So there we were, happily moseying on up the east coast, exploring islands and beaches, when we got a phone call. Glenn’s Mom had fallen and broken her hip. Help was needed. So we shifted gears from M for Mosey to O for Overdrive and made the trip from Aiken, South Carolina to Fort Worth, Texas in about three days.
If it had been just us in a car we could have done it in two, easy. But the Gasquatch is quite tiring to drive for some reason. Plus we’re not 30 any more, so there’s that.
We stayed in one spot for 60 days, not counting the almost daily drives to the hospital, rehab facility or various doctor’s offices. Finally Mom was able to move back into assisted living w/ Dad and they are both doing much better now.
Fortunately April and May were quite temperate for Texas. At that point we had to figure out where to go to both avoid summer heat and not add unnecessary miles to the vehicles. We decided that the fall leaves of New England was out for this year. So we made a beeline for altitude. We visited Santa Fe, New Mexico and Alamosa, Colorado. We started boondocking on National Forest land just west of Santa Fe, but it was both hot and dusty. We then made contact with some nomadic RVers that we had been following off-and-on since 2010. They invited us to join them so we drove north, back to Alamosa. We stayed at an RV park there on June 6 and that is the last time we connected to the electrical grid or paid to park. The next day we drove to just outside Poncha Springs, Colorado.
The ringleader of this group, currently going under the moniker of ‘Music and Mind Camp’ is Randy. He is credited in both the Nomadland book and movie, although his movie stardom scene was left on the cutting room floor. Another member is Allecia who used to work for Bob Wells’ Home on Wheels Alliance, a non-profit that helps people living in vans or small RV’s. Sherry is with us as well.
Normally this group spends winters in Arizona, then disperses for the summer season. Some smaller groups stay together in various places. We’ve recently been joined by Ariana and Michael and others are headed this way as well. In the meantime, a German freelance news crew showed up and filmed one of our daily meetings and also asked us a lot of questions. They then flew to California to interview other nomad RVers. They were going to interview Bob Wells, but he’s in Oregon with his mother who is evidently ill. Most of what they filmed won’t make it on air as the segment is supposedly going to be only six minutes long. And in German. We’ll post the video if we ever find it.
It has been seven weeks since the RV has had an electrical connection. So far the solar panels and batteries have been working about as good as we could expect. Once a week we drive into town to dump the grey and black tanks and fill the fresh tank with water, empty trash and recycling, go grocery shopping. We’ve basically been bouncing around between Salida and Leadville.
Oh yeah. We also accidentally did some mountain climbing. Let me explain…
So while we were camped out on the west end of Twin Lakes we did some hiking on nearby trails. I loaded up the ‘Alltrails’ app and we took off and soon we were on a small part of the Continental Divide trail. Cool! Then we hiked up a bit and soon we were at 10,000 feet, possibly a new altitude record for us. So we stopped for selfies, of course. But we were only prepared for a short hike and had no water or food so we went back down to camp. That night I decided that since we had handled 10,000 feet so easily, was it really that much more difficult to get to 14,000 feet?
Dear reader, yes, it is.
But ignorance is bliss, as they say, so we decided to tackle our first ‘fourteener’ since we’re in Colorado and evidently this is what every Coloradoan does on the weekend. The trailhead for the nearest 14er, Mt. Elbert, was only a few miles away, and we saved 3.6 miles round-trip by driving up to the 4x4 trailhead, which the Honda CR-V handled easily. All-wheel drive and 8.2” of clearance was totally worth every penny!
We got a late start (6:30am) but since it was Tuesday the trailhead parking wasn’t full. It was a beautiful hike through the trees, shifting from aspens to pines to firs. Then we were above the treeline and surrounded by stunning views in all directions. Unfortunately the local trail committee had decided that certain parts of the trail were eroding and had re-routed things. Good news, switchbacks are less steep. Bad news, switchbacks add multiple miles to the route. Fortunately we were at least partially acclimated by having spent a month just below 10,000 feet. But the farther we climbed the less steps we could take before we had to stop and lean on our poles. Eventually the summit was in view and that was encouraging. Finally, six hours after we started, we made it to the top!
Not only did we summit our first fourteener at the ages of 60 and 63, we summited the tallest peak in Colorado, the 2nd highest peak in the lower 48 states, only 65 feet shorter than Mt. Whitney in California.
We took selfies and other photos and ate lunch. After 45 minutes we finally began our descent. The steep parts were a bit slippery, the less steep parts were *so nice* and the flatter parts just pure joy, at least compared to the way up. A lot of people passed us on they way up, and the rest of them passed us on the way back down. Finally, after 13+ miles and 10 hours we made it back to the car and drove back to camp. No falls, no pain worse than a bit of soreness/stiffness.
While ‘bagging’ more peaks is a tempting idea, we’re not sure if we’ll attempt any more 14ers. We met an old rock-climbing friend (Denise) for lunch and found out she has summited all but six of the 14ers in Colorado. We doubt we will be bitten by some late-life bug to rack up peak counts, but there is a certain appeal to at least hike more of the Continental Divide and Colorado Trail systems. We’ll see.
Here are some photo albums:
South Carolina to Texas — TX-NM-CO — Mt. Elbert Summit hike — Willis Gulch Trail — Music and Mind Camp — Leadville Storm