I’ve mentioned Boreas Pass many times in the course of the last 3 years. A favorite trip of ours when we first moved to Colorado, Pam’s mother visited it with us and asked that her ashes be scattered up on Boreas after she died. This request was honored. We’ve visited Boreas Pass every year since we returned to Colorado in 2003, but we usually approach from the Breckenridge side; we proceed to the top of the pass then return to Breck. Only rarely have we visited the other side of the pass, which terminates in Como.
As noted in my last post, I decided to take a trip over Boreas Pass on my way home from the lot last weekend. Included here are a few photos of the south side of the route.
Since the Boreas Pass route was originally a railroad line, and I have an interest in Colorado rail history, much of what follows may be a bit boring to the casual reader since much of this post deals with this railroad’s history.
The town of Como, located on Colorado Hwy 285, started as a coal mining town. Seventeen miles away, over Boreas Pass, Breckenridge was a booming gold and silver mining town. The railroad was built to connect the two towns. It supplied Breckenridge and mining camps along the way with transport, supplies, people, and equipment. The railroad came out of Denver via Kenosha Pass, giving short and quick (for the day) access to the Denver markets and transportation system. As the mines played out and other roads were built, the line fell into disuse and was abandoned. The rail line over Boreas Pass was converted to auto traffic in 1952. The current Hwy 285 follows, in many cases, the route of the rail line over Kenosha Pass into Denver and is a nice drive in it’s own right.
The Forest Service has started to recognize the historic significance of this route and has rebuilt the old section house, Baker water tank, and has improved maintenance on the roadway. Today the trip is a popular tourist destination and mountain bikers and hikers frequent the area. The route is not open in the winter but can be driven with a regular car during the summer months. There is a Forest Service campground about a mile off the route that is heavily used.
Anyway, so much for the schpiel. Let’s see the photos!
Town of Como from Boreas Pass road
Reconstructed bit of railroad on Boreas Pass
Line ran along Rocky Point giving fantastic views of Mt. Silverheels
Flowers growing, literally, out of the rocks along the old roadbed
One of several streams crossed on the Boreas Pass route
This trip has long been a favorite of ours, and now that we are in the area more often (we can see the lights of Como at night after a 5 minute walk down Sanderling Court) we’ll be taking this route more than once a year.
Pam and I had decided to spend Father’s Day weekend at the lot. Goals for this trip: More lot clean up and set the posts for the gate. All the materials had been hauled over previously so we loaded up the Honda for the trip:
Loaded for the lot
Pam began cleaning the aspen grove by starting a pile of dead wood and trees that she hauled out of the grove. The pile was located where we could get to it with the ATV and trailer when we come up for a longer work session over the 4th of July weekend. Here is a shot of Pam hauling some of the stuff she collected:
Pam cleaning dead wood out of the aspen grove
By Sunday afternoon, when we had to leave to come back home, we had a couple of wood piles started. The first is small stuff to be taken to the burn pit and the other is stuff suitable to be cut into fire wood:
Slash wood to go to the burn pit.
This “salvageable stuff” will be cut into firewood.
By Sunday morning the work was having an impact; here is a shot of the cleaned area:
Cleaned area of aspen grove.
You can actually walk around now without tripping over the dead wood!
While Pam was cleaning I went to work on digging the holes to set the gate posts. We plan to have a gate across the driveway which consits of a right-hand and left-hand gate sections and each requires a post to act as the pivot point.
I knew this was going to be a job as I don’t have a jackhammer to break up the rock that I knew I was going to find. So, armed with a maul and some steel bits and pieces I proceeded to try to dig the first post hole.
What a job — 2 hours into the first post and I called it good enough. The hole was not as deep as I would like but I hope it is deep enough to do the job. With QuickCrete mixed up in a bucket I set the post in place.
The second hole was worse but I eventually ended up with a usable excavation and set that post in place as well. Below is a photo of Pam watching an incoming storm but note the two posts, one on either side of the driveway.
Pam watching incoming storm. Note the two gate posts.
All in all, not a bad bit of work for an “overnighter.” We plan a long 4th of July stay and hope to get the gate up (it’s in 2 sections) and haul the slash pile to the burn pit. After that there will be railroad ties to fasten together along the driveway, then more lot cleaning to be done.
