Judy’s work in Louisville is done. My work in Alamosa is done. Time to get back together. I had the exit conference with the client this morning. That took a while. Lots of issues. It may be a few weeks before this one is completed. Left Alamosa after lunch, north through the San Luis Valley, over Poncha Pass and down into the Arkansas River Valley. Followed the Arkansas up to Leadville. It’s funny. The town of Leadville is at 10,200 feet elevation. The nearest pass, Tennessee Pass is only 10,400 feet. They pretty much built that town at the top of the world.
Stopped in Buena Vista for fuel. It was awful, getting fuel by myself. Judy wasn’t there, so I had to go inside and pay for it myself. Oh well. That won’t happen often.
Over the top of Tennessee Pass, and slightly down the other side is Camp Hale, our stop for the night. Camp Hale is where the 10th Mountain Division trained during WWII. A large flat mountain valley. High altitude. Plenty of snow all winter. There is a forest service campground at the edge. I drove in that direction, towing the jeep, but the road got narrow enough that I decided to pull over and unhook the jeep before I got any deeper. The campground is a nice size for the jeep, but it’s small for the motorhome, so I explored the disbursed camping in the valley. Got a nice spot next to a stream. It turns out this little stream, that I could practically jump across except where the beavers have dammed it, is the Eagle River, which is a substantial river farther downhill, that eventually runs into the Colorado. Saw some little fish leaping about in the ponds, but I didn’t get to them before dark. Maybe tomorrow morning. Hundreds of ground squirrels for Annie to chase. Maybe she'll get on tomorrow morning too.
Drove the jeep back to the motorhome. Made a nice seventeen point turnaround with the coach and brought it back to the camp spot. Rather than spend time hooking and unhooking the jeep, I just left it there, a nice destination for the first mile of my evening’s walk after dinner.
Alamosa is hot, flat, and dry; desolate, but there were birds around. The campground was good for sparrows, finches, warblers, and vireos. I got good at the brewer’s sparrow call. The city park has a trail along the Rio Grande. The Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge had ruddy ducks, swainson’s hawks and great horned owls. The Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge had avocets, sora, western and clark’s grebes. I took a walk in different habitats each day and ended up with fifty birds.
Matt brought Alex and Austin up to Becky’s house tonight so everyone could visit. He’ll take Austin home with him and leave Alex there at Becky’s house for a few days. Judy will leave tomorrow for Basalt. So will Annie and I.
