a week above Breckenridge

I haven’t been writing because I haven’t had any connectivity most of the time, and minimal connectivity when it does work.

For some reason about an hour ago I started seeing nearly-normal data so thought I’d upload pics and try to write a bit before it shuts down again. It’s weird because the phone is in the same position as it has been.

rain

It has rained every day, I think, and constantly for a couple days. I don’t like the humidity, or the bugs. Or Muffin’s muddy paws.

The window I have to access sun is limited by the nearby mountain and tall conifers:

In the left-center of that pic is a stream that passes under the road in a culvert. Plenty of water to harvest if I needed it (I don’t need it):

antbeds

Huge antbeds up here, 5-6’ across is common:

The ants themselves are medium-sized black ants. Like red cornfield ants only smaller.

locomotive water tank

This road appears to be on an old rail line; it’s steep enough it’s hard to imagine trains going up it, but that’s what they tell me.

There was a geocache nearby in the treeline but Muffin and I failed to find it. The trip down to the tank wasn’t bad; hoofing it back uphill was enough to make me feel it.

I learned my lesson, and the next time walked uphill until I got a little lightheaded then headed back down.

roadside poles

On top of Grand Mesa and up here on this mountain I’ve been seeing tall poles on both sides of the roadway. Sometimes they have painted tips, or reflective material attached:

I couldn’t figure out why they were there, but on the uphill walk it dawned on me they might be road/trail markers for snowmobiles. It’s a bit scary that they might need 9’ poles to mark the road. If anybody knows what these are please advise.

dashboard bread

Since it’s usually been sunny here in the mornings I decided to try to proof some no-knead bread on the dash for a few hours instead of letting it rise from day to day.

I put the dough on the dash a little before 8am, and by 10am it had doubled in size as you see here. It’s about as much as I get in an overnight rise so I baked it in the crock. It sagged a little in the middle but was otherwise indistinguishable from the overnight batches.

A couple days later I made a cold sandwich for lunch out of this bread and some cold turkey meatloaf I also cooked in the crock. The tangy meatloaf topping sauce really sold it.

OK, going to try to post this if the bandwidth holds up.

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