened up a little and all we wanted to do was go home. We had totally planned to spend the rest of the daylight hours on the ATV but scrapped that idea and headed home.  We are kind of sore and achy today, but rather proud of ourselves for having done the trip.

09/10/14
Post Script:
When Karl told Kirk Huff about our trip to Leon Peak, Kirk told Karl about some great family photos he had of his great-grandparents (the parents of Grandma Dot who still works the phones and the office for Huff Excavating see:Labor day on the mesa posted September 3), would we be interested in seeing them?  Of course we were!  And would he mind if we shared them with our family on the blog.  No problem...they arrived via email yesterday, so I'm sharing.  Taken on Leon Peak sometime in the 1930's.  I just realized I only have the names "Gramy" and "Granddad" and since they are the parents of his grandmother, I don't even have a last name.  Oh, well. Enjoy a 1930's wintertime view of what I posted above.

Aren't they great?!
kj

Geology, hiking and music evening

We ran up to the visitor center on Grand Mesa on Sabbath afternoon to talk with ranger Mike Wiley.  We met him a couple weeks ago when he gave a geology lecture that we attended.  He has only worked with the National Forest Service a few years after 20+ years working as a geologist in Alaska. We have found that any National Forest personnel we have talked with are very pro-geocaching especially those caches that feature historical information, or take guest to little known areas of public lands, but Mike didn't know anything about the hobby/sport.  We have been wanting to set some earthcaches (where you find geological sites rather than "treasure") on Grand Mesa, which was one of the reasons we had attended his lecture.  He has gotten so interested in the idea that he has offered to identify specific geological features on the mesa AND write up the educational material to go with it.  We are blown away, but excited by the partnership.
Since we were already up there, we took an hour hike the well defined Craig's Crest trail.  Of course there was a cache set up there for us to find, it is always nice to have a little incentive and reward for exercise!

"GZ is right here" (GZ is geo-speak for the lat-long coordinates where a cache is hidden, "ground zero"

We stopped in Cedaredge as we came down the side of the mesa and joined several hundred other people with our picnic in Town Park while we all enjoyed listening to Symphony in the Park.

This is an annual affair and the ladies sell ice cream, homemade pies and root beer floats to raise money for Valley Symphony (made up of people from Delta and Montrose counties). It is a bit of a promo as well.  They have five regular concerts in the season all at the Pavilion in Montrose and I'm looking forward to attending as many of them as possible.

Sun is so far west, orchestra is nearly all in the light even though under the band stand.

We were there a little early and listened to the Symphony Chorus do some warming up and see the sound guys walking around with his iPad doing sound checks.  Karl had to go over and find out what make of equipment he was using.

Valley Symphony Chorus sang a few selections just before intermission.  I only saw four individuals that could possibly be under 55, however all those older "pipes" did an outstanding job.

Sound guy, Dave Starr, running the board via iPad during performance

 I posted some of this on Facebook. Karl's friend who did much of the consulting and work on the PA system that Karl helped install for the Thunderbird Church added a comment to my "status post" guessing what system the guy was using in the park.  When we had gotten home, Karl stayed outside to prep the pickup for our next day's adventure when I heard him talking on his cell. "How did you know I was checking out the system? Are you in the area?" and laughter.  Then I knew that Gene couldn't wait any longer to find out if his guess was correct on the system being used so had called to find out!  I poked my head out the door and told Karl to tell Gene (calling from Portland area) hello from me.

Labor day on the Mesa

At the beginning of the summer, Karl's friend told him that the summer was so full he would not have any open time to use his quads and offered one of them to us.  Several weeks later, before taking the heavy equipment up for a couple months of work in the Telluride area, Kirk called Karl and told him to come over and get one of his ATVs so we would have it when we wanted it.  Wow. . . talk about a generous guy.  Karl has really appreciated the 3 generations of Huff Excavating, not just as friends, but as subcontractors who are really good at what they do. Grandpa Buck finally lost his battle with the cancer he was fighting when we lived here the first time, but Grandma still works the phones and office.  They are the same family that invited Karl and his buddy, Ayub (who was visiting from Afghanistan), to snowmobile up on Grand Mesa when we lived in Delta the first time.  They gave Ayub quite the adventure and he was glowing with it when he got back.

stowing the cargo

Okay, so much for the back story.  Though we have had the ATV for several months, it has mostly just sat around.  One time while I was visiting in AZ, Karl and Gary (retired teacher friend made through geocaching) took it out to do a little geocaching north of Delta, that was pretty rough country which Gary couldn't manage in his sedan, and was pretty slow going with the pickup.  They both had a great time, but that was the end of the ATV riding until....

