Finding the Perfect Site & Other Rants

In the last two weeks since our last post we have hop-scotched back and forth between several places, looking for that all illusive perfect camping spot.  It seems that with every new campsite, there are pluses and minuses that have to be dealt with.  It can be rough enough living in a 10’ x 30’ metal can on wheels as it is.  For instance, kitchen counter space is very minimum so often times any full course meals have to be prepared in sequences; fixing one item and putting those ingredients away before pulling out the ingredients and pots/pans to make the next part of the meal, etc.  And clean up, well, that needs to be taken care of shortly after eating.  No more letting dishes pile up or siting in the dish washer.  If you did happen to not clean up after your meal, you’ll more than likely have to before you eat again.

                                                                                        Minimum Amount of Counter Space

Privacy is another item that one must adjust and adapt to.  If you’re the least bit squeamish about your mate’s bodily noises (and smells) as they answer the call of nature in the 3’ x 3’ “restroom” then you’re gonna be in for a rough time, especially if said mate has to answer that call in the middle of the night and your bed is right next door.  You’ll get fumigated either by natural odors or the strong perfume smells of air-fresheners.  Both can make you roll over and groan as you try to nod back off to sleep.

Speaking of bodily functions, RVs aren’t built on solid foundations so there isn’t a sewer system that readily accepts every flush and sends that flushing on down to the local wastewater plant.  Your wastewater plant is directly underneath your stool in the form of a big ol’ 40 gallon tank.  Actually there are two tanks, one for your natural wastes (black tank) and one for your sink water (grey tank).  So you have to learn to conserve water, whichever tank it may be going to.  I use to turn the faucet on full blast to wash my hands before the RV and now I can trickle-wet my hands, lather up and trickle-rinse them before towel drying.  I’ve learned that a little water goes a long way and if I can conserve as much water usage as I can, that means longer time-spans of having to go outside, hook up a sewage hose and manually empty (dump) those two tanks.  And trust me on this; just because it’s yours, doesn’t mean it doesn’t stink.

It’s little things like that that can wear one down sometimes.  And it’s not just those few items.  In a regular stick-built house you may have office space where you can leave your computer and printer hooked up and sitting out.  Not here.  Pull out the computer from it’s reserved cubby hole, plug it in, hook up the printer if need be, use said items then disconnect and store them away until the next time you want to use them.  Seems petty, but sometimes ya just want to leave stuff sitting out.  And even in the general living space it seems like there is always something, whether it’s a pair of shoes or a portable table or some maps, etc, in your way when all you want to do is walk four feet to get something from overhead storage.  You have to do three different things to get to the one thing that you were wanting to do.  Yes, frustrating.

But listen to me, going on and on about the annoyances and frustrations of living in such a confined area.  Lets get back to the hop-scotching back and forth over the last two weeks.

                                                                                                Brazos Cliffs near Chama, NM

After leaving Eagle Nest, we headed westwardly and ended up near Chama, NM at Heron Lake State Park.  Hum.  The water was low due to a drought and what water there was, was frog-slime green in color.  Our campsite wasn’t “bad”.  It was a bit concealed from the other campsites and had some shade in the form of a wall of piñon trees, but there wasn’t a view.  Barbara and I enjoy sitting out under the awning or looking out one of our many huge windows to see a nice view.  We did have water and electric.  Thank God for the electric. It was H-O-T and come late afternoon or early evening we had to close everything up and turn on the air conditioning.  Also, Heron Lake was out there.  Really out there.  It was miles from Chama.  No trails to hike.  No fishing to be had.  Just lots of pinions and scrub-brush to look at.  Nope, not the perfect camping site for us.  After four nights of that, we packed up, disconnected and headed out for higher elevations and cooler temps in the form of Hopewell Lake.

Hopewell Lake is part of Carson National Forest and with my Old Geezer Discount we get to stay for half price. Pretty good deal.  We arrived and found a really nice site at the end of the loop that gave us a panoramic view of a huge mountain valley.  It was beautiful! 

                                                                                                     Hopewell Lake Campsite

The lake itself was a pretty little mountain lake stocked full of trout.  I managed to catch an 18 inch and a 19 inch rainbow and over the next few days hooked even larger ones that got off before I could pull them in.  I did catch another one about 15 inches long which I gave to another fisherman who wasn’t having any luck.  Because I didn’t have a net with me, I broke my fishing rod in half when I heaved that 19 incher out of the water and onto the bank. Glad I brought a spare along!

