Repainting the Shed

I've started work on repainting the shed. The first step was scraping the sides. I finished that in a day, but in usual Fletcher fashion had to do some other work before I could finish scraping the shed. I had to clean out all the junk that's been stored behind the shed for the last 40 years. There were several broken sleds, lots of wood, broken PVC pipes and several pairs of old skis. I kept the skis and the wood that was still decent and threw away the rest.

I'm ready to prime the shed, but it has rained every afternoon since I scraped it. I have to wait til the wood dries out to put a coat of primer on it. Here's a before picture of the shed. Pretty soon, it's going to match the iridescent green of the cabin.

Canoeing the Colorado River

Shannon and I just got back from one of our best adventures in Colorado, yet. Shannon works at REI (a huge outdoor sports store) and can rent equipment for free. We'd been talking about planning a canoe trip in Colorado for a while, but only recently had the time for it. Planning was somewhat last minute, but we did a lot of research on the rivers in Colorado and which sections were doable in a canoe. I wanted something that would challenge us, but not kill us. I've canoed plenty of rivers around Kentucky and didn't want another boring trip on flat water that required paddling to get anywhere. We settled on a 30 mile section of the Upper Colorado River that included mostly class I and II rapids with a few class II+ and class III rapids. We read about each of the more difficult rapids and marked them on our map so that we knew were to expect each of them.

We packed our bags Wednesday night and woke up at 5 am Thursday morning for our two hour drive to the river. Both of us had to drive because we had to leave one car at our take-out location and drive the other, with all our gear, to the put-in. We arrived at the put-in at 9 am. It took about an hour to get the boat ready, tie in our dry bags, and secure all our equipment (extra paddle, water bottles, bailing bucket, etc) and we were finally floating around ten. I sat in the back and Shannon sat in the front of the canoe. Shannon hadn't been on whitewater in over eight years and though I have a moderate amount of experience canoeing and whitewater rafting, this would be my first time whitewater canoeing. We were both a bit apprehensive as we began the trip.


There were only a few class I warm up rapids before our first big challenge, a class III rapid called Needle's Eye. It was in a canyon with steep walls on either side and a large rock in the middle of the river. The drop in the water level on either side of the rock was about two feet. One description of the rapid reads "at higher flows, the hole in the center can easily flip a raft." We weren't quite prepared for the rapid and approached it from the center of the river. We learned the hard way that it wasn't easy to maneuver the 16 foot canoe in swift water. The front of the canoe struck the rock before we had time to turn away from it. Luckily, the current pulled the boat around the rock and through the rapid without flipping it. We made it through a few class II rapids following Needle's Eye, then had to stop to bail a few inches of water out of the bottom of our canoe. The low sitting canoe allowed lots of waves to crash over the sidewalls.

Here is an early cabin from the area we stopped to explore. There was a geocache nearby, too.


About three miles into the trip, we learned our next hard lesson. We were floating down a relatively benign (but fast flowing) section of the river when we noticed a tombstone rock in front of us. We tried to maneuver to the left of it, but again found the boat to be unresponsive. We struck the rock with the front right of our boat and this time paid for it. The canoe flipped. The current was very swift and Shannon and I both grabbed onto the boat as it floated down stream. After several seconds, I was able to get my feet on the bottom of the river. The current was so strong that I had to let go of my paddle and hold the canoe with both hands to keep from losing my grip. The water was about five feet deep, so I couldn't stand, but drug my feet along the bottom of the river as I slowly pulled the boat closer to the shore. I was wearing sandals, so my feet and ankles got beaten up as they dragged across the rocky bottom of the river. After a long, frantic minute, we had wrestled the canoe to water shallow enough to stand in. We flipped the boat over and secured it on some rocks. It was full of water, but all of our gear was still in place and attached to the canoe. We had at least done a good job tying everything down. The only thing we lost was a battery and a roll of toilette paper that had been in a mesh bag I'd forgotten to close after the last time I'd opened it (and the paddle I let go of). We actually watched the roll of toilette paper (inside of a zip lock bag) float by as we were pulling the boat to shore.

We were both ok, but had learned another valuable lesson about whitewater canoeing. In order to effectively maneuver the boat, I had to paddle backwards (and HARD) to slow it down in the swift water and give us time to move the boat to the proper position in the rapids. Flipping our boat in such a simple manner also made us even more nervous about the tough rapids ahead. If we couldn't keep the boat upright in this section of river, how were we going to survive the toughest set of rapids we'd face, only a few miles ahead?