One problem…we ran out of battery power. This meant the weekend was a little more “camping” than we had planned. Heating hot water over the stove, no shower…but we survived. I pulled the batteries and took them home with us. The batteries where checked and recharged at the local NAPA shop and did not have to be replaced; they just are not recharging from the solar panels. Work needed there….
Cats and Dogs:
Sinbad the Kitten is doing well, and apparently loves to be petted and held. He had his shots today but it is still a little early for his neuter operation. We hope to get him adopted into a home.
The dogs do OK at the lot, though most of their time is spent sleeping in the trailer. Definitely not outdoor dogs by choice. Here is a shot of Blondie and Bru in the aspen grove:
Blondie and Bru in the aspen grove
Postscript:
I took the truck over to the lot this last Saturday. I reinstalled our now fully charged batteries, did some work on the electrical system, and pulled the trailer over to the dump station to empty the holding tanks. After that I topped off the fresh water tank. This trip also saw me taking our small generator along and leaving it at the trailer. It will be used to charge the batteries in the event the solar panels don’t do the trick. We wanted everything to be ready for the 4th of July long weekend, and now it is. Headed home over Boreas Pass, approaching from the Como side. (Hello Mountain Laurie…) I was amazed at the variety of flowers blooming at this time of year. I really enjoyed taking this route home.
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
We should have our first high country guests on July 5th. We’ll be “entertaining,” whoo-hoo.
It’s been a quiet week. I am using this lull to catch up on some miscellaneous stuff. Here are a couple of left-over photos that didn’t get used elsewhere. The first shows where Park County is in relation to the rest of the state:
Park County is right in the middle of the state. Map courtesy of Park County.
Park County has the highest average elevation of any of Colorado’s counties, well over 9,000 feet. Our property is located near the top of the left-hand ‘bump’ in the county profile. This is about 100 miles (more or less) outside Denver.
This photo gives a closer look at the county of South Park. Fairplay is just below and to the left of the letter “S” and our place is about 23 miles south-east of that.
Park County map courtesy of the Park County web site.
Back to the lot itself, our Doug Fir starts are showing signs of stress due to the transplant. The trees along the edge of the driveway, not the slope, are doing OK though. The soil here has more organic material in it and should help these trees take root. Pam had made, by hand, about a dozen tree guards to protect these starts from grazing (open range) animals.
Pam’s tree guards protecting young Doug Fir
I’ve mentioned a few of my toys; here is a photo of few of them on the lot. This was taken over Memorial Day weekend.
Jer’s toys include this ATV, dump cart, and truck
Note the few extra tools in the truck including a chain saw and 2-wheel hand cart.
Our next trip to the lot will probably be over Father’s Day, with another long weekend planned over the 4th of July. Getting the gate posts in and set will be the next big project. I am not looking forward to digging those holes as it will require breaking up a lot of rock to make them deep enough.
I did have a bit of a treat last weekend; my good friend and former college roommate, Jon Bjornson, flew into Denver. He was heading for a job interview in Casper, Wyoming, and we arranged to meet for lunch on Monday the 10th. I went over as far as the Sanderling lot on Sunday the 9th (by motorcycle) and stayed overnight in the RV. Monday morning I rode into Denver and met with Jon at our agreed-upon lunch spot. We had a good chat (but not as in-depth as Pam would have liked). At any rate, here is a photo of the motorcycle at the lot plus a picture of Jon and me at lunch:
Bike with trailer on our lot.
Jon and myself at lunch in Denver
Jon later reported the interview seemed to go well. Now the wait to see if a job offer materializes.
Pam has trapped a kitten in our garage and named him Sinbad. He’s a cute little tyke but it remains to be seen if he can be domesticated enough to be adopted as a house cat, or if he will become another of the outside cats that use our garage as a base of operations.
Sinbad the Kitten
You can see his ears and nose are still pretty dirty, but his markings are already well-pronounced. He won’t let Pam touch him yet, he really needs to be cleaned up.
I used to work on these posts on Sunday mornings but that just isn’t working out with our summer activities, so check back in any time during the week and you may see a new post.
In my last post I mentioned I would be including a few more details on the work we did on the lot over the long Memorial Day weekend. Here is that information!
