Creede is done. We’ve moved on. Next job is in Glenwood Springs. With that in mind, we drove out of town on Highway 149, over Willow Creek Pass and the Continental Divide, Slumgullion Pass, and the looong winding downhill to Lake City. Second gear, engine brake, twenty-five miles per hour; except when that wasn’t enough, and we did first gear, engine brake, fifteen miles per hour. It takes a lot of thought and practice to get this driving downhill part right. We did better this time than we did going over Wolf Creek a couple weeks ago. I used the service brakes too much and made them smell before we got to the bottom. I don’t like making the brakes stink. I don’t want to deal with what comes after that.
Before we left, Brother Bill stopped by for a visit. He’s on his way to a conference in Santa Fe and was able to make his path cross ours.
From Lake City, it was still a long way down to Highway 50 to Gunnison, Blue Mesa Reservoir, and over the hump to Montrose.
So here we are at Ridgway State Park, halfway to Glenwood Springs. We’ll spend the weekend here, one of our favorite places to be. It is not low-elevation, 6,700 feet, but it is considerably lower and warmer than Creede. The days were warm and lovely at Creede, but starting from fourteen degrees, it took a while to get back up to warm and lovely again each day.
Here, with a low in the forties, we can even be out comfortably after sundown to watch the stars. Daytime temperatures in the seventies turns any wind into a non-factor. It’s not cold, even if there is a breeze.