The answer came in the form of a commercial rafting group that we happened upon at the last put-in point before the next set of class III rapids. I'd been nervously excited about Yarmony Rapid, the crux of our entire trip, since I first read about it on several river guide websites. Shannon and I had been discussing how we were going to make it through Yarmony, especially after flipping the canoe earlier. Before we left for the trip, one of Shannon's co-workers warned her that we would flip going through Yarmony.

As we floated down river after our capsize, we were also looking for the floating toilette paper and our spare paddle. We didn't want to litter, and were concerned that we'd already lost our spare paddle only three miles into the trip. We managed to find both the toilette paper and the paddle floating in separate eddies down the river. We'd recovered everything we lost during the flip, so our confidence was somewhat boosted. At least we had a spare paddle if anything went wrong in Yarmony.

At least I look like I know what I'm doing...


The scenery along the river was beautiful.


We stopped at the last put-in before Red Gore Canyon (which contains Yarmony and several class II+ rapids before and after it). A commercial guide was preparing to run the section with several clients in a raft and a ducky. We asked the guide about how Yarmony was at the current water level and if she though we could make it in a canoe. She agreed with Shannon's co-worker, saying that she'd "never seen anyone do it in one of those right side up." She gave us some helpful pointers about the rapids and offered to let us follow their group through the challenging section. We gladly accepted the offer.

Along with the two rafts were two kayakers, who also knew the section of the river. While we floated toward the rapids, we talked with the kayakers and raft guide about how to best approach the rapids. Basically, we just needed to try and follow their line, a challenging task, considering the kayaks were significantly more manueverable at about 1/3 the length of our canoe and the raft could easily bounce off of rocks without flipping.

As the rapids approached, I got down on my knees in the bottom of the canoe (to lower the center of gravity). The first rapid, Red Eye, was a class II that required us to stay left of a large rock. Using my new strategy of paddling backwards to steer the boat, we made it through Red Eye with little fuss. Next up, Yarmony. Yarmony consists of a few drops with boulders to avoid scattered through the rapid. As we entered the first drop, huge waves crashed over our heads and poured into the boat. We kept the canoe lined up well, though, following the raft in front of us. After the first drop, the nose of the canoe got caught in a slow moving eddy while the back remained in the fast moving current, spinning the canoe backwards in the middle of the rapid. I wrestled the back of the canoe into the eddy and forced the front of the canoe back into the current, spinning us back to face the correct direction. Fierce back-paddling as we went over the next drop kept us away from a wall on the left. From there, a long wave train poured water over the sides of the canoe, but we'd made it through the toughest part of the rapid. Without flipping. A few more class II rapids in the canyon poured more water into the boat, but were a breeze to navigate compared to Yarmony. The four inches of water that had accumulated in our canoe had made it significantly more unstable, so we thanked our "guides" and stopped the canoe on a rocky beach to bail out the water. We'd made it through the toughest rapids of the trip and could finally let our nerves relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery around us.

We camped over night at a sandy beach around the halfway point of the river. Here's a picture of our campsite. It was taken after the camera got wet, which is why it's so hazy.


The second day consisted of a lot of flat water with several class I and II rapids interspersed. We were able to relax and just float with the current most of the day, though it was overcast, so it was quite a bit cooler than it had been the previous day. Unfortunately, Shannon's "waterproof" camera got a little too wet and was unable to take pictures for the most of the trip. Guess we'll have to do it again to get some pictures.

Trey's Visit

Trey spent five days in Colorado before he had to fly back to Kentucky. We packed a lot into those five days. The first day we spent mostly unpacking the Jeep and cleaning the cabin up from the month of neglect while I was gone. The grass was over knee high. I was only able to mow a quarter of the lawn before the motor on the old electric mower burned up.

After working on the yard Wednesday morning, we went on a short hike to an abandoned mine and explored it. We were both pretty sore and winded after the short hike at altitude, which concerned us about our plans for Friday: climbing a 14er. We'd both just come up from sea level, so the altitude was really affecting us.

We went on another hike Thursday to check out a mine we'd seen from the highway for a while. I'd never been to it, so I didn't know if it was open or not. When we finally got to it, we discovered that the entrance had collapsed, but there was enough of an opening left for us to climb down into it. It turned out to be a very cool mine to explore.