Most of the projects centered around the slope created by the driveway install or work on the driveway itself. The contractor suggested we build some soil erosion control terraces across the face of the slope using old aspen logs, stumps, and rocks exposed during the driveway construction. These terraces would help hold the slope in place until native soils and vegetation could take hold.
Here is a photo of the drive slope after construction:
Driveway slope after construction
Three terraces later the slope looked like this:
Terraces in place
I cut stakes from a couple aspen trees and used them to anchor the cross-logs. We dragged a few longer dead logs (that had been downed earlier on the lot) and added them to the mix. Pam went through our slash pile and dug out old stumps and situated them as additional supports. She also picked up a lot of the loose rocks that had come off the slope and threw them onto the uphill side of the retaining logs. This made the footing at the base of the slope much better!
Pam taking a break from working on terraces
We had been told that new aspen will sprout from old aspen stumps, so we collected a bunch of stumps uprooted by the construction and placed them at the top edge of the slope, partially buried. We hope our information was correct and some young aspen spring from these stumps — collecting, placing, and burying them was a lot of work!
Old aspen stumps placed at top of slope
In the above photo you can see, off to the right, some of the terraces. At bottom center in the photo is one of the evergreen bushes Pam found on the lot and transplanted to the slope. Pam transplanted several items, including a dozen blooming cactus plants, using the tools she had brought along just for this purpose:
Pam’s transplants, including cacti
While the slope took up much time and energy, two other projects also received attention. One of these was the driveway retaining wall, the other was wood clean-up and hauling.
The supplies on the aluminum trailer included 9 railroad ties. Pam and I unloaded them using the following procedure:
I pick up one end of the tie. Pam slips a chain around the end of the tie. Chain is attached to the ATV, which is then used to drag the ties off the trailer and roughly position them along the drive. Later I took a shovel and flattened the ground where the ties would sit and repositioned them into place. The whole operation went pretty well. I used the 2-wheel dump cart to haul up a couple loads of rock from the base of the slope and used these as an additional retaining wall.
Railroad ties at right edge of driveway
The work done so far had taken Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Monday morning we tackled the last project we had planned, lot clean up. Using the ATV I was able to get the trailer pretty close to what remained of the slash pile that was at the bottom of the slope (slash featured in picture #3 above, behind Pam). After loading this wood I hooked up the trailer to the truck and went over to the burn pit.
Unknown to us, the rules concerning the burn pit had changed. In the past we had received a combination to the pit gate and could dump when ever we wanted. The pit was now closed except for Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. I drove up to the local fire station and spoke to one of the guys there to get the story. It seems some people were using the pit as a dump and dropping used appliances, broken toilets, and hazardous materials (paint and stain) that were very expensive to clean up. The pit was designed for wood dumping, encouraging clean up of dead wood around houses for increased fire safety. No wood dumping for us this day! (I did go over the following Saturday, June 1, applied for a permit, and dumped this and another load of dead wood.)
At the burn pit
After that is was time to pack up and, sadly, head home. It had been a busy but satisfying Memorial Day weekend!
Trailer life.
The other part of this story is our first RV experience. It went pretty well. There were a few issues of finding things, adjusting the furnace thermostat, and getting used to the small toilet and shower. I had filled the water tank at home, but had since filled the water heater and tested the water systems. This led to us running a bit low on water the last day. (Since then I have refilled the tank with water from a local hand-pump well.) We slept OK and figured out where to put things like recycle materials. Its not like home (we learned that it takes a few seconds for the hot water to kick in when the water is turned back on at the shower head) but is a great step up over tent camping. I think we will be comfortable for weekend and longer stays.
Here is a 2:03 video of me getting fresh water for the trailer:
Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.
You can tell by my huffing and puffing just how out of shape I am!
Did I mention our land is part of an open range?
Cattle on the open range
Not all bad; we occasionally see pronghorn antelope:
Pronghorn antelope seen on way to lot
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
The antelope did NOT play with the deer (…where the deer and the antelope play…),
Discouraging words WERE heard (…where seldom is heard a discouraging word…),
And the skies were DARK PURPLE with an oncoming storm (…and the skies are not cloudy all day…).
Whew. I have a lot to cover since my last post. I try to strike a balance of text and photos in these posts but this post will be mostly photos; my next post will go into more detail about the actual work we did during our Memorial Day weekend outing.
