May 23rd: Free Shower…….but no hot water

I had a great night sleep last night. I would have to say our trailer, who does not have a name yet, is very comfy.

This site is very quiet. Not just because we don’t have anyone within 20 miles of us, but also because it seems to be in a location that has very few planes overhead. That is one thing about the US, you can get pretty remote, but there is always the constant barrage of plane noise. I first noticed how omnipresent it is in the lower 48 when we were rafting in Alaska where you heard none. And the wind has not been blowing, so it was absolutely soundless all day yesterday. Except for Ringo barking at Sadie. That can be a bit annoying.

We decided to just chill in this campsite for another night and spend the day just relaxing. We got up in the morning and went through the usual routine – if there can be a usual routine after 2 days – take the dogs out, pull out the generator, charge up stuff, make coffee. I have to say, having the Nespresso machine while camping is pretty luxurious.

After some breakfast of bacon and eggs with Susanne’s homemade salsa (it’s got some giddy-up), we took the dogs out for a bike ride down the road. The traffic was intimidating……not really—we haven’t seen a soul in 2 days. Nor heard anyone. We cruised along the road for about 2 miles; Ringo was much more comfortable around the bike today and only tried to bite the tire a few times. Sadie had no problem keeping up with us the whole time, but Ringo has turned into Mr. Pokey Pants. He fell about ¼ mile back, so I stopped and waited for him. At about 2 miles, Susanne decided to turn back and I went on for a longer ride.

Poor Mr. Ringo is turning into a older dog. The call of the bed is starting to be more attractive than the call of the mountains. He is an experienced mountaineer and has done 25 different 14ers with me and numerous 12ers and 13ers. But, I guess we all slow down and start to want to have our lattes after a comfy night’s sleep on a bed.

I continued on down the road for about 8 miles and then turned up into the mountains toward Godant Pass. It is a long sloping alluvial fan getting to the mountains and it is so desolate here and the vista so huge, the distances are extremely deceiving. From the turn-off, it looked like maybe a mile up to the canyon – it was about 4 of steady climbing. I turned around and headed back to the trailer.

We have had to be very judicious with our fresh water since we decided to stay an extra day and we were down to 1/3 in the tank. As I was riding back, I saw a cattle muster station that had a huge water tank (about 30’ tall). I rode over to it, hoping that maybe there was a spigot on it that we could get some water; there was not. However, the fill pipe was broken near the top of the tank and was pouring out a steady shower of water. At the minimum, we would be able to have a shower.

It felt great to get out and do a longer ride. I got back to the trailer just as Susanne’s alarm to “start to maybe worry” went off. I guess my timing was good, especially since we hadn’t talked about how long I would be out. I guess 31 years of being with someone will do that.

After lunch, we gathered up some soap and towels and headed down to the water tank. The water was pretty cold, so we thought we would fill up some plastic bins of water and pour it on ourselves. It was cold, but not frigid, so I decided to just get under the stream of water. All in all it wasn’t bad, although it was good for few “whoa, whoa, whoa’s”, or whatever you say when you are standing under a stream of cold water. Susanne opted for the more civilized bucket method. It was funny, because there we were, buck naked standing by the road taking a shower. Nobody came by. All in all it was quite refreshing.