                                                                                                 My 2 "Trophies"

Enough of the fishing stories, lets go back to the campsite.  Like I said, it was a pretty good site with a nice view. It gave us plenty of sunshine for our solar panels and also provided just the right amount of shade.  We liked it a lot.  It sits at 9,500 feet above sea level so it’s a lot cooler there which is nice, but it can be a bit scary to wake up in the middle of night gasping for air.  Not just once or twice either.  Needless to say, we didn’t sleep all that well.  We didn’t mind that there wasn’t any electricity, or no cell service and no place to dump those nasty grey and black tanks I was talking about earlier.  Well, not to much anyway.  Nope, not the perfect camping site for us.  Close, though.  After three nights of rough sleeping and high winds (oh yeah, forgot to mention the almost non-stop winds in that pretty valley) we packed up and headed to a promising state campground called Navajo Lake.

Man, I thought Heron Lake was way out there!  Navajo Lake was a world of it’s own with nothing, na-da, zip, zilch around for miles and miles.  One minute we were driving through barren rocky red landscape and then BOOM!, we were crossing the dam of one very beautiful and huge lake.  As far as the eye could see there were house boats, speed boats, skiers and skidoos.  We worked our way up and down and around and finally made it to the main campground.  We found a good spot actually.  Level. Shaded. Quite.  Well, until the weekend partiers came rolling in.  It was like a huge summer block party that went on well into the night.  That “10pm - 7am Quiet Time” was no where to be found.  Seems the Camp Host had decided there was a better gig for him at another park so he vacated the premises.  And again, its at a lower elevation so it was once more to hot to bear.  Just as well. We turned the A/C on at night to drown out the partiers.  

The one nice thing about staying there is that I met my first Native New Mexican, who was camped next to us.  Albert and his wife Nancy were very nice and interesting to talk with.  They are from the Albuqureque area and go to Navajo Lake often to fish the San Juan River which flows out of the lake.  They were kind enough to let me tag along with them and learn from them how to fish there.  Albert did the one thing that every fisher person ought not do; he bragged about how many fish and how big of fish the river held and guaranteed an exciting time on the water.  Uh… no, not on that day.  He caught one small one, I caught three (who was showing whom?) and Nancy got skunked.  Regardless, it was a great day fishing with a pretty cool couple.

                                                                             Friend Albert Fishing in the San Juan River

We left Navajo Lake after just 4 days of heat and noise and decided to head back up to Hopewell Lake for some cooler temps and peace and quiet.  We really try hard to pinch the purse whenever we can so instead of going into Hopewell Lake Campground and pay for a site, we opted to travel on down a rough, dusty road to find a good boon docking site.  A “Boon Dock” site is a place where you can go to that is away from everyone and has no amenities, just a grassy place with a good view of the wilderness to park.  National Forests provide a lot of places just like this and we eventually found one that I could work the 30 foot RV into.  It was perfect… for awhile.  Seems a lot of people in pickups and 4x4s like those backcountry sites as well, and one after another went barreling down that dirt road sending a plume of dust in the air and the wind, in it’s own mischievous way, blew it across the meadow right to us for our enjoyment.  Wonderful.  As the sun started to settle, we stepped outside and were hit with swarms of flies.  What the heck were so many flies doing out in a meadow like this?  Well, it didn’t take long to answer that question!  National Forests are also open grazing for local cattle ranches and we were, as luck would have it, parked right in the middle of the most succulent grass a cow could want.  And boy, did they.  It was Lake Navajo all over again, only this time it was a block party for cows! Mooing, belching and even bumping into the RV while we were trying our best to sleep.  Barbara got up with a flashlight, opened the door, went outside to shine the light on them and she even yelled at them!  They ran off lickety-split.

                                                                                               Cows in the Campground!

We got up the next morning and went outside, watching where we stepped, to inspect the vehicles.  The RV was fine, but Barbara’s car had cow slobber all over the windows and front hood.  It was if they snuck back during the night and said “Hey, take this, mean lady!”.

                                                                                                  Cow Licks and Slobbers

Nope…. not even the perfect camping site for us.  So after that one night, we packed up and left again.  In 2 weeks time we’re currently in our fifth location. That’s a lot of moving around and it’s tiring.  I guess that is a BIG advantage of living in an RV even with all of the challenges and difficulties.  If you don’t like your neighbors, the weather, the noise, the cows… just pack up and move on.  So here we sit in Columbine Campground between Questra and Red River.  Nice. Maybe this will be…. oh heck, who am I kidding?  No such thing as the perfect campsite exists.