First we had to get The Box to the lot. I had taken Wednesday off during the week before Memorial Day to move The Box as I didn’t want to compete with holiday traffic the first time out. I am pleased to report the F150 pulled the load OK, the electric brakes worked fine, and I even passed a few semi-trucks going up Vail Pass. A closure of I-70 forced me onto a long detour which cost me time and extra fuel, but I was glad to get The Box onto the lot, get the refrigerator started, and begin the set-up routine.
Leaving home en route to the lot
The Box arrives at the lot.
The “Big Outing” began on Saturday morning. We finished loading the truck, hooked up the aluminum trailer, and off we went. (You may recall, from a previous post in March/April, the trailer was loaded with “stuff” we had purchased on sale to haul up to the lot.) This was the first time the dogs had spent any time riding on their bench in the back of the truck but they adapted fine and the trip went off without incident.
The truck with the ATV and all the stuff we wanted to take this trip.
Since this was our first excursion utilizing The Box, I thought we should get a photo of our first meal in it. We had hot dogs, bread, fruit, chips, and lemonade, with chocolate-chip cookies for desert. Just like camping…
First meal in The Box: Hot dogs.
We had taken the ATV and the new dump cart along to help with chores. This combo worked well. The ATV was used frequently to haul rocks, drag logs, and unload and place the railroad ties along the edge of the driveway. I used the winch several times; it was a nice addition to the ATV and I suspect it will get used many more times during the course of cleaning up the lot.
ATV was used to move railroad ties into position.
While I will not go into detail of all the work we did, suffice to say we were very busy (and very tired) all the time we were there. (My next post will have more “before – and – after” photos of the driveway slope where we did a bunch of work.) I mixed up some hummingbird food and set out a feeder which soon attracted a few hummers. We did take time to enjoy the views from the windows of The Box and enjoy a couple sunsets.
South Park view from slide-out window
Hummingbird feeder (red bottle hanging from dead snag) at rear of The Box.
Nice sunset!
Monday afternoon we packed up and headed home. It was a very tiring weekend, but we did get a lot done. Once home Pam launched into a few had-to-be-done chores (laundry/cat box cleaning/vacuuming) and I picked up a few groceries. Both of us were so tired it was hard to get to sleep that night, but Tuesday it was back to work for both of us.
Here are a few more photos of The Box and the lot. The Box served pretty well though we did run into a few minor problems; the stick-on soap dish fell off the wall, “somewhere” it’s leaking occasionally around the toilet (clean water), and we hadn’t planned a place to put recycle items. Still, we did OK and believe The Box will serve us well as a weekend get-away.
The dogs seemed to enjoy the change and managed to get comfortable on the couch. Once outside, Bru can roam free and generally comes when called (except when she visits the neighbor), but Blondie and Jo have to be on either zip lines or leashes. If Blondie smells a ground squirrel, she would follow it into the next county (la, la, la, are those humans calling me?). Jo just loves to run, and usually comes when called, but isn’t consistent.
Dogs get comfy on couch.
More next time on the projects themselves. We transplanted, shoveled, pounded stakes, worked on erosion control, cut a few dead trees, picked and moved rocks, dragged logs, and generally worked like convicts. The change to the lot is noticeable and we’re pleased with the improvement but, boy, were we pooped.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
When we arrived at Sanderling on Memorial Day Saturday, it still felt like Winter in the high country. The aspen were bare-looking and night-time temps were close to freezing. By Memorial Day Monday, when we left to head home, Spring had arrived, with the bright green, lacy leaves aspen are known for. Pretty great to enjoy two Springs in different locations this year.
Did Jer mention the hot water ran out before I finished my last shower of the weekend? No? Just like camping…
Jer also didn’t mention we have cactus on the property. When I see them (and assuming I have the energy), I dig them up and transplant them. Who wants to pick cactus needles out of dog’s paws anyway?
All photos were taken by Jerry or Pam unless noted. Click on photos to bring up a larger version in a new window. Close that window to return to the post.
Clicking on the enlarged photos will zoom in on the cursor location. (Most browsers.) This gives you the opportunity to see additional detail that might not be apparent in the smaller photo.
I hope you enjoy reading this blog and looking at these momentos!
~ Jerry
