Leadville, CO 2019

Yesterday, August 20, 2018, I was bored so I decided to drive the Wurts Ditch trail, which is 20.2 miles in the woods.  It is rated as advanced but I figured, what the heck.  I took my binoculars, my camera, one bottle of water, and my Glock 9mm and away I went. It is 7.5 miles by pavement to the beginning on Forest Road 19 and 17.5 miles by pavement back to Leadville.   This isn't on Wurts Ditch but was in another area below the Turquoise Lake dam that I found a few days back.   About the first 8 miles is an old railroad bed that is flat but very crooked in most areas.   Most of the time the route is lined with trees but there are a few spots with great views.   The only people I saw was a crew that were installing these snow markers for the snowmobile season. The trail was flat for a long ways and then it turned to this.   It was pretty rocky for about 1.5 miles.  While in this area, I spotted...

The following is a menagerie of pictures taken over a period of about 14 days in the Leadville area. Gracie fishing at the nearby Turquoise Lake.  (Bryce helping her!)   Bryce is getting suited up for his first test ride on his motorcycle.   And............he is ready to go!   I took Rylan and Reese to a nearby play ground.       All loaded up in the Maverick to return to the house!   Lance and I took the Maverick up Mosquito Pass.  Here is the proof we made it to the top.  This is an extremely rocky trail and Lance did a good job driving!     We made a Jeep trip over to Winfield ghost town to look around.   This was the old schoolhouse that they used years ago.       We decided to take Independence Pass over to Aspen.     Toni and I actually took a very LONG walk over to an overloo...