It was a lovely day here in southeastern Colorado -- the temperature was 57 when I got out of church. I took a nap for an hour or so and then set off to do a 233-miles ride. I didn't go to the mountains, but instead went east to Lamar, then south towards Springfield, west through Prichert to Kim, then back north on Colorado 109 to La Junta and home.
This route isn't as scenic as something on the west side of Rocky Ford but has its attractions. Springfield and Pritchett were talked about in Timothy Egan's great book about the Dust Bowl, "The Worst Hard Time." Both communities have hung on but cling to the edge of disaster and are back in extreme drought conditions. North of Springfield is a fairly large wind farm, and the city has one wind turbine of their own a few miles south. I noticed that the ground around them was actually ... well, not wet, but at least damp. They got quite a bit of snow early last week and hopefully that's a harbinger of more moisture to come this spring.
Between Pritchert and La Junta, I was on US-160 and then CO-109, on the east side of the Purgatoire River (the river the mountain men of the early 1800s called the "Picketwire" because they didn't speak French very well). On the west side of the river is the Pima Canyon Military Reservation. The Army has wanted to do a huge expansion of this area but the ranchers seem to be in unanimous agreement that they aren't interested in selling. Nearly everywhere I rode today (with the exception of 287 between Springfield and Lamar) I saw the signs that I'd seen between Trinidad and Rocky Ford and between Walsenburg and Rocky Ford: "This Land is NOT four sale to the US Army!"
It was a gorgeous day and I enjoyed the ride and the wildlife. I saw two eagles, a Bald and a Golden, within 10 miles of each other between Las Animas and Lamar along US- 50. Then there were bunches of hawks and lots of pronghorn antelope.
And there was a magnificent panorama of mountains. From about 15 miles north of Kim, I could see Pikes Peak, over 14,000' and 132 miles away. Due west of me, were the Spanish Peaks, not quite 100 miles away. Between the two were the Wet Mountains and behind them the northern part of the Sangre de Christos range. In all I was looking at well over 100 miles of mountains profiled against the western sky.
Surely it won't be another 3 weeks before I can ride!
http://goo.gl/maps/0gNIK
This route isn't as scenic as something on the west side of Rocky Ford but has its attractions. Springfield and Pritchett were talked about in Timothy Egan's great book about the Dust Bowl, "The Worst Hard Time." Both communities have hung on but cling to the edge of disaster and are back in extreme drought conditions. North of Springfield is a fairly large wind farm, and the city has one wind turbine of their own a few miles south. I noticed that the ground around them was actually ... well, not wet, but at least damp. They got quite a bit of snow early last week and hopefully that's a harbinger of more moisture to come this spring.
Between Pritchert and La Junta, I was on US-160 and then CO-109, on the east side of the Purgatoire River (the river the mountain men of the early 1800s called the "Picketwire" because they didn't speak French very well). On the west side of the river is the Pima Canyon Military Reservation. The Army has wanted to do a huge expansion of this area but the ranchers seem to be in unanimous agreement that they aren't interested in selling. Nearly everywhere I rode today (with the exception of 287 between Springfield and Lamar) I saw the signs that I'd seen between Trinidad and Rocky Ford and between Walsenburg and Rocky Ford: "This Land is NOT four sale to the US Army!"
It was a gorgeous day and I enjoyed the ride and the wildlife. I saw two eagles, a Bald and a Golden, within 10 miles of each other between Las Animas and Lamar along US- 50. Then there were bunches of hawks and lots of pronghorn antelope.
And there was a magnificent panorama of mountains. From about 15 miles north of Kim, I could see Pikes Peak, over 14,000' and 132 miles away. Due west of me, were the Spanish Peaks, not quite 100 miles away. Between the two were the Wet Mountains and behind them the northern part of the Sangre de Christos range. In all I was looking at well over 100 miles of mountains profiled against the western sky.
Surely it won't be another 3 weeks before I can ride!
http://goo.gl/maps/0gNIK
-- would get curious and gradually move my way. It could take an hour or so before they'd get close enough for a shot and about half the time, before they'd get close some danged Greenies (that's what us Wyoming hunters called interloping hunters from Colorado) would come blasting past in their Jeeps and chase 'em out of the country for the rest of the afternoon. That's when I've seen them run for 10-15 miles without ever really slowing down.