Eagle Nest State Campground, New Mexico

After our time at Sugarite Canyon State Park was up, we headed west of Raton, NM down a long stretch of arid scenery that gradually evolved into the town of Cimarron, NM which lies at the foothills of Cimarron State Park.  Other than a gas stop Cimarron didn’t hold much of an interest for us so turning north, we gradually but quickly found ourselves winding along canyon walls, following the Cimarron River.  There are about five campsites scattered along the river but all were either too close to the road for our liking or were small and crowded.  We elected to keep going through the Cimarron Canyon, up, over and through the pass and down the other side to Eagle Nest, NM.

Eagle Nest is a touristy town pretty much dependent on summer vacationers, campers and fishermen.  Just a couple miles beyond the village sits Eagle Nest State Park and that is where we parked ourselves for the next 2 weeks.

The campground has 19 sites and we were fortunate enough to find a “first come, first served” site that sat along the shoreline of Eagle Nest Lake.  All of the sites at this campground are primitive sites, meaning that there is not any electric, no wifi or internet service, no showers, dump, or on-site water.  There is water when you first pull into the park, so we filled our tank before setting up at site number 14.  Before you jump to conclusions; no, we did not go 2 weeks without a shower.  A nearby RV park offers showers to the public for $5 so we took advantage of that.  As for the electric, our Lazy Daze is set up with 2 solar panels that keep our batteries pretty well charged and that enables us to burn a few lights in the evenings before bedtime.

The campground is filled… actually “infiltrated”…. by Prairie Dogs.  They were everywhere!  We’d sit outside in the cool of the afternoon and watch them run about, chittering, chattering and barking at each other.  They never bothered the RV that we’re aware of or any of the other RVs that sat near us, but once an RV pulled out of it’s site the Prairie Dogs would scamper over to investigate, probably seeing if any type of morsels had been left behind. 

Speaking of the wildlife, I never did see an Eagle during our stay but I did see scores of white Pelicans.  Yep, Pelicans.  I’m still scratching my head over that one. Never knew of Pelicans in the mountains.

One thing that was really neat about the campground was the panoramic views that surrounded us. We had a 360 degree view of the valley with mountains all around us.  It was so cool to watch the way the sunlight changed how the mountains looked as it rose and sat each day. 

The day after we arrived, our friends Will, Karen and Maggie showed up to spend a couple of days with us.

They were on their way back home to Arizona after spending a month or so visiting friends and relatives as far east as Ohio and south as Tennessee, traveling in their new Class A  RV.  It’s beautiful and oh so roomy!  The four of us (Maggie stayed home) toured the Vietnam Veteran War Memorial and had a so-so dinner at Zeb’s in Angel Fire.

Angel Fire is south of Eagle Nest, about 10 or 11 miles away.  It to is a touristy town but they are more dependent on the winter vacationers who flock to the village to ski.  We actually preferred Angel Fire over Eagle Nest as it had more to offer; Wi-Fi connections (YEY!), a grocery store, a laundromat, better restaurants and more things to see and do.  I took a 2 hour, $10 Fly Fishing lesson that I enjoyed and actually learned a few things from and Barbara and I rode the Ski Lift up to the top of the mountain and did a little hiking while up there.  Have I mentioned before how thin the air is in Northern New Mexico??  GASP!

That first drop down is a doozie!

Atop of the mountain looking down on Angel Fire

That's Eagle Nest way off in the distance

I managed to catch some trout, adding to my dinner count, during our two week stay.  I caught one on a fly rod while fishing the Cimarron River and then caught four more on spinning tackle at Camp Maverick, which is one of the campsites that we by-passed.

Cimarron River Rainbow

I tried several times to catch fish from Eagle Nest Lake but didn’t have any luck doing so.  Most people who were catching fish were out on boats, trolling the deep waters.  Oh well, maybe in September if we travel back for another stay.

Barbara and I made two hikes up Carson National Forest, each being about a 3 mile round trip.  On our first hike, we came across a hen Grouse that was just kind of strutting around, crossing the path in front of us and stirring around on the right side.  It didn’t take long to see why she didn’t flush; her babies were on the left side of the trail in the underbrush and mom was trying to pull us away from them.  That was pretty cool and of course, I didn’t have my camera.  Carrying a backpack with plenty of liquids for the hike, I elected NOT to carry the camera as well.  See what happens when ya don’t?  When we got about halfway up, it begin getting cold, windy and rainy so we turned around to head back.  Along the way we began hearing the sound of Elk bugling on the mountainside that was facing us.  We slowed our pace and began looking across the ravine to the other side.  Eventually, we caught sight of two Elk working their way along the mountainside.  Pretty cool to see them and hear their bugling!