Friday morning we woke up at 5 am to set off with Shannon and one of her friends, Sarah, for Mt. Bierstadt, a 14er above Georgetown on the road to Guanella Pass. We were at the trailhead a little after six and to our disappointment, so were 200 other people. It turns out that we picked the one day of the year that a group hikes Mt. Bierstadt for a fundraiser, putting 200 extra people on the trail. I had hoped that since we were hiking on a weekday, there'd be few other people on the trail. Instead, we looked more like a long line of ants walking on the trail.

Here's the view we had from the parking lot at 6 am.


We could definitely feel the altitude, but after about three hours of hiking, we made it to the top. We spent about 45 minutes on the peak (along with 100 other people) eating lunch and enjoying the view. We made it back to the parking lot by 12.30 pm and spent the rest of the afternoon napping.



Trey's flight out of Denver left a six in the afternoon on Sunday. We left early to take the Coors Brewery Tour in Golden. When we got there, we were at the back of a 45 minute to one hour line waiting to get on the shuttles that begin the tour. After standing in line for about 15 minutes, one of the brewery employees walked by asking if there were any groups of two. I shot my hand up and yelled that we were. That got us a ticket straight to shuttle, bypassing about a half hour of the line. That extra half hour gave us plenty of time to enjoy the brewery tour and drink the three free beers they give you at the end, before dropping Trey off at the airport.

Back to Colorado

I spent over a month away from Colorado and was definitely ready to head back by the time I left on August 8th. Trey had decided to drive out with me and spend a few days in Colorado. On the drive back, I had about three times as much stuff as I had come to Kentucky with. The Jeep was packed full and I had a trailer with a 4 wheeler on it. I was most nervous about the trailer. The wood on it is rotten, the frame is rusting through in places, and the wheel bearings were in bad shape. In the last couple of days before the drive, I'd spent most of my time working on the trailer. I replaced the lights, lowered and supported the sidewalls, and most importantly replaced the wheel bearings. Here's a picture of the trailer. Notice I have two spare tires, just in case...


The trailer severely limited our speed as I had to stay in 4th gear to have enough power to pull it at highway speeds. We averaged about 55 mph and a mere 15 mpg during the whole trip. We worried about getting a flat tire every time the trailer went over a bump or pothole. It only has 12 inch tires and I had them inflated to their max of 60 psi. Fortunately, the trailer made it all the way to Colorado with little fuss.

I was grateful to have Trey with me to help with the driving. We spent the night just east of Kansas City. The whole trip took us about 31 hours with about 22 hours of driving.

Maine

The day after I got back from the family reunion, I left for Maine to visit Shannon and her family. I didn't even unpack my bag from the family reunion. I had washed my clothes at the condo, so I just took the same stuff with me to Maine.

I had a lot of fun in Maine. Shannon had planned a lot of great stuff for us. Her parents made a lobster dinner for us all one night. Shannon's dad had called a friend of his who owns a lobster boat and told him we wanted some lobster for dinner. At 4 am the next morning, the guy with the lobster boat called Shannon's dad and told him to meet him at the dock. They went out on his boat, pulled a lobster trap and so we had fresh Maine lobster to eat the next day.

Shannon had also arranged a surprise sailing trip for the two of us. I'd never been sailing before, so I was pretty excited. We sailed on an 88-foot schooner that was first launched in 1912.


We got to help put up the sails.


We also went on the Allagash brewery tour. Allagash is a microbrewery in Maine. It was very cool to go on a tour of such a small brewery after having been on the Coors brewery tour in Colorado, the worlds largest brewery.


We spent one morning at the beach, but the water is so cold that you can't get in. I had a lot of fun in Maine, though I was told it's really only a good place to visit in the summer.

Family Reunion

Only two days after I got back to Kentucky, we left for our annual Gordon (my mom's side) family reunion. The Reunion was at the lake of the Ozarks, which I had just driven by two days earlier. We stayed in condos on the lake and had great weather for the whole trip. It was great to see so much of my family that I hadn't seen for a while.

We rented a pontoon boat and went swimming from it in the lake one morning. We had rented the boat for the whole day, but the left pontoon started sinking, so the boat was listing badly. We had to call the rental company from a restaurant that we'd stopped at and have them come rescue us. Unfortunately, they didn't have an extra boat to give us, so our day of boating was cut short.

Trey, Kaela, my Aunt Nancy, and I rented two Jet Skis on our last day on the lake. That was a lot of fun, but with so many larger boats on the lake, the water was very rough.

