June 2008

It is always great to see our good friends Gail and Tom from Salida and we wasted no time in going to visit with them. We all went in our Jeep up a 4X4 trail near Salida to Ptarmigan Lake. The last part was still covered in snow drifts so we walked. Great fun!
It was very special to have the family up at our cabin again and to see Christopher’s stranger awareness recede as he got to know us again. His big sister can get a little jealous and tends to organise his available toy choices and contact with adults. He had better learn to get used to it for a while.
The stream attracts all sorts of butterflies who appear to value the wet mud along its track. Most are small blues but there are swallowtails as well and they look really pretty amongst the wild flowers.

Angie, Gail and Tom by Ptarmigan Lake
Angie, Bridget, Aspen and Christopher in the swing seat on our front deck
A swallowtail butterfly near our spring stream

Our first camping trip with Gail and Tom took us to Clear Creek between Buena Vista and Leadville. The valley was the centre of very active silver mining from around 1880 until the bottom fell out of the silver market and the mines were abandoned. A number of old settlements have been preserved by local historical societies but the mines are often more remote and less accessible.
There are some cemeteries but the only headstones are for infants and small children. The graves for adults tend to be unmarked. The creek itself was the centre of much fishing activity with a number of trout being hooked and returned.
The valley is beautiful and the old roads are pretty rough in places making a 4X4 very useful if not essential. Certainly high clearance is a must for all these old mining areas. Our Jeep Patriot was bought with this in mind and the off-road and towing capabilities are great.

Our campsite by Clear Creek
A notice giving some context to our trip
The few cabins that comprise Beaver City
Cabins from the 1880s along the main street of Vicksburg - fresh water wooden troughs run from a stream down both sides of the road
A beaver lodge in a beaver created lake along Clear Creek
Silverdale and Rockdale lie close by the creek but the mines were up the south side of the valley a long way up
A recent avalanche has ripped this old cabin clean off it's foundation and cellar - there is evidence of huge avalanches all around here
The town of Winfield with the school seen in the foreground
A notice giving context to Winfield Cemetery
A tree in the Clear Creek waters swollen by snow melt and eroding the banks

The only difficulty with camping here is the altitude which often results in night frosts. We have good heating and have bought an even thicker sleeping bag!
We regularly vow to camp lower down but somehow never do it. As a result we are promising ourselves a trip to Utah in the autumn when the weather is less hot but still very warm by our local standards in that season.

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