The second hike was much more strenuous but was well worth the effort as the scenery was awesome.  There’s just something special about those unexpected high mountain valleys; you’re hiking up a rough mountain trail and suddenly break out of the dense forest to come upon a huge field of greenery, flowers, butterflies, blue skies and ponds. Awesome!   About the only “wildlife” that we encountered was on our way out.  Two guys on dirt bikes followed by their wives on an ATV were coming up the same trail we were heading down. Vehicles are NOT ALLOWED on that trail but they didn’t seem to care. Kind of ruined a nice peaceful hike in the wilderness for us.

We spent our 4th of July at home in Eagle Nest Campground. The village was having a huge celebration, but with an expected crowd of over 20,000, we elected to sit outside the camper and watch the fireworks from the comfort of our campsite.  I took lots of photos of the firework display and then we turned in for the evening.

The village of Eagle Nest at night, across the lake

With our fresh water tank running low and our grey and black tanks running to near capacity, we packed up and headed out of Eagle Nest and off to our next stop. One with electricity… and water…. and a dump station… and Wi-Fi… and ahhhhh….. a free shower house!  Life is good.

Ongoing Saga of Soda Pocket

As you could tell from the previous post, the campground of Soda Pocket in New Mexico’s Sugarite Canyon State Park was pretty much a fascinating place for Barbara and I.  The Fox, Mule Deer, Bear and Hummingbirds along with the beautiful scenery held our attention and imagination day after day.

We had only planned on staying one week and then moving on, but come the 7th day we were questioning ourselves as to why move when we were enjoying where we were at.  So, the day before we were to pull out we changed our minds and gave Soda Pocket another week to work it’s enchantment on us.

Fishing.  Our plans are to tour and discover the great state of New Mexico for at least a year.  With that in mind, I went ahead and purchased a one year, non-resident fishing license.  It’s not cheap, but spending a year in “trout country” certainly makes the cost bearable.  Barbara did some quick math and surmised that in order for the license to pay for itself, I would need to provide her with at least ten fresh caught fish dinners over the next year.  My first stop was Lake Maloya which, along with Lake Alice, is a part of Sugarite Canyon State Park.

Lake Dorothy in Colorado which I wasn't licensed to fish.

I have two different sets of tackle with me; an inexpensive fly rod and reel, and a spinning reel and rod for bait and lure casting.  I chose, for my first real attempt at catching a New Mexico Rainbow Trout, the fly rod.  With my very first amateurish cast, I hooked and landed a trout!  Of course, a photo was in order to record the event.  An eleven inch rainbow Trout is a perfect pan-size fish for me, so it was a keeper.  Several other fly rod casts resulted in a small perch which I threw back and another trout which got off before I could land it.  Then the wind kicked up which made fly casting a chore so I switched over to my spinning rod.

 

First fly rod caught Rainbow Trout, Lake Maloya, NM

Worms do not seem to be the bait of choice for trout.  Here, they use what is called “Power Bait”, a play-dough type of substance scented mostly with garlic, and also some little red gel balls that are suppose to emulate fish eggs or roe.  They are scented with something as well.  The Power Bait did it’s job and helped me land another trout, this time 10 inches long. Another keeper.  After that, the fish quit biting so after field dressing them I proudly took my two fish back to camp.  The two fish didn’t look like enough for dinner so the next day when we went grocery shopping I purchased a farm raised trout to compliment ours.  Come to find out, “compliment” was a big understatement.  The taste and texture of the store bought fish did not even come close to the excellent taste of the fresh caught. The three fish made for an excellent meal, and “Dinner Number 1” was in the books.

Fish Dinner number one, in the books

Several days later I took my poles down to Lake Alice and once again with my very first cast, this time with a Kastmaster Lure on my spinning rod I hooked a small trout which I photographed and released.  I then hooked another trout and then a small catfish and once more, the biting died off.  I went back to the camp empty handed but satisfied to know that I could catch fish and did so in both lakes at Sugarite Canyon.  I was happy.

Hiking.  As Barbara and I continued to explore the area we’d do some short walks and hikes, mostly around the campgrounds or along a service road that followed the shore of Lake Maloya.  As I mentioned in the previous post, the thinnest of the air at 8,000 feet can and does take ones breath away.  That made any strenuous hiking something to work up to.  After our first full week, we chose a trail head that was located on the way out from our campsite.  It was listed as an moderate trail and as being 4 miles in length, ending up at the lake.  We hiked it about half way, always on guard for bear, and then turned back.  Along the way out, right at a turn in the trail, we almost collided with a bicyclist!  He stopped in time and said “Whew! You scared me as much as I scared you!” We both thought that the other was a bear.  LOL  After a short conversation with him, a native of Raton, NM, we both continued on our way and we marveled at how good of shape the man was in to be bicycling a rough rocky trail as we were on.  Barbara and I were both pleased at our “accomplishment” of doing a four mile round trip hike into the mountains and that gave us the confidence toward the end of our last week to try the shorter but more strenuous hike up to Little Horse Mesa.  

The two trails that we hiked; one moderate, the other strenuous.

Fresh Bear track along the moderate trail. Found plenty of over-turned rocks as well.

We weren’t sure what to expect and quickly found out that the quarter mile trail was basically straight up a mountain side.  Think “Loose Rocky Staircase”.  But we took our time, stopping often for a drink of lemonade and eventually crested the top onto the mesa. We had no idea what awaited us at the top!  The top of the mesa was a huge grassland prairie dotted with pine trees and an enormous amount of flowers and other blooming plants.  It was simply beautiful.  And the view from the top was gorgeous as well.  As you can see in the photos, we were pretty high up at about 1,000 feet more than our campsite!  We spent another hour or so hiking around the rim of the mesa before starting our assent back down.  It was actually a little more difficult, due to the loose rocks but we both made it down and once more patted each other on the back for another accomplishment and another step forward to a better lifestyle.

The view from Little Horse Mesa looking out and down upon our RV

View looking from our RV back up to Little Horse Mesa.

Throughout or last week at Sugarite, we heard stories of Cougar and Black Bear sightings and we continued to see plenty of bear ourselves. In fact, the day before we pulled out, a bear came through the field we camped by and “posed” several times for me as if he were giving me a parting gift.  In fact, it was and I even thanked him verbally for doing so!

My "Good-bye Bear". Nice!

There is so much more I want to tell you about our stay here; the way the rising and setting sun constantly changes the view of the mountains, how bright a half moon is at 8,000 feet above sea level on a clear night, how afternoon rains bring a welcome cooling as evening sets in and of the many wonderful campers we’ve met who had so many stories of their own to share.  But blogs shouldn’t be too long, shouldn’t be a novel, and shouldn’t be loaded with all the photos that I had set aside for it.  So I’ll end this one, the conclusion of our stay at Soda Pocket Campground, knowing that I have in no way done this place justice with the words I’ve written or the photos I’ve shared, and knowing that someday soon, perhaps this fall, we’ll be back to explore and take in even more of this wonderful part of New Mexico.

Two Days at Soda Pocket

We pulled into Sugarite  (Shoo-gah-reet) Canyon State Park, Raton, New Mexico on Tuesday afternoon picking a remote, no amenities site high up on a ridge called Soda Pocket Campground.  Here it is, early Thursday morning and the events that have taken place in such a short period warrants a blog post already.

View From Soda Pocket Campground, Sugarite Canyon State Park

We’ve met several others up here, camping in everything from tents to vans to truck-campers and RVs.  There was even one young woman traveling around, sleeping in the back of her pick-up truck that had just a shell covering.  All of the ones we met were friendly and we swapped stories of where each was from and how long we’ll be staying, etc.  Normal pleasantries.  One of the campers, an older fellow who’s been coming up here for quite awhile told us the rangers have been seeing bear in the area and if we were lucky, we might get to see one as well.  More on that later.  By the way, the signs around here post that we ARE in Bear AND Cougar country.  Cool.

On Wednesday morning, Barbara’s birthday, we woke up to a flat tire on her car.  No biggie really.  She had a spare “tire” (doughnut) so I pulled it out, bounced it on the ground several times to make sure there was still air in it and then began the job.  Old tire off … spare tire on …. lower the jack …. and watch the doughnut flatten out.  Wonderful.  I grabbed my air gauge and checked the pressure and it read 15 pounds.  Fifteen pounds of air in a 60 pound tire wouldn’t get us down the mountain to a tire shop.  Fortunately, a Park Ranger was driving by and they were able to go back to get an air tank for me. Once the tire was inflated to proper air pressure, we made the drive into Raton to purchase Barbara’s birthday present.  I asked her if I should put a bow on the new tire before having it mounted but she somewhat chuckled and said “No.  But thanks for the thought.”.  Happy birthday Babe.