Labor day.  Karl and crew decided at the last minute to give themselves a treat and take off the holiday.  Karl did put in several hours on Sunday getting the end of the month billing out to the home office, but that left Monday free and clear.

checking the map

Noon found us up at a staging area on the edge of the National Forest (Grand Mesa) loading up the Yamaha Grizzly with supper/snacks, first aid kit, water, emergency blanket and several different types of rain gear, hoodies, vests, etc.  Then off we went!

high mesa lake and Colorado blue sky

Karl kind of figured our route gauging it time wise with how he and Gary had done out in Wells Gulch earlier in the summer.  Whole different story!!! Rock crawling, creek fording, super mud pits from standing rain water and other riders who had made really deep ruts, steep rocky climbs, and since it is open range summer pasture, occasional chasing cattle off the track.  The trail gave evidence of being well used and although we did see a few other riders out in the early afternoon, we didn't see anybody after about 4:00 pm.  We did see a parked quad 3 or 4 times...it is bow season for elk and the hunters were out in the trees away from the trails.

shadows start to lengthen

It didn't take me long to get into the swing of leaning with Karl to help keep the ATV stable.  Pretty soon I realized that I was leaning one direction or another most of the time. Then I started to laugh to myself that I was like the kids at camp meeting/VBS/summer camp/Sabbath School.."Lean forward, lean backward, to the left, to the right.  Standup, sit down, to the left, to the right."  Of course that naturally, led to "Oh, how I love Jesus" and the whole thing got stuck in my brain for the rest of the day!

kj herding the beast over an ATV size cattle guard

We had planned to be off the mesa before dark so the headlights of the pickup wouldn't be shining up into the faces of oncoming drivers due to the weight of the ATV in the truck bed.  Nice plan, but no go. As the sun started hitting the tree tops, we were over 8 miles away from the staging area where we had left the truck.  On a regular up and down trail, we would have been in good shape, but that is not what the trail we chose to return on was like.  Challenging is stating it mildly.  The GPS and map got consulted a lot all day, and although we did make a couple unplanned detours earlier in the day, we only made one after dark.  Well, we saw headlights turning at a trail we had just passed, so decided someone might know more than we did, especially since the trail ahead looked a little fainter than what we had been on.  It turned out to be a trail to a camp ground and all the hunters were returning after their day out in the woods.  Karl checked his map with one of the guys (this one was just up there fishing and 4 wheeling).  The guy had just been up the trail we were needing earlier in the weekend and confirmed that the one we'd been on was the one we wanted.  By this time it was full dark.  He gave us a gallon or so of gasoline, just to make sure we would have enough, and off we went again.

Getting back on track after our second almost-dump. Combo of deep mud and rocks on steep incline the culprit on both.

Grand Mesa is at 10,000 feet elevation and each time we stopped for one thing or another (usually to use the bushes) we put on another layer of the wraps we had packed in the cargo space. What had been a warm sunny day quickly turned into a chilly evening and a very chilly night.  By the time we pulled into the staging area where we had left the truck around 10:20pm, we were both tired and achy, but not too chilled, thanks to our shared body heat and the layers.
One thing about it, next time we go on the mesa, our timing will be a little more informed! And, yes, we totally plan on a next time!
Post Script:
09/04/14
Doug Huff (second generation) came by the job site today.  He is president of the Thunder Mountain Wheelers (www.tmwatv.org), who maintain several of the trails up in the Grand Mesa National Forest.  He and a bunch of guys were up doing trail improvements a week ago and installed the cattle guard pictured above. When Karl told him we set a magnetic geocache in it on Monday, Doug got a chuckle.  He occasionally has done geocaching with Kirk (third generation) and figured we had adequately initiated the new cattle guard. kj

Local concert series at Cedaredge

The summer bi-weekly concert series at Pioneer Village's Chapel of the Cross in Cedaredge is over.  We made it up for 5 of them and totally enjoyed ourselves....well, I probably enjoyed it more than Karl. There were several family groups and those were my favorite.  The final concert was on a Thursday, mostly the ones that looked interesting to me had been on Sunday afternoons, and that worked out better in our schedule, as well.  But the finale looked worth making the trip on a week day evening.  So glad we went.  Bluegrass... Momma played bass, Daddy sang tenor, and daughters age 11 and 7 joined right in there.  The three vocalist switched around singing lead, but the harmony stayed tight and true.  Fantastic.  The little one is learning mandolin and played along for one piece; the older girl played "fiddle" intros, bridges, limited back up, and a few solos.  Totally delightful.  Family also includes a couple boys, the 9 year old warmed up the audience with piano for 20 minutes before program and took the bass over from Mom for one selection on clowned around.  The other boy was maybe 4 years old and was just along for the ride.