Patrick and I introduced the rest of the family to geocaching. We took a group of about eight people geocaching in a small park near the condos. Unfortunately, it was basically just a forest with very few trails. We had to do a lot of bushwhacking, so it wasn't ideal for the group of (somewhat) older people we had. Despite the less than ideal conditions (and my uncle spraining his ankle) we got two of our relatives hooked on geocaching. One of our aunts and our uncle who sprained his ankle both loved geocaching and are now caching on their own.

Drive Home

Matt and I decided to caravan back to Kentucky since we were both driving most of the same route. We left a little after noon on July 4th after eating at the Georgetown barbeque. We made pretty good time the first day and stopped about an hour west of Topeka, Kansas to rest over night. We left early on the fifth but ran in to trouble pretty quickly. One of the shifting solenoids in Matt's automatic transmission went out, leaving him without first and fourth gear. That meant he had to take off from stops in second gear and limited his cruising speed in third gear. Fortunately, he was able to make it back to his parents' in Alabama on just two gears.

I made it back to Louisville around 9 pm after about 21 hours of driving over a 30 hour period.

Matt's Visit Part II

After our failed attempt at exploring the vertical shaft we found, Matt and I decided to explore some other mines that were easier to access. I-70 is the main highway running east - west through the Rockies and the road that I have to take to get anywhere. Every time I travel along it, I see several mine openings that I've always been curious about. It was the perfect time to check some of those out.

Turns out, we hit the jackpot. We found the largest mine I'd ever explored. We entered through the upper level adit. The upper level was not very large, but a winze about 100 yards from the entrance led to a lower level. The winze was a diagonal shaft the went down at about a 45° angle. We tied a rope to a piece of a metal that was secured to the floor of the upper adit and slowly lowered ourselves down to the lower level.

The lower level of the mine turned out to be huge. We probably spent more than an hour-and-a-half exploring it. As we got deeper into the mine, we had to climb over several sections of collapsed rock. When Matt was climbing down the backside of one of the debris piles, the candle he was carrying went out. Our first thought was that he had accidentally blown it out as he was scrambling over the rocks. I climbed down to meet him with the lighter. We decided not to move any further until we got the candle re-lit. I pulled the lighter out of my pocket and tried to light it several times, but couldn't get a flame. I'd dropped the lighter in the dirt and thought that maybe that was preventing it from igniting. So I pulled a book of matches out of our mine exploring bag. I struck several matches, but each time got the same result: the sulfur on the head of the match burned, but never created a flame. Matt and I looked at each other, both knowing what we were experiencing: bad air. We scrambled back to the top of the rock pile we'd climbed down. There, the lighter and candle both lit very quickly. There hadn't been enough oxygen lower in tunnel to support a flame. We knew from our research that carbon dioxide is more dense than oxygen and often displaces oxygen in mines, creating bad air.

At that point, we decided to turn back, very grateful that we'd run into the old geologist that recommended we carry a candle. He may well have saved our lives. Neither of us felt short of breath in the area with bad air, but we later learned that fire needs at least 15% oxygen to burn (normal air contains 21% oxygen). I haven't been able to find out what oxygen content is required for humans to survive.

On our way out of the mine, we climbed up a stope we had passed. A stope is were the miners pulled the ore from that they were going to process. This one went up at a 45° angle. We had originally hoped that it was a raise that would lead to another level and were slightly disappointed when we discovered it was only a stope. Overall, though, we were very excited about the mine and all the exploring we had done in it. We were still curious about what might've been passed the section with bad air, but we won't be able to find out without supplemental oxygen.

On our last full day in Colorado, we went on another hunt for abandoned mines. We decided to take the Jeep up the trail where I had gotten stuck in the snow with my dad this spring. My dad had told me there were several mines in the area to explore. We stopped to take pictures were my dad and I had gotten stuck. This picture shows the tree that we cut and the rocks we piled to fill in the side of the trail.


The ashes from our fire are still there.


The snow had all melted on the lower portion of the trail, but it was still a solid 4 wheel drive road. As we got higher on the mountain we came across several mine sites. Unfortunately the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety had beaten us there. There were placards in all the mines we stopped at that indicated the mines had been made "safe" in 2007. The entrances to all of them had been blasted closed. We were very disappointed.

We did make it up to some snow, which Matt was excited about. Part of the trail was blocked by snow.


Vanity picture of the Jeep at the highest point we made it to.


We drove to the end of the Jeep road where there was a huge mine with several cool structures that were still intact. As we expected, though, the entrance to the mine had long since collapsed. There were some cool structures left.




Check out the rest of the pictures on flickr. There are some good ones.

That marked the end of our mine explorations for this trip. We left the next day to drive back to Kentucky.