One Bluebird Sitting on a Post

Over the last 2 short days, we have seen a variety of wildlife; Cottontails, Hummingbirds, a Fox, Mule Deer and Black Bear.  The cottontails did their usual thing early in the morning and late afternoon; hopping along the gravel road dodging in and out of the bushes that line it.  The fox was basically a stroll through at our particular campsite.  Barbara noticed it first as it entered one end of the site, trotted past La Casita and exited on the other side.  That’s when I caught a view of it, just as it was leaving.  Barbara said it looked as if it had something in it’s mouth. Probably breakfast.

Hummingbirds. Lots of them.  Very entertaining as they fly straight up into the turquoise sky and nose dive faster than you can say “Superman”, pulling out of the dive at the very last possible moment to skirt along the top of the weeds. Amazing how quick and agile they are.  Of course, they love us.  Free food!  And if we don’t get the feeder set out early enough or we take it in too soon they are quick to let us know about it.  Those things can really chatter as they hover outside the RV window as if to say “Hurry up, before the others get here!”.  They are somewhat territorial in their feeding.  I watched two of them duking it out close to the ground before one flew off and the other reclaimed his stake at the feeder.

The mule deer up on this particular point seem to consist of a family of four; a young buck still in velvet, a doe and two young ones.  They meander down the middle of the road or walk along the edge of it, making their way to a small bottom that lies between the campsites and the base of a ridge.  It’s comical to see mule deer “run”.  Nothing like a Whitetail deer that flat out runs with their body close to the ground.  Nope.  Mule Deer pogo … kind of like a stiff legged hop…. you can almost hear the “Boing…. boing….boing” as they bolt across the field after being spooked by something.  Usually a hiker on one of the many trails up here.

A late arrival to Soda Pocket on Wednesday afternoon was a young man named Brett and his dog Griffin.  Brett is from Kansas and is into day 3 of a one year camping adventure to wherever he wants to wander to.  It’s Brett’s first time in the mountains and as he was setting up his pup tent he noticed a brown spot across the road, to the backside of the bottom land.  A bear.  He told me later “I looked out across the field and seen a clump of something and thought “I hope that’s not a bear.’.  Then I seen it move and thought “Holy crap, it is a bear!’.”  Some other campers were walking past as he was setting up his tripod and we all stood out in the road, watching the black bear (brown coat) makes it’s way along the back edge of the field and into the brush.  My photos are a bit blurry as my lens was maxed out and I was hand-shooting.  The black bears here have various colors; black, brown, cinnamon and blonde.

First Black Bear behind our campsite.

This morning, I couldn’t sleep very well and got up a bit before sunrise.  I sat in the camper looking out the window waiting for the sun to crest the distant ridge. I was able to get some nice colorful shots of the morning sunrise and then later on, as it became lighter out, I noticed Brett stirring around to get his day started.

Sunrise over Sugarite Canyon State Park, NM

I had already seen several deer in the road and the meadow and as I watched them and other wildlife, I looked over at Brett’s campsite and noticed Griffin alert and looking out across the back edge of the same field where we had seen the bear the night before.  Four deer working their way west along the wooded edge.  Brett noticed as well and set up his tripod to capture some shots as they slowly made their way.  Suddenly, the deer reversed direction and were coming back, bouncing across the field at a high rate of speed.  It was too much for Griffin to handle and he bolted across the road and into the field after the deer with Brett running after him. Brett broke rule number one; keep your pet on a secure leash.

My immediate thought was that there’s only a few things that will spook deer like that; a human, a bear or a cougar.   Yeppers, it was a bear.  A big bear.  And just as I ran from the RV to warn Brett of the bear, he caught sight of it just yards away from him and Brett immediately froze still.  He then slowly started backing away from the bear and made it back safely to his site.

Brett & Bear Showdown

The deer had crossed the road, followed by Griffin and then followed by the bear, all going down into a steep wooded ravine.  The only thing Bret could do was wait and hope that Griffin would return soon and be in one piece.  After fifteen minutes or so, Griffin returned tired and bit wet and muddy.  He is now tethered. 

So there you have it.  How much more could have happened in a 2 day span?  How much MORE will happen during the next 3 or 4 days that we’re here at Soda Pocket Campground?  Stay tuned to find out.  

On a side note, this high elevation (7,500+) takes our breath away…literally!

It’s exciting times for us!