Laura-N-Sasha.com
Laura and Sasha's Excellent Adventure

A descriptive look at traveling with a truck camper - similar to an RV but smaller and more maneuverable. Laura and Sasha started this adventure in April of 2005 for a two week vacation and now use it for all vacations.

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Trip 2006
Traveling Days Sun & Mon
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Lake Pueblo State Park
Taylor Reservoir
Crested Butte
Headed West
Grand Junction
Boondocking
Wines & Rides
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McDonald Creek
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Previous Trip
   Old Guestbook
   Getting There
   Got Camper
   Wal*Mart-CS
   CS to Grand Junction
   First Day at Monument
   A Lounge Type of Day
   Mighty Hike
   Wineries
   Downhill Hike
   Signage Day
   Traveling Back East 2005

New Trip - Crested Butte & Surrounds

Crested Butte, CO - Still Rainy and Cold - September 10th

Another Road Trip from Our Campsite in Taylor Reservoir/Park

Well, we woke up this morning to fog, I swear we thought we were in San Francisco, it was so foggy and cold. So we were not going to do any biking (motor biking) today. We decided to go to Crested Butte to check it out and to get internet access and check our email and whatnot.

	Sasha took these pictures just to show you the weather here, like I said before, very dreary and cold and this was at almost 9 am. We could not even see the lake or the mountains at this time.
	The clouds are starting to lift at 11 am but we have made up our minds to go to Crested Butte after we get some really fresh water for the tanks.
	In order to go to Crested Butte, we have to go back out the way we came in, Taylor River Canyon, and in doing so, we were able to see the Taylor Dam in the morning. So we took a few pictures. This dam was built in the 1930's for irrigation and livestock.
	Only one side of the shoots is releasing the water to Taylor River.
	We are in Crested Butte and got some Harley Davison riders (from Montana) to take our picture. They did a great job, I match the flowers. And the Mountain is in the background. Crested Butte is a nice little town with lots of shops in the downtown area. We found a restaurant that had WiFi, but when we asked the locals where we could get WiFi, a local and a waitress did not know what WiFi was. We were like, oh hot-spot, free internet access, using the computer to check email? You know, get online? Finally one of the locals said that Pitas in Paradise had internet as did the library. The waitress did not know what WiFi was either and said they had a computer that people could use, but then finally, a waiter knew what we wanted and said yes, they had WiFi here and that we could use it. We went to their upstairs part of the restaurant and got online. As it was unexpected for us to be within cell and internet access, we called the family and they were all out. I uploaded a bunch of web pages and pictures, read email and then handed the computer over to Sasha so he could check his email. We did not need the Sprint or T-Mobile cards to get on, just the internal WiFi system on my computer. They had delicious pitas - it was a Greek theme - we both had Gyros and got Baklava for desert. Some pictures of the downtown area including the Coldwell Banker Real Estate office (for Mom!) I got a local newspaper (we haven't read a newspaper in over a week and it is nice to get some news) and read it cover to cover when we got home that evening. It seems as though Crested Butte had enacted an ordinance to not have professional offices on the first floor of any building. It is called "horizontal zoning" where professional offices (banks, lawyers, real estate offices) have to be on the second floor of buildings on the main street so that the retail - shops, restaurants, etc. could be on the main level where people would come in and buy stuff. But it seems as though the people are up in arms about it so maybe it will not really be case. I could not figure out if the existing offices will have to move or not. But the real estate around here is the same as back home with prices going from 550 K to 3.5 million. And someone in the newspaper stated that the Realtors are getting 7%. There are no discount brokers here. We saw Prudential, Keller Williams, and Coldwell Banker firms here, and at least 5 other small brokerages as well. But give me a break - this is a resort community so of course there will be many real estate offices. But for some reason, the town council does not want them on the main street. Anyway, back to nature.
	On the way to Kebler Pass. And yes, Kebler Pass is open. We are taking this route to get to Lake Irwin, where there is a campground and a beautiful lake.
	The road and the mountains. This road is not too bad as it is a county road. It does not get plowed, but it is open whenever there is no snow. It seems to be a major thoroughfare as we kept having to pull over to let others pass. We are the tourists and keep taking pictures of things they see all the time. Usually on country road we will wave at people but here, we did it a couple of times and they did not wave back. Maybe because it is a highly used road, they do not wave as much as back roads.
	Lake Irwin. There were some fishermen out there when we arrived. One of the fishermen was from Paramus, NJ. Small world. We had looked at the campground first and found the spots to be too small for us, with hardly any pull-thrus and small widths. And those that might work, were not level at all. There is no electric, sewer, or water at the sites and the way to get water is through a hand pump. Most of the people camping were tents and pop-ups. The only RV was the campground hosts. The sites cost $14 per night. You can see the campground in the background.
	Ohio Pass is also not that difficult, and we saw passenger cars along this road. The high elevation on the road (and the mountains around us were higher) was 10,120 feet ASL. WOW but we are not feeling the elevation as much, so I guess we are getting acclimatized to the elevations around here. Only took us a week.
	This is what is called a Shelf Road, where they cut out the road from the mountain. I was holding on for dear life but I still managed to take a picture. This is through the window shield, though, not out the window. And here I am trying not to look down.
	We went into a grove of aspens. Sasha stopped the truck and took the top picture, and I took the ones below while the truck was still moving and through the window shield. These truly are beautiful trees.
	We came out of the aspens and into a meadow. Most of the land here is privately owned and there is quite a bit of farming going on as well as raising livestock. Ponies Goats - Yes, I know, I managed to get most of their backs but this was taken out the window, backwards, and without viewing it beforehand. I still think they are quite cute.
	Sasha took these pictures this evening after he tried to get my motor bike to work. He tried jump-starting it but it did not go, so we pushed it back up the hill near our campsite (he got off of it first) and we tried once more to get it to work. But no go. So we put it back in the trailer and he took these pictures right before the sun went down. Then we got some of the things packed (especially in the trailer) as we plan to leave tomorrow. Sasha may take a ride on his motorcycle if the fog does